[compnovo]

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

[coastie65]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Hey Comp, Happy Birthday and enjoy the new toy. I got mine in early Dec. when I got that Gateway i3 based 15.6 lappy. I use that for couch surfing. The thing came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed ( I installed Kindle for the PC in my Moms laptop).

[compnovo]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 11:13 AM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Hey Comp, Happy Birthday and enjoy the new toy. I got mine in early Dec. when I got that Gateway i3 based 15.6 lappy. I use that for couch surfing. The thing came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed ( I installed Kindle for the PC in my Moms laptop).

Hey coastie,
So you have a Kindle Fire yourself. How'd I miss that?
How are you liking it?

[coastie65]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 11:57 AM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 11:13 AM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Hey Comp, Happy Birthday and enjoy the new toy. I got mine in early Dec. when I got that Gateway i3 based 15.6 lappy. I use that for couch surfing. The thing came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed ( I installed Kindle for the PC in my Moms laptop).

Hey coastie,
So you have a Kindle Fire yourself. How'd I miss that?
How are you liking it?

Nooooo. I downloaded & Installed the PC version of Kindle for my Mom in her laptop. My laptop came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed. Have enough toys around here. Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

[compnovo]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 11:57 AM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 11:13 AM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Hey Comp, Happy Birthday and enjoy the new toy. I got mine in early Dec. when I got that Gateway i3 based 15.6 lappy. I use that for couch surfing. The thing came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed ( I installed Kindle for the PC in my Moms laptop).

Hey coastie,
So you have a Kindle Fire yourself. How'd I miss that?
How are you liking it?

Nooooo. I downloaded & Installed the PC version of Kindle for my Mom in her laptop. My laptop came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed. Have enough toys around here. Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

Got it. I reread your thread on your new laptop and couldn't find any mention. Figured it was just another sign I had too much fun in the 60s.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

What's the point of the Gateway now that you're not using it anyway?

Compnovo, do you plan to root the Fire, or is it good enough with Amazon's stock software?

[compnovo]

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

Compnovo, do you plan to root the Fire, or is it good enough with Amazon's stock software?

I'm going to leave it just the way it is for now. As I said, this is my first Android device and I want to get familiar with it before I start changing things. Besides, I'm really pleased with what I got out of the box, I think Amazon did a nice job, and I already have access to more apps than I know what to do with.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

What's the point of the Gateway now that you're not using it anyway?

Nothing wrong with the gateway and the processor was upgraded to an i7 960, before I did the build. If I can unlock the BiOS then i'l run the 1600 Mhz ram and bump the QPI from 4.8 to 6.4. I got rid of the eMachines, but I intend to keep the Gateway as it is a good rig. Granted I went back to the 5770 card in that thing and the Corsair 650w PSU. There is still some performance to be had from that thing. It is a very good back up or secondary computer.

[coastie65]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 02:33 PM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 11:57 AM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 11:13 AM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Hey Comp, Happy Birthday and enjoy the new toy. I got mine in early Dec. when I got that Gateway i3 based 15.6 lappy. I use that for couch surfing. The thing came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed ( I installed Kindle for the PC in my Moms laptop).

Hey coastie,
So you have a Kindle Fire yourself. How'd I miss that?
How are you liking it?

Nooooo. I downloaded & Installed the PC version of Kindle for my Mom in her laptop. My laptop came with B&N's Nook for the PC installed. Have enough toys around here. Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

Got it. I reread your thread on your new laptop and couldn't find any mention. Figured it was just another sign I had too much fun in the 60s.

60's. I was in High school until the mid 60's then the Coast Guard ( Vietnam in '67 - '68 ). Wasn't ever a part of that turn on, tune in, and freak out crowd.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 04:02 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 12:38 PM, said:

Gonna be hooking up the gateway again and get it's much need updates and make another run at unlocking the BiOS.

What's the point of the Gateway now that you're not using it anyway?

