Hawk's Babble-Log

Yayyy! I got my Kindle Fire and it’s pretty darn awesome. You get tremendous value for your money.

Well done, Amazon! It looks like someone at Amazon read my open letter to Jeff Bezos.

It has a nice, solid feel. The back is a soft, slightly rubbery material which makes it not slide around the desk when you’re sliding your finger across the touchscreen.

Speaking of the touchscreen, it is very sensitive and very responsive. I like it a lot.

The screen is very bright, clear, and sharp. The colors are rich; the lights are light and the darks are dark. Very nice. I could watch a movie on this.

Speaking of movies, you’ve got instant access to everything Amazon has to offer, which is impressive. That’s nice. Also YouTube vids work very well, even the hi-def ones.

The system is fast and responsive with very few delays.

Reading books is nice. Reminds me of reading on my phone, but with a much bigger screen.

Now the bad stuff:

No Google Marketplace!

What app store do you get? Amazon’s app store. Most of my favorite apps are not on Amazon’s app store:

• You want the Gmail app? You’re screwed. But you can get your Gmail via their web interface.
• You want a different browser such as Opera? You’re screwed.
• You want Google Maps? You’re screwed.
• You want Catch so you can take notes? You’re screwed.
• You want Google Translate (which speaks!)? You’re screwed.
• You want the Google Talk app? You’re screwed, though you can get there via a their web interface.
• You want the Google Calendar app? You’re screwed, though you can get there via their web interface.
• You want an ssh client like Connectbot? You’re screwed.
• You want a VNC client like AndroidVNC? You’re screwed, though they do have some other VNC clients which I didn’t bother with because I can’t pipe them over a secure SSH connection via Connectbot.

Shipping an Android device without the Google Marketplace is like selling you a car without any tires, wheels, or axles. The engine will run, but you won’t be able to go anywhere. It seems that Amazon is trying to make the device closed, when they should be trying to make it as open as possible. Once the device is open, then all the geeks will jump in and customize it. Once that happens, and people see what can be done with it, it will sell even more.

This first item, no Google Marketplace, is the most annoying; it cripples the device.

No card slot(s)

It’s got about 6.5 Gigs available out of the box. This is not enough to store all my media, but it’s a good start. If the device had a card slot (or two!), then I could buy lots of storage, load up those cards with all my crap, and put them into the device. Then I’d have my library (or a good portion of it) with me when I’m out of network range. Amazon may have made it too dependent on the network.

If you’re only going to use it for reading Kindle books, then there is no problem. But if you’re only going to use it for that, then get one of the e-paper versions. It will be cheaper and the battery will last longer.

Other Annoyances

No GPS, but I can live without that.

If they are not going to allow me to install Google Maps, it doesn’t much matter that the device doesn’t have a GPS receiver built in.

No cellphone network, but I can live without that, too.

I can get the Kindle Fire online when I’m on the road and away from wi-fi networks by turning on wireless tethering on my phone. Then my phone becomes a bridge between the cellphone networks and wi-fi for the Kindle Fire. It works, but it’s not fast enough to watch videos.

No camera, but I can live without that, too.

It’s an appealing idea to take pics on a device with such a large screen.

In Summary

I really like the device, but it could be so much more. Perhaps someone at Amazon will read this and make the Kindle Fire v2.0 even better?

I still think my cell phone is the best “tablet” available, but without the big screen. It’s Android, has Kindle for Android, B&N Nook for Android, and Google Books for reading, YouTube videos, a video player I found on Google Marketplace (Mobo Player) to play virtually any video I put on the micro SD card (yes, it has a card slot!), three music players I found on Google Marketplace (XiiaLive Lite, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn Radio) for my music (and for streaming music), a GPS receiver (Google Maps/directions!), digital compass, a camera dictionary + Google Translate (which speaks!), VoIP clients such as Sipdroid, Barcode scanner (it has a camera), Ustream (for both broadcasting and receiving), ShowMee, games such as NetHack and OpenCacheing for GeoCaching… I could go on and on.

So, it seems my Android phone (which is several years old now) is much more advanced than the latest slate from Amazon. I’m keeping my hopes up that the Amazon Fire v2.0 will be a truly outstanding dream device with Google’s Marketplace.

Keller’s Riverside Store CHL radio ad

After watching the video, I decided to get more info so I read the book. After that, I was sold. So I tried the RAVE Diet.

After having been (mostly) on the RAVE Diet for well over half a year, I can highly recommend it.

Go here and get the video plus the book:

http://ravediet.com/

The video is called “Eating”, and the book is called “The RAVE Diet”. You can order the DVD+book combo here: http://ravediet.com/order.html

I’m not making any money off this recommendation. The only affiliate program I belong to is the Amazon Associates program. But I’m not linking to the book on Amazon, I’m linking straight to the author’s site. Go there, get the video and the book. Watch the video first, it’s only 90 mins. If it seems to make sense to ya, read the book.

Note that you only need to read the first half of the book; the second half is nothing but recipes. If you’re really in to cooking, well then you’ll want to read the second half. I’m not so much in to cooking, so I skipped it.

I know so much more after reading the book. I feel like I know a big secret. Well, I guess that’s true. When I travel around and see what people are eating (and their sizes) I feel like I’m in on a really big secret. Actually, it kinda is a secret. Watch the video and read the book to see what I mean. I bet you’ll look at society differently.

This game looks awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6dKnv3WdU

And it comes out 2011-11-11!

After most updates, Ubuntu wants to restart/reboot my system.

In a word: No.

I’m not running a Microsoft product here. One thing I like about linux is that it can run virtually forever. I run my system for months, sometimes years, between reboots. Why? Simple: I have a lot of stuff open. It takes a long time to set all of it up and get it running. I’m not going to do that every other day or every week. Not even every month. If that means I only update once or twice a year, then so be it.