keith said:
I think there is more Hype to the Fire than at first meets the eye.
you have a few good points... but overall, i believe that you're wrong, wrong, wrong. at any rate, it simply doesn't matter what you or i think, as it is _the_marketplace_ which will make the decision about all this. but, to return to the land of opinion again, my observation is that jeff bezos has a much better sense of that marketplace than you do. you -- with a legion of fellow naysayers -- have been pronouncing the kindle a "failure" all along, but bezos keeps increasing the heat on the pot of lobsters on the top of his stove... power and possibilities keep going up and up, and the price keeps going down, down, down... against all the other fumbling bumbling idiots in silicon valley which are not named "apple", this credible competitor is a breath of fresh air. and all the more fascinating because it's playing to its _strength_, which is different from apple's. the idiots, on the other hand, try to mimic apple, and end up with their faces planted in concrete...
As for the other kindles some improvements, but read the specs carefully.
specs, shmecs.
Special offer! Add $30 for advertisement free!
some people make a big deal about the ads... even though they only play on the splashscreen; they are _not_ shown inside the books per se... my impression is that it is very interesting that we now have an extremely accurate measure of the value of those ads to the entity selling them. via its pricing, amazon informs us that it makes about $30/machine from the advertising it does. framed against the backdrop of an $80 machine, that's quite a revealing revelation, doncha think? besides... to everyone who really hates ads, $30 is a cheap price to pay to get rid of them. enjoy the option.
Battery life for 1 month when reading only for half an hour a day!!
seriously? you're complaining about battery-life? end-users _overwhelmingly_ consider battery-life as one of the biggest _assets_ of e-ink machines, as well they should. this just shows how desperate you are to have something to complain about, keith. as for the "half-an-hour a day" nature of the claim, that's easy to understand if you know some history. for years, amazon made its claims based on a rate of one-hour-a-day usage. then kobo came along, and claimed battery-life that was "twice as long", except based on a rate of just half-an-hour-daily. (if you are rolling your eyes at the stupidity, i dig; this shows how desperate kobo was for any edge.) so amazon changed the nature of its claim's rating. do you think it should have done otherwise? what?
Only 6" screen.
if you don't consider that "the right size", don't buy.
The Fire seems interesting, but to state some facts: 1) 8 GB half that of iPad
with amazon's cloud strategy, that's more than enough...
2) 7" Screen smaller than iPad
that's "the right size", exactly, for the target market.
3) roughly similar battery life.
right. roughly similar superb, outstanding battery-life.
4) missing a 3G option
if true, then yes, this will be a big loss for some people. other people seem to live in a wifi bubble, and won't care.
5) processing power hard to say, they do not mention what is inside!
we'll see if people think the machine operates slowly. what's interesting to note is that amazon is _bragging_ about the speed you will get from its browser, which is utilizing the cloud-strategy which i mentioned above...
They push the silk browser for speed! But, why! Sure it is nice, but you still have to push the data. So, the processor must have some short comings.
what do you expect from a chip that is that cheap?
All in all, a some what rushed product!
wrong.
Price wise from looking at the specs the same price to feature ratio as the iPad.
the same price-to-feature ratio, but at a _lower_ price. thank goodness bezos pushes the edge of the envelope.
On the other side the iPad2 is not ready for prime time for me either.
and yet tens of millions of people are ecstatic with it. i think you're out of touch, keith, and badly at that... -bowerbird