Amazon Kindle Fire "tablet", Amazon Silk EC2 Cloud Browser, dirt cheap Kindles - Page 3 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

mykalberta · 09-29-2011, 11:28 AM

For me $199 seems like the right price to compete with the iPad at least from a first step.

Rumors are that next year they will be releasing something more tablet oriented but they can get this out before Christmas and guage market interest at that price point.

Also other than all the other companies who released tablets, Amazon has name recognition with non tech people more than HP or RIM. Combine that with the Kindle brand name being associated with Oprah I think Amazon has the best chance to compete with Apple.

Obviously comparatively the iPad beats the Fire, but does the $499 iPad beat the $199 Fire - $300 is an actual difference that makes people look twice.

Rathji · 09-29-2011, 11:49 AM

Was talking with my wife about this last night and I realized it all comes down to what could you do on an iPad (or similarly featured device) that you couldn't do on a Fire? For example, is there a sizable portion of Android Marketplace apps that would not work? How will being in Canada effect its functionality? For example, with no amazon content to purchase, we wouldn't be able to take advantage of the cloud storage it seems.

On the flip side, is there some stuff that the Fire would be probably noticeably better at? An ebook reader maybe?

Bobblehead · 09-29-2011, 11:52 AM

I think we saw with the HP Touchpad fire sale that there is a huge demand for something at a lower price point than the iPad.

MickMcGeough · 09-29-2011, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

Was talking with my wife about this last night and I realized it all comes down to what could you do on an iPad (or similarly featured device) that you couldn't do on a Fire? For example, is there a sizable portion of Android Marketplace apps that would not work? How will being in Canada effect its functionality? For example, with no amazon content to purchase, we wouldn't be able to take advantage of the cloud storage it seems.

On the flip side, is there some stuff that the Fire would be probably noticeably better at? An ebook reader maybe?

I don't believe the Fire uses the Android Marketplace at all. The Amazon Appstore probably will have a good chunk of the apps anyone would want.

Ashartus · 09-29-2011, 02:49 PM

An interesting interview with Amazon's CEO about the Fire: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technol...878/story.html

Of note, he says you can put non-Amazon music on it but only if it's DRM-free; since Amazon MP3 (and their movie service) isn't available in Canada that could be a deal-breaker for a lot of people once the Fire becomes available here. Also he says that you'll only be able to read Amazon e-books and PDFs, not ePubs (I don't know if that means you won't be able to install Kobo's Android app etc.). So definitely continuing Amazon's trend of trying to lock you into their content when you buy their devices.

Russic · 09-29-2011, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashartus

An interesting interview with Amazon's CEO about the Fire: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technol...878/story.html

Of note, he says you can put non-Amazon music on it but only if it's DRM-free; since Amazon MP3 (and their movie service) isn't available in Canada that could be a deal-breaker for a lot of people once the Fire becomes available here. Also he says that you'll only be able to read Amazon e-books and PDFs, not ePubs (I don't know if that means you won't be able to install Kobo's Android app etc.). So definitely continuing Amazon's trend of trying to lock you into their content when you buy their devices.

Boooo.

I didn't even think about the Amazon cloud system not being in Canada. That's not good. They must be wanting to expand that system.

Rathji · 09-29-2011, 03:43 PM

If it can't read anything but Amazon content, then it pretty much becomes useless to me.

sclitheroe · 09-29-2011, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

I don't believe the Fire uses the Android Marketplace at all. The Amazon Appstore probably will have a good chunk of the apps anyone would want.

You mean to say the Amazon Appstore will definitely have the only apps you'll be allowed to install.

The bigger question in all of this is how customized Amazon's Android is..if its so customized that a stock Android app won't run or display correctly on it, they'll have further fragmented the Android marketplace. Do app developers really want to contend with yet another divergent API? I would think Android/iOS is bad enough, but now you'd have Android/Amazon/iOS.

I guess it depends on how many Kindle Fire's get sold..

QuadCityImages · 09-29-2011, 05:04 PM

Useless with the software that comes on it, at least. I can definitely see this replacing the Nook Color as the cheap Android tablet for nerds to flash various other versions of Android onto. Which Amazon has to be hoping to avoid, considering the low or no profit they're making on the hardware.

