Release date for the Kindle Fire

carlowplayer

Is the Kindle fire becoming availible soon here in ireland/europe if so when?
And if it isnt whats the next best e reader to buy

Tom Dunne

carlowplayer wrote: »

Is the Kindle fire becoming availible soon here in ireland/europe if so when?

I haven't seen any talk of a release date, probably due to content restrictions.

carlowplayer wrote: »

And if it isnt whats the next best e reader to buy

Define best.

vibe666

carlowplayer wrote: »

Is the Kindle fire becoming availible soon here in ireland/europe if so when?
And if it isnt whats the next best e reader to buy

the kindle fire isn't an ereader it's a tablet, they are two very different things.

if you are waiting to buy a fire to read books on you will be very disappointed and possibly need glasses before very long to correct your damaged vision. :pac:

BUT, if you want a cheaper, smaller alternative to an ipad then you will be very happy.

rumours were saying that they'd be out here before the end of january, but it's the 3rd feb now and still no sign, i guess not.

best guess would be before the end of Q1, but who can say for sure.

personally, i couldn't wait, so i got one in the US on the launch day there and had it shipped over using viaddress, but that's not without it's own issues as you may get caught by customs for the import duty and you will have to mess around with it a bit to get apps onto it as the android market needs to be hacked onto it and you can't buy anything on the amazon store (not even free stuff) without a US based credit card on your account.

overall though for the money it's a great little tablet and seems to be doing very well for itself both as the official amazon tablet and as a great little device for hacking around with and the custom firmware scene is very lively.

carlowplayer

thanks for clarifying a few things not much of a techie.I was wondering does it utilise a normal usb key to transfer files(pictures,music books i may download if i were to leave it behind at home) from a laptop to itself and back and forth.what apps are there.All I really want is something to read books(particualy free books whose copyright has expired)and wifi access and pdf files u have for college notes.would i be able to find these features in any ereader.my elder brother whose a techie really wants me to get a fire but im

vibe666

you can transfer books and files over USB or get them off amazon and it will sync them automatically.

until it's released here you won't be able to put apps on it without messing around with it by installing specific drivers and connecting the USB and then sending specific commands to it via the command line, so if that sounds like gobbledygook to you, i'd wait for it to be released here rather than getting it from the US, at which point everything should work as normal (pretty much the same as an android or iphone, browsing for apps and downloading them directly from the amazon market to the device).

if you DO just want an ereader then go for the regular kindle or kindle keyboard (or wait for the kindle touch which will most likely be out at the same time as the kindle fire is here).

uvox

No news on EU release date lately. Create a Google Alert for it and get it right to your inbox.

I have a Fire and I love it. I also have a US address and credit card, I should add, so content is not an issue for me.

In terms of eReader capability, and other UX, Jakob Nielsen was critical of it:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/kindle-fire-usability.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/kindle-fire-critics.html

However, I don't read magazines on it, just books and I liked the form factor for that, plus colour.