Kindle versus Fire (nail polish too) article on janice142

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Date: 9 January 2015. Kindle versus Fire (nail polish too)

© janice142

As many may know from reading this website, I love my Kindle. It was a gift from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (not Voldemort) back in October 2013 and what a godsend. For years I had wanted an eReader but the cost seemed prohibitive. But then HWMNBN gave me the Kindle and love ensued. Still, a girl can have her head turned, and the color Kindle Fire's appeared...

Mine's the least expensive Kindle sold on Amazon and I love it. However there is one drawback. It does not have an internal light and therefore I have to use the LED by my bunk at night. Sometimes, especially when it's cold, I would much rather stay beneath the blankets and there my light will not work.

I love the light by my bunk. It is convenient and perfectly placed for reading at night.

Then, this past December I saw a special on Amazon for the Kindle Fire and it tempted me. I was happy to trial the Fire (7" screen) because Amazon allowed a three month testing period. If I was not satisfied, I could return the product for a full refund. I picked magenta (hey, I like pretty things) and it is beautiful.

Affiliate link: Kindle Fire 7" with 32GB of memory

Note the red dot of nail polish on the mini-USB. That denotes top so I can plug in without my glasses.

Buy red, white and silver nail polish.
Maybe green and black too. You never know...

In ship's stores, I would recommend a bottle of bright red nail polish. Ditto a bottle of white and/or silver polish. At some point you will find it useful. As you can see in the previous picture, I dotted my USB plug (both ends incidentally) and now it is easy to insert the proper way in any unit.

A friend used silver polish when he needed to make a mark on a flywheel to get an RPM reading from his digital Tachometer. It worked. Of course you could buy the fancy strips sold online, however we are on a budget. Discount nail polish retails for a dollar a bottle, and at thrift stores often can be found for less.

Silver is generally double the cost of normal nail polish colors. So sparkle and spend the $2. You will find a use for it, guaranteed.

The magenta (aka pink) exterior is bright and is easy to spot in my purse. The problem though is the doggone thing is heavy -- much heavier than my original Kindle reader.

There are some good things about the Kindle Fire 7" (latest generation) and they include:

The color on the screen is wonderful.

Pictures are crisp and don't wobble/no funky pixel block errors.

There is built in wifi and it's MUCH better than the one included in my older Kindle.

With the wifi I could download email.

The connection I was using was distant and I had no issues surfing, though it was slower than with the Verizon gizmo I pay for. See Bandwidth Blues (internet afloat) article for details.

Side Note: I'm not certain if I could attach the Verizon gizmo to the Kindle -- never tried it. Kindle does have a mini-USB port so it may be possible to surf with it. I am practical, and prefer using my Toshiba netbook.

The internal wifi allowed me to very easily shop on Amazon. I liked the connection better as far as looking at follow up books in series and such.

The connection allowed me to download apps so I could visit Pinterest, BuzzFeed and more.

Because it (the Kindle Fire) is an android-type gizmo, folks familiar with smart phones will probably get a lot more from the goodies included in the unit. I m simple, and not too interested in learning new techniques. Plus, well, I understand my computer and like it.

This unit is heavier than my original Kindle, and the weight for reading in my bunk was more than I liked. My wrists are not the strongest. Holding this KindleFire7 quickly became painful. And when I fall asleep the doggone thing clunks hard enough to wake me.

Swiping the screen to turn a page requires two hands.

Recharging from the mini-USB plug is simple. What bit me was that I have a couple of 12-volt plugs for charging from my batteries. If I used one, it was a lower powered and battery power in the Kindle would steadily decrease. I had to utilize the higher output plug.

I realize I am being picky, but this is truth:
I want my life simple and the tools used need to be intuitive, easy and work!

The same loss of power occurred when I plugged the Kindle Fire into my computer. It would not recharge while I was reading. The original Kindle (plain, bottom of the line version) does recharge fully while in use from my computer or any of the USB charging outlets aboard Seaweed.

Another issue is the size of the unit. It is much thicker than my original.

The weight is substantially higher and for me, even though I enjoy Lost Bubble along with reading books on it -- this Kindle Fire 7" version is simply not worth the $150. I am sending the pink one back.

Now if you're an app fan I can see liking it. Were the Fire7 one-third the price I would keep it. Still, I have a Kindle to read lots of old books for free. A lot of the classics can be found for free, both on Amazon [that is an affiliate link] and on Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg offers books in lots of formats and I check it regularly for new goodies.

The original Kindle is small, light weight and just right for me. I wish I had not waited and am blessed, truly blessed to have lots of wonderful books at my fingertips. When you shop for yours, I would consider weight a big issue. If you are more into connectivity, the new generation Fire's are impressive. In some ways I wish I could afford to keep mine. Maybe someday...

Update: 15 January 2015. My Kindle has developed a fatal hardware error. What that means is that the screen only displays the top half. I can no longer read on it and of course the holiday sales are over. For the next week and a half I will use the Fire but it will be returned. As above, the fancy Fire is too heavy so it is going back to Amazon.

I am glad to have it for the Fire hort term and will of course be looking for another small, lightweight Kindle (on sale) to replace my original. After all, in the words of many much smarter than I:

Never Pay Retail.

Do you own an eReader, and if so which one?
And, does yours come with you always or is it strictly for use at home?

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