Kindle Fire

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Ken Anderson, Oct 1, 2015.

  1. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I can see both sides of the technology versus interpersonal communications conversation. I do think we've gotten a bit away from the level, type and quality of interpersonal communication we have had in the past, although in some cases, there is such a thing as too much togetherness, and it's good to have separate interests/pursuits. It's rare to have both halves of a couple with exactly the same interests, and trying to force your other half to enjoy what you enjoy obviously isn't good, since it creates conflict.

    I think it's amusing that they're both sitting there on the bench side by side reading, as long as they have their together time and communicate at other times. I tend to like a lot of interaction with the person I'm with, and have done the sitting across the room texting one another type of thing. What bothers me is when people are out to eat, and one sits there on the cell phone carrying on lengthy conversations with others. I find that to be extremely rude, especially when I can tell their dinner/lunch partner or family feels neglected. I had a fiance who would do that, and he didn't understand why I objected. He traveled alone a lot for work, and had gotten into that habit, but I found it unacceptable. @Corie Henson and her husband also both work full time, versus @Yvonne Smith and @Bobby Cole having more time to spend together, which may also make a difference.

    I still don't have a Kindle or other dedicated reader, but would still like to do so. With my recent medical issues and resultant bills, that purchase got pushed back into the future. Although $35 or $50 may sound inexpensive to some, it's out of reach for me, especially right now. My tablet is constantly low on resources, and gets worse every time I download a book, so when I do finally get a Kindle or other reader, I'll probably remove the Kindle app and all of the books from my tablet, to free up those resources, so I can use that more for social media, email and related tasks.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I store most of my books in the cloud, @Diane Lane , so the only ones I actually have taking up space on either the iPad or the Kindle are the ones I am reading at that time. I also keep at least one book on the iPhone so that when I am having to wait somewhere, then I can use the phone to read.
    Since I use the iPad for everything that I do online, except for just sitting and reading, and I enjoy the ipad so much better than the Kindle, I don't do anything on my Kindle Fire except to read books, even though it has he capability to do a lot more.
    And I don't read in bed anymore, although I used to do that a lot in earlier years, now I prefer to relax in my comfortable recliner and read.
    Because the iPad has the keyboard case, and it is a lot larger than the Kindle, the Kindle is much easier for me to hold when i just want to sit and read.
    I remember when all we had was the desktop computer, and I hated trying to sit there and read anything, or even to watch a movie on Netflix; now all of that is SO simple with the iPad.
     
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  3. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Ah, here's the post I was talking about. For some reason, I'd neglected to like and respond to it. Perhaps I was in a rush when I first saw it. @Yvonne Smith, when you go to read a book you have stored in the cloud, does it show as available in your library? If it's just as easy for me to access them from the cloud, I might delete some of the ones I've got stored on the tablet, as long as I can re-download them and store them on the cloud, instead. I looked to see if there was a way to transfer them to the cloud from either the tablet or just from my Amazon account, but that didn't seem to be an option.
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    When you open your Kindle app, if you hold your finger on the title of the book, it should open a little choice box. If the book is in the cloud storage, then one of the choices will be "download". If the book is already downloaded to the device, then the option will be "remove from device".
    This is how it looks on my Kindle app on the iPad; so I am assuming that your Kindle app on your tablet should be similar, if not identical.
    At the bottom of the app, it says cloud and device, so you can see what books are stored in the cloud, and which are on the device. On my Kindle Fire, it has this choice right at the top of the page.
    Either way, it should also show up on your tablet somewhere. You can move books back and forth between the cloud and the device just by holding your finger on the book you want to move.
    To delete it altogether, I think you have to go to your amazon account and the "manage my Kindle" section to completely delete something.
     
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  5. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Thanks, I guess I've never seen the cloud listed as an option because I didn't have anything stored there. I uploaded something to it earlier, so I'll check when I get back to it, to see if cloud is available as an option. I'd removed items from the tablet, but they seem to still be on the Kindle account at Amazon, so I think you're correct about having to go there to remove them permanently. Hopefully this will help me with my tablet issue, which will really make my life a lot easier, since I use that for marketing, and have been having issues with it for a long time.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    You know, @Diane Lane , for $10-$20 , you can get a refurbished Kindle Fire on ebay, and use that for reading with exclusively.
    It is well worth doing this !
    That will totally free up your tablet for whatevr else you need it for, and all of the books will be on the Kindle.
    Every month, Kindle First will offer a selection of new books to read.
    They are only $1.99, and if you have Amazon Prime, then they are free. You can look through the selection and choose which book you want to read. You only get one book that way, but every month is a new selection for you to choose from.
    Plus, if you use apps, the Kindle store gives away a free app every day. Most are gaming apps; but not all of them are that. I think that you might have to have Prime for this benefit; but I am not sure about that. Since I only use my kindle for reading, I never even look to see what apps are on there for free every day.
    Also, if you have Prime, then you can check out books each month with the Kindle Lending Library. Only some books (prime books) are offered with the lending library, but you can read some very expensive books for free this way.
    Think about it !
     
