This week, Amazon began pushing a software update to the Fire. The stated purpose of version 6.2.1 is to fix issues with the carousel, adjust the typing sensitivity, and to make the scrolling more fluid. These changes addressed complaints that had been around since the Fire's release. Yes, with the update you can now delete unwanted items from the carousel, which is fabulous. Yes, scrolling, typing, and stopping the carousel at the correct point have been improved. All good.
But, slightly buried in the update was something that surprised me as soon as I saw it. New to the Settings menu, under Device, it shows a more detailed breakdown of your storage space. Before, it would tell you that you had a certain amount of your full storage left without giving a breakdown of usage. You could glance and it and say, "Ok, I have 3 Gig of my 8 Gig of storage used.". NOW, though, the storage space has been divided into Application storage, and "Internal Storage" (for items like Books, Magazine, & Music). And Applications have been given only a little over 1 Gig of storage space. This meant that, in the one month period that I have had my Kindle Fire, I had already used up about 3/4 of my alloted Application storage space!
This is crushing to me. I like apps. A lot. I go into the App Store everyday, look at the FAOTD, and browse to see what's new. I knew when I bought the device that it had "only" about 8 Gig of space. (It's less than 8, of course, due to the OS software needs of the Fire, for instance.) I have an old 8 Gig iPhone 3G, and while it's been acceptable in terms of storage, I have vowed that I will get the larger 16 Gig iPhone when I upgrade. After using my iPhone for just under 2 years, I have about 2.5 Gig of apps stored on my phone. I do prune some apps off the phone occasionally, but I use a lot of the apps that are on there consistently & don't particularly want to delete more. The vast majority of storage on my iPhone is being used by apps and music. But when I compared the storage space of the Fire to my iPhone, I didn't expect the 8 Gig limit to be as big of a problem on the K-Fire because I knew I wouldn't be using it for music & podcast storage; for me, that's better suited to the smaller iPhone.
And this new storage development leads me to a question: wasn't the big selling point of the Fire supposed to be cloud storage? I knew that I didn't have to worry so much about the limited storage on the device because I could stream songs from the cloud, keep books I wasn't currently reading in storage on the cloud, and stream videos I've bought from Amazon from the Net, too. So, in my case, all I needed the majority of my storage space for was...apps. Yes, apps I don't use could be deleted from my Fire and re-installed later. But, as I mentioned when talking about my iPhone, apps are a big draw to me. And the new software update shows they are giving me a heck of a lot more room for videos & music than they are apps. Since, as I said, music and videos (which can take up a good portion of storage) can be used directly from the cloud and apps cannot, why does it make sense to devote more space on the device to those items that can be streamed? Perhaps a better question would be, why break down the storage into file type at all? Let THE USER decide how much they want to use for movies, pictures, music, and apps!
So, now my Fire is giving me less storage for my apps than my 3G iPhone, an outdated device from several years ago. How is this progress? I haven't really been able to think of a compelling reason why Amazon would need to divide their storage like this. In fact, when the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet was first announced, it touted 16 Gigs of on-board storage, plus it had an SD slot for more storage. Then the news hit that B & N had partitioned the device's storage space so that only 1 Gig was available for the user's non B & N purchases, and Fire users thought this gave them the edge. With this (new?) app partition on the Fire, anyone who was trying to use that particular argument against the Nook has had the playing field leveled., that's for sure
Well, one of my traits is adaptability. I can work around this new, annoying limit if need be. Just today, I got a warning message on the Fire that I was getting close to my storage limit and I needed to delete some apps. I've taken some off, and once Christmas is over, I can even free up some more room by putting A Charlie Brown Christmas back into storage. Still...I hope that, just like Amazon listened to the numerous complaints about the scrolling problems and the carousel, they'll get an earful about this new storage limit. If not, I suppose Amazon will need to adapt, too, because by necessity I'll be spending less money in their App Store. (shrug)
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
My 5 favorite Fire games right now (and you can get 'em for your iPhone, too)
One thing I think it's important to note: check the ratings on any app that looks interesting. You should especially be looking for reviewers who specifically mention the K-Fire. Often if there's a bug or problem others have had with an app, it'll get mentioned in the review section. If a game is free, it might not be a problem to download a dud. But if you're paying for an app & giving it space on your device, it's a good idea to research. Also, if you find something that doesn't have any reviews yet, and you have access to iTunes, check for the app/game in there. Every game I'll mention in this review has an iPhone counterpart, since most app developers usually work with iOS, too. This won't tell you anything about how the game plays on the Fire but it can at least give you some idea about the game.
Of course, many of the popular games that everyone has heard of are available in the Amazon App Store. Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Plants Vs. Zombies...you get the idea. Here are the top 5 games I have picked up for my Kindle Fire, that I am enjoying right now. A few of these were featured as the Free App of the Day and I don't know if I would have tried them if they weren't free. But I'm glad I did and I think they're worth the money.
