In fact, there's an even bigger emphasis on the theme this time around. The result is a tablet that's designed to get you to watch and read and buy more stuff from Amazon, just like the original Kindle Fire. And most importantly of all, content – apps, movies, music, and books – come from Amazon, not Google. There's no Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Maps, or Google Calendar and no way to download them. Microsoft's Bing is the default search engine. The Kindle Fire may be an Android tablet, but Amazon did its best to remove all traces of Google. So you could be waiting a long time to try some of the latest and greatest Android apps.Ĭlick here to see photos of the Kindle Fire HD > Amazon's Ecosystem There are also special Facebook and Skype apps developed specifically for the Kindle Fire.īut there's a downside to shutting out Google: Developers tend to submit their apps to the official Google Play Store first, only releasing Kindle Fire versions if they see some success. You'll be able to find all your favorites like Netflix, Twitter, Hulu Plus, and Angry Birds. Amazon has done a great job at beefing up its app selection over the last year, even without the help of Google's official Play Store. Amazon's Android Appstore doesn't offer alternative ones like Chrome, Firefox, or Dolphin.Īnd that brings us to apps. Even worse: Silk is your only browser option on the Kindle Fire HD. While that's true, scrolling around and zooming is extremely slow and jerky, making it nearly impossible to comfortably surf desktop web pages. Amazon boasts that Silk can load pages faster because it stores popular sites on the company's servers. At times, the lag would last up to a few seconds, making the overall experience insanely clunky and frustrating.Īnd the clunkiness gets worse with Silk, Amazon's mobile web browser for the Fire HD. Whenever I navigated to a different section, tried to launch an app, started a video where I left off, or basically did anything to move to a new screen, the system would choke for a beat. I like it.īut n ot everything in the new OS is smooth. It's a refreshing and intuitive take on tablet interfaces, and it looks really good. Tap the item, and you can pick up where you left off. Instead of rows of static app icons, you get a "carousel" view of the most recent content you've used, including apps, books, movies, and music. Again, the company used Google's Android as a foundation, but heavily modified the software to make it look almost nothing like the version you're probably used to. Click here to see photos of the Kindle Fire HD > Using ItĪmazon made a ton of changes to the Kindle Fire's operating system this year. It works well, letting you mirror the tablet's menus and video or audio content on your TV in a snap, but I wish Amazon included a way for you to beam content wirelessly to your TV like you can using the iPad and Apple's AirPlay. There's an HDMI port at the bottom of device so you can connect the Kindle Fire HD to your big screen if you buy a separate cable. Tablets aren't known for great sound quality, but the Kindle Fire HD's audio comes out loud and clear. (The operating system seems to choke a bit in places, but more on that later.) I was especially impressed by the stereo speakers, which are augmented with some special tech from Dolby. It often indicates a user profile.Īesthetics aside, the Kindle Fire has the muscle you'll need for gaming, browsing, and streaming video. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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