New Kindle Fire and Warranty?

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billw
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New Kindle Fire and Warranty?

Post by billw »

Daughter proposing to purchase granddaughter new model Kindle Fire with 2 year warranty (Oct 15, 2012 version?). Granddaughter will be turning 11. Any comments, suggestions or recommendations?

Bill W.
Last edited by billw on Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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segfault
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by segfault »

I would skip the optional warranty unless you think the granddaughter will break the thing and the warranty covers breakage. I would instead spend $15 or whatever Amazon is charging to remove the built-in advertising from the device:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/07/amaz ... ndle-fire/
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Rainier
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by Rainier »

My two year has done just fine with an iPad.

A case might help. Otherwise, those are pretty tough.
chaz
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by chaz »

My grandson loves his iPad. It has a case for protection.
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nisiprius
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by nisiprius »

I have the old Kindle Fire. I have distinctly mixed feelings about it. The truth is I can't complain--it works quite well for what I bought it for. My point is: it ain't Apple. It's OK, it's perfectly OK, but it is just so full of all sorts of rough edges, so many things that haven't quite been thought out.

a) The only way to adjust the screen brightness is with an on-screen control. What's wrong with this picture? If you've turned the brightness way down to read in bed, and forget to turn the brightness up, then when you're sitting under the awning at the train station, you can't see the screen and you have no way to turn the brightness up.

b) The on/off button seems to have been placed by a team of ergonomic experts in the exact position where you are most likely to turn it off by accident. (And, yes, the button projects slightly).

c) The overly-large overly-dumbed-down icon-oriented menus make it quite hard to find books if you have more than a few dozen of them. You only have two choices: a so-called list view, of great big bulky icons, that only displays eight items per screen, and a grid view, of greater bigger huger icons. How about a plain list? Not an option.

d) Either the touch screen or Android or both is crap. I can type more quickly and accurately on the teeny-tiny screen keyboard on my iPod Touch than I can on my Kindle Fire. Even holding it sideways in landscape mode so the screen is 7" wide.

e) The same font should be the same font! But for some reason, the font size of the same font varies from book to book, and the setting is global, not per book. So I am always fiddling with font sizes.

f) It loses my place in books. It loses bookmarks. It loses "furthest page." Yes, it really does. No, I didn't believe my wife when she told me it had done that to hers. It's an eBook, for gosh sakes, how can it fall down something as basic as remembering where you were? My theory is that they're completely invested in Cloud nonsense and they're saving that stuff in the Cloud instead of on the device, and forgets them if you temporarily lose your WiFi connection. That seems so insane I can't believe it, it couldn't take more than a few thousand bytes to store it locally, but I can't come up with any other explanation.

In short: if she wants a new Kindle Fire, get her a new Kindle Fire. But if what she wants is an iPad...
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Watty
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by Watty »

Be carefull with it and research what you need to do to disable the ability to do on line purchases both intentially or through sneaky apps. These can be automatically linked to credit card on your Amzon account and the kids can run up large billed credit card. Google "Tap Zoo Credit card" for lots of stories. This can happen on other tables too.

It can also be used to get to inappropriate web sites I and don't know I give that access to an 11 year old.
Topic Author
billw
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by billw »

Sounds like apple i-pad might be the product of choice.
What's the price difference between an i-pad and kindle fire?

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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warrenty?

Post by DSInvestor »

iPad 2 starts at $399 for 16GB WiFi only.
iPad 3 starts at $499 for 16GB WiFi only.
Applecare for iPad is $99
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s ... amily/ipad

Kindle Fire $159
Kindle Fire HD $199
Kindle Fire HD 8.9 $299
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_scat_ ... c9fc646b6c
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Gustie13
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warranty?

Post by Gustie13 »

I just bought a Fire HD, haven't gotten it yet but I've heard its a nice improvement from the regular Fire, which I thought worked OK. Its not an iPad, but I had no intention of paying iPad prices, and the reviews I've read are that the Fire HD and Nexus are both very good cheaper alternatives to an iPad.
scottyja
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Re: New Kindle Fire and Warranty?

Post by scottyja »

I would say skip the extended warranty and use an American Express to purchase it. Amex automatically extends manufacturer's warranty by a year.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/cont ... ranty.html
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