My mom got me a Kindle Fire HD for my birthday because after reading all about it online, I decided this was the best e-reader for me. Not only can I read using it, but I can watch movies and TV shows. And, that's all I really wanted to be able to do.
Pros:
- Size. At 7 inches, it is the perfect size. I can see what's on the screen and my hand doesn't feel strained when I hold it to read.
- Navigation. It took me a little while to figure this out and honestly, I'm still trying to understand all the tricks, but it's actually really easy to use. I'm so used to my iPhone that I was at a disadvantage. My mom thinks it's really easy and likes that she can quickly go between things - she loves the Pinterest app and playing Angry Birds.
- Amazon Prime. Ok, I've had an Amazon Prime account for a long time, but it's seriously so great. Aside from the free shipping, they also have free shows to watch and yeah, a lot of the titles are also on Netflix, but there are some great differences,
- The West Wing
- Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure
- Season 2 of Downton Abbey
- I'm out of my reading rut. After graduating college this May, I thought, "I will have time to read ALL THE BOOKS." But really, I've just watched All the Television Shows on Netflix. I'm actually really excited to be reading and I feel like I can easily complete my goal of reading 50 books over the next year.
Cons:
- Not compatible with Calibre. When I first thought about getting a Kindle Fire, I immediately redownloaded Calibre, an application for ebooks, and put all the ebooks from my harddrive onto it. From what I read, I could easily plug the Kindle Fire into my computer and load the books. However, with the new Kindle Fire, it is not compatible with my MacBook and definitely not syncing with the Calibre. It took a long time to figure out how to get the books on the Kindle (I have to email them from my Calibre straight to my Kindle email address). And, the worst part is that they don't show up as Books, but rather in my Documents.
I've looked up different ways to fix this, but to no avail. My brother keeps swearing I'll figure it out sooner or later.
- How do I put movies on? I still haven't figured out how to put some of my movies on it since my computer doesn't recognize the Kindle Fire when I plug it in. And, when I'm travelling, I won't have steady internet access and I'd like to just have some movies on my device to easily watch.
- Apps. I'm still trying to find some decent apps, but I feel really limited with the selection on Amazon. I've heard I can download straight from Android sites, but I haven't ventured that far yet. And I don't even know what kind of apps I'm looking for.
So, the cons are mostly things that I've been too lazy to figure out and I'm just frustrated that it hasn't been easy. But I love it so far and I can't stop reading.
Labels: recommendations, reviews