Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 101 posts

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#31

Post by herge »

lliiffee wrote: post #27
johnpaulett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up to this point, Whispernet gets relatively little traffic per-device (initial book download being the biggest bandwidth use). While there is the experimental browser in the Kindle, it had limited functionality and is fairly well hidden. With the introduction of Video on Demand and full web browsing in the Fire, I'm sure Amazon's 3G provider is hesitant to allow lifetime access to their network for a one time fee of…

Does anyone have much experience with the browser? I've been thinking about buying a kindle 3 3G, with one of the major motivations being the free worldwide web access. I know it is limited and slow, but it would at least allow for email access / chatting / google voice.

It's an alright browser that will do in a pinch. It's fine for google mail, hacker news and simple sites like that. What's great is that you don't need to recharge it every night with moderate use, so it's great while travelling.

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#33

Post by [deleted] »

bradleyland wrote: post #23
philbarr wrote: post #2

You'd think they'd mention which version of Android it uses.

Why wouldn't they mention the RAM it has? Why wouldn't they mention what wireless chipset it has? Why wouldn't they mention the amount of internal storage? I can answer all these questions, as well as the hundred other ones that geeks will ask: Because none of this matters to the millions of people who will buy them. To understand the difference between a company that "gets it" and your average geek who wonders why t…

[deleted]

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#34

Post by radley »

tvon wrote: post #10
philbarr wrote: post #2

You'd think they'd mention which version of Android it uses.

IIRC it was forked from 2.1, but you'll have to look around to confirm that.

This article mentions 2.3 (but it's a tech blog, so who knows):

http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-tablet-pict...

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#35

Post by bostonpete »

diamondhead wrote: post #32

I think it's not a good move for Amazon. E-Ink kindles are much more useful and friendly for book readers. They would choose to improve it with an html5 application platform (check this out; http://www.flickr.com/photos/azer/5966867029/ )

> E-Ink kindles are much more useful and friendly for book readers.

In some sense, you could use that same rationale to discount the possibility of the Kindle succeeding against books. E-ink is arguably nicer for reading, but on the flip side, access to video, apps, and the web is a big selling point. I think it's up against the iPad, not the Kindle, and I think it stands up pretty well.

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#36

Post by kyleslattery »

[deleted] wrote: post #33
bradleyland wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they mention the RAM it has? Why wouldn't they mention what wireless chipset it has? Why wouldn't they mention the amount of internal storage? I can answer all these questions, as well as the hundred other ones that geeks will ask: Because none of this matters to the millions of people who will buy them. To understand the difference between a company that "gets it" and your average geek who wonders why t…

[deleted]

Yes, but there's absolutely no reason why a consumer needs to know about that, so why would they advertise it? That sort of things goes in developer API docs.

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#37

Post by stonemetal »

darrenkopp wrote: post #25
bradleyland wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they mention the RAM it has? Why wouldn't they mention what wireless chipset it has? Why wouldn't they mention the amount of internal storage? I can answer all these questions, as well as the hundred other ones that geeks will ask: Because none of this matters to the millions of people who will buy them. To understand the difference between a company that "gets it" and your average geek who wonders why t…

Well actually they don't mention what version of Android because they have modified it so much it probably doesn't matter. On the other hand, they DO mention how much ram and internal storage it has.

Where do they call out the amount of ram?

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#38

Post by jbondeson »

pw wrote: post #28
joshhart wrote: post #12

Darn, the Kindle DX is still $379. Everything else got a nice price drop. I've been waiting for a hardware/software update to the Kindle DX and a possible price drop for quite a while now, but I'm not sure I'll ever get it at this point.

Why do you want a Kindle DX? Reading PDFs in the sunlight? I've always wonder who's buying the DX, because at price, you might as well get an iPad.

As a Kindle DX owner, it's all about the form factor and readability.

Back lit screens cause eyestrain for those of us who read quite a bit. With my DX I can read for hours on end in any environment I could read a dead tree version in. And with the battery life measured in page turns, even when reading at a crazy clip I can go more than a week without charging.

Form factor was the other huge sell. If I want the ability to read my collection of technical PDFs without a microscope (or awkward panning) the large size is needed. Even with non-PDFs I like the hardback size font and character count on lines.

The DX is the only game in town to get both of those right.

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#39

Post by sliverstorm »

pw wrote: post #28
joshhart wrote: post #12

Darn, the Kindle DX is still $379. Everything else got a nice price drop. I've been waiting for a hardware/software update to the Kindle DX and a possible price drop for quite a while now, but I'm not sure I'll ever get it at this point.

Why do you want a Kindle DX? Reading PDFs in the sunlight? I've always wonder who's buying the DX, because at price, you might as well get an iPad.

The DX was launched before the iPad got a grip on the market. They probably keep selling the DX because, even at the price, there are doubtless some people willing to pay, and it probably doesn't cost them much to keep selling it.

There are legitimate reasons to chose the DX over the iPad and other Kindles, too. PDF's is a big reason to chose it over smaller Kindles; the reading experience of e-Ink, battery life and light weight are reasons to chose it over the iPad.

Re: Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

#40

Post by georgieporgie »

lliiffee wrote: post #27
johnpaulett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up to this point, Whispernet gets relatively little traffic per-device (initial book download being the biggest bandwidth use). While there is the experimental browser in the Kindle, it had limited functionality and is fairly well hidden. With the introduction of Video on Demand and full web browsing in the Fire, I'm sure Amazon's 3G provider is hesitant to allow lifetime access to their network for a one time fee of…

Does anyone have much experience with the browser? I've been thinking about buying a kindle 3 3G, with one of the major motivations being the free worldwide web access. I know it is limited and slow, but it would at least allow for email access / chatting / google voice.

I have a Kindle 2 with cellular access. I used it for GMail communication while bicycling down the Pacific Coast last year. Rendering glitches aside, it's tolerable for reading email, though writing takes a ridiculously long time due to screen redraws. Also, it absolutely sucks battery life down if you do much writing. I can't imagine using it for chatting, and I don't know how GVoice could be used at all.

Unless the Kindle 3 is radically different, I can't see how it would be a significantly different experience.

Post reply on HN