Kindle Fire

For me, the screen on the 8" Kindle Fires isn't big enough for anything other than reading books and playing an occasional game of solitaire. If I had to, on a temporary basis, I could use the Kindle Fire 10 as a computer as long as I had a keyboard for it because the screen is large enough for me to read fairly easily. I might want to add a trackpad to it, although I'm not sure if that's even possible because I have never gotten used to that touch-screen nonsense. In my job, I do a lot of copying and pasting, so I'd have to figure out how to do that on a Kindle otherwise, but if I could connect a trackpad, I wouldn't have to figure it out.

Anyhow, for what you want, it sounds like an iPad with a larger screen would work well, but so would a Kindle Fire 10, and the Kindle is cheaper. I actually prefer the browser that comes with the Kindle to any of the other browsers that I have used. I have watched a couple of movies on my Kindle Fire 10 and the screen is near enough to me, that worked out pretty well. The sound is good, and the picture quality is good.

I have had several Kindles and the only time I had a problem with them was when I tried to read in bed with my first Kindle 10. It was heavy, I was sleepy, and it fell on the floor and broke the button that turns it on and off. I had had it for only a couple of weeks. Amazon replaced it, no questions asked, and I didn't even have to return the broken one or lie about how it came to be broken.

I agree with Yvonne, too, that a Chromebook might be a good idea. As computers go, they are very cheap. A Chromebook wouldn't work for me as a replacement for my computer because I do too much with my computer offline but, for most people, they'd work pretty well, and I could access the forum, do my job online, and do most things with it just fine.

 

Touchscreens make everything SO much easier, once you get used to the concept of just touching something , rather than dragging a mouse pointer up to it and having to click to get what you want done.
Here is a short video that explains more about a Chromebook, what they do and do not do.

 

On the other hand, a Chromebook doesn't work as well as a book as a Kindle Fire does.

 

Agreed !
One can never have enough gadgets (my opinion). She should get a small Kindle Fire just for reading if she is also going to read on whatever tablet/laptop that she gets. When on sale, they are really cheap, plus payments option.

 

Other than one that broke when I dropped it, I am having the first problem with a Kindle Fire dying on me. The Kindle Fire 8 that I use the most, as that's the one I read after I go to bed every night, won't open any books anymore. Once in a while, it will, but mostly I just get a white screen with the activity indicator that goes around and around, and never getting anywhere. The games play, and I can get online with it well enough, as the problem seems to be restricted to accessing books. I bought it soon after they came out with the 8's so it served me a fair amount of time, although my earlier Kindles (before Fire) are still working fine. I probably should have waited until they went on sale again, since they go on sale frequently, but I ordered another one. My 10 is too heavy for bed and my others aren't backlit.

 

It might not be just your Kindle. I have been having about the same kind of problem. When I get a new book, sometimes it shows up in the library and sometimes it does not.
So, then I look on my Kindle app on the iPad and see if it shows up there, and then I open it from there.
Once I have actually opened the book, then it seems to show up everywhere.
I was concerned that mine was going to get bad, too, and it is only 1-2 years old. It might be some kind of an Amazon thing. I also synced mine, and that helped, i think.
I had not even thought about doing that until I started having problems with books not downloading properly.

 

Does anyone have a Kindle Paperwhite , or the Oasis, that is just for reading books and not a whole tablet like the Kindle Fire is ? I am now looking online, and wondering if I would like one of the dedicated e-readers better than the Fire tablet, since I never use it for anything except reading book with.

Amazon is having a special on the Paperwhite . It is $129, but with Kindle Unlimited (which I have), it is half price, and payments of $12 a month; so I ordered one.