5. Doodle Fit ($0.99)
The icon makes it look like a Tetris clone but it really isn't. You are given Tetris-style puzzle pieces and a shape that you have to fit them into, just like a standard puzzle. Pieces cannot be rotated, which has frustrated me on more than 1 occasion. ;) You can get hints, and puzzles get progressively harder. I like picking this one up and playing a few puzzles, and then putting it aside again for a while.
4. Words With Friends Free (Free)
Yes, Words With Friends is available for just about every device under the sun. I used to play WWF on my iPhone a lot; I even upgraded to the paid version when it was on sale. It's so nice to have the larger screen for this one. Only the free version is currently available in the Amazon App Store. Good news if you don't want to drop any more cash on the game, but you will be subjected to the ads. (I haven't found them to be too bothersome.) Also, and this is true of the Amazon App Store in general, you will find that the Android/Amazon version of this game is behind in features from the iPhone app. I hope that in the future, updates can be pushed to both iOS & Android around the same time, but certainly for now, iOS gets the preferential treatment.
3. Dabble ($1.99)
This is a game that's kind of like a word scramble or Boggle, I suppose. You are given a pyramid of letters: 2 on the top row, working down to 6 on the bottom row. Arrange the letters to make words on each row. Do it fast, because the timer is running! :) I find the control of the letters to be a little flaky, and I found the game ran better with the music turned off, but this is another one I enjoy going a round or two with every day. My best streak of completed games was 14, and then I blew it, lol.
2. Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips HD ($1.99)
Another game I might not have tried except that it was FAOTD a few weeks ago. My husband didn't like it because, in his opinion, it was too much like work! :) I jokingly call it "plane juggling". (I believe the game category is called Time Management.) Maybe this is stereotypical, but when you're a mom, you find yourself multitasking a lot. Hey, now I can use that skill in a game! :) Planes want to land, and you have to assign them gates, send them to the mechanic, assign them a runway for takeoff, etc. You might find it stressful, but I think it's a cute-looking game and I love to play it. Also you earn money to buy upgrades for the airports. And I do love to shop!
1. Jelly Defense ($2.99)
Up until this game, the only tower defense game I had played was Plants Vs. Zombies. I didn't have a problem finishing that, so I figured this was worth a try when it came up as FAOTD. Really nice graphics & sound here. The music is trippy! It took me a little time to figure out some of the basic strategy, and the levels do get hard. There is a tutorial round at the beginning of the game, and you can find video walkthroughs on YouTube. (Thank goodness!) I've cursed at this one more than I care to admit, and that catchy music gets stuck in my head whenever I think of it.
Honorable Mentions
Plants Vs. Zombies- Kindle Fire Version ($2.99)
As I said, I finished this on my iPhone, but it's one of my family's favorites, and hey, who doesn't like Crazy Dave? ;) I played this when I first got my Kindle Fire but now I'm playing Jelly Defense more.
JellyBalls+ (Free)
A "Columns" type of game, where you drop sets of balls with matching colors. It's timed but I haven't found it to be all that stressful to have a timer. There's just something satisfying about clearing out huge sections of the board at one time. I have to admit that the icon could use a little work. The "glow" on the balls makes the icon look blurry, and I don't like having the OpenFeint logo floating in the corner. Minor quibble, I know.
Where's My Water? ($0.99)
This is the popular Disney game in the style of Cut the Rope. Really not my favorite type of game (same with Angry Birds) but it looks great, plays well, and my husband likes it. It was recently on sale for $0.10 in the Amazon App Store and it's currently free on iPhone, I believe. I'd definitely say it's worth ten cents or free!
Other games that are on my radar but I haven't bought yet are Dragon's Lair ($4.99), The Game of Life ($2.99), and Uno (currently on sale for $0.99; regular price of $2.99. I'll probably pick this up while it's on sale). If you haven't noticed , next to the price of each game there is a button that says "Save". You can build a wish list and find that list of saved games by clicking the Menu button at the bottom of the screen when you are in the App Store. Then hit "More" and choose "Saved for Later".
Hope you find these suggestions helpful. Happy app shopping!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Link to my first opinion piece
Here's a link to the opinion piece I wrote about a week ago titled "Love of Fire". Well...I think it ended up being more of a rant on people who criticize the Fire, as opposed to me writing purely of why I enjoy Amazon's latest Kindle/tablet hybrid. But if you want to read it and, maybe laugh at me or something, here you go! :)
My Love of Fire-post on Two Blogs Beasley
My Love of Fire-post on Two Blogs Beasley
Hello, world!
Even though I have two other blogs, which includes a personal blog where I feel free to post about any topic I wish, I have decided to start another blog specific to my thoughts & opinions about the Kindle Fire. Time will tell if I actually have enough to say about this one topic. Here we go!
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