The Kindle Chronicles discussion

So I have had an iPad for three years and I've been an apple customer for a long time; they basically own me. Have an iphone and an mba and have spent alot of money on things from itunes. The only thing I don't buy from them are books, that's all amazon (minus magazines). Has anyone cut the chord from the iTunes/ipad world to kindle and how did you guys find it? I worry because of how much entertainment (music/movies/tv shows) I've bought on itunes it would be a pointless endeavor to switch because i'd have to buy a ton of content all over again. Does anyone have any opinions or suggestions?

Couple of suggestions to make life a bit more cross platform:

1. Spring for the amazon cloud player subscription. This works like iTunes Match so (most of if not all) of your purchased iTunes music is available on amazon
1.5 consider also paying for iTunes Match so your music can "go both ways"
Download amazon player for iPad.

2. Spring for amazon prime. Download the amazon player app. Get free movies and tv shows. Also of course upgrades delivery for "real" things you buy from amazon. Download amazon player for iPad.

3. Buy an eink kindle for reading. Keep your iPad for movies, music.

Total cost should be around $200 and you are as cross platform as you can be. You can now comfortably buy from either Eco system and you are covered as much as you can be (no good solution to your iTunes movies and tv shows except prime videos and netflix for the very old ones). At this point, you buy from whomever is cheapest (which is amazon most of the time)


I'd also recommend against a kindle fire since you already have an iPad. The money you would spend on that is better spent in way I suggest above.

I used to be all Apple...MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone and iPad 1st generation. I also love Amazon and have a Kindle Touch and a Kindle Basic. The 1st generation iPad was very heavy, had no camera and I found it inconvenient to use because of the weight despite springing for the 3G version with maximum memory. It was the first to go. I realized that even though I had many apps I used very few of them. I sold it to Amazon and bought a Kindle Fire HD which does most of what I used the iPad for and it is much lighter in weight. I read on my Fire now at times as well as my e-readers.
I recently upgraded my iPhone 4S to a Samsung Galaxy S4. Some frustration at first with the learning curve but now I love it. It is a bigger screen and lighter in weight. Apple hasn't "zinged" me in a while and I wanted something new and fun. I use my iPhone 4S as an iPod so I can keep my apps and listen to my music. Use my iPod Classic to store and listen to all my music on a speaker. I have Amazon Prime which gets me so many things. My Sony Blu ray player will stream Amazon Prime movies and tv. I also remember that I can change back to an iPhone or iPad mini anytime I want. I am glad I made the change. By the way, with Amazon's cloud player, you can listen to many of your iTunes albumns.

Loren, I've wondered the same thing. I've got the iPad 2, iPhone 4S and a long time Mac owner.

But, love Amazon prime and my Kindle paper white. Will my next purchase be a iPad mini or a fire? I want a smaller tablet..

I just use both platforms. I traded in some old electronics to get a Fire HD. I already had a Paperwhite. I use an iPod and an iPad mini also. Since Kindle has apps for the Apple products, I have found everything pretty seamless. I do not have Amazon Prime, but I may try it.

I am in both ecosystems. I am pretty much an Apple person when it comes to computers, iPads (2nd gen), iPhone, Apple TV. I mainly purchase music on iTunes. I've also purchased some from Amazon but generally import it into iTunes. I have just been there so long and I still like the interface. I have purchased some movies and books, but that's the exception to the rule. I subscribe to iTunes Match and it has saved my bacon in the past. In Amazon, I'm a Prime member, have a Paperwhite and a Fire HD 7" (in place of an iPad Mini). I buy books on Amazon and movies and TV shows. I have a Roku for streaming in the house. I love being both places and really don't see the need to cut the cord and be one place or another. Competition is good and I'd rather see the two competing than only one. Yes, Apple hasn't really hasn't wowed us in awhile, but their platform is just so smooth and polished. And Amazon is the 1st place I to go to buy anything because of Prime. I love all my devices and they all serve a different purpose. For me, my iPad is the perfect travel laptop replacement. It now goes with me rather than my MacBook Air. My Kindle Fire is the size of the iPad Mini without the cost and is a perfect everyday device. The Paperwhite is light and easy to drop in a purse and you can read it anywhere, bright light or in the sun. I just love them all and will continue to buy most music from Apple and everything else from Amazon.

Thanks, Susan. Your situation mimics mine. My guess is I'll wait until the next mini is announced, see where the Fire HD is, and also see where the next IPHONE is...my contract on the 4s will be up soon. It's nice to have choices! I would like something smaller than my IPAD to haul around, but its certainly smaller than my four year old Macbook Pro! :)

I was more throwing this out there because I'm wondering about apple long term. The truth is that I like the MBA I have, think its a magical little computer. In addition I'm fairly happy with my ipad and my iPhone and considering the amount of money i've spent on itunes it makes sense to stick around. I was doing it as an exercise to see if anyone had any suggestions. I've got a paperwhite and I love it, amazon is my primary purchaser for damn near everything including books. I am intrigued by the Fire and admittedly by other non-apple products but its doubtful I'll make that kind of financial jump.

