Kindle Fire HDX

[Red Storm]

I'm tempted to get one of these and give my iPad to my daughter. I mainly use my iPad for reading these days, and being able to use the Kindle library would be pretty sweet with this.

Do you mean the renting books feature? Cause the Kindle Library of books is available on just about every internet connected device.

 

[ControlD]

Do you mean the renting books feature? Cause the Kindle Library of books is available on just about every internet connected device.

I mean the Kindle Lending Library which comes with my Prime account. There have been several times when I purchased a book and I noticed I could be reading it for free if I was using an actual Kindle branded device rather than my iPad or phone.

 

[Red Storm]

I mean the Kindle Lending Library which comes with my Prime account. There have been several times when I purchased a book and I noticed I could be reading it for free if I was using an actual Kindle branded device rather than my iPad or phone.

Yeah that's what I figured you meant. My little sister read the Harry Potter books for free on my Kindle thanks to the Lending Library.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Do you mean the renting books feature? Cause the Kindle Library of books is available on just about every internet connected device.

I tried that public library borrowing ebook feature that's available on Kindle, Nook, and other ereaders. I had to go get a library card, because who has those in this day and age? And then logged into the site to try to check out an ebook. The selection was sucky and anything I actually would want to read was on hold for months because ebooks are treated like physical books and only one license of an ebook can be checked out at a time, so there was huge waiting lists for ebooks. Ugh, really?

 

[Red Storm]

I tried that public library borrowing ebook feature that's available on Kindle, Nook, and other ereaders. I had to go get a library card, because who has those in this day and age? And then logged into the site to try to check out an ebook. The selection was sucky and anything I actually would want to read was on hold for months because ebooks are treated like physical books and only one license of an ebook can be checked out at a time, so there was huge waiting lists for ebooks. Ugh, really?

Huh? I have no idea what that is. Amazon lets you rent a selection of books from the Kindle store for a month on any Kindle device, which is what DaveStall was talking about.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Huh? I have no idea what that is. Amazon lets you rent a selection of books from the Kindle store for a month on any Kindle device, which is what DaveStall was talking about.

Yes. I love the Lending Library. But it sounded like you were talking the other option of checking out ebooks from the public library. I was just mentioning that feature really stinks.

 

[quikah]

I tried that public library borrowing ebook feature that's available on Kindle, Nook, and other ereaders. I had to go get a library card, because who has those in this day and age? And then logged into the site to try to check out an ebook. The selection was sucky and anything I actually would want to read was on hold for months because ebooks are treated like physical books and only one license of an ebook can be checked out at a time, so there was huge waiting lists for ebooks. Ugh, really?

I have used this many times. While I agree that the selection is soso it is still pretty awesome. I read Harry Potter and Song of Ice and Fire through this. I believe the selection is dependant on your library though. There was a wait for the SOIAF, but the Harry Potter books were all wait free for me. I think I had to wait maybe 3 weeks a the most for the 5th SOIAF book, the others were 1-2 week waits or no waits.

If you have multiple library systems near you get a library card from each as each library can have a different wait time.

 

[BladeVenom]

I can't be the only one who thinks it's ridiculous device manufacturers (like Apple) still charge $100 for $3 worth of flash memory.

I'm never surprised by Apple's prices.

I'm surprised that everyone else charges so much for extra memory. It almost makes me suspect collusion.

 

[lopri]

Is it available already? Wow I thought it was an announcement but I got a spam from Amazon telling me to check it out. How come there is no review of the sort yet? Did Amazon want to be secretive about it?

 

[lopri]

Here is Amazon's rundown page (It's pre-order, btw):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...kindle-compare

I am still astound by 374g of weight of the 8.9. And that it's 2560x1600.

Edit: And the HDX 8.9 is only 7.8 mm thick? How did they do this?

Nexus 7 (2012): 10.5 mm thick, 340g, 7" screen
Nexus 7 (2013): 8.6 mm thick, 290g, 7" screen
iPad mini: 7.2 mm thick, 308g, 8" screen
Xperia Z Tablet: 6.8 mm thick, 495g, 10" screen

 

[Ravynmagi]

The Fire HD 7 and 8.9 are 395g and 567g. So the 8.9 inch tablet from last year is 172g heavier than the 7 inch model

This year the HDX 7 and 8.9 are 303g and 374g. Or only a 71g difference now.

Or the new HDX 7 is 94g lighter than the HD7.
And the HDX 8.9 is 193g lighter than the HD 8.9.

I'm wondering why the 8.9 inch model has such a dramatic weight improvement and the 7 inch has a good improvement, but not nearly that good.

 

[Fayd]

I'm having a tough time deciding between the HDX and the nexus 7. I am an amazon prime customer, and it'd be nice for me to just download movies/tv shows and take the kindle to the gym to watch while i'm on the treadmill/eliptical. On the other hand, it locks me into the amazon ecosystem. the nexus 7 gives me access to google's play store, which has way more apps.

I'm a heavy user of firefox, even on android. So i'd prefer to be able to use firefox, and not Silk.

BTW, main goal is i'm looking for a tablet that will allow me (with a stylus) to annotate pdf's of presentations as I sit and watch them. (think beamer presentations. the pdf's get shared, but not before I leave the house for the day. otherwise I would just print them.)

after annotating I retype the presentation (with notes) into latex for storage. all my class notes are stored like this. So a good pdf reader would be great too.

I had decided to simply get the nexus, but then I heard about the ability to download from amazon prime. so....anyone have any suggestions?

