Debugging Kindle Fire Hype

With all the buzz about the Kindle Fire yesterday, I almost got caught up into pre-ordering the little beastie because deep down I really do want a gadget that I can work and play with. When I looked at the tablet market before, I was dismayed in that while many wants would be fulfilled by almost any candidate, some of my major needs aren't. 

In the context of the Kindle Fire, it has the USB connection and it's running Android. On the page on Amazon.com it says I can read documents. That's awesome, but just about as awesome as any other tablet that does... the same thing. As an old school geek, the concept of the browser (Amazon Silk) using the cloud for shared processing is sexy.

When it comes down to brass tacks, though, I would demand a lot more of such a tablet. I would want to try out the interface to see how well I could edit and write documents; I type messages longer than 140 characters and would want an interface that could handle it. A lesson learned came from the Asus eeePC I had (and recently gave to a niece who is continuing college, allegedly). No matter what I did, and with the small hands that might have allowed me to be a surgeon, using the keyboards on those things to write anything was a masochistic act unless one plugged in a real keyboard. I'm not falling for that again.

Android and a keyboard is hit and miss., thus the Kindle Fire with a keyboard is hit and miss. If they'd fix that, I'd get one of the roll up keyboards and be happy - but I don't know which keyboard won't do something wonky when I'm using it. The last thing I need are apps opening when I'm in the middle of typing something up, and apparently that happens with some keyboards.

The trouble with Amazon.com products is that you can't tell until either you get them or you see one and play with it. Thus, while all the hype and buzz surrounds it.... I can't shell out even $199 until I know that I'm getting something that works for me. This is where brick and mortar helps. If I could walk into a BestBuy, Staples or even a Walmart and fiddle with the thing, I'd have a better idea - but even then, they probably wouldn't want me plugging keyboards into the USB interface to take it for a test drive.

We're not all consumers. Some of us create. I want a tablet that will enable me to create, and as promising as the Kindle Fire seems to be - until I know I won't be wasting money on it, I'll stick with the Kindle DX, laptop and desktop combination that does work for me.