For Christmas this year all I wanted was a Kindle Fire, accessories for it, and an Amazon Prime subscription.
By special arrangements with my wonderful hubby, I got exactly what I wanted. And you know what? I have no "Christmas regrets." I don't have even the itty bittiest twinge of buyer's remorse. In fact, I have the opposite - I'm filled to the brim with buyer's satisfaction. So naturally, I had to put fingers to keyboard to tell y'all all about it.
I've been privileged to publish on Amazon via their magical, mystical KDP platform for a couple of years now. Yet, I'm a newcomer to the Amazon customer universe. I'm confessing that up front because I don't doubt that some of my adoration for the Kindle Fire is actually adoration for the whole Amazon experience. Getting a Fire gave me the keys to the ereading kingdom. I now have access to the biggest, the baddest, the best ebook variety on Planet Earth. Pretty much, if there's an ebook in existence, it's gonna be on Amazon and it's gonna be there for the lowest price. In this economy, that's a big plus for the Amazon experience and for the Fire.
Before I got my Fire, I read the flood of criticism that seemed to pour from every which way. They said that the device is faulty because there is only 1 button. That button turns the Fire on and off and critics claim it causes many consumers to accidentally turn the device off while they're using it. Critics also said that the web browser was way, way too slow and that the App Store was vastly underpopulated. And they cited big problems with the touch screen features that were sometimes unresponsive.
Of all those major problems that the reviewers cited, the only one I've encountered is that sometimes the touch features don't respond. When that happens, I'll either try again, touch the home key, or touch that much maligned little on-off switch to restart. Frankly, it doesn't bother me that much but I understand Amazon is working on the issue. Through recent personal experience with a bad Tablet purchase (not a Fire - an Android for my eldest son) from an Amazon vendor, I've learned that when Amazon gives its word, Amazon keeps its word. So when the company says it's working on the touch screen issues, I now believe it completely.
Even if the little touch screen glitches remain, I've found the Fire to be the ultimate entertainment device experience and if y'all don't have a Fire, you need to pick one up right now. This minute.
All of the other criticism - about the on/off switch, the slow browser and the insufficient App store - hasn't cropped up as a problem for me at all. I mean, not even once have I had an issue with those features. The good peeps at Dear Author have some very informative info up about how to change device settings on the Fire so that you can load Apps from other vendors. I changed the setting, but I haven't left the Amazon once to get anything from anywhere else.
I've watched a video through the prime service - Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Christmas. It was lots of fun and I look forward to boogling through some of the other offerings. I'm looking forward to revisiting the 1st episode of the 1st season of "Grey's Anatomy" and re-living the time when the Mer/Der magic was new. (Readers of this blog will know that I've been a Grey's Gal since episode 1.) My youngest son will demand some Fire-time to watch the early seasons of "Dr Who," and my hubby will doubtless want to explore some of the Star Trek offerings. The Amazon Prime video offerings are already numerous and they're growing every day. I may even pick up some of the first season of "Ellery Queen" - originally I thought it was free for Prime, but alas, I've discovered it's $1.99 per episode. Still, I'll likely pick up one or two of 'em because that's classic TV in its best, its most intelligent and excellent form.
I never had a real yen for an iPad and now I'm glad I never got one. My Kindle Fire is much more portable and it offers something that neither the iPad nor other Android devices can match - the ability to download video to the device. Yes, America, you can download movies or TV shows onto your Fire and then watch them on a plane, in a train, or on a long road trip in the car. Funny that the critics never mention that feature now, isn't it? The ability to download video means the Fire vanquishes Android Tablets and it even kills the mighty iPad. But the critics couldn't go around saying that now, could they? Because their goal seems to be to dampen the Fire before it burns so far it gets out of control.
Kindle Fire brings the tablet to a place where nearly everyone can afford it and it dishes out the tablet experience in a way that even a non-techie like me can do more than "get it" - we can own it.
Nope, the critics didn't kill my Desire for Fire and I'm mighty glad I didn't listen to them. They were so loud in their howling cries that I suspected they had an agenda. I suspect it much more now that my personal experience contradicts their claims. The critics were ranting that Amazon's everyman tablet experience would die beneath the weight of all the device returns to the company after the holidays. Wonder how that's working out? I haven't heard a peep from consumers who returned the Fire nor from Amazon, discussing Fire returns. The critics would like Amazon to go under but it's folks like you and me that will keep the company floating happily along at the head of the pack.
Instead of a product return, I'm giving a product testimonial - and it goes out with a great big "Thank You" to Jeff Bezos and the entire Amazon Kindle Fire team. Those critics I was talking about before seem like the kind of folks who believe "You can't get rich by overestimating the intelligence of the American public." I've never listened to those people - instead, I listen to the public and my readers - or I try to. And I believe that Amazon is the company Bezos built on the principal that you CAN get rich by catering to the intelligent population of America - and other countries all around the world.
Trust me on this one, the Kindle Fire is a tablet you can buy knowing you'll love it and understand it because it was created for you by a company that believes you should want more, you should get more and you deserve more. So Amazon gave you more - it's created a Fire that puts the world at your fingertips.