I played with the Kindle Fire HD and didn't get burned!

[CrackBerry Kevin]

Seriously, it's true. That's because I was at the event in Santa Monica (Phil was in NYC for another event).

Overall, pretty solid tablet if your goal is consumption. It's really all about just sitting down and doing stuff - reading books, watching movies, playing games, etc. They definitely did a solid job on the hardware. They didn't skimp.

I find the UI a bit painful and inconsistent. It's sort of strange that while gearing the device to be for the mainstream average user, that they didn't make it easier for them to get back home. Depending on what app you're in, it changes. Easy to get used to I guess, but still seems odd.

I love some of the features they introduced. If I had kids I would totally take advantage of the FreeTime feature. And I really like the syncing feature for kindle books and audio books. Super clever.

They said on stage the Kindle Fire has 22% of US tablet share right now... so I'd expect to see these continue to do well. You get a lot for the money.

 

[Paul627g]

It does indeed look like a fun tablet. Might be something worth considering to pick up as a household tablet. My wife with all her constant online researching of books and reports for her college works could really benefit from a nice tablet like this.

 

[threed61#WN]

I ordered the 7 inch HD this afternoon, cant wait! I have Prime so I hope to have it on the 17th. Will the free time feature be able to block access to the market? My nephew was playing with my Thrive, and added a number of games to it without permission. I'd like to be able to prevent that.

 

[darkmatter]

One of the things that's drawing me to this over the Nexus7 is the HDMI output. Its a little thing, I know, but one I've grown to love with my phone.

My only concern is if I can get console emulators running on the kindle fire.

 

[crackberrytraitor]

The 7 inch fire HD seems inferior to the N7, however, I'll buy an 8.9 as soon as xda cranks out some sweet medicine in the form of a CM10 release.

Sent from my One X using Android Central Forums

 

[dmmarck]

Any word on hack-ability?

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

 

[crackberrytraitor]

Any word on hack-ability?

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

I think we'll have to wait till some devs get their hands on the hardware.

Sent from my One X using Android Central Forums

 

[dmmarck]

I think we'll have to wait till some devas get there hands on the hardware.

Sent from my One X using Android Central Forums

Paging Jerry...

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

 

[Lanhoj]

...
Will the free time feature be able to block access to the market? My nephew was playing with my Thrive, and added a number of games to it without permission. I'd like to be able to prevent that.

Before letting kids use my tablet I quickly & easily setup an App called "App Lock II Widget Pro"--> https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ils?id=net.xdevelop.protector3&token=yAvzsT7k
What it does is when they try to launch an App / game I've told them not to it blocks access but not in the usual way - instead of prompting a Password & Pin it pops up the Force Close message. That way not only does it keep them out, it also makes them feel guilty for crashing the App / game. Yeah it's a little mean, but hey, it's their fault for trying to launch it when I told them not to.

 

[crackberrytraitor]

Paging Jerry...

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

We need a Jerry review. That man knows his hardware.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[drewsammie]

Hadn't heard anyone mention the volume control. This was/is a big complaint with the orig Fire.

 

[BIGsinner]

How mean would it be to implement the Free time feature on your spouse?

 

[Sniper1087]

I am going to be honest i been using the nexus 7 since released, it is a nice tablet, but i do not use that man apps, mostly video on youtube netflix, and social networking facebook, tweeter and sometimes G+, and lastly the browser is very important and Google Chrome is really frustrating to me, it lags constantly and like what Alex Dobie said " its a butter-free browser" either google will have to improve it, or maybe Amazon has a better browser. Another issue I saw with the nexus 7 was the speakers some videos not even with volume+ you can get any good sound, so I am leaning towards the 8.9 fire HD with 32gb to store my videos and watch them with that stereo Dolby sound quality hoping stronger sound than the 7

 

[crackberrytraitor]

I am going to be honest i been using the nexus 7 since released, it is a nice tablet, but i do not use that man apps, mostly video on youtube netflix, and social networking facebook, tweeter and sometimes G+, and lastly the browser is very important and Google Chrome is really frustrating to me, it lags constantly and like what Alex Dobie said " its a butter-free browser" either google will have to improve it, or maybe Amazon has a better browser. Another issue I saw with the nexus 7 was the speakers some videos not even with volume+ you can get any good sound, so I am leaning towards the 8.9 fire HD with 32gb to store my videos and watch them with that stereo Dolby sound quality hoping stronger sound than the 7

Use a sound booster app. And if you don't like web browsing on the N7, you'll hate browsing on whatever Amazon devas have cooked up for their modded gingerbread OS.

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[Sniper1087]

Use a sound booster app. And if you don't like web browsing on the N7, you'll hate browsing on whatever Amazon devas have cooked up for their modded gingerbread OS.

Sent from my One X using Android Central Forums

I used volume+ and didnt help, now the fire HD is running ICS according to amazon cs, if the browser on my sgs3 is better than the one in the nexus there is a problem. We will have to see a side by side comparison.

 

[sushiguy732]

I used volume+ and didnt help, now the fire HD is running ICS according to amazon cs, if the browser on my sgs3 is better than the one in the nexus there is a problem. We will have to see a side by side comparison.

You are correct.... The new HD's do have ICS.

 

[pistolpetefan23]

So the HD will run a version of ICS. What about the Fire 2?

 

[ucfgrad93]

Hadn't heard anyone mention the volume control. This was/is a big complaint with the orig Fire.

I think it will. The attached picture shows buttons on one of the sides. I think the top one is a volume rocker.

 

[crackberrytraitor]

I used volume+ and didnt help, now the fire HD is running ICS according to amazon cs, if the browser on my sgs3 is better than the one in the nexus there is a problem. We will have to see a side by side comparison.

Use speakerbooster, it works fantastic.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[TheMTtakeover]

So the HD will run a version of ICS. What about the Fire 2?

If you are referring to the orginal Kindle Fire but the price drop and better specs its looks to also be running the ICS version of Amazon OS.