The newsyc iPhone app does this. It's nice.
Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
31–40 of 94 posts
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#32Many of his main points are vacuous at best. "Adding insult to injury, it’s an extremely simple and ugly unlock-gesture, just the sweep of a mono-color bar from right to left." Since when is a function being simple a problem? And he's comparing it to a Windows phone, where the entire interface is based on "mono-color" tiles. The Fire is a $200 tablet, and aside from a misplaced On/Off button (not sure how that got pa…
> They can improve the software.
But not their first impressions.
I've heard this argument before (hell, even The Lean Startup advocates shipping a broken, backwards v1.0), but it's usually paired with meekness: grow slowly, so that by the time you reach a wide audience your quality is awesome and nobody's the wiser. Instead, Amazon's pushing the Fire 1.0 with everything they've got.
Shame, because Amazon probably could have pulled off the meekness strategy really well, too -- launch the Fire in December 2011 to a small number of hand-picked (Prime?) beta users, iterate, and launch the real thing in 2012.
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#33not this guy again. this is the former Google intern who completely mischaracterized Android's UI rendering
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#34Companies need to stop copying Apple, because if they don't, every review will be tainted by why Apple did X better than they did. Apple might not have actually done X better, but they did it first, and people like what they already know. The comment about the unlock gesture is especially relevant; there is no need to stipe something across the screen to unlock a tablet. If people copy that, though, the reviews will…
If you look at Amazon's own page for Kindle Fire, it does not list Android OS as a feature (with the exception of the Appstore but that predates Fire).
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, all the kindles before the fire were pretty damn polished.
The first one wasn't. Odd form factor, thick, no PDF support. A great start, but "polished" it wasn't.
The form factor was a little funky, yes. It was thinner than anything else at the time. And PDF support was an omission that increased the polish, not detracted from it. Reading PDF on a e-ink screen is a horrible experience, adding it was a compromise.
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#36not this guy again. this is the former Google intern who completely mischaracterized Android's UI rendering
This sort of comment is harmful to healthy discourse. It is okay to be wrong sometimes, and his previous potential wrongness has little bearing on this discussion.
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#37Companies need to stop copying Apple, because if they don't, every review will be tainted by why Apple did X better than they did. Apple might not have actually done X better, but they did it first, and people like what they already know. The comment about the unlock gesture is especially relevant; there is no need to stipe something across the screen to unlock a tablet. If people copy that, though, the reviews will…
If you look at Amazon's own page for Kindle Fire, it does not list Android OS as a feature (with the exception of the Appstore but that predates Fire).
Fair enough. But they obviously used Android, so people (including me) expect the tablet to compete with other Android tablets. That's the reason why I don't have one, even if I would only use the Amazon features. (I do own a Kindle, though, because it doesn't promise anything other than "buy books from Amazon.com and read them on an e-ink screen", and that's exactly what I want.)
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
My mother or any other normal non-geeky people in my family doesn't care whether the problem lies in software or hardware. They care about the experience. The Kindle Fire experience is terrible right now. That terrible experience is what they'll remember and associate the brand with.
"Terrible" is hyperbole at best. And while they may not care, my point is, Amazon can (and, I hope, will) improve it. All of these complaints about a $200 tablet remind me of Louis CK's bit on airplanes and cellphones, "Everything's amazing, and nobody's happy."
You have a right to bitch if you're told you'll be flying a DC-10 and they seat you in a single engine Cessna.
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#39I was contemplating on buying the Kindle Fire, but now I just have to buy it ... The voices "pro" and "contra" have split into almost precise 50/50 - now I just need to have the device so I can make a decision myself. I don't have any book reader yet at all - I have to start somewhere.
Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake
#40I was contemplating on buying the Kindle Fire, but now I just have to buy it ... The voices "pro" and "contra" have split into almost precise 50/50 - now I just need to have the device so I can make a decision myself. I don't have any book reader yet at all - I have to start somewhere.
If you mainly want an e-reader, I recommend one of the other Kindles that has an E Ink display, which is wonderful. The Fire doesn't have an E Ink display.