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  7. K E Gordon

    K E Gordon Veteran Member
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    I really like my Kindle Fire alot. However, I have now noticed that I am running out of storage space. I either have to delete some things, or buy an SD card. I think I will delete some items I don;t care about. Also, one of the books, I downloaded came with narration, and I was trying to turn it off and ended up with voice directions on the kindle...and a tutorial. That was annoying. It took awhile to get it off, and I still have the narration! OH well I will figure it out..although I may have to resort to contacting Amazon.
     
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  8. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I haven't found any Kindle Fires for that price. I've also looked at the other Kindles, and the decent ones are also out of my price range. Eventually I'll get one, but when you're on a tight budget, an extra $10, $20, $30 or more isn't always available. I think I'm going to remove some of the books for now, in the hope that doing so will create a little buffer, so I'll have enough resources for the other tasks I need to accomplish with the tablet. Eventually, I'd love to have a dedicated reader, but for now I'll make do with what I have. The recent medical adventures have wiped me out even more so than usual, but I'll keep my eyes out for deals.

    @K E Gordon Which version do you have? Do you only use it for book storage? I definitely don't want to struggle to buy one, only to find that I'm having the same storage issue on that as my tablet. I do have an SD card in my tablet, but for some reason, it won't give me the option to store pictures on the card, just apps.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Amazon has brand new Kindle Fires on sale for $49 right now, @Diane Lane . If you have any Amazon gift cards to use, that would make it even cheaper.
    I just looked on ebay again, and looked at completed listings for refurbished Kindle Fires, and there are definitely some being sold for the $20+ range. Of course, some of them go for a lot more, so you do have to watch, and bid on the cheaper ones until you get one that sells for that amount.
    I thinnk that I read that a Kindle Fire can hold 3,000 books; so it is not likely that you would run out of space very easily of all you are doing is using it for reading books, even if you stored them all on the Kindle.
    I think that once you start using the cloud storage for mot of your books, that will help a lot, just by doing that one thing, and your tablet should then have more room for other things you need room for.
    image.png
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The Amazon Fire has gone on sale for $39.99 - down from $49.99.
     
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  11. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I ended up buying a used Kindle Touch. I'm very happy with it. The Fires and others (except the version 3) were out of my price range. I've had it for about a month now maybe, and use it pretty much on a daily basis. I chose the touch over the version 3 because I was used to a touch screen, and I thought the buttons on the bottom of the front would annoy me. I'm sure i'd have hit them frequently, disrupting my reading. Eventually I'll update the case I'm using on it, or possibly the actual reader, to a backlit one, but for now, this will suffice.
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I like the Silk web browser that comes with the Kindle Fire. It's very smooth and doesn't take up much of the screen.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    In case anyone's interested, Kindles are on sale right now. The lower end one, usually $49.99, are $39.99, and others are at reduced prices too. I think I'm going to get an HD8, which are usually $89.99, since they are on sale for $69.99 right now.
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I love my Kindle Fire 8. I don't do it much, but it's large enough that I could watch a movie on it if I were sick in bed or something, and the sound quality is good. The stand that I have for it is far more practical than the one that Amazon sells so if I am using a Kindle book as research, it works well alongside my computer. It holds a charge far longer than my smaller Kindle Fire. It's also large enough that I don't mind getting online with it, although I far prefer a real computer for that.

    I don't use it for everything, though. Since the first Kindle 8 that I got broke the first time it fell from the bed, the case that I have for it is heavy-duty, which makes the Kindle a little heavy for me to use in bed, so I usually use my smaller Fire for that. But if I need to have a Kindle book open at my desk, the Fire 8 is perfect, and it's very good for reading while in a restaurant, etc.

    I just rescued one of the old Kindles, the kind that came with a keyboard that wasn't virtual, and with actual buttons to press in order to turn pages. My wife was selling hers at a yard sale so I absconded with it. She lost the cable for it, and it's different than the ones used for the newer Kindles, so I ordered one. Those Kindles aren't backlit, so they are easier to read. I had sat on my Kindle of that version, and had forgotten that Michelle had one too.
     
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  15. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Amazon has the Kindles on sale again, and I just noticed a new thing when I was looking at the Amazon webpage for them. Amazon now offers payments for Kindles, no credit check, no interest, just make 5 monthly payments of $8 for the Kindle 7, or of $12 for the Kindle Fire 8.
    The smaller ones are $39, and the larger ones are $59 this time, and come in all of the colors, red, blue, yellow, or black.
    They do automatic payments just like they do for the Prime monthly fee.
    These new Kindles also have Alexa, so you can ask about weather, news, etc, just like you do with Siri on the iPad.
     
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