Need Advice About Kindle Fire

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Bill Boggs, May 13, 2019.

  1. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith
    Been trying to send private message, guess i've forgotten how. Anyway, if I may asked about a kindle Fire. A while back I bought a a reworked mini iPad from Apple. It has never worked right and it is so outdated it can no longer be updated. I'm thinking of replacing it with a kindle fire. I think you said you had one. Maybe I'm wrong but if so, I don't know2 which to buy. Looking for something for my wife that will handle Audibles well. What do you think about an Kindle Fire and which one.

    By the way, I'm glad you're home if you are but who gets to take a trip like you've just had. That's something special. Cheers.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    The Kindle Fire is a good device, especially for as affordable as it is. It comes in several sizes, depending on what you want to use it for. I have the smallest one, since i use my iPad for everything, and only use the Kindle Fire for reading books. What I do is use my iPad to order books from the kindle store and it is downloaded onto the Kindle. If you are not going to be doing a lot of online browsing, and only need it for reading or listening to audio books, I would think that the small Kindle Fire 7 tablet would work fine, that is what I have.
    It is only $49 new from Amazon, and can be $10 monthly payments.
    Since you can set the type to any size you want, it is super-easy to read , even when you need large print. I never use the speakers, but I would recommend either headphones, or an external Bluetooth speaker for listening to audiobooks.
    Here is what i have :

    E3DEABD4-1B6D-475B-911E-198B5EC23E6C.jpeg
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Also, tell me more about your little iPad Mini, @Bill Boggs .
    If it can’t be updated, then it is probably a generation 1 iPad mini. I have had several of these, because I buy them on eBay and re-sell them, and I have found that most of them perform well, except that you can no longer update the iOS. Both Bobby and I have one that we use for when we want a more portable device than our larger iPads.
    If you have a newer iPad, I can tell you how to download more apps if you need to do that with the Mini.
    Tell me what it is not doing, and maybe I can trouble shoot it for you ?
     
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    Last edited: May 13, 2019
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have four Kindles, two of the older ones, plus a Kindle Fire 7, as above, and a Kindle Fire HD10, which is the one that I prefer, although I use all my Kindles from time to time. I use my larger one mostly for stuff that I am researching for my job because it has a bigger screen that I can more easily refer to while at work on the computer, and I keep my Kindle Fire 7 upstairs, and that's the one I read before bed. The HD10 can be kind of heavy to read in bed. My other two are older ones, without the backlight and I actually prefer that for reading, so I'll use them when I take a break from work during the day or if I want to get some coffee and read for a while at a restaurant.
     
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  5. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Thanks to you both @Yvonne Smith & @Ken Anderson. I want one for my wife to listen to books.
    She has some sight in on eye but is now having trouble reading large print and has abandoned
    library books. She is listening to books purchased today for her (she picked two, I kpicked the last
    because she was frustrated with the slow process I was having, having never been to Audible.com
    before.,

    Yvonne my mini kindle will after a while turn its self off although when you go back on it returns to what you were reading or dodging. .
    If I click on Cnn or Fox News or any major news network, it continually says "there was a problem so it was restarted." I can read AP
    news on it or some small news outlet but none of the majors. It seems that anything over crowded it has a problem with and about the
    forth time you are directed back to homepage. Getting weather is a problem so far as getting a weather map. I have an old weather
    program. None of the current weather programs wil work on it and much is no longer supported. I use it for kindle books and research.

    My other iPad is a generation three I think. I can not get the latest weather program on it and some programs are no longer supported.
    Changes are coming along so fast it will completely be out dated shortly I fear. My dest computer is my mainstay but i would like to have
    a reliable iPad. I asked Apple what they would be worth on a trade in. The mini, $38.00 and ghe other, gen 3, trades for $57.00. So really,
    nothing at all.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Both of your iPads are too old to update any more. Unless you want to spend the money for a newer one, you might do better to just get a couple of Kindles instead. The small one is great for reading, and the 10”, like Ken has, would be large enough to use for online browsing, instead of the iPad.
    Either one would work for listening to an audiobook.

    The prices that they quoted you are about what they sell for on eBay, but you can get more if you sell them yourself, locally.
    I use the facebook market place and craigslist and next door apps to sell mine.
    I would say to advertise the Mini for $100 and the generation 3 for about the same, depending on how many GB they have, and then take the best offers you get for both of them, and that should pretty much pay for the Kindles.
     