MickMcGeough · 09-29-2011, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

You mean to say the Amazon Appstore will definitely have the only apps you'll be allowed to install.

Also true

My point though was that in my limited experience with the Amazon Appstore, it was a pretty good selection of apps. And they were quite often cheaper than the Marketplace equivalent as they were trying to gain traction. This is in contrast to the B&N App Store, which charged for apps that are free in the Android Marketplace.

If Amazon was charging $300+ for the Fire I'd probably take exception to them locking you into their content, but at $199 I fully expect them to be subsidizing my hardware purchase with future content purchases, and I'm ok with that.

All that said - I expect the Fire will be rooted to give full Marketplace access very quickly after it's release, and will be similar to a rooted Nook Color experience.

GreenLantern · 10-01-2011, 10:55 AM

Funny this happens now.. but my GF bought me an Ipad for my BDay. I am considering wether I should keep it or return it to buy this new Kindle for 300 bucks less.

I just got a new laptop and am wondering how much I really NEED it vs. want it.. it is an on going debate in my head. I know if I open it and fire it up I will want to keep it..

Kipper is King · 10-01-2011, 11:01 AM

I may buy my mom a Kindle touch with 3G for Christmas. She's a serious reader, who's not tech-savvy, so for her not to worry about connecting to hotspots would be nice.

I bet the second generation of the Fire would have 3g or 4g connectivity. Then, I would consider it!

Thor · 10-02-2011, 08:18 AM

Kindle would be great if I could put my thousdands of books/music on to it that I didn't get from Amazon.

Ashartus · 10-02-2011, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor

Kindle would be great if I could put my thousdands of books/music on to it that I didn't get from Amazon.

That's pretty much my view too; the Kindle is one of the top e-readers out there (probably rivaled only by the Sony readers which cost more) and the Fire looks intriguing, but so long as they try to lock you into their content only I have no interest. Even Apple let you bring in outside content; an iPod can play mp3 files and an iPad can be used to read EPub files from any of the major sellers as well as Amazon format books. I'd rather have the freedom to buy my content from whoever I want to (or, as it turns out due to their proprietary formats, anyone I want to except Amazon).

silentsim · 10-02-2011, 02:42 PM

Use Calibre and you can side load epub, and other formats to the Kindle.

Sr. Mints · 10-02-2011, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silentsim

Use Calibre and you can side load epub, and other formats to the Kindle.

That sounds like a lot of work. Is it?

Russic · 10-02-2011, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silentsim

Use Calibre and you can side load epub, and other formats to the Kindle.

Any time I've used calibre it's done crazy bad things to the formatting. Perhaps it was just the files I was using, but it tore them to shreds.

Ashartus · 10-03-2011, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silentsim

Use Calibre and you can side load epub, and other formats to the Kindle.

You can, but you need to strip the DRM to convert the format (which will almost certainly be illegal here in the very near future - even if that won't stop most people). And as Russic pointed out, sometimes converting the format makes a mess of them.

While I'm not an expert on the file format details, the "expert" opinions I've heard are that EPub is technically a better and more versatile format than the Kindle proprietary format (which is really the old "mobi" format). I'd rather buy my books in a more universal format and leave them in that format rather than have them in a proprietary format that only works with one company's devices or deal with the hassles of removing DRM and converting formats.

sclitheroe · 10-04-2011, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russic

Any time I've used calibre it's done crazy bad things to the formatting. Perhaps it was just the files I was using, but it tore them to shreds.

Par for the course working with an Android device

Calibre is brutal, I know what it tries to do is hard, but it does it poorly, and its the world's ugliest app to boot.

DRM needs to go; if only people would pay for their content...

Edit: I'm just poking fun at Android, but I stand by my Calibre assessment. I wanted to take an unencrypted PDF, of all things, and convert it to AZW so I could consolidate my purchased O'Reilly manuals with the rest of my Kindle purchases, and it can't even handle a basic PDF without mangling it. Maybe with some fiddling, but good grief...

DrJ · 10-04-2011, 08:03 PM

If I bought the Fire, could I subscribe to things like podcasts?

Also, I have no knowledge of anything Android - can they be jailbroken like iPhones to mod them and get apps for a significant "discount"?