The 10 Biggest Surprises about Amazon’s New Kindles | Hacker News Reader

The 10 Biggest Surprises about Amazon’s New Kindles

beyond-black-friday.com

30 pointsditados33 comments

This article seems unnecessarily negative. The kindle is a book reader and a book reader only, and at that it works very very well.

Point by point:

> 1. There’s No 3G Web Browsing (except on Kindle Fire)+

It's a book reader.

> 2. Power Adapters Not Included

It comes with a usb cable. I think everyone can charge a usb device nowadays. If you can't, then the official power adaptor is ten bucks.

> 3. One Miserable Keyboard

It's a book reader.

Still, if you really want a keyboard, they sell that too.

> 4. Your Personal Documents are now Stored at Amazon.com

They always went through Amazon's servers anyway. You can delete them.

> 5. Amazon Prime not Included

Why would this be included?

Totally agree and most of these are not surprises as they were discussed in the presentation about the Kindle.

I think the lack of power adapter is a good thing since it uses the same micro-usb that has been standardised for phones so I already own a power adapter. In fact I could even do without another usb cable.

Also the Kindle Fire being sold at a loss is only based on analyst estimates and last time I checked about this it was only a $10 difference. So doesn't seem to take into account any discounts Amazon could negotiate with suppliers for large volumes.

Edit: Just to reinforce my previous comment I just found an EETimes article reporting that Amazon could be making $50 profit for the BoM on each Kindle Fire. http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4228505/Kindle-Fire-...

I disagree. His 5 positive points sounded pretty gushing and made it obvious to me that he's definitely a fan.

The negative points may seem surprising at first glance, but I think all 5 points are informative.

> > 1. There’s No 3G Web Browsing (except on Kindle Fire)+

> It's a book reader.

Previous kindles included it, so even I expected it.

> > 2. Power Adapters Not Included

> It comes with a usb cable. I think everyone can charge a usb device nowadays. If you can't, then the official power adaptor is ten bucks.

Virtually every other piece of consumer electronics comes with a power adapter. This is surprising.

> > 3. One Miserable Keyboard

> It's a book reader. Still, if you really want a keyboard, they sell that too.

The point isn't that the keyboard is bad, the point is that the keyboard is excruciatingly bad.

> > 4. Your Personal Documents are now Stored at Amazon.com

> They always went through Amazon's servers anyway. You can delete them.

Still a good point to mention to NEW kindle buyers, though.

> > 5. Amazon Prime not Included

> Why would this be included?

Because most of the rumours before the announcement said that it would be.

> The point isn't that the keyboard is bad, the point is that the keyboard is excruciatingly bad.

You're talking about a device with a D-pad, and no touch screen. That's how keyboards work on such devices. It being bad isn't unexpected or noteworthy.

EDIT: got confused between "Kindle" and "Kindle Touch". To me it is obvious that "Kindle" has no touch screen and that keyboard input must be via the D-pad. Consequently I assumed the complaint re:keyboard not being touch would apply to a product that actually had a touchscreen.

In short: I agree with my parent comment. neither unexpected or noteworthy.

Only the more expensive models had 3G. I had thought that I would use the 3G service, but I think I used it once during the first week I bought it to try it out. It really is almost useless for an ebook reader unless you're stuck somewhere without wifi and want to buy a book. Those situations are pretty rare these days.

> > > 1. There’s No 3G Web Browsing (except on Kindle Fire)+

> > It's a book reader.

> Previous kindles included it, so even I expected it.

On this note, I believe the Kindle Fire is wifi only so I don't know why he even mentioned it.

I think there’s a communication misalignment going on. There are two questions:

1. What can we reasonably expect from this device, and; 2. What expectations are Amazon setting with their communication?

You seem to be speaking to the first point. Yes, it’s a book reader, so a keyboard is not essential. Yes, everyone has USB. You can even install USB power outlets in your home and office, so the actual adaptor is not essential. And so forth.

I think the author is speaking to the second point. If Amazon advertises it as a “Touch” device and it doesn’t behave anything like every other device advertised as a “touch” device, this is surprising.

If Amazon doesn’t ship a power adaptor like every other device, this is surprising. I personally won’t be up late worrying about it, but I’d probably be surprised if I bought a Kindle and discovered there was no adaptor included.

Then again, I have lots of adaptors around my home and office, and Amazon probably know that.

Not wrong, mind you. Sometimes a manufacturer breaks with the past: Macbook Airs cannot plays DVDs. I suggest thinking of the first five points as a critique of Amazon’s marketing, and the second five points as praise for the Kindle product.

> If Amazon advertises it as a “Touch” device and it doesn’t behave anything like every other device advertised as a “touch” device, this is surprising.

The "Kindle Touch" has a touch keyboard the "Kindle"(no touch) has the d-pad controlled keyboard. Nowhere have I seen the non-touch Kindle being advertised as a "touch" device. That being said I had the same confusion after readin the article (perhaps because I never expected someone to complain about a missing "touch" feature on a non-"touch" device.

So the point is roughly equivalent to being surprised that the iPod Classic does not have a touchscreen interface? Thanks for the clarification!

"Apple’s iPad only recently got its own version of Flash," This is news to me, did I miss an announcement somewhere? I thought the iPad was still as Flash-less as ever.

Yes the iPad is still without a flash viewer.

The recently released Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 will stream to iOS devices by delivering an HTML5 rendering from my understanding of their press release.