Nothing wrong with the gateway and the processor was upgraded to an i7 960, before I did the build. If I can unlock the BiOS then i'l run the 1600 Mhz ram and bump the QPI from 4.8 to 6.4. I got rid of the eMachines, but I intend to keep the Gateway as it is a good rig. Granted I went back to the 5770 card in that thing and the Corsair 650w PSU. There is still some performance to be had from that thing. It is a very good back up or secondary computer.

True, having a secondary one isn't a bad idea - I upgraded the ram in the desktop, found it had some bad cpu pins, tried to fix it and messed up the board, RMA'd it, and my laptop was coming in a few days so temporarily I was stuck using other family members' machines. Heck, another family member's desktop (only PC they have) died (the motherboard I think), and that's sitting next to my desk right now. However, you have, what, 4 computers? lol... I "only" have 2.

[compnovo]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

60's. I was in High school until the mid 60's then the Coast Guard ( Vietnam in '67 - '68 ). Wasn't ever a part of that turn on, tune in, and freak out crowd.

Yeah, that kind of came to a screeching halt for me when I got drafted....
EDIT: By the way, you paraphrased Timothy Leary (who actually said "tune in, turn on, drop out") and is famous for the phrase "If you can remember the 60s you weren't really there".
I just turned 62 so those were my formative years, for better or worse.

This post has been edited by compnovo: 10 January 2012 - 04:47 PM

[coastie65]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

60's. I was in High school until the mid 60's then the Coast Guard ( Vietnam in '67 - '68 ). Wasn't ever a part of that turn on, tune in, and freak out crowd.

Yeah, that kind of came to a screeching halt for me when I got drafted....
EDIT: By the way, you paraphrased Timothy Leary (who actually said "tune in, turn on, drop out") and is famous for the phrase "If you can remember the 60s you weren't really there".
I just turned 62 so those were my formative years, for better or worse.

Yeah, I kinda forgot the exact phrase so put my own spin on it. I got my Draft notice while I was in basic training. D.I said I wasn't going anywhere as I was already owned, but not exactly in those words.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 05:40 PM, said:

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

coastie65, on 10 January 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

60's. I was in High school until the mid 60's then the Coast Guard ( Vietnam in '67 - '68 ). Wasn't ever a part of that turn on, tune in, and freak out crowd.

Yeah, that kind of came to a screeching halt for me when I got drafted....
EDIT: By the way, you paraphrased Timothy Leary (who actually said "tune in, turn on, drop out") and is famous for the phrase "If you can remember the 60s you weren't really there".
I just turned 62 so those were my formative years, for better or worse.

Yeah, I kinda forgot the exact phrase so put my own spin on it. I got my Draft notice while I was in basic training. D.I said I wasn't going anywhere as I was already owned, but not exactly in those words.

Man, I couldn't imagine myself doing any military stuff. Granted, I'm not the type that likes FPS and such, but still...

[BLuRR]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Can you make a reccomendation one way or the other for this over the ipad? How do games play on it?

I do not really read a lot but that might be a good idea for me to start doing that.

I might get an ipad this year at some point but I am trying to be frugal and the Kindle Fire has intigued me since it has been pretty stable at that price point.

Congrats on the tech-hy toy & Happy Birthday!

This post has been edited by BLuRR: 10 January 2012 - 07:26 PM

[nonseq]

compnovo, on 10 January 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Yesterday was my birthday and I treated myself to a new toy, a Kindle Fire (the little 7" eReader Amazon sells). What a hoot! It arrived in the mail already registered to me, with a free month of Amazon Prime for unlimited movie streaming and some other perks. One of the first things I did after updating it was to install the Netflix app (the Kindle is an Android device, my first experience with that OS, and there are plenty of free apps in the Amazon store) and stream a movie. Both the Netflix and the Amazon movies look terrific on my home wireless network. Then I started a trial subscription with <competitor's> geek magazine, and that works flawlessly; loaned a book from Prime --- excellent interface. Tonight I'm going to see what the deal is with Angry Birds.

