Amazon Kindle Fire Surfaces 521
MrCrassic was the first of several submitters to write in about the Kindle Fire: "It looks like another competitor has joined the fight for tablet market share. Amazon released specs and pics of its newest offering, the Kindle Fire, which is bound to turn heads at $199. However, I wouldn't sell your Nook Color or iPad just yet. From the article: 'The Kindle Fire doesn't have an embedded camera or a microphone. The device offers Wi-Fi connectivity, though not 3G access, and comes with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, the company's $79-a-year membership service that includes streaming video and free two-day shipping.'"
it's a media consumption device (Score:5, Insightful)
for people to do without creating (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a tablet, not a ball & chain. (Score:4, Insightful)
hack saws, chain saws, apples, oranges (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps they're bitching that it's yet another device that can act as a roadblock for people who want to climb from consumption to creation.
I have a hack saw and its getting in my way from cutting through a 6x6 </sarcasm>.
People aspiring to climb from consumption to creation should be savvy enough to get equipment that enables them to do so instead of getting equipment such as this which is not intended for that purpose. Fascinating idea, I know!
Re:Kindle Touch (Score:4, Insightful)
Am I the only one who actually *liked* the physical keyboard and buttons on the old Kindle? I don't want my greasy fingerprints all over my screen and I like the tactile feel of a physical keyboard. And the Kindle's physical keyboard was a pretty good one too.
Re:for people to do without creating (Score:5, Insightful)
If your choice of tablet computer is a barrier to creating content - photos and videos, no less - I humbly suggest that you were probably not going to create anything on it in the first place. People who want to make things go out and make them, they don't make creativity-themed rationalisations about their gadget purchases.
Of course this thing will get rooted. (Score:4, Insightful)
I've a Nook Color and considering its behavior after rooting, I have to think that B&N went out of their way to make their software jive well with rooting. I rooted mine as soon as I could and it's worked well but for a few app compatibility snags with random crap from the Android market....whaddyagonnado?
If Amazon has half a brain they'll play nice with rooting. I'm sure they'll lock down their own apps and cloud access, but why not let their apps run on someone else's Android build? They have to know that as soon as this thing has an easy root, plenty of folks will buy Kindle Fires so they can have a brilliant Android tablet for $200...and they'll still buy Amazon products, because it'll be easy as all get out....just like rooting the Nook Color...unless they're stupid, which doesn't fit their track record.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Those devices were far overpriced. They tried to compete with the iPad at the iPad's price point with an inferior device. To the average consumer, they look at these smaller devices they've never heard of for the same price as an iPad and they say, "Well for that price, why wouldn't I just get an iPad?"
This actually fits the bill. It is a reasonable competitor for the way most people use the iPad. Does it have limitations, sure. But it's $200. Most people to this point have thought that you had to spend $500 and up for one of these little tablet internet surfing thingys. For that price, they could have a nice full-featured laptop (which they probably already have).
This gives you the core tablet computing functions at an affordable price. I know /. neckbeards will complain that this is not a full replacement for every electronic device in the world, but for most people, this works.
They've learned something from Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
Get the basics right (UI, wifi, app store, media store) first.
Next year it gets the camera/microphone, tempting people to upgrade.