Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake • Hacker News Board

Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake

#91

Post by tghw » Tue, Dec 27, 2011, 8:54 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #81

tghw wrote: post #11

Many 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…

> But here's the thing: They can improve the software. Here is the other thing: the software is the only thing that matters. I can forgive an awkwardly placed on/of button, I hit it a couple of times a day. Lost touch events and the like, are an absolute deal breaker. I would never buy a car that regularly ignored throttle input or turns of the steering wheel, why would I buy a touch-interface device that regularly i…

Again, more hyperbole. If your car does not respond to inputs, you crash, resulting in property damage, injury, and possibly death. When your tablet does not respond to a tap, you tap it again and it works. At worst, you've suffered some minor frustration.

Never mind that for about a half a day's work you have a handheld computer that 15 years ago was only available to the characters of Star Trek.

Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake

#92

Post by angstrom » Tue, Dec 27, 2011, 9:50 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #77

angstrom wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where did you get the idea that the the Fire is a top of the line type device? The Cessna costs a fraction of the price of the DC-10. The Fire is a fraction of the cost of an iPad... Even if you have no idea how to compare tech specs, or if you are brain-dead to marketing tactics, anyone should be able to look at the price tag and think to themselves, Well, the Fire costs a lot less than the competition. It's probabl…

Honestly, I didn't even include the iPad in the analogy. I would say the iPad is the 767.

The Nook Tablet is borderline DC-10. Of course, I'm looking at these devices with a rooting perspective as well. The screen quality, RAM, and extra storage space giving the Nook the edge. I have no desire to listen to music on a tablet, so I really only care about web browsing and video. The e-ink devices are still superior for regular text IMO. Unfortunately, since the publishers adopted the agency pricing model, these devices won't decrease in cost as quickly as they would have under regular retail pricing that would've allowed the razor blade model to defer the costs.

Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake

#93

Post by brown9-2 » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 3:29 PM UTC

tghw wrote: post #11

Many 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…

Isn't this gesture identical to the iPhone's, with the directions reversed?

Re: Launching the Kindle Fire was a mistake

#94

Post by Kadrith » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

Kadrith wrote: post #69

kristofferR wrote: post #16

Earlier 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.

How so? I ask because I received a Kindle Fire for Christmas from my parents because I had been debating whether to buy one. So far I have used it for reading books and some light web browsing. The experience has been good so far, although I have not attempted to stress the device or perform an action it was not designed for. Every person I know, who has actually used a Kindle Fire, has had nothing but positive comme…

A little late on the thread but I wanted to add this for anyone reading in the future. My sister purchased an iPad 2 about a month before Christmas; I talked her out of a Galaxy Tab.

She has since returned the iPad 2 and gotten a Kindle Fire. Her main reason was that the iPad was too big for her to carry around constantly and the Fire fits in all of her purses. Since she would use the device while waiting or at random times, it was more important to have the device with her than sitting at home.