Kindle Fire - Week 1 Review

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One week ago, an early Christmas present from my husband arrived – a Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi. PCs and Blackberries are old hat for me, but touch screens are new. I’m going to write blog items over the next few weeks about my journey to use it effectively. My successes so far:

 

  • The first thing I did was put in the info to allow the Kindle into my home wireless network. It took less than a minute…and has worked flawlessly since.
  • I successfully downloaded and read a Kindle book from my public library - Diane Mott Davidson’s Chopping Spree (Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery). For this kind of text, the narrower line length was preferable. I even found an old acrylic bookstand to use for the kindle so I could read while I was exercising. The highlighting feature will take some getting used to; getting my finger positioned to start the highlighting was the most challenging for me.
  • My husband and I looked for a grocery list app and settled on OurGroceries. It wasn’t on the Amazon app store but my husband got the app on his Droid phone; then we used the PC and AndroXplorer to move it to the Kindle. It works fine. We can create a list that our PCs, his Droid phone, his iPad, and my Kindle can all share. We’ll see how my Kindle works when I shop for groceries this next weekend.
  • Email worked almost immediately. The only challenging part was my finger putting in my email address and password the first time. It is already easier.
  • Web browsing is easy enough if the links are not very closely spaced on the page. I have learned to enlarge the page before I attempt to follow a link.
  • My blog looks great on the Kindle. It was one of the first sites I took a look at.
  • One frustration so far is that the cases for the Kindle Fire are still pretty expensive and there is not much selection. I want something that will protect it while I am using it (like when I am grocery shopping) – not a bag or sleeve. Hopefully, more will come out soon.
  • Finally, I took a look at a PDF file – Protecting our Chesapeake from the National Park Conservation Association. This file was easier to read with the long line length the 7 inches provides. I got lots of practice moving around in the document since it was formatted with double columns. The pictures displayed well.

All in all, I’ve been pleased with the Kindle Fire so far. I’ll continue the report on my journey next week!