It doesn’t change pages when the Kindle is not in use. When the Kindle goes idle, an ad pops up. That same ad stays there until you wake the Kindle up.
I think it rotates 4 ads at at time, then after a certain time period, it downloads new ads.
If you leave the wireless on all the time, it can drain the battery faster. If you are like me, and just turn it off except when you are actively downloading something, the battery lasts longer, but you do get an occasional prompt to turn on the wireless so the Kindle can download the latest screensavers.
I have heard the “special offers” (thats what they call the ads) can be great. Every once in a while, a $50 Amazon gift card for $25 shows up. Some people have “paid” for their Kindle this way.
I have a Kindle 3 that I love. I would think the non-touch screen one would annoy me, without any keyboard, you have to scroll through letters and I do use the keyboard for some games, searches,notes, etc… The most appealing to me is the Touch screen with ads, since it would have the touch keyboard. But I have only had my Kindle for a year (less actually) and don;t feel the need to change.
I am still very happy with my Kindle 3 also. The new Touch does look really cool though, and did you see the lighted cover for it? I don’t like to use leather, but that cover looks nice, much nicer than the lighted cover for the K3, and with better colors too. If I didn’t already have a Kindle, I’d definitely want a Touch, but since I do, the difference isn’t enough to replace it.
I would never consider getting the new non-touch screen Kindle. For $20 more you get twice the battery life, twice the memory, touch screen, and audio. And that “X-ray” thing, which might be handy.
Yeah, even the Fire isn’t going to be an iPad killer. Personally, I’d hold out for that, though if you are good with a black and white screen and just want it for reading e-books then it’s hard to beat the Kindle (though I got my wife a Nook…hacked it of course, and it’s fairly handy though a bit pricey).
I so want a Kindle Fire. I’ve wanted an iPad for quite a while now but not nearly enough for me to actually buy one. But with the $200 dollar pricetag it’s definitely looking good for Christmas.
I’m getting one for my youngest son for x-mas this year. But…it’s not an iPad. The Android OS is pretty cool, but if you want something that is fast playing movies, videos, games and such, this won’t be it. Like I said, I got my wife a Nook a few months ago. Hacked it, of course. And it’s pretty cool. But it’s noticeably slower and less capable than the iPad for everything, including just reading a book. If thTs ok for you than you definitely should go for it…for the price it looks to be even better than the Nook, which IMHO was the best value for the money before the Fire (assuming you hacked it :D). Amazon’s app store should be really great as well…second only to Apple’s.
I don’t think that just because your Nook isn’t fast doesn’t mean the Fire won’t be. As someone with 3-5 Android devices lying around her desk at any given time, I can tell you, all Android devices are not equal. Hardware/Android Version/Memory mean a lot.
Oh, I’m well aware that not all Android devices are the same. I don’t have one, but we support several different types of Android phones. And I’m sure that the Fire will be better optimized. But that only goes so far, and the hardware specs I’ve seen for the Fire aren’t all that much better than those of the Nook. No way will it be up to the same level as an iPad or iPad 2. But…for that price I’d certainly put up with a bit of slowness, if I didn’t already have an iPad2. In fact, as I said, I’m getting a Fire for my son for x-mas, and as with my wife’s Nook, part of it is so I can play with it.
As far as browser speed, It could be the fastest thing on the market if Amazon is to be believed. The whole Silk thing could be huge, if it truly does what they say it will.
I’ve got one on order. We’ll see if the hype is true.
The touch kindle weighs 25% more, is 17% thicker, and is larger in the other two dimensions while having the same size screen. And it doesn’t exist for another two months.
I’m pretty sure the jump from storing 1400 books to 3000 makes no difference to me. I’m never going to need nearly that many on the device at a time. The battery issue is real, but I think weight is more important. In practical terms, it means a recharge every 2-3 books instead of every 4-5. I can live with that.
I’m sure you weight those factors differently, but I saw the choice and thought “why would I pay extra for a bunch of crap I don’t care about that just make it heavier?”
The hardware specs are actually comparable to an iPad 2 and much better than an iPad: a dual core processor and 512MB of RAM. We will have to wait to see how good the actual performance is but everything I have seen and read so far indicates it’s very smooth, especially the Silk browser which may well be the fastest on a mobile device.
