Kindle Fire HD Review

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't be online for a week, but I really wanted to tell y'all about this before it all slipped my mind.

So yesterday, I got a brand new Kindle Fire HD for free from the bank as a promotion thing. Super freaking excited! I've had it for 24 hours now and I wanted to do a little review of it.

3 STARS

I'll start by saying I'm not sure I would have bought this myself. I was pretty satisfied with my regular Fire and from the research I did I found that the only real difference between the two was the High Definition screen and the Dolby sound system. I figured I didn't really need that. But I was totally happy to get this one for free. ;)

I'm going to break this review down into the features I like and dislike. First what I liked:

• The volume control buttons. I like that these buttons are on the outside of the device and you can adjust the volume without turning on the screen. I didn't like the three to four step process of adjusting the sound with the original Fire.
• The High Def screen. While I don't need such a fancy screen, it is nice. The picture is sharp and clear.
• The sound system. Again, not a need, but definitely better than the original.
• The calendar. I never understood why the original never had one built in. My boring cell phone had more basic features than my fancy tablet. So I'm glad this came with a nice calendar already put in.
• Skype. The HD has a camera and is made for video calling on Skype. I use Skype a lot so this is nice.

There are only a few things I don't like, but they are pretty important to me and what made this loose a couple stars.

• Ads. If you want to pay just $199 for the HD you'll have to put up with something I think is kind of stupid. Screen savers that are also ads. So when you turn on the device the image that pops up is an ad for Discover Card or AT&T or any other "offer" Amazon has going. If you don't want to deal with that, it'll cost you an extra $15. Now, since I got my HD for free, I didn't know this and it took me some research to figure out why I was getting these stupid ads. So my "free" device has now cost me $15. Still a great deal, but also still annoying.
• Ads Part 2. On the HD's home page you have the Carousel that shows all the recent content you've looked at, and under each icon is this "Customers Also Bought" thing that shows similar content. For example, under my Sudoku game icon it shows me Bejeweled 2, Scrabble, and Tetris. I don't really care what other people bought. Yes, I can see how this can be useful. Like if you finish reading a book and want to read more like it, that information is right there on your homepage. But to me, it just screams "More ADS! More MONEY!" And there is no way to get rid of this "feature".
• Favorites. The original Fire had a favorite thing as well and I love that. The HD's is pretty much the same except it won't save the order I put the icons. I move them into the order I want them and then go do something else and when I come back to my favorites page the icons are all random again. This is only a little annoying, but it just seems like something really basic they could have work.

So there you have it. Hope this helps you as Christmas shopping is underway. My basic recommendation is if you want the Fire HD, spend the extra $15 to avoid the ads.

Books I Couldn't Finish

So I've had two books recently that I just couldn't finish and it makes me sad. I'm not sure if I should really review them or not. One of them I think I'll pick back up here soon, but the other I just don't care about.

The one I'm having a really hard time with Stephen King's The Gunslinger. (And today's his birthday and everything, sorry Mr. King) I'm not really a fan of King, mostly because I don't read horror, but I know he's an amazing writer. In fact, my first book about writing was On Writing and I've read it many times. I respect him as a writer, but this book is just not for me.

I feel no connection to the gunslinger and I just find my self caring less and less about his story and whether or not he'll get to the "Man in black". Everything just feels real distant to me in this story and I don't like that. It's like I can't get a clear vision of the story, everything is fuzzy around the edges. So even though I'm 87% (according to my Kindle) of the way through the story I have no desire to finish it. It was a struggle just to get this far.

So I'm not sure if I should really rate/review it. If I did, I'd give it maybe 3 stars for it being okay but not my cup of tea, kind of like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. If you're already a fan of King then I'm sure you'll like this, but I was less than impressed.

Quickie Reviews!

Have I mentioned that I have a big list of books I've been wanting to review? Well, in light of that I'm doing a quickie edition where I review two books in one post because they don't deserve a post by them selves.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  3 Stars

(Taken from Amazon)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.

By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans.

Emigrées to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in. 

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.


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This book was recommended to me by my sister. She's a science fiction fan while I'm more fantasy so we've been suggesting books for each other to read.


I gave this book three stars because it just wasn't my cup of tea. All the technical stuff was really good, but I was bored reading it. I didn't connect with Rick at all and the world in general kind of lost me. I guess I was looking for a lot more action but it just didn't come. So while it is a good book, it's just not my kind of thing.


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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  0 Stars

(Taken from Amazon)

The New York Times Best Seller now with 30% more zombies!
 
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded version of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. This deluxe heirloom edition includes a new preface by coauthor Seth Grahame-Smith, thirteen oil painting illustrations by Roberto Parada, and a fascinating afterword by Dr. Allen Grove of Alfred University. Best of all, this limited special edition features an incredible 30 percent more zombies—via even more all-new scenes of carnage, corpse slaying, and cannibalism. Complete with a satin ribbon marker and a leatherette binding designed to endure for generations, this hardcover volume honors a masterpiece of classic zombie literature. 

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This book was terrible on every level it is possible to be terrible. I didn't even finish reading it. I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen and P&P is my favorite of her work. Of course, I thought I knew what I was getting into when I bought this book. I expected it to be funny and quirky and I was just curious to see what the author did with the idea.

I could write a college essay on what makes this book so awful, but I'll spare you that. I'll just say that I kind of wish I had bought a "real" copy of this (instead of on my Kindle) just so that I could have burnt it.

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And there you have it! I'll wait until next week for my next review. It'll be two books again, but they're part of a series and go hand in hand.  Happy Wednesday Readers!