Re: your point about wondering about apple long term.

IMHO, apple ain't going anywhere. Put another way, before apple goes, amazon will be gone.
Neither of which is happening anytime soon.

Lots of people tend to equate the apple of the windows era to the apple of the post pc era (post 2001). There is no comparison. Back then apple lost the PC wars but still managed to stay relevant and viable enough for their rebirth after Steve jobs came back.

In the post pc era, apple is clearly the primary player but there's lots of scuttlebutt in the tech press about apples competitors - namely google, Samsung. The problem is, like I said, the situation is nothing like the apple-Microsoft wars. In fact, if you were to insist in making the pc war analogy, I'd argue apple is the Microsoft of the post pc era.

Now, of course one never says never, and google and Samsung and amazon are making some damn fine products. But, seems clear to me from just comments on this thread - apple's stuff just has that little bit extra that makes them worth it. Notice i didn't say better (although I'd assert the big iPad is better than anything else in that class) but rather worth the little bit extra you pay for apple stuff.

There's lots of reasons for this and I can go in and on about them (android fragmentation vs apple iOS singularity, android API stack vs apples, hw specs etc) but in the end, the key difference may well be apples willingness to say no to things (no big screen phones, no expandable storage, no to more "open" App Store). All of which make apple stuff, in general, "just work".

Even if you agree with none of this bs, maybe the best argument for apple long term is their corporate value. They are the 1st/2nd (depending on the day it seems) most valuable company in the world and they have more cash than most countries. Does anyone honestly think that if apple was feeling the heat some point in the future they won't use that to set off the equivalent of a nuclear bomb? Think: $1 iPhones, $49 iPad minis, $99 iPads. Of course they would ( back in early Steve jobs return era, rumor was apple had a intel version of its pc operating system running as a hedge against trouble. If it became clear apple was not going to succeed, they would release this os free/near free to ensure their survival as a company. Of course, the rumor was true in at least one aspect and was released as OS X on intel macs.)

So, I wouldn't worry about apple long term. Now, android long term...I could lay out a very compelling case on how android dies and/or mutates into multiple operating systems(and it has nothing with apple "winning" but rather android device makers "losing"). But that's another post entirely.

I'm glad to see others straddling the Apple/Amazon divide in various ways. I sold my big iPad and love my iPad mini for NYTimes subscription, TomorrowHD to do list, the Atavist, the Magazine and a few other things I can't get on Kindle. I also keep my calendar and addresses in iOS. I'm adding a new Nexus 7 (which should arrive here in Ocean Park tomorrow!) so I'll have devices to sample the three major ecosystems. It's a great time for a gadget lover who loved to read!

Ok then for those who use multiple tablets a'la a Nexus 7 and an Ipad or a Kindle Fire - what do you use one for that the other doesn't provide? Admittedly I don't know what if anything my big ipad3 can't do that a Kindle Fire can't. I brought both my ipad and kindle paperwhite on my trip and they worked beautifully

Loren - I have a iPad 2 and a Kindle Fire HD 7" and honestly, I could probably do with just one of them. I purchased the KFHD 7" to see if I liked the smaller form factor, which I do. Since this was my first Kindle tablet, it did take a little getting use to, but I now enjoy it and take it with me while I travel. I guess my iPad is when I want something a little larger, although I find I use it less now that I have the KFHD. So why keep both, I think the Apple App Store may be the reason (for me). I think (know) the Apple App store currently has a better selection of apps (well at least the ones I use). From financial web sites to cooking apps, I just find the Apple App store more polished than those in the Amazon app store. For example, I have several apps for managing my credit cards (AMEX, Chase, Barclays). I can find the Chase app in the Amazon app store but nothing for AMEX or Barclays. I know they must exist, they just don't seem to be in the Amazon store. And while I may be able to side load it, that's something I don't have to do w/ my iPad. So probably not the device but maybe ease of use and the eco-support system is the difference, not the actual device (for me).

I was fairly taken to task by a listener for my dismissive comments about the new Nexus 7 in TKC 262. I didn't mean it to be an objective review, just my admittedly Kindle-centric impressions of the competition. That said, I am growing to like the sleek, light shape of the Nexus and the fantastic screen. It's also nice to be able to roam around in the Google Play Store without using GetJar on the Fire. I can't wait to see what the next generation of Kindle Fire will bring. Soon, I hope!

David wrote: "Len wrote: "I was fairly taken to task by a listener for my dismissive comments about the new Nexus 7 in TKC 262. I didn't mean it to be an objective review, just my admittedly Kindle-centric impre..."
I agree, David. In retrospect, I think I might have made it a little clearer that it was an opinion versus a journalistic review. Maybe most people assumed that was the case.

(noting in passing that we've drifted off topic) I played with the Nexus 7 for a few minutes at Best Buy and was very impressed with the form factor, light weight, great screen, and responsiveness. It was clearly the best device they had on display. By they way, people keep saying it weighs slightly more than iPad Mini, but according to the respective specs pages, the Nexus 7 is 290g while the Mini is 308g (both wifi only).

