A Rambling Blog Post…
Here’s a rambling blog post, with no set agenda on my mind our outlined before I start banging away on the keyboard…
New Fire Tablet Announced
With what seems to be an annual occurrence, Amazon has announced a new Fire HD 8 Tablet for $79.99 and a new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition for $129.99. The Kids Edition is priced higher because it comes with a very sturdy case to protect it from drops and, with 32GB of memory, the Kids Edition is double the memory for the base unit; you can double the memory of the “regular” Fire HD 8 Tablet for an additional $30.
For the first time, I won’t be ordering one of the new model tablets – this one, or even if they come out with a new HD 10 (the main tablet I use when using a tablet). Why? Mine, as well as the prior year model’s I haven’t given away to a charity, still work just fine. I do consider myself a gadget guy and have rushed out to get the latest and greatest to check them out to see what they can do, but the last two upgrades in the larger tablets, to me, haven’t been worth the money spent to upgrade. If your tablet is working fine, I would recommend you keep on using it until it breaks.
Kindle eReaders
The announcement of a new Fire Tablet did not have a simultaneous announcement of a new Kindle e-Reader. There have been a few tweaks to existing models over the past few years, and the last major “new” Kindle I can recall was the introduction of the Kindle Oasis a couple of years ago. If a new or tweaked model is announced this year I won’t be buying one of those, either. The ones I have still work just fine and should last me for several more years.
For reading books, I still use a Kindle vs. a Fire tablet mainly because of battery life: the tablets drain the battery pretty fast for me, and I don’t want to have to stop what I’m reading just to charge the thing back up. I use the tablet to check my personal email when on the road or during my lunch break at work, and I do play the random games at night just to unwind before I start reading.
What Kindle do I use to read? I’ve been using the Kindle Oasis quite a bit because it has a slightly larger screen, but the main reason is because it has a higher capacity battery and 3G connectivity vs. just a WiFi connection. I travel quite a bit for both work and play, and sitting for a while either in a hotel or plane I want to not have to worry about finding an outlet or connection.
I’ve also been reading a lot with my old Kindle DX – that was the one Amazon used to make that has a “ginormous” screen. I’ve been out to a local lake a lot this summer, and for some reason have been pulling that one out to read while outside. It has been having battery issues and not holding a charge longer than two days, so I recently replaced the battery and it is acting like new again.
Yes, you can replace the batteries on your Kindles and Fire tablets! It’s also a lot cheaper than buying a new device and going through the time-consuming process of transferring your old device’s contents to a new device. Amazon used to have a lot of third-party sellers selling replacement batteries on their site but these have for the most part disappeared. I got mine from www.newpower99.com; I have no affiliation with them, but I will tell you in addition to a replacement battery the kit came with the tools to do the job plus a very informative video hosted on YouTube that walked through the process. With shipping, it was $35: considering the Kindle DX cost $499 back in the day and still does a great job, that seemed like a good deal to me.
Anyway, back to Kindle e-Readers…..while I use the Oasis a lot, I recognize at $279.99 for the basic model that is very expensive. I’m asked all of the time by friends, family, and people here on fkbt.com what Kindle e-Reader I would recommend to purchase. To me, the best price and value for your money is the Kindle Paperwhite. At $119.99 for the base model, you get a backlight display and a reader with fonts that are very crisp plus the battery lasts a long time. The covers available to the Paperwhite are also a lot more sturdy and protective than the ones available for the Oasis. While that’s my opinion, take it for what it’s worth as your experience may differ!
That’s about all I had for today. If you’ve read this far, thanks! If you have a friend who likes to read a lot, have you told them about this site? Just tell them to go to www.fkbt.com and check it out, and be sure to sign up for the daily digest email of the free and discounted Kindle book offers (for free, of course)!
Have a great weekend-
Michael
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