If you want to read free ebooks, don’t buy the Kindle Fire. Amazon has locked down the Fire to make it hard to get any content to it, except by buying from Amazon. It is a huge step back in freedom from the Kindle 3.
Even Apple has not gone so far as Amazon in locking down their devices. You can easily download and read ebooks on Apple devices using only the standard apps.
You can get free ebooks to the Fire too, but the process is so cumbersome that it isn’t worth the trouble given the alternative of buying a Nexus 7, which doesn’t purposely interfere with free content.
The commercial ads are extremely rude. If you put the Fire on standby, it sometimes turns itself on again just to show you ads. It happened to me when I was in bed and wanted to go to sleep. I tried many times to turn it off, but it always turned itself back on and showed me one more ad. In my desperation I shut it down completely, but it rebooted and showed me another ad! To make it shut up I had to lay it face down on the floor with a newspaper on top, where it showed ads to the carpet for I know not how long. In the morning it was finally off, but I surely won’t use that device in bed any more.
- Don’t buy a Kindle Fire. Buy the very similar Google Nexus 7 instead, that costs the same and is not locked down.
- If you have already bought a Kindle Fire, return it, and then buy the Nexus 7 instead.
- If you cannot return your Kindle Fire, you can replace some of the functionality Amazon deliberately left out with this app.
This extremely brutal and to the point review is by the webmaster of Project Gutenberg.
I was warned by Kobo, Kindle Fire is inferior to equivalent Kobo device and about the intrusive adverts. Kobo also warned of the lock down, and said you were restricted on net access, for example youtube blocked.
Other reasons not to buy any Kindle:
- propriety format not an Open Source non-propriety format
- Kindle monitors what you are reading
- Amazon can at any time wipe all the books off your Kindle
- Amazon are tax dodgers
If you insist on e-books, use Calibre and ePub an Open Source non-propriety format. Better still, read real books.
Tags: Amazon, e-books, Kindle, Kindle Fire
Keithpp's Blog 
December 9, 2012 at 5:41 am |
If you were warned why did you buy it? I think every nearly every worthwhile review you can find on the net outlines all of these limitations but you still brought one? Its almost as if you like to complain pointlessly *looks at rest of blog* oh.
February 18, 2014 at 6:01 pm |
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment
is added I get three emails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks a lot!
February 18, 2014 at 6:47 pm |
Sorry, I have no idea.
March 16, 2014 at 9:21 pm |
For an e-reader, it would be hard to beat Kobo Touch.
For a tablet, Google Nexus 7.