EDIT: Mea Culpa. The article was complaining that the "Kindle" (non-touch) didn't have a touchscreen and had the tedious d-pad interface instead. That revelation doesn't bother me at all (and hardly is a revelation.

Original post follows:

It is called the "Kindle Touch".

It is advertised thus: "now with multi-touch".

Their longer blurb says this: "Simple To Use Touchscreen Kindle Touch features an easy-to-use touch interface. Turn pages, search, shop books and take notes quickly and easily."

To learn now that the "touch" screen borders on being useless and that amazon has a very poor concept of "quick and easy" leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The $79 one isn't the Kindle Touch, it's just the Kindle.

The article was talking about the $79 Kindle not the Kindle Touch for the keyboard point. Not sure why they'd expect the non-touch kindle to have a touch keyboard..

The article says, "There’s No 3G Web Browsing (except on Kindle Fire)" - I was under the impression that the Kindle Fire didn't have 3G connectivity. Am I missing something?

That was my first thought.

Yeah, this article is pretty poorly researched. Considering how much press the Kindles got it's kind of inexcusable.

I bought the $79 model hoping that the %30 weight decrease (compared to 3rd gen Kindle) would make it easier to handle with one hand. This seems like an obvious use case to me that would make it more comfortable to say, read in bed or read with a cup of coffee. So I'm disappointed that the button placement still makes page turning a two-handed affair. The page turn buttons are so tiny that one handed reading requires an awkward position.

I'm pretty jealous of the new Nook, which looks easy to handle with one hand. Amazon does a lot of things really well, but they still seem to be figuring out hardware.

Wow, the lack of 3g support completely kills the interest in the device for me. I always assumed that it was unsustainable, but I at least expected a mention of the removal of the feature outside of a support forum.

Just so you read it right they say specifically - no 3G support for the standard Kindle Web Browser. I've had my kindle for a year now and have never used the (experimental) web browser.

I, on the other hand, use it some what regularly, which is why I am not happy about this change.

After thinking about this some more I think there is a massive communication failure here. Lots of unreasonable expectations and plenty of misinformation and not only in this article but by other poster (including myself). I'll try to clear things up:

1. "Kindle Touch" has a touch screen "Kindle" does not.

2. "Kindle Fire" never had 3G.

3. Newer Kindle 3Gs will not support free 3G web browsing (except for Wikipedia)

If Amazon is actually selling the Fire for a loss, how is that a "surprise"? Amazon isn't a hardware company. Its hardware is all about building a delivery infrastructure for its content sales: books, movies, TV, music, etc. (This is sort of like Apple in reverse; Apple uses content to sell hardware).

Obviously Amazon expects to monetize the heck out of each Kindle customer, over a lengthy user lifetime, on content sales to the Kindle. So building a Kindle userbase through cheap, subsidized Kindles is a no brainer.

The Fire isn't competing with the iPad; it's competing with Netflix. To that end, I am a bit surprised to see a Netflix app on the Fire. At the same time, Amazon probably realized that millions of Netflix customers would need the Netflix app in order to justify using the Fire as a media tablet. Once they've got the customers using Netflix on the Fire, they'll try to find a way to make their media downloads more attractive and less cumbersome than the Netflix app.

Having been long curious about the "free Kindle" prediction (we still haven't reached November '11 yet!), I smiled at this point:

"4. One Special Offer Can Pay for the Cost of a Kindle. Amazon knows customers don’t necessarily want ads on their Kindle but they’ve worked hard to line up some very attractive offers. '[S]pending $114 on the Kindle saved me 20 percent on buying a new Apple MacBook Air', reported one finance columnist, 'a savings of $200." He notes there’s been other discounts which exceed the original price of a Kindle with Special Offers, including a 20% discount on new LCD television screens.'"

Anyone got more info on that MBA discount? Might just have to get me a Kindle, being in the market for an Air...

I'm the happy owner of a Nook Color, and it comes with Flash in its web browser. Guess what, I'd rather do without it: it makes the very snappy browser crawls, and it's used almost only to display ads. OK, it can render low-res videos but that's about it. Hardly a selling point to me -- actually Apple was right on this, Flash is a pain for mobile browsing, the quicker it dies the better.

I'm surprised that the 'special offers' are so good. I had never considered buying the ad-supported version, but the offers referenced seem pretty good.

As an aside, the light-grey text on white background made that article very difficult to read.

I'm often envious of the Kindle Special Offers I see pop up on deal sites every so often... things like $20 Amazon gift card for $10 that I would definitely take advantage of.

A friend of mine has a Kindle w/Special Offers. He actually bought two, having lost one on an airplane. Apparently the special offers were good enough that he easily paid for both.

At this point, I'm wishing I could opt in my Kindle 3.

A sale doesn't save you money if you weren't planning on buying it in the first place.

This is true, but since Amazon sells a larger variety of products than any retail store in the world, you can easily buy from them things you already would have. I have a free Amazon Prime account and regularly get Amazon gift cards from reward programs and other things, so buy everything I can at Amazon, from toilet paper to cereal to tools...

I stopped reading at: There’s No 3G Web Browsing (except on Kindle Fire)

Kindle Fire doesn't even have 3G. They probably should've spent more time researching first.

Seriously! I kept reading, but when the first line gets it SO wrong (and then doesn't even mention the Fire in the text under that heading) you can be skeptical from then on.

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