Kindle Fire 7" Tablet Now Shipping $199 - New Kindles From $79 - Reviews are out

[quote name='Birbo']Tried to pre-order the Touch version without the ads at Best Buy (RZ Points!) but the only Touch option was the $99 version. Is the non-ad version exclusive to Amazon only?[/QUOTE]

I honestly don't see what people have against the ad version. The ads are completely, 100% unobtrusive AND they actually provide some decent offers from time to time.

Plus, let's assume you do get tired of seeing those unobtrusive offers. Amazon provides an option to remove them for a one-time fee of $30. So my question is why would anyone pay $139 for the non-ad version when they could buy the $99 version and get the ads removed for $30?

edit: The remove ads option is currently available for the newest release Kindle, but since the touch isn't out yet it isn't confirmed whether such an option will be in that model too. I imagine it will be, but it probably will be $39 to remove it, the same cost difference between the two models.
 
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The ads are like magazine ads. They are static. When the Kindle is asleep you get a full screen, but static, ad (well, it changes to a different ad after a while, but there is no motion - it's just a picture). When you're using it you get a small banner ad only in your library, not while reading. It's not too bad. Still, it is a tad annoying. I guess if I had it to do over again, I might have paid the extra $30. I might change my mind if and when I ever get one of these good offers people talk about. :) So far it's all pretty worthless.

EDIT: Oh! I didn't know you could remove the ads for a fee. Where is that option? I didn't see it, but then I wasn't really expecting it to be there, so didn't look for it.
 
Paying $30 just to not get the ads seems pretty dumb imo. They're not at all annoying. You only see them on the menu and when it's in sleep mode... and yeah the ads have basically sucked since Ive gotten it but I still paid $30 less up front and there was a $5 off $10 order coupon code. Another deal was $2 in MP3 credit and another I remember was $1 for a kindle mystery novel. So not completely useless but pretty close to it.

And damn that Glyde offer was a good price.
 
I'm curious how the Lenovo Ideapad a1 will perform. I had though it was also at the $199 pricepoint, but looks to be at $229. too bad it's not honeycomb, but it probably will not be as locked down as the Fire
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']Just a heads-ups up, Glyde has the newest Kindle for $55 shipped. If the coupon code SURVEY2011 still works that knocks another $5 off:

http://glyde.com/stores/glyde#!display_as=2&vert=tablets&page=0[/QUOTE]

I wound up buying a Kindle 3 3G with Special Offers from Glyde. ANybody know if its safe to use, in terms of attaching it to my Amazon account. Should I create a new Amazon account for my Kindle so it doesnt have credti card info and I can just add Kindle Gift cards instead? Total price was $34.91 shipped and it was rated as "Excellent", lets see if it comes trhough. Any words of caution as I have never had an ereader. ALready eyed my library for rentable copies of some books I want to re-read.
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']Yeah, it'll still have free 3G but only for Amazon's bookstore and Wikipedia, that's it.[/QUOTE]

Does the Kindle 3 3G have this. I thought you could still use the web browser for stuff outside of amazon and wikipedia.

Any good games that anyone would recommend for this?
 
[quote name='romodome']Does the Kindle 3 3G have this. I thought you could still use the web browser for stuff outside of amazon and wikipedia.

Any good games that anyone would recommend for this?[/QUOTE]

The Kindle 3 is not limited in 3G as to what it can access, only the touch.
 
[quote name='romodome']I wound up buying a Kindle 3 3G with Special Offers from Glyde. ANybody know if its safe to use, in terms of attaching it to my Amazon account. Should I create a new Amazon account for my Kindle so it doesnt have credti card info and I can just add Kindle Gift cards instead? Total price was $34.91 shipped and it was rated as "Excellent", lets see if it comes trhough. Any words of caution as I have never had an ereader. ALready eyed my library for rentable copies of some books I want to re-read.[/QUOTE]

It should be fine to use your regular Amazon account. That's what I do to make it easier to buy books on my PC from my main account and have them sent to the device. I'm not sure if the Kindle itself stores cc info, I think once you login to "register" the device your connected to your account automatically and can just "1-click" to purchase books.

Creating another account just for Kindle wouldn't hurt either if your concerned.

I also bought a Kindle 3 for $34 recently from glyde and it's already on its way to me. I'm not sure if it's the same model you got though as I think mine will just be WiFi, no 3G. They've had some crazy deals on kindles recently. They had a 1st gen model for $17 shipped the other day but it sold out fairly quickly.
 
