I mentioned in a previous post that before I buy something, I have to have a plan for how I'm going to use it. I've struggled with valid use-cases for tablet systems for quite a while now. Though I would have bought the HP TouchPad at its $100 fire-sale price, the full-price tablet that changed my mind was the Amazon Kindle Fire.
The Fire is a unique device for me because it fits a good niche. First of all, I have wanted to buy a Kindle ever since my last overseas trip where I wanted to bring several books but could not because of the added space and weight in my carry-on bag. Just as I was considering a standard Kindle Keyboard edition, a new round of Kindles was announced: the Touch and the Fire.
The Fire is unlike other Kindles in that it is not an E Ink display, the battery life is measured in hours instead of weeks, and it has features far beyond the standard Kindle. It's an Android tablet with good Amazon integration, and it's affordable. Here's how I plan to use it:
Reading the news
I often eat meals at my desk, both at home and at work, because I want to read about current events while I dine. The Kindle Fire will enable me to read Google News and other sites easily from the breakfast bar and breakroom table without having to lug around a laptop or netbook.
I will also be able to read more magazines and perhaps even consider a newspaper subscription for reading during times when I am unable to do any work, such as in waiting rooms and while travelling.
Reading books
Admittedly I do not read a lot of books anymore, but I do have a few on my Amazon wish list right now. I'll get the Kindle versions of those and read them before bed and when I'm not doing anything else.
Like I mentioned above, I will also be able to use the Fire to bring several books with me when travelling.
Monitoring email while gaming
When I'm playing Rift or the new Star Wars MMO, I won't have to run my netbook off to the side, or run a browser in the background and alt-tab to it to check email. I can just have the tablet on a stand off to one side of the monitor and see email and IMs as they come in. I don't know if I'll respond on the tablet -- we'll see how the touchpad keyboard goes -- but at least I'll be aware of messages.
Music listening
I'm evaluating Amazon's Cloud Player right now, and I'm pretty impressed with the speed of playback, considering how dog-slow the S3 storage service is when playing MP3s from it. Unfortunately, it only works with MP3 files, whereas about a third of my music collection is in the OGG/Vorbis, FLAC, or WAV formats. The Kindle Fire will play all of these files, but not through the Amazon Cloud Player. I'll see how this works out exactly, but I think I can arrange it such that I can store everything on the Cloud Drive for a low monthly fee, and do playback from the Fire whenever I have an Internet connection.
Since I do not have an MP3 player or smart phone, this will be my only portable music player aside from my netbook.
The occasional TV show or movie when I'm not at home
I can't see myself watching too many shows on the Fire, since it's a small screen and I have a great home entertainment system. I like Blu-Ray films at 1080p with surround sound, so little handheld devices with headphones don't impress me. However, if I find myself in a waiting room or in some other situation where I don't have my netbook with me, and I want to be mindlessly entertained, I have the full power of my Amazon Prime membership at my disposal.
Without a Prime membership, the Fire loses this bit of value. Streaming movies and TV shows are a key part of the device and the service.
Overall
I plan to get a decent amount of sporadic use out of the Kindle Fire. Mostly, it'll take some time and usage away from paper books and my netbook, while replacing any minor needs or desires I had for a smart phone. We'll see if it works out as expected.
