Update - Amazon's latest announcement is that "for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and the Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling product (though it has taken some flak from a few reviewers who insist it should have the features and power of devices $300 more expensive, though I agree they should improve the initial software which they say they'll do within the next 10 days or so). I feel it was unwise of Amazon to have device storage of only 8 gigs, but I also have to say that 6.5 gigs of it is for user's own files wherever they choose to get them, while B&N allows only 1 gig of their device storage for non-BN-purchased files and their "Cloud" is only for BN purchases.
Amazon allows "side-loading" (via USB cable) of non-Amazon apps. B&N does not. There's a workaround the B&N wall, but it's added work. An earlier article explained how this is done, and
I should clarify since few know it, that every Amazon customer gets 5 free gigs of storage space for ANY data from anywhere (unless it's copy-protected by others) -- and any music you upload from your own stash is streamable for you from anywhere, at anytime, at no added cost. Any mp3's you buy from Amazon are not counted against the 5 free gigs. Just as with Kindle books, they're just automatically stored.
All Kindle owners (globally) now get 5 additional gigs of storage for "personal documents" -- meaning doc, text, PDF, or non-Amazon books (with no digital-rights-management protecting them) received from other sites and this includes your own notes, which if sent via e-mail to your Kindle by you will be automatically stored for you and will be sync'able between all your devices just as Kindle books are, so that you can read them on your other devices, from where you last left off.
Any notes you make for your personal docs sent by you to your Kindle will also be stored for you (with your consent by sending them to your Kindle) and annotations will be kept retrievable by you with the document. 5 gigs is quite a lot for this type of material.
Amazon is alone in offering this kind of storage and retrieval (which includes non-Amazon-bought items), not to mention sync'g of these between the various devices you have.
That you can remove books or documents from the device to leave it clearer (and faster because less indexing of countless books is needed that way) and then re-download any of it at any time you want, with your notes in place, means a kind of flexibility you don't get elsewhere, which is of real interest to me.
For those for whom their entire music collection is important to have smoothly streamable from anywhere at all times on the web or through their mp3-player app, Amazon also has a not-much-mentioned add-on plan that's been available for months but is also a limited-time offer:
For $20 per year they offer Unlimited space for storing and streaming all of your non-DRM'd music (they can't store or stream copy-protected music) AND 20 gigs of space also, for all your other files, any of which can be transferred to your Kindle Fire (or whatever tablet(s) will come next) when you want it. I just tend to play mine from the Cloud but I have the big favorites on the device for when I'm not around Wifi. The files can be mp3 or AAC (m4a). I should clarify that I don't want or need my entire music collection on Amazon's storage but others like the feature.
No other company offering tablets at this affordable price range has the vast amount of content in place, without sending its customers to subscribe to other services to get that content, and it does a beautiful job of streaming its own video and music. Most tablets costing $400-$600 leave the general consumer asking "What do I do now?" which is why Apple is so successful and the individual Android tablets with such good technical specs have suffered in sales.
Amazon's "ecosystem" is such that existing consumers already have e-books, music and have tried the instant videos (most are for pay while about 13,000 will be included at no added cost for those who are already Prime members (they pay $79/year for 2-day free shipping on just about anything).
The photo at the top is of the Kindle Fire while it's accessing a Yosemite Merced River photo on my PBase site. You can click on that image to see the larger photo of the Kindle Fire's web image or click here for the actual Yosemite river photo on the web (although the PBase site is having big problems the last day with displaying photos at all).
The KFire does a great job with colors and contrast although that's quite hard to show when trying to do a photo of a slide-like photo on a tablet.
(Earlier)
This is just to say that I'm alive. Haven't forgotten the blog or its readers.
Did do a brief videoclip yesterday which I'll talk about after a meeting today that I have to be at, but it involves a little external speaker for the Kindle Fire that amazed me after having received craptastic other ones.
I did the videoclip so it could be heard rather than just described. Will also have other recommendations only from what I know myself, what I ordered for myself and wound up liking, since I don't accept products for review (one exception in 3 years because I already planned to get it) as I think I'd be too influenced by not paying to try it. Others can do it well. I tend just not to write about things I don't like.
More this afternoon.
Kindle Touch 3G Kindle Touch WiFi Kindle Basic (UK: KBasic) Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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