My sister-in-law was asking about Kindles because her daughter wants one, and I was worried about the 1-click buying. Seems like that could really go haywire (the daughter is 9). So I guess she could make a separate amazon account without a credit card. Or does the Kindle require an account with a CC? I guess I should check that.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']My sister-in-law was asking about Kindles because her daughter wants one, and I was worried about the 1-click buying. Seems like that could really go haywire (the daughter is 9). So I guess she could make a separate amazon account without a credit card. Or does the Kindle require an account with a CC? I guess I should check that.[/QUOTE]

There's a few discussions about that on Amazon. The consensus seems to be to set up a separate account and have it funded by gift cards:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx1EFDHLOGNAKX3

One person said that they were able to get Amazon to refund them for boooks purchased by their kids and the book was simply removed from their library.
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']It should be fine to use your regular Amazon account. That's what I do to make it easier to buy books on my PC from my main account and have them sent to the device. I'm not sure if the Kindle itself stores cc info, I think once you login to "register" the device your connected to your account automatically and can just "1-click" to purchase books.

Creating another account just for Kindle wouldn't hurt either if your concerned.

I also bought a Kindle 3 for $34 recently from glyde and it's already on its way to me. I'm not sure if it's the same model you got though as I think mine will just be WiFi, no 3G. They've had some crazy deals on kindles recently. They had a 1st gen model for $17 shipped the other day but it sold out fairly quickly.[/QUOTE]

I cant beleive the low prices that Glyde has for electronics. The desciption on my purchase shows Wi-fi, Att Network so I assumed that its the 3G and Just to test out the system, I acted like I wanted to sell a Kindle and to see if it seperated the different version of Kindles and it does, reg. wi-fi, reg. 3g/wi fi and both with Special offers. T he funny part is that it suggests that you sell the 3g w/ special offers at about $20.00. Tried Ipod Touch, and it suggested I sell my excellent 16gb for $35.00. I think when people dont really know the value of the item they are selling they sell at thsoe suggested values, which is when we swoop in. Same thing for movies, I bought the Star Wars Original Trilogy on bluray for $14.99 and when I went to see t he suggested sale price, it was around $11.00. Bad for uneducated sellers, great for buyers.
 
Question for Kindle owners. Is the Amazon store on the Kindle the same checkout process as the regular Amazon store? I just want to be sure I can pay for items through Kindle cards and my Credit Card if I don't have enough to pay for a book via Kindle Cards. I will probably just use Amazon.com on my PC but, it's nice to know what the device is like before I get it so I can preload my account with a Kindle card.
 
I just bought a book on-Kindle yesterday. It uses one click. I didn't have any credit, so it just charged my credit card. I presume it would use credit first, though. I don't think there's any reason to believe it wouldn't.
 
so if you buy Prime thats $79/yr which i think is $20 less that a year membership of netflix---still not a bad deal and you know Prime will be optimized for FIRE---also anyone know if STARZ content is/will be on PRIME? If so that will be a major selling point for some when Netflix loses their content soon
 
Went to Best Buy today and they had a $79 Kindle on display, played with it for a little, and I'm really tempted to buy one now. lol. Only thing holding me back is no sd card slot, no speaker. I'm still thinking of just buying one to read, then buying a touch once thats released also. Is that a good idea?
 
[quote name='strife01104']so if you buy Prime thats $79/yr which i think is $20 less that a year membership of netflix---still not a bad deal and you know Prime will be optimized for FIRE---also anyone know if STARZ content is/will be on PRIME? If so that will be a major selling point for some when Netflix loses their content soon[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately no Amazon Prime streaming on my Xbox, so it's pretty worthless to me. That's the main box we stream on. I did just pay for Prime, though, but for the shipping. And I'll hold out hope that the Xbox might get support of the streaming soon-ish.
 
[quote name='bigant262']Went to Best Buy today and they had a $79 Kindle on display, played with it for a little, and I'm really tempted to buy one now. lol. Only thing holding me back is no sd card slot, no speaker. I'm still thinking of just buying one to read, then buying a touch once thats released also. Is that a good idea?[/QUOTE]

I guess you could sell the $79 one later and recoup some of the cost. I was considering that, but I'm very happy with my $79 no-touch Kindle and have pretty much scrapped that plan. The $79 one is also lighter, which is a plus in my book. Also, I think having buttons for page turning is better. On the touch I believe you have to reach across to the other side to switch a page back. That's going to be a pain. I thought that was a problem on their iphone app, but then I learned that you could do a little swipe to change forward/back and that resolves that completely... but I'm pretty sure the type of touch tech on the Kindle Touch doesn't support that kind of thing. I believe it's purely detection of taps. Don't quote me on that though - maybe it does and I just haven't seen that.
 
