The Kindle Fire…

Last updated on 29 December 2024

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I promised a Kindle Fire post, so here it is.

If you’ve been absent from these posts for a little while, then about a week ago I bought a Kindle Fire. So I thought I’d just tell you a bit about it, as I was constantly looking up reviews and information on everything eBook when I was deciding which one to get. I don’t know a lot of the finer details, like how touch screens work or why the normal Kindle has an etch-o-sketch-like look to it, but I don’t worry about those things. Just as long as it works, I’m happy.

I spent ages trying to decided which one I wanted. The important thing is that I settled on this one. The lovely Kindle Fire. I just wanted to share some of the awesome things I’ve discovered it can do, and the awesome apps you can get for free. And, of course, the books.

 

Novels

As you will probably know already, even if you don’t have a Kindle or an eBook reader of some description, all the classics are in the public domain, so that means they are free. This is because their “intellectual property rights have expired, been forfeited or are inapplicable” (thanks Wikipedia). This is fantastic if you’re a lover of the classics; not so much if you’re not. Thankfully, I love me a bit of Jane Austin, Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

As well as the increasingly-ageing classics that I’m pretty sure even in hundreds of years will still be classics, there are many many other books that you can grab for free! I’m not talking about the old stuff like Shakespeare (although, yes you can), but new stuff. Sure I hadn’t heard of a lot of the authors before, but I have managed to find a good ‘pile’ of freebies that sound like my kind of thing. And I have only grazed the surface of free books I think.

I’ve also discovered that Amazon seems to do a lot of deals or sales, and some of the more recent books (ones that I remember from working at the book store over Christmas) are super duper cheap! I’ve only actually purchased 2 or 3 books but they have all been under £2. The first one that I actually bought was The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, by Jonasson Jonas. It was only .20p when I bought it! What!? What a deal! It’s one that I kept picking up and pondering whether I should buy at the book store, but I’m glad I didn’t now! So you can often find really great prices. I bought another book for only .77p too. Other books (novels) tend to range between .50p and about £9 from what I’ve seen so far.

Non-Fiction

You can also get other books, that aren’t novels. There are heaps of How To books that you can get (both free and …not free). For example, I grabbed a free book called Master Your DLSR Camera: A Better way to Learn Digital Photography. I haven’t had a thorough look through it yet, but it seems pretty okay from what I’ve seen. It’s got some great pictures in it, which are really clear and easily enlarged to get a better look. There’s a huge range of books like this one, and others, as well as gardening books, cook books, and pretty much all the other subjects you took at school.

The Newsstand

I haven’t bought anything off here before, or grabbed any freebies yet. But I’ve had a quick look. The Newsstand is where all the news and magazines are. Like the in ‘real world’, there are hundreds of options and hundreds of topics, so, also like in the ‘real world’ you have to know exactly what you’re after otherwise you have no idea where to start. Story.Of.My.Life. I think this is the reason I’ve just ignored this section, on the most part, though I’m sure that lots of people have lots of subscriptions to lots of magazines and the like. Good for them; they know how it all works.

Apps Apps Apps

One of the things that I knew that I wanted in a Kindle, was internet. I think that majority of them do actually have access to the internet in some form, but I wanted to actually be able to see what I was doing, and in colour. I love colour. The only other thing that I really wanted to be able to do (other than read…duh), was play Angry Birds. Yes, I’m one of those people. But come on! How great is Angry Birds!? As soon as my Kindle came in the post, the first thing I downloaded for free was Angry Birds. Sad, but true. I’ve never had a piece of technology that can have apps before, so this was super exciting. Angry Birds was number one, but then came all the others.

I have a feeling that the Facebook app and the Twitter app came already there and ready to go, but I did go nuts and get a heap more. The email was already there, you just link your addresses to it and it’s ready to go. GoodReads had an app, which is so super duper handy! And I didn’t realise before, but when you’re updating how far through a book you are, you can put in what the % is rather than what page you’re one. This is great, because Kindle books obviously have different page numbers, but it does show you on the book cover on the Kindle what percentage of the way through you are. You can then type that number into your book update on GoodReads, and Voila!

I also got the Pinterest app, and the IMDb app (have a feeling, actually, that that one was already there…), and the Weather Channel app. Other apps I’ve found for freeeeeee that are really handy is just a simple note pad (called InkPad NotePad), and also a to-do list check-off type app, which is actually a website, it turns out, called Astrid Tasks. It’s really great! You can add people to task lists if you’ve got a group project (I’m working on several at the moment) and they can add tasks to it from their Kindle/iPhone/iWhatever/computer too. It’s great! I recommend it!

