Some impressive new stuff from Amazon today. Great hardware, good price points, and, unlike Nokia, Amazon opens up pre-orders right away and gives us shipping dates. Still, I would personally advice waiting with buying one until you can replace Amazon’s Frankendroid with Cyanogenmod or something.
And do you also advice waiting with buying Windows RT tablets until you can replace their operating system with Metro^8, or holding off iPad purchases until it has PureDarwin support?
“Frankendroid” or not, always await the next something or other excuse to buy. Save yourself hundreds of dollars with next to no loss in the quality of life. Usually, the reverse.
Besides, no memory card slot is always the kiss of death.
The Fire tablets run a very gimped version of Android, so I’d never consider them until/unless they were unlocked. Once they hack this thing and put Jellybean proper on it, assuming they don’t screw up the hardware somehow, it’s probably going to replace the Nexus 7 as the ‘low end’ Android tablet of choice, especially since it has an HDMI port, which the 7 lacks. And thank god, they put physical volume buttons on this one
I’m betting it’s going to get lots of love from the dev community also.
As for the lack of an SD card slot, just get an OTG adapter for the micro USB port (one can be had for less than $1) and you can plug whatever the hell you want in there.
It depends on what you are using the Fire for. I’m one of the rare ones who downgraded from ICS back to the stock firmware. The integration with Amazon makes the Kindle uniquely useful for consuming Amazon products.
Reading books and watching movies work well on the 7″ form-factor, and I tend to get those from Amazon so the integration outweighs the loss of ICS features. (I did root and install Google Play and such, that much is essential.) Plus, I like variety and was getting a bit bored with the overlap between ICS on my phone and tablet.
Well, you can always download the Kindle app for stock. I’m told you can also side load the Prime app as well, though I’ve never tried it.
You have to use stock to take advantage of any Prime features, like the Kindle Lending Library or Prime Movie Streaming. Aside from that, the Kindle Otter Launcher is media focused rather than app focused, which is useful for consuming media and an interesting variation of Android.
Being an OS-phile, I enjoy the variation, it gives my Fire a different feel and niche. Overall, it’s probably worse than AOSP, but it’s not bad. If it were my only android device I’d likely use an ICS rom.
Can you download and run an app like MXPlayer to play videos you load on there? Is Netflix an option?
Sure, you can run any of those on rooted stock Kindle or ICS. But if you’re an Amazon Prime member then streaming and lending are included at no extra charge. It’s also nice having one’s last used book, video, or music on the home screen (i.e. optimized for that use). Stock does have advantages, so I keep it on my Kindle. I could limit myself and use alternatives, but I carry my ICS phone with me at all times, so there’s little reason to replicate functionality.
Replacing Amazon’s version of Android is more like replacing/upgrading Windows 7 Starter Edition on a cheap notebook. An act of sanity.
As for the Windows RT tablets, the bios lockdown is a very good reason to avoid them, yes.
Sorry, but replacing the heavily crippled Kindle Fire’s Frankendroid is the first thing anyone with any sense would do. Without that, you’re limited to Amazon’s Appstore, which is nowhere near as comprehensive as Google Play, plus no doubt other limitations Amazon will impose.
Heck, I even rooted my Nexus 7 and put CyanogenMod 10 on it, which brings a lot more customisability (including a percentage figure next to the battery icon – yay!) than even the vanilla JellyBean release that came with it.
Aren’t most of the added value services destined to US only?
I think Kindle is a nice hardware but the selection of material from Amazon store in my language is so poor I’d never seriously consider it.
Added value is the rent extracted by locking down devices over and above what a ‘Free-Market’ would allow, so they can shove it, thanks all the same.
I’ll take a Nexus 7 instead…
EDIT:
For the record I was considering a Kindle Fire before the Nexus 7 came out. If I scratch together enough money I will get the Nexus.
Edited 2012-09-07 12:43 UTC
Will the older Kindles be updated? Just akin’.
I do think Amazon have a very good ecosystem for media and entertainment. They were at it for years before tablet/smartphones came out, after all. Sadly, most of the content is US only (maybe UK too, though I’m not certain), which is probably the main reason why it’s only sold there.
It’s not really that much different with the Nexus 7, to be frank. The movies, mags, books and music are only available (to varying degrees) in its launch countries. It does make a better proposition for the amount of apps alone, though, even if Android tablet apps aren’t that great. There’s also the appeal of running non-butchered Android.
For most “international” folk, I’d still say Apple’s the best (or at least the least terrible) option with regards to media and entertainment. You can sort of ‘bluff’ the AppStore/iTunes into thinking you’re American by registering a US account and making all purchases with iTunes gift cards (which you can easily buy online). I’ve been doing that for years. Apple probably knows where I’m buying from, but I suppose they don’t care.
Might be possible to do the same for Android now that Google have started rolling out gift cards as well, I suppose. If not, you’ll still need a US VPN or proxy of some sort.
Why? Because the reasons already mentioned (lack of SDCard slot for user loadable storage, crippled Amazon version of Android, lackadaisical app store with fewer “free” versions of apps, etc) but also because the new releases come with ads on the lockscreen and NO way to get them off without hacking the device. That’s right, you can’t even pay to have them removed and according to the reports I’ve read they all come with this dubious feature by default.
I’m still holding out hope that someone will come out with a device in this class with this hardware spec that has a SDCard slot, but honestly Amazon did something I never thought possible–they made the Nexus look good even with the lack of SDCard slot! As much as I want to have the option to add storage to the device I know if forced to choose between the two the Nexus wins hands down!
–bornagainpenguin
I sprang for the 16G model for $249.
All else being equal or comparable (according to Amazon anyway), these are the differences I see.
In favor of Fire HD:
$50 cheaper
Has HDMI
In favor of Nexus 7:
Vanilla AOSP with promised updates.
I’m very happy with my Nexus 7 but if I were buying today instead of 2 months ago I’d probably go with the Fire for HDMI.
You know it’ll be running AOSP ROMs fairly soon.
I wound up rooting my Nexus 7 anyway to be able to use DSLR Controller and StickMount.
Let me note though that you can’t install Cyanogenmod or anything like it with the Google apps (Play market, Google maps, Gmail, etc.) on the Kindle, that is pure piracy. If you buy an Android device with Google applications the manufacturer has paid Google a license for them, but you get no license with the Kindle.