[quote name='bigant262']Went to Best Buy today and they had a $79 Kindle on display, played with it for a little, and I'm really tempted to buy one now. lol. Only thing holding me back is no sd card slot, no speaker. I'm still thinking of just buying one to read, then buying a touch once thats released also. Is that a good idea?[/QUOTE]

I'd wait for the touch model personally, it's only $20 more. It seems really tedious to type on the new Kindle model using only the direction pad and I don't like the lack of speakers/headphone jack, I'd even consider the Kindle 3 aka "Keyboard" over the newest Kindle.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']I guess you could sell the $79 one later and recoup some of the cost. I was considering that, but I'm very happy with my $79 no-touch Kindle and have pretty much scrapped that plan. The $79 one is also lighter, which is a plus in my book. Also, I think having buttons for page turning is better. On the touch I believe you have to reach across to the other side to switch a page back. That's going to be a pain. I thought that was a problem on their iphone app, but then I learned that you could do a little swipe to change forward/back and that resolves that completely... but I'm pretty sure the type of touch tech on the Kindle Touch doesn't support that kind of thing. I believe it's purely detection of taps. Don't quote me on that though - maybe it does and I just haven't seen that.[/QUOTE]

Does it use Amazon cloud? Say if I have a document in my Amazon cloud, would I be able to view it?
 
I hope you can download news to the fire without having to subscribe to newspapers. I usually read news usinng my kindle 3 when I'm in the subway. But I use caliber to upload the news so I won't have to subscribe. I hoope you can do that with the fire, since you there's no signal underground (obviously)
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Unfortunately no Amazon Prime streaming on my Xbox, so it's pretty worthless to me. That's the main box we stream on. I did just pay for Prime, though, but for the shipping. And I'll hold out hope that the Xbox might get support of the streaming soon-ish.[/QUOTE]

I hear ya.

I have the free Amazon Student account with Prime and they are offering me a year of Prime with the streaming for only $39.99

It would be a dream come true if Xbox would support it. I'll just buy a streaming device along with the Prime account.
 
[quote name='giantqtipz']I hope you can download news to the fire without having to subscribe to newspapers. I usually read news usinng my kindle 3 when I'm in the subway. But I use caliber to upload the news so I won't have to subscribe. I hoope you can do that with the fire, since you there's no signal underground (obviously)[/QUOTE]

I am getting my Kindle 3 today with 3g today, how do you get the news, just go to news websites or google searches. I dont even have a smart phone, let alone a tablet, so this will be new to me. I am stuck in 2003.
 
[quote name='romodome']I am getting my Kindle 3 today with 3g today, how do you get the news, just go to news websites or google searches. I dont even have a smart phone, let alone a tablet, so this will be new to me. I am stuck in 2003.[/QUOTE]

He was talking about using Calibre, which is a great e-book management software. From the program he downloads news from various websites and converts them into a format the Kindle can read:

Check it out here: http://calibre-ebook.com/
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']I'd wait for the touch model personally, it's only $20 more. It seems really tedious to type on the new Kindle model using only the direction pad and I don't like the lack of speakers/headphone jack, I'd even consider the Kindle 3 aka "Keyboard" over the newest Kindle.[/QUOTE]

the kindle 3 is much easier to hold while reading in bed. the new design just doesn't offer room for a good grip. I sold my kindle 3 to get the $79 one and kind of regret it. I hold the new one sometimes with my fingers on the screen. I've had the touch preordered but I think I'm going to cancel it.
 
Already ordered one. great price
happy.gif
 
Oooh its in my quickpick for $189.05. First time, I haven't got any deal on tablet from amazon's goldbox, except those accessories. $189 shipped is helluva deal!
 
gah i'm tempted to get the kindle fire and signing up for sprint 4g mifi so I can use it on public transit. anyone have experience with sprint mifi?
 
[quote name='Dogmeat26']gah i'm tempted to get the kindle fire and signing up for sprint 4g mifi so I can use it on public transit. anyone have experience with sprint mifi?[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind Sprint plans to switch from wimax to LTE by 2013. They're only going to support current 4g data (wimax) through 2012. So you'd still get a year out of it, but after that it'd be worthless for 4g.
 
[quote name='Dogmeat26']gah i'm tempted to get the kindle fire and signing up for sprint 4g mifi so I can use it on public transit. anyone have experience with sprint mifi?[/QUOTE]

Get an Android smartphone, root it, then you get free hotspot.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Unfortunately no Amazon Prime streaming on my Xbox, so it's pretty worthless to me. That's the main box we stream on. I did just pay for Prime, though, but for the shipping. And I'll hold out hope that the Xbox might get support of the streaming soon-ish.[/QUOTE]

Check out PlayOn streaming software. I've found you need a solid connection (hardwire preferably), but it will stream Amazon through the 360 (among lots of other web content like hulu)

EDIT:
While this works for Amazon VOD, I'm not sure if it works for instant streaming.
 