Software glitches are nothing new when it comes to new hardware, and the same has been true of nearly all the Kindle devices I've purchased from Amazon. If that is something you do not want to deal with, it is probably a good rule of thumb to wait at least a month or two before purchasing.

While my piggy bank has full funding for one of these devices, I plan to wait to see what Amazon and Apple come out with, and will probably opt for an LTE version of one of these three. I passed on last year's models because I thought they were yet too heavy and knowing higher resolution screens were coming. But the Nexus satisfies my requirements fully and I expect the new Fire and Mini will as well.

IMHO when the iPad mini with retina display is released, the perfect tablet will be here.

We all have our opinions about purchases. With reviews on the online sites, it really helps to make decisions. Now that I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone, with full Android system, I am sometimes irritated, too, that the Kindle Fire doesn't use the full system. Until the S4, I had a less than great opinion of Android, now I see it as great. Hoping that Amazon will some day use the full tilt Android for the Fire HD.

Mary, I think you'll be waiting a long time for amazon to adopt base/full android. When you look at it at the tech level, it just does not make any business sense to do it.

While google does give android away for free, the "root" android is tied into google services (even more so now than when Andriod was first introduced). For amazon, I suspect this is a non-starter. In fact, as is becoming apparent in the "fragmentation" of different android devices, very few OEMs are willing to just take googles android without making customizations to support their own services.

Much of the commentary on the tech world these days with respect to android really concentrates in two things - the fragmentation of android (i.e. so many versions of it being run on many devices - the majority of them 2 versions behind googles "official") and the dominance of Samsung in the Andriod ecosystem.

Needless to say there is a significant majority of tech analysts that think these two issues are bad long term for Andriod (short answer : no incentive for developers due to increased costs due to fragmentation and no incentive for OEMs to compete with both Samsung and apple). Add into this the fact that google can at anytime pull andriod back for use with motorolla and OEMs will have only 2 choices: get out the Andriod or "fork" Andriod and develop on their own on top of google's base code.

Amazon has chosen the latter. Because of this (and I think this is right) kindle is 2 versions behind the base. The problem you get from a technology standpoint when you do this is that the further you get in time behind google, the harder it is for your development team to catch up due to all the customizations you have done. At some point you decide either to ditch everything and start over (and run into the google services problem mentioned above) or, decide to just keep going down your fork and forget google. And at that point, is it really even Andriod anymore but just Amazondriod?

I think amazon is heading down this path. I think they are not only comfortable with it but happy to do it. And that's why I don't think you will ever see the most current "stock" version of Andriod (and the google play store) on kindles ever.

Now never say never, there are always things that could happen to change this (for example developers could decide not to have "kindlized" versions of their Andriod apps - but that's unlikely near term given kindle market penatration) but its not going to have in a year or two or even three if I had to bet.

David wrote: I understand what you are saying about imperfections in a new device. At this point I have had multiple iOS devices and never once experienced an unresponsive keyboard like I did on the second generation Nexus 7. In my experience Apple devices just work better. The hardware and software work well together. I have never had an Amazon tablet. I own only a Paperwhite. "

I agree Apple generally does better, though they too have had issues. For me it is not so much better that it dominates all other factors.

Dan wrote: "IMHO when the iPad mini with retina display is released, the perfect tablet will be here."

I'm still not sure 7in is the perfect size for a tablet, there's something nice about watching a movie on a 10 in screen no? Same with reading magazines and comics

I'm still not sure 7in is the perfect size for a tablet, there's something nice about watching a movie..."

I really don't like watching movies on a tablet, no matter how large. Only as a last resort. Magazines and comics are not part of my regular diet. I have a couple of Kindle subscriptions and as they are mostly text oriented so they work fine on anything.

But 7in is still to me a little cramped for even for reading text (not to mention PDF). That is why I'm enamored with the mini's 8in form factor, assuming I can recover from the sticker shock. Galaxy Note 8 is close (and has some appealing software features as well, such as being able to split screen between two apps and the s-pen or whatever they call it) but screen resolution is not quite what I require ('only' 189 ppi).

Marc wrote: "Tom wrote: "But 7in is still to me a little cramped for even for reading text (not to mention PDF)."

I respectfully disagree. My little 7 inch Nexus 7 (2013) has the latest Android version of Ado..."

I'm not a fan of reflow as it is never artifact free and is useless for many PDFs. I prefer to read with the original layout intact, in many cases a lot of creative thought has gone into that layout and reflow throws all of that away. I don't mind if the text is small as long as it is sharp. For a 7-8" screen I think anything less than 200DPI is no good, over 300DPI is quite enough and what I will be looking for (of course still not adequate for larger dimension PDFs, sheet music and magazines etc.).

Even on a 10" tablet it helps to have a PDF reader with a good cropping features to trim the margin whitespace and have these settings stick between reading sessions with that PDF. By all means it should do reflow as well, sometimes that will be helpful.