 

[lopri]

Bestbuy will surely have these puppies on display once released so maybe you should check them out in person (rule of thumb). In my opinion, it's tough to beat larger screens when it comes to PDFs or pre-formatted periodicals/comics/etc,. even at a performance deficit.

Then again for every other stuff I prefer smaller tablets' portability. I don't think anyone can make a decision for you.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Maybe a Note 10 2014 for Fayd because it has a digitizer and pen included. Taking notes with a capacitive pen on a Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX would probably not be fun. Or maybe a Note 8 when it's on sale for $350.

 

[Born2bwire]

I'm having a tough time deciding between the HDX and the nexus 7. I am an amazon prime customer, and it'd be nice for me to just download movies/tv shows and take the kindle to the gym to watch while i'm on the treadmill/eliptical. On the other hand, it locks me into the amazon ecosystem. the nexus 7 gives me access to google's play store, which has way more apps.

I'm a heavy user of firefox, even on android. So i'd prefer to be able to use firefox, and not Silk.

BTW, main goal is i'm looking for a tablet that will allow me (with a stylus) to annotate pdf's of presentations as I sit and watch them. (think beamer presentations. the pdf's get shared, but not before I leave the house for the day. otherwise I would just print them.)

after annotating I retype the presentation (with notes) into latex for storage. all my class notes are stored like this. So a good pdf reader would be great too.

I had decided to simply get the nexus, but then I heard about the ability to download from amazon prime. so....anyone have any suggestions?

I'm torn too. The thing is, I don't know what I would be missing by using the Amazon. People keep talking about it being bootlocked, but damned if I know what I would do with it if it was unlocked. I used my girlfriend's tablet to watch Netflix, surf the web, Youtube, and the occasional game. As long as I can use the same Android apps, I'm happy.

The Fire is about the same price, has just slightly better specs, weighs the same, and it has apps for Amazon video and Kindle stuff. The latter is particularly attractive to me since outside of websurfing, Kindle products are my main mobile consumption. Right now, I'm just waiting for reviews to come out.

 

[DaveSimmons]

As far as I know, all you miss is being able to install apps directly from the Google app store. So if something isn't in the Amazon app store you must side-load it.

You can side-load apps on Amazon devices just by going to settings and enabling it.

 

[SAWYER]

Or maybe a Note 8 when it's on sale for $350.

Some reporting it as low as 225 with coupon
http://slickdeals.net/f/6290828-75-off-any-samsung-tablet-at-staples-in-store-only

 

[SwiftWind]

Anyone here use their kindle fire for work related stuff? I.e. vpn, remote access, office apps, etc?
I'm thinking about getting a tablet so I don't have to haul a laptop everywhere since I'm on call. What do you think?

 

[Ravynmagi]

Anyone here use their kindle fire for work related stuff? I.e. vpn, remote access, office apps, etc?
I'm thinking about getting a tablet so I don't have to haul a laptop everywhere since I'm on call. What do you think?

You possibly could, but the experience would suck so much you'd definitely much rather haul a laptop around instead.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

this looks great, unfortunately if you are a power user at all, theirs no chance you can pick this over a nexus 7 or any "normal" android tab. Its way too limited, now if it was easily rooted and could flash CM or something on there.... then its way more interesting.

 

[Ravynmagi]

this looks great, unfortunately if you are a power user at all, theirs no chance you can pick this over a nexus 7 or any "normal" android tab. Its way too limited, now if it was easily rooted and could flash CM or something on there.... then its way more interesting.

Power users could easily sideload apps (root not required, unless something changed).

 

[gmaster456]

I thought about getting one of these for my girlfriend but she uses an iphone and the limited app selection in the amazon App Store would be as problem for her.

 

[Silenus]

I'm having a tough time deciding between the HDX and the nexus 7. I am an amazon prime customer, and it'd be nice for me to just download movies/tv shows and take the kindle to the gym to watch while i'm on the treadmill/eliptical. On the other hand, it locks me into the amazon ecosystem. the nexus 7 gives me access to google's play store, which has way more apps.

I'm a heavy user of firefox, even on android. So i'd prefer to be able to use firefox, and not Silk.

BTW, main goal is i'm looking for a tablet that will allow me (with a stylus) to annotate pdf's of presentations as I sit and watch them. (think beamer presentations. the pdf's get shared, but not before I leave the house for the day. otherwise I would just print them.)

after annotating I retype the presentation (with notes) into latex for storage. all my class notes are stored like this. So a good pdf reader would be great too.

I had decided to simply get the nexus, but then I heard about the ability to download from amazon prime. so....anyone have any suggestions?

I'm a Prime customer too but use the video content on my TV from Blu-Ray player app. The lack of Android app is a big sticking point for me...but it has more to do with purchased content than Prime content. I do not purchase any video content from Amazon (anymore). Since the release of the Chromecast any video I buy/rent will most likely be straight from Google Play now that I have a seamless way to view said video on all my nexus/android devices AND my TV.

Cliff notes (Amazon are you reading this?): Refusing to make an Android version of Instant video doesn't make me want to by a Kindle Fire....it just makes me NOT want to use Instant Video.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

Power users could easily sideload apps (root not required, unless something changed).

True, but sideloading is a PIA, OTA is soo much easier for us lazy folks

 

[Shackanaw]

Another neat feature is being able to download video from Amazon Instant for free, to view offline on your HDX.

This is a pretty attractive feature. Much more so, to me, than Mayday.

I'm curious, does the iPad app support this as well, or is this something they're locking into their Kindle devices, like the Lending Library? Perhaps it's too early to know for sure.