Reilly O’Neill, Reporter
@RONeillCourant
With the rise of Apple products being featured in just about everything, and IPhones being popped out quicker than microwave pizzas, companies like Android are rushing to catch up. It is a storm of tech madness, and Amazon is taking a shot at joining the family of smart tablets.
Oh, the Kindle Fire HD; the only thing I wanted for Christmas…in 2011. Powered by the Android operating system, you can currently purchase one for as little as $50. And let me tell you, it’s about as useful as the price belies. While the television commercials do a swell job of convincing people to buy them because of Amazon Prime, they do little to advertise the actual features.
The Pro:
I’ll start with the pros. Or rather, the only pro. The Amazon Kindle Fire is an excellent e-reader. It has plenty of good books in it’s wide library, and enough settings so that you can read books at any time of the day, and in sepia, black text, or white text. Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing it’s good for.
The Con(s):
Originally, I had purchased the Kindle to use for school. I wanted to be able to use it practically as well as for fun. However, after I purchased it I realized it had very few useful apps. You see, while it runs off of the Android operating system, it uses the Amazon Appstore, so while apps may be available for Android you cannot purchase them on the Kindle.
Aside from useless apps, the battery and Wi-Fi are sketchy. According to multiple reviews, the longevity is almost non-existent. And let me tell you, that is correct. My Kindle lasted about a year before malfunctioning. It started with the speakers and headphone jack not responding. Then it moved on to restarting randomly, and finally would just crash.
When contacting customer service about my problems, I was transferred to about 5 different people. The final person I spoke to (after an hour) told me that they were unable to either replace the battery or fix it. The best they could offer was a 10% discount on a new one.
Conclusion:
Now, after having my Kindle Fire for 4 years I have just given up and gotten a laptop. I occasionally use my Kindle to read or if my laptop is dead. At this point, it is really only good for a backup.