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[quote name='kevlar51']Keep in mind Sprint plans to switch from wimax to LTE by 2013. They're only going to support current 4g data (wimax) through 2012. So you'd still get a year out of it, but after that it'd be worthless for 4g.[/QUOTE]

oh wow thanks for the info. Guess that option is out for me. I'd get android phone to root but still on contract oh well.
 
I'm happy with my kindle with ad's. Coupons save me even more money. Got a coupon for $5 off a $15 or more purchase on amazon and a coupon for $10 off select dvds which i might get for gifts.

Ad's as others have said are just the screen saver while the device is not use. While actually using the device you cannot see any ad's.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']I'm happy with my kindle with ad's. Coupons save me even more money. Got a coupon for $5 off a $15 or more purchase on amazon and a coupon for $10 off select dvds which i might get for gifts.

Ad's as others have said are just the screen saver while the device is not use. While actually using the device you cannot see any ad's.[/QUOTE]
So do coupons for Amazon appear ever so often? I mean if Amazon wants to give me free coupons for stuff then I am all for it :D. I am actually kinda glad I got the kindle with special offers because hey it's a screensaver :lol:

Come to think of it I think I still have that 50% off prime deal so if Amazon could get a PS3 app for instant streaming I will just cancel netflix and go there.
 
Oh my godddddd I really want this tablet. It'll be my first tablet ever, but I like it because its so portable and can be held in one hand.

I should keep in mind to stay awaay from the seats nearest to the doors in the subway. Heard stories of bitches snatching ipads right before the door closes.
 
[quote name='Dogmeat26']gah i'm tempted to get the kindle fire and signing up for sprint 4g mifi so I can use it on public transit. anyone have experience with sprint mifi?[/QUOTE]

I pay the $30 a month for the 4G WiFi hotspot. I think it works quite well with my iPad. I can stream Netflix on it easily. Not HD quality, but very servicable. I looked into rooting the phone, but there were too many warnings for me to be comfortable doing it.
 
i want to get one for just reading so i think the black n white one is fine for me. can anyone that owns one tell me more about it and if its any good. or if should i get the barnes n noble nook instead?

my choices are nook or kindle, i was able to play around with the nook at the B&N store but not sure if its going to give me the most bang for the buck. however i did like it but since there is no where to sample a kindle at i really can't compare them. so if anyone has has or had both let me know. Or why you think one if better then the other and thanks ahead of time :D
 
[quote name='giantqtipz']Oh my godddddd I really want this tablet. It'll be my first tablet ever, but I like it because its so portable and can be held in one hand.

I should keep in mind to stay awaay from the seats nearest to the doors in the subway. Heard stories of bitches snatching ipads right before the door closes.[/QUOTE]

good ol NY MTA?
 
[quote name='cRodz']good ol NY MTA?[/QUOTE]


I ride the subway to and from work everyday and its amazing how many people keep their iphones, androids, ipods and even ipads right in the open for anyone to snatch. Totally oblivious to their surroundings... or they just don't care. Until it gets snatched anyways. The window seat should be safe though. lol
 
[quote name='UnknownGamer']i want to get one for just reading so i think the black n white one is fine for me. can anyone that owns one tell me more about it and if its any good. or if should i get the barnes n noble nook instead?

my choices are nook or kindle, i was able to play around with the nook at the B&N store but not sure if its going to give me the most bang for the buck. however i did like it but since there is no where to sample a kindle at i really can't compare them. so if anyone has has or had both let me know. Or why you think one if better then the other and thanks ahead of time :D[/QUOTE]

Well, you pretty much nail it in your post. You can take the nook into a bn store and get special deals. I have the new touch and find myself reading more than ever. I even switched over from kindle bc amazon kept deleting the books I purchased. Haven't had that problem w nook.
 
they have kindles on display for "sampling" at officemax.

