Members nat whilk II Posted October 1, 2011 Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 I've still been in bookstores, but they've typically been independent bookstores, the sort where the browsing and so forth is half the experience, such that you can find stuff that you wouldn't ordinarily find on online stores. AFAIK all the cool independent bookstores in Austin are gone now, except for BookPeople, which I never seem to find to the time to visit. The used bookstores are gone also, except for Half-Price Books, which ain't what it used to be. I do still go there to check out the coffeetable books..photography, art, architecture, etc. If I won the lottery, after I tricked out the home studio and the CD collection, next up would be a few hundred more glorious, glossy, labor of love coffeetable books - In my youth I was a mighty hunter, spending all the spare time I could in the wilds of Austin independent bookstores, bagging prey with delight and glee. Now I just click this and that and open the front door to see what's been delivered on the porch. Oh, it's convenient, but with the passing of the cool bookstores, a certain magic has departed the world. nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 Places like Borders largely killed independent bookstores by moving into an area where the independent bookstores were and playing the same game that they played (book signings, readings, events, discussions). And either Borders or Barnes and Nobles, I forget which, actually bought their book distributor to further choke out competitors. And now, they are going out of business due to businesses like Amazon. And now, e-books are slowly gaining on paper books and magazines and so forth. ~~~ Okay. I remember that in this very forum, people kept lambasting the iPad before it was actually available, making fun of its name and saying how useless it would be, saying it was like a large iPhone only without a phone and so forth. I was actually one of the few that thought it seemed like a good idea. Why I didn't buy stock in Apple then, I'll never know. So now, most of this thread has been critical of the Kindle Fire. But what's good about it, price aside? It's hard to say, of course, because we haven't used it yet or heard from people who have used it. But so far, it seems like the browser would be fast even if there are security concerns such as the ones Lee mentioned. It probably will work quite well, particularly with Amazon-related items, but probably with other things as well. What else? We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted October 1, 2011 Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 They have some extended one on one demo videos over at Engadget that give a sense of the gui and the responsiveness of the device. http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fire-impressions/?ref=mostpopular I'm not negative on the device. It's just a little like walking by a shiny new store under construction. You look in the windows. You mark their progress. When they finally open you put your nose in the door and you realize that everything that they are selling you have bought before. This tablet is about consumption and it will do a really good job at that. I am just not ready to let it be the only tool for that task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted October 1, 2011 Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 Yeah, security issues aside, it looks like it will be cool for a certain market - namely people who aren't particularly tech savvy and want a low cost, portable device to read books, surf the web and such. Which is a lot of people. I will probably have to get one for work, and if I do I'll let you know my impressions. But I doubt I'll personally want to use it for myself that much, seeing as I have an iPad and that seems to be more full featured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 1, 2011 Members Share Posted October 1, 2011 First tear-down report is in. They estimate it costs just under $210 in materials and manufacturing costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Well I got that HP tablet last night. Seems to be a very powerful unit. After messing around with it for awhile It seems I may actually have to read the manual. Those who have I phones and all would take to it like nothing, but for me i been avoiding all that cloud computing stuff so I'm going to have to do some catching up. I couldnt even get the thing running till I reconfigured my wireless adaptor at home. My hopes were to use it for lyrics but the thought of having to email myself all the lyrics to get them on there isnt appealing. I could probibly access my main computer folders but I'll hold off on that. I thought it would have a regular USB port but it looks like the only connection is the power adaptor. It plugs into the power adaptor with a USB connector so it may connect directly to a computer as well. Like anything new, I'll take my own advice and read the manual. Then I'll explore aps I can download. Maybe by then I'll have a use for it. If not my wife will have it all to herself. She's the one who wanted it anyway. She just used me as an excuse to get the thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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