Amazon's Kindle Fire from the start has been situated as the budget tablet. Its specs rarely are found to measure up to those of its competitors, but the price, the current edition offered at $229, is so appealing it has managed to leverage a spot in the market.
When the holiday season comes in sight, we naturally expect a new splash from electronics producers and Amazon hasn't let us down there. There are some redesigned features, including the operating system, which is pretty much Android Light. Also, some people are going to quite dig the brand new Mayday feature. As discussed below, this new feature provides free, single button access to a live service rep.
Hopes for dramatic improvements in the Kindle Fire's functions and capacity, though, will be sadly letdown. The improvements are minimal in the third-generation model. Actually, some might even think the situation worse than that. Though the system is based on the Google Android the new owners of the Kindle Fire find themselves lacking in all the great Google apps and services that the standard Android user enjoys.
In contrast, the purchase of the new Kindle Fire leaves one immediately faced with having to download desired apps from Amazon. (This annoyance has included, by the way, activating the Flash Player , which does come with, but not activated, to the chagrin of some.) As if the quality of the user experience wasn't hampered enough, the quantity adds additional limitations: something in the vicinity of 85,000 apps are available for the Kindle tablet compared to nearly a million for Android. And it's not just the sheer numbers, as many extremely popular ones are missing: e.g., Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
And this brings us to another problematic matter, which can't be glossed over. Like its predecessor, this version of the Kindle Fire is calibrated to a relentlessly fevered sales pitch for Amazon products. You can't brush your mouse over anything without the Amazon hawker springing into action, pointing out some nifty similar Amazon product you should be buying.
I find this immensely annoying and distracting. Obviously, it's a matter of personal taste. Some folks, I expect, find real value in this endless exposure to new product opportunities. For me, it just gets in the way of what I'm trying to do. Like commercial television, though, this is the monetizing strategy: you suffer through the ads to get the product at such a low price.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some genuine improvements. Happiest of all is a noticeable reduction in how buggy is the software. This has always been a problem with this tablet and while Amazon hasn't entirely remedied the situation, the reduction of glitches is much welcomed. Also, a thumbs-up for the "carousel" style view finder: it allows you to find apps, movies, books or any other offering with ease and a visual flair. The navigation bar at the bottom of the screen accesses the full assortment of content on the tablet.
Then there's that Mayday feature mentioned earlier. At the press of a button you get access to a live service rep, which appears in a corner of your screen. This rep can answer all your questions and actually take control of the tablet if that's a faster way to resolve difficulties than simply explaining how-to to the owner. This is a fairly cool thing and it is impressive that they've committed so heavily to customer service.
The irony of course is that the whole idea of such tablets is that they are supposed to be highly user friendly, operating in intuitive ways. So, one can't help wondering if there isn't a certain kind of confession in the provision of this service. "Well, we couldn't quite get it right, but here's our workaround." Or, maybe I'm just too cynical.
At the end of the day, I'll say the same thing about this newest version Kindle Fire as I have about its forerunners. If you're into big time, long term loyalty to Amazon and its products -- and nothing is wrong with that -- you'll find some appreciated improvements in the newer version. If your priority, however, is a good budget tablet, you can do better .
When the holiday season comes in sight, we naturally expect a new splash from electronics producers and Amazon hasn't let us down there. There are some redesigned features, including the operating system, which is pretty much Android Light. Also, some people are going to quite dig the brand new Mayday feature. As discussed below, this new feature provides free, single button access to a live service rep.
Hopes for dramatic improvements in the Kindle Fire's functions and capacity, though, will be sadly letdown. The improvements are minimal in the third-generation model. Actually, some might even think the situation worse than that. Though the system is based on the Google Android the new owners of the Kindle Fire find themselves lacking in all the great Google apps and services that the standard Android user enjoys.
In contrast, the purchase of the new Kindle Fire leaves one immediately faced with having to download desired apps from Amazon. (This annoyance has included, by the way, activating the Flash Player , which does come with, but not activated, to the chagrin of some.) As if the quality of the user experience wasn't hampered enough, the quantity adds additional limitations: something in the vicinity of 85,000 apps are available for the Kindle tablet compared to nearly a million for Android. And it's not just the sheer numbers, as many extremely popular ones are missing: e.g., Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
And this brings us to another problematic matter, which can't be glossed over. Like its predecessor, this version of the Kindle Fire is calibrated to a relentlessly fevered sales pitch for Amazon products. You can't brush your mouse over anything without the Amazon hawker springing into action, pointing out some nifty similar Amazon product you should be buying.
I find this immensely annoying and distracting. Obviously, it's a matter of personal taste. Some folks, I expect, find real value in this endless exposure to new product opportunities. For me, it just gets in the way of what I'm trying to do. Like commercial television, though, this is the monetizing strategy: you suffer through the ads to get the product at such a low price.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some genuine improvements. Happiest of all is a noticeable reduction in how buggy is the software. This has always been a problem with this tablet and while Amazon hasn't entirely remedied the situation, the reduction of glitches is much welcomed. Also, a thumbs-up for the "carousel" style view finder: it allows you to find apps, movies, books or any other offering with ease and a visual flair. The navigation bar at the bottom of the screen accesses the full assortment of content on the tablet.
Then there's that Mayday feature mentioned earlier. At the press of a button you get access to a live service rep, which appears in a corner of your screen. This rep can answer all your questions and actually take control of the tablet if that's a faster way to resolve difficulties than simply explaining how-to to the owner. This is a fairly cool thing and it is impressive that they've committed so heavily to customer service.
The irony of course is that the whole idea of such tablets is that they are supposed to be highly user friendly, operating in intuitive ways. So, one can't help wondering if there isn't a certain kind of confession in the provision of this service. "Well, we couldn't quite get it right, but here's our workaround." Or, maybe I'm just too cynical.
At the end of the day, I'll say the same thing about this newest version Kindle Fire as I have about its forerunners. If you're into big time, long term loyalty to Amazon and its products -- and nothing is wrong with that -- you'll find some appreciated improvements in the newer version. If your priority, however, is a good budget tablet, you can do better .
About the Author:
Mishu Hull writes on electronics at a range of blog sites. For more valuable information about the product discussed here, see Kindle Fire Updates .
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