[quote name='UnknownGamer']i want to get one for just reading so i think the black n white one is fine for me. can anyone that owns one tell me more about it and if its any good. or if should i get the barnes n noble nook instead?

my choices are nook or kindle, i was able to play around with the nook at the B&N store but not sure if its going to give me the most bang for the buck. however i did like it but since there is no where to sample a kindle at i really can't compare them. so if anyone has has or had both let me know. Or why you think one if better then the other and thanks ahead of time :D[/QUOTE]
 
I think someone mentioned that they have Kindles on display at Best Buy too. I also think I saw some at Target, but that could have just been the Sony reader (maybe both)
 
I was all over the Kindle Fire until I read Amazon supposedly will announce a 9.7 or 10" Kindle early next year. And I prefer the ads because they have some nice deals like the $25% off select Apple laptops they were running this year. :)
 
[quote name='UnknownGamer']i want to get one for just reading so i think the black n white one is fine for me. can anyone that owns one tell me more about it and if its any good. or if should i get the barnes n noble nook instead?

my choices are nook or kindle, i was able to play around with the nook at the B&N store but not sure if its going to give me the most bang for the buck. however i did like it but since there is no where to sample a kindle at i really can't compare them. so if anyone has has or had both let me know. Or why you think one if better then the other and thanks ahead of time :D[/QUOTE]

For this poster and others, Best Buy has all the new Kindle models besides the Fire and the 3 Nook models for you to try out in store and compare. I stumbled across this a week ago while looking at tablets.

I was thinking about a Fire but waiting to see what Toshiba's new 7" inch prices in at as well as if we are getting Samsung's 7.7" tablet in the US.
 
[quote name='UnknownGamer']i want to get one for just reading so i think the black n white one is fine for me. can anyone that owns one tell me more about it and if its any good. or if should i get the barnes n noble nook instead?

my choices are nook or kindle, i was able to play around with the nook at the B&N store but not sure if its going to give me the most bang for the buck. however i did like it but since there is no where to sample a kindle at i really can't compare them. so if anyone has has or had both let me know. Or why you think one if better then the other and thanks ahead of time :D[/QUOTE]

Another choice would be the Sony reader they also have the e-ink screen. I was looking at the Kindle since I can't use my current e-reader outside or in the car when it's sunny, but didn't like the requirement to have the kindle linked to an account with a credit/debit card. After some research I went with the Sony Pocket reader, it uses the same screen as the kindle but without the wifi/ads/account requirement. I found a 5" model at Fry's for $79 too. I love the screen on it.
 
[quote name='Rodster']I was all over the Kindle Fire until I read Amazon supposedly will announce a 9.7 or 10" Kindle early next year. And I prefer the ads because they have some nice deals like the $25% off select Apple laptops they were running this year. :)[/QUOTE]

So far the ads on my new Kindle have been garbage. They aren't too bothersome since they are static ads, so it's not a big deal, but I think if I had it to do over again I'd have paid the extra bucks to get one without ads. I think somebody said there was an option somewhere to pay to remove the ads? I looked for that last night but couldn't find it. Anyone know where this is, or is it not really there?

But I love the Kindle itself. So glad I bought it. Anyone who gets a Kindle should add this site to their bookmarks: http://ireaderreview.com/

Lots of free a cheap book deals posted there.

Lastly, if you just want a Kindle for reading (as I did) you *definitely* want an e-ink Kindle, not the Fire. e-ink is awesome for reading. There's no comparison.

EDIT: Ok, silly me. After posting, I used google and found this info: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/remove-kindle-ads/34594/

So, yes, you can remove the ads post-purchase, at least if you have a new Kindle and not the Kindle 3. You do that from the website and it costs $30. I'm considering it....
 
Wow, I just got my Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard) in the mail and I love it. I bought it from Glyde for $34 and it looks as good as new. It's amazingly small/thin, especially compared to the Kindle 2 which I just had. I know the newest one is even smaller, but really I don't think I'd want it smaller than this. The screen looks great too, better than the K2 for sure.

Now I do have some complaints. I' wish the 5 direction navigation controller was bigger, my hands are huge and I don't feel comfortable using it yet. Also I'd prefer if it was a joystick nub like the previous models. It just makes it easier to navigate down pages rather than continuously clicking. The next/previous page buttons on the edge are also a bit too small for my taste but I should adjust to that just fine. Lastly I would prefer to have the numeric keys as part of the actual keyboard rather than thru a menu, but that's not a big deal.

edit: one other complaint, I'd prefer if the back button wasn't write under the nav. pad. This related to my big hands again. While resting my fingers against the direction pad it seems like it'll be easy to accidentally rest my thumb down and press back. I'll have . I'd prefer if the menu button was on the edge with the next page buttons and the back button was above the nav pad. These are all things I'm sure I'll adapt too

I've been looking for the perfect reader for a while. I bought a nook from gylde which was good but a little sluggish so I sold it. Same with the Kindle 2. When this popped up for $34 shipped I couldn't pass it up and it looks like I have a keeper.
 
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