I bought my first one in December of 2009. It was a Trying-to-Cheer-Myself-Up Christmas Present (since Divorce II: The Big One, 'Lizabeth had just happened and I was seriously unhappy). It was pricey . . . and it took me a long time to decide to take the plunge . . . but when it arrived, I was happy. So many FREE books available, for one thing. And even more exciting, on the Menu page there was a section entitled EXPERIMENTAL, and when you clicked on that, you could actually GO ONLINE! Holy Shit! I remember how delighted I was when I discovered that I could send emails from my Kindle. It took forfuckingever since you had that full keyboard in little button format, but that was a small price to pay, indeed. This was some 21st Century Shit, man!
That Kindle was my favorite thing that I had ever bought. And it served me quite well for a couple of years. For that matter, it still serves me well, as I still have it and it still functions perfectly.
But then this Kindle Fire thing came along. And it had a color screen. And you could easily go online with it . . . and there were speakers, so you could listen to music . . . and the screen was bigger. But the straw that filled the camel's stomach was that it was actually cheaper than my Kindle. $60 cheaper. Holy Shit!! So once again I gave myself a Christmas Present.
And that Kindle Fire became my Favorite Thing I'd Ever Bought, and it served me well for two and a half years. (And continues to serve me etc.) And I ordered one to give to my sister for a Christmas Present, and I ordered another one for my then girlfriend to give to her mother, and I was happy to spread The Word.
But then I saw a Kindle Fire HD with an 8.9" display, and (sharp intake of breath) it had a camera. Oh, man. I won't Ted that. And . . . it was $10 cheaper than my first Kindle Fire. So I got it. And--you guessed it--it became my Favorite Thing That I'd Ever Bought. It was almost perfect.
Except . . . the keyboard was just a little bit too small to type on with ease. And the camera, which was back facing, was a little awkward to use. You had to kind of twist it around to take a picture of what you were looking at . . . or shoot over your shoulder. Which wasn't a BIG deal, but when I saw that there was a bigger (10.1"--thus a bigger keyboard) Kindle Fire HD which had two cameras, one front facing and one rear facing . . . well, I have to admit that I wanted it. But it was too expensive. $229.99. (Which is pretty ironic, in that it was actually $30 cheaper than that first Kindle, but you know how it is; times change, and so do we.) So I didn't go for it.
Meanwhile, though, my daughter was absconding with my Kindle Fire HD 8.9" on a regular basis. I tried to get her to use the previous Kindle instead, but her daddy didn't raise no fool, and she would have none of that. So I went back to the 7" myself whenever she was around. Cause I love her and stuff. But I kept thinking about that 10.1"er. Mmmmm. That's a whole lotta love.
And then . . . Buddha send Second Me-Lick-Coo. Amazon offered a ¡¡¡LIGHTNING DEAL!!! on said 10.1"er, and dropped $60 off of the price . . . making it . . . CHEAPER THAN THE 8.9" one! So I got it. And it became My Favorite Thing That I Have Ever Bought, and my heart was full, and I knew that I would never want for anything more. And I gave my beloved Fire Hd 8.9" to Jacqueline.
1 Ordered on December 12, 2009
Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
$259.00
2 Ordered on October 20, 2011
Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi
$199.00
3 Ordered on February 15, 2014
Kindle Fire HD 8.9", Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 16 GB - Includes Special Offers
$189.00
4 Ordered on November 30, 2015
Fire HD 10, 10.1" HD Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black
$183.88
Man, I loved that new Kindle. And just like other things that I've loved . . . tragedy struck it. Kindle HD 10.1 took a tumble from about four feet up . . . edge on . . . onto ceramic tile. My heart leaped down. I picked it up and
And the middle of the screen area was kind of washed out looking, too, with striations of color which made it very difficult to see anything clearly.
But it still worked, so I soldiered on.
Then one morning I woke up early (4:00 am-ish) and saw that I had a Facebook Message from my #1son, so I messaged him back. Except I didn't. I hit the CALL button on Messenger without knowing it . . . because the button was in The Invisible Zone. And I hung up when I heard his phone ringing, and fortunately I didn't wake him up, but it was A Sign, for sure. And there was some other stuff of like ilk. But mostly it was just irritating. I was constantly turning the thing. And when I read a book on it, I'd have to move a page and hold it in the center of the screen manually, otherwise the edge would go into the interference zone and I wouldn't be able to read the whole line.
It was a drag, but I hung in there until I saw that there was a new Kindle Fire HD . . . an 8" one, which I didn't like, since that would represent my first "not as good as the previous Kindle" purchase . . . or at least not Bigger than the previous purchase . . . but the price was very much to my liking: an unbelievable $69.99. I sniffed at it for quite some time before I finally decided to give it a try. I mean . . . how good could it be at that price? On the other hand, $70 wasn't a whole lot of a gamble, was it? So I finally did the deed:
Ordered on April 7, 2017
Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8" HD Display, 16 GB, Black - with Special Offers
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
$69.99
When it arrived, I carefully took it out of the box and had a look at it. Hmmm. Felt kind of cheap. Fuck. I immediately started envisioning trying to get on the internet and having it lock up, having to constantly restart and / or reboot it, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Then I took a breath and hooked it up with my internet password and went to see what it could do.
And?
Oh my. It was so fast. And the picture was so sharp. Kind of impressive, actually. And I'm still testing it out, but so far it is looking Pretty Damned Good. Maybe even Very Pretty Damned Good.
I don't think this thing is going to stay at this price for long, though, so Act Now if you want to get in on the ground floor.
More News As It Happens.
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