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    Last edited: May 13, 2019
  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have never used the audio for reading books but they do have that ability, although I'm not sure if audio is available for all books. Do you know, Yvonne? I have streamed a movie on my HD10 so I know that the sound works just fine.
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I don’t care for audio books, so I haven’t ever tried using my Kindle for that. However, I always see the Kindle store offering a free trial for Audible, and also Overdrive (library books) has a lot of audiobooks, and I think that if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, some of those books are also audiobooks.
    It is $10 a month to subscribe, so if it offers a lot of audiobooks, it might be cheaper than trying to purchase them all the time.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I might have a possibility for you, @Bill Boggs !
    I just bought a Kindle Fire 10 with Alexa, and it is amazing ! The screen size is plenty large enough to watch a movie with , and the sounds volume seemed great to me, and of course, you can also use headphones if you wanted to not disturb anyone, or just wanted better sound volume.

    Since it is Amazon, it connects right up with Amazon Prime Video, and with Alexa, all you have to do is ask for the movie that you want to see, or the kind of movie (“Alexa find westerns !”) , and it will immediately display.
    The same thing works with music, and you can just ask for what you want and not have to do all of that searching.
    Like @Ken Anderson mentioned, it is heavier than the smaller 7” Kindle, if you are going to use it to read a book, but if you are listening to an audio book, it should be fine because you would not be holding it all of the time like we do to read with. But it is light weight enough to be. Easy to hold when watching a movie.

    This is how the screen looks (you can see this one is for Video), and it is a clear sharp screen. It is $149 on Amazon and payments of $30 a month.

    E345926F-CC29-4171-99E9-9B66D2CF9D91.jpeg
     
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  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    • Okay, thanks, @Yvanne Smith, good information. Not sure what going to do. She doesn't seem to like Audible, so we'll see. Thanks again.
     
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  11. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith, Pardon my ignorance, but I need some information and you seem to be the
    most informative on manby of these products. I deleted the kindle app on my mini iPad,
    thinking I could get rid of all those books I have read, then reload the kindle app and start over.
    My mini iPad is too old to take the now available Kindle App leaving me unable to read books
    on my mimi. So I am looking at the Kindle 7. My question is,what else can I do with the Kindle 7
    read the news on CNN or what? Or is the Kindle 7 mostly or only good for reading books. I do
    regret deleting the app but what's done is done and sometime I'm fast on the trigger at deleting.
    If you'd rather not get into this, delete it. Thanks.
     
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    The Kindle is a good, dependable little tablet, and even though it is different to use than the ipad, I think that you will like it.
    Kindle comes in 7”, 8”, and 10”, so you can get which ever size works best for you, and Amazon does payments for all sizes of Kindles.
    You can do just about everything with the Kindle as you can with an ipad, but the 7” size is pretty small to see much of anything online with.
    I have one that size, and it is lightweight and perfect for reading books, because you can set the font size; but it frustrates me trying to look at websites or do something like posting on the forum.
    If you want a multi-purpose one, maybe an 8” would work, because it is large enough to see things better, and still small and lightweight for reading.

    To delete books from your kindle, or the kindle app, you need to sign in to your amazon account, and then choose “content and devices”, and the books will be under content, and you can delete the ones you do not want to keep. Deleting the app only deletes access to your books, but does not delete the books because they are part of your amazon account.

    It is possible that you can re-install the Kindle app on the iPad mini, since you had it before. If it tells you that you can install an earlier version of the Kindle app, then do that, and it will be the same thing that you have.
    If that does not work, then download the Kindle app on your other ipad, I think that the Generation 4 has iOS 10, which is what you need for the Kindle app.
    Once you have it on the other ipad, then it is a purchased app, so you can download the older version back onto your mini.
    If you have questions, PM me and we can figure it out that way.

    Also, @Ken Anderson uses his Kindle for a lot more things than I do, and I think that he has more than one size, so he should have some good suggestions for you, too.
     
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  13. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Thanks. I tried to find a way to re-install the old kindle app. Understood mini was too old to get again. No provision for re-installing it.Needed 10.0.
    My mini is 9.5. 5. My other iPad has the app. It is a 10.3.3 and it is so easy to carry the mini. I've got a big heavy frame on my other iPad to keep from breaking, and that makes it heavier. I'll go back and look at the 8" or get a new case for the bigger iPad.
     
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  14. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    If you go to the App Store,using your mini, then go to your purchased apps, it will be there, because you had it before. Then, when you download it, you should get a message saying it is not compatible, but you can have an older version.
    Say yes, and it should download that.
    It is the same older version that you have been using, but this is the only way to get it back on the mini.
     
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  15. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    A question just popped in to my head. Why is the regular kindle priced higher than a kindle Fire?
    I'm going to try what you said. Thanks
     
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