The rise of the tablets has gotten me interested but not to the point of technolust. The iPad is, well, made by Apple and, for me, is just a bigger iPod Touch. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is running Android, which is awesome, and is half the size of the chunky iPad, but there's just no spark. The HTC Flyer was a serious crush for a while, but with its price tag, nevermind, thank you.
What do I need a tablet for, anyway? I'd be able to do more with a netbook and it would cost me around the same amount of money or even less. I'm able to do my mobile computing with my smartphone as well. So, do I really need a tablet? It's just a waste of money!
When Amazon announced its new line of Kindles for 2011 and I instantly fell in love with the Kindle Fire. Why? It's a Kindle AND a tablet, that's why.
I've long considered if I wanted an e-book reader and I've always maintained that I prefer reading a physical book. It just feels different when you get to hold the actual book, flip its pages, and smell the paper. Also, I've tried reading e-books on my computer and it just gave me a headache. But it's been more than a year since I last read a real book. I blame the internet, being easily distracted, and my laziness. It's sad, really, because I used to read a lot. I love getting books as gifts. But I still have book gifts from my birthday a few years ago that I haven't even opened.
I've tried reading e-books on my smartphone and it wasn't bad. I can change the color settings and the brightness of the screen so I didn't get headaches. It was really nice, until I realized that it was eating up my phone's battery. So, I can't use my phone as an e-book reader for a long time, else I risk having a dead phone even before the day ends.
What makes the Kindle Fire even more attractive is that it's only priced at $199. That's around PhP 8,700, which is damn cheap for a tablet. And I only realized it now that my smartphone costs thrice the price of the Kindle Fire, what the hell?!
I almost pre-ordered myself a Kindle Fire last week. But I stopped and convinced myself that I'll just wait for hands-on reviews first before I continue going crazy over it.
I hope the reviews will be good.