I've never used an iPad so I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've read the Fire is NOT an iPad competitor. However, it sure is great at what it's designed to do (movies, books, web browsing, email, in other words content consumption). Speaking of the web, Amazon's Silk OS is very competent but it all depends on what sites you visit as many are not optimized for small devices. Also, I'm useless when it comes to thumb typing so I wouldn't want to write anything longer than the occasional email, but I have other options for that.

This device fits in nicely with my other hardware (and in my geek budget, too ): I have my home-built desktop for heavy lifting (including gaming); my Acer netbook for portable content creation and training on the road; and now the Kindle for couch surfing, reading books, watching movies, etc.

Love my toys

Happy Birthday! Congrats on your Kindle Fire. Keep up to date with your Fire experience, please.

[nonseq]

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

STOP SOPA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!!! THIS IS INTERNET CENSORSHIP BY THE CORPORATIONS UNDER THE GUISE OF STOPPING PIRACY (which it will fail at)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian, did you know it's harder to read all caps than upper and lower case. (It's easier for the eye to distinguish individual letters as they combine as words.) In reality all caps presents the reader with essentially the same block shape. Try this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

or this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post has been edited by nonseq: 10 January 2012 - 07:38 PM

[LiveBrianD]

nonseq, on 10 January 2012 - 07:35 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

STOP SOPA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!!! THIS IS INTERNET CENSORSHIP BY THE CORPORATIONS UNDER THE GUISE OF STOPPING PIRACY (which it will fail at)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian, did you know it's harder to read all caps than upper and lower case. (It's easier for the eye to distinguish individual letters as they combine as words.) In reality all caps presents the reader with essentially the same block shape. Try this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

or this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, I never thought of that - I just figured that caps would get people's attention more.

[compnovo]

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 07:51 PM, said:

nonseq, on 10 January 2012 - 07:35 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 10 January 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

STOP SOPA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!!! THIS IS INTERNET CENSORSHIP BY THE CORPORATIONS UNDER THE GUISE OF STOPPING PIRACY (which it will fail at)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian, did you know it's harder to read all caps than upper and lower case. (It's easier for the eye to distinguish individual letters as they combine as words.) In reality all caps presents the reader with essentially the same block shape. Try this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

or this

Stop SOPA before it's too late!!!!!!! This is internet censorship by corporations under the guise of stopping piracy (which will fail)!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, I never thought of that - I just figured that caps would get people's attention more.

I would trust nonseq on this one. All caps comes across like shouting and causes folks to avoid the message rather than read it.

[compnovo]

nonseq, on 10 January 2012 - 07:29 PM, said:

Happy Birthday! Congrats on your Kindle Fire. Keep up to date with your Fire experience, please.

Thanks nonseq, I will. Since I'm still a workin' stiff I can only play with it in the evening, and I've had it only one day, but I still think Amazon did a terrific job with the device.

This post has been edited by compnovo: 10 January 2012 - 08:37 PM

[compnovo]

BLuRR, on 10 January 2012 - 07:25 PM, said:

Can you make a reccomendation one way or the other for this over the ipad? How do games play on it?

I do not really read a lot but that might be a good idea for me to start doing that.

I might get an ipad this year at some point but I am trying to be frugal and the Kindle Fire has intigued me since it has been pretty stable at that price point.

Congrats on the tech-hy toy & Happy Birthday!

Hey BLuRR,
Thanks for the well-wishes!

I can't make a recommendation over the iPad for two reasons: I've never used an iPad, and I don't think the Kindle Fire was ever intended to be an iPad replacement. The two have a lot in common, of course, like being part of a large "ecosystem" (think Amazon Prime with its books and movies, for example).

I still haven't purchased and games yet but as soon as I do I'll let you know. There are many available but I'll probably go with my favorite time-waster (Bejeweled) and I want to see what's up with Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies.

You know, the educational, quality stuff.