Game wise, I got Angry Birds (for free. You can get several versions of AB for free too, like Seasons, Rio etc), and also this other one about the pigs from AB. It’s pretty cool actually. You have to build little carts for them to escape on. That’s a freebie too. I’ve also discovered the wonders of ‘4 Pics 1 Word’. That’s a freebie too, and there are several different ones that are similar. My little sister always wanted me to get the Fruit Ninja game – you like swipe your finger across the screen to slice all the fruit up – and it’s actually pretty awesome. Another free one. Other than those three, I don’t think I have any other games. You can, of course, jump on the internet and play games on that, but when you don’t have access to the internet, then that’s silly; you might as well have the apps. There are plenty of others, both free and you-have-to-pay-for-me games.

Settings and the Like

It’s really easy to find the settings and the volume and brightness etc. You just sort of click-and-drag, in computer mouse talk, the top bit of the screen and a little drop down bit comes out. It has the volume, brightness, WiFi, Settings, Sync buttons and a ‘More’ button which takes you to more settings. This drop down bit also shows you any notifications you might have. So if you’ve recently bought an app, it’ll show that, or if you have an email, or a Twitter notification. Things like that.

When it comes to reading a book, there are heaps of different settings you can have too. You can change the font, the paper colour (black on white, white on black, or a sepia setting. I like the sepia one the best because real books are never really white white, and it’s easier on the eyes). You can also change the size of the margins, and the size of the font. The biggest size is like a few words per page, so if you need it this big, might I suggest having a go at audio books?

General comments

Sometimes I’ve found that the paperback is cheaper than the Kindle edition of a book. This happened the other day actually. I’ve been reading Beautiful Creatures, borrowed from the library, but realised that it’s actually due back and I couldn’t renew it because there was a cue as long as the Severn River who wanted to read it too. I was only a few chapters in, so I kept it a day or too longer while I waited for the book I bought from Amazon to arrive in the post. I would have bought the Kindle edition, but was cheaper as a paperback, and I have free postage at the moment, thanks to Amazon Prime (something you get a free trial of automatically when you buy a Kindle). So if you’re thinking of getting a Kindle, but know that you will also be reading ‘proper’ books with actual paper made pages, then do check the prizes of the eBook and the paperback; you may find it’s cheaper to get a physical copy.

You can also store photos on your Kindle, and access videos and movies. The movies and video clips are really great quality, even on a little screen. I doubt the HD version is that much better. I don’t see the point of having photos on there though. That’s something I’ve found annoying: the lock screen has advertising on it, and you can’t change the background of it. I would want photos on my Kindle to change the background of the lock screen, but you can’t do it. You can upload photos to Facebook, but first you have to put them onto your Kindle, so if you have to do that, then you might as well uploaded straight to Facebook from your computer. Silly.

But I think that’s my only complaint so far! I’ve never been really keen on touch screens, but I think that’s just my preference for a cell phone. I wouldn’t cope. But for a Kindle it’s great. I mean, I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s fast and efficient and hasn’t broken or malfunctioned yet! I’ve probably jinxed it now…great.

You can easily hold it in one hand, which is great, and to turn the page you only have to tap the side of screen or you can swipe across. It does get finger prints all over it, but what do you expect? It’s a touch screen, your prints are gong to be on it. Just don’t commit a crime and leave it there…they will catch you.

You can store your apps and books on the Kindle, or in your Cloud (basically the fancy, fluffy name for cyber space I believe…), and it’s easy to delete things, but not so easy that you’re accidentally deleting everything every 2 seconds.

I have a case for it – one that I made. I made a heap of these for a church table top sale last year, and I also gave one away as a prize from my first give-away. I make Kindle cases and also cell phone/iPhone cases, and iPod cases. But I never had a Kindle to have a reason to my own case. But now I do! So this is the case I made for it:

If you have some sort of device that needs a cover, and you’d like one of these, do let me know! I’m thinking about starting up an Etsy shop, or just a page on the blog here with them on it. So if you’re interested, let me know! 🙂

I’ve finally decided on a name for him too. Yes, it’s a him. Why? Because I wanted it to start with a ‘K’ (for Kindle), but the guys’ names are better. So it’s a guy. This isn’t weird, okay? I name a lot of my things. My piano/keyboard is called Lawrence (from School of Rock: “Lawrence.Is.Good.At.Piaaaaaano”), my car was called Otto (the number plate began with OT), I have a road cone back home in NZ called Larry (I can’t remember why) and several other things. I’m confident that it’s not just me though. Anyway, his name is officially…drum roll please…

Kuzco! Kuzco the Kindle!

From The Emporer’s New Groove.

Do you have a Kindle Fire? Do you love it!?