Fire Tablet unboxing

I always wanted an Android device, mainly so I can play around and learn it (plus gain access to the free Kindle library).  So with the Amazon Fire tablet discounted to $40, I couldn't resist.  So I cashed in my Bing Rewards and ordered it.

And now for the unboxing...

It comes in a smallish pyramid-like box rather than the normal rectangular box.  I guess they save a few pennies doing that.  To open it, you have to rip open the strip near the top of the box.  It feels like when you do it, you're beyond the point of no return because you can no longer pristinely re-seal the box.

There's not much in the box.  There's the tablet, the usb cable, and the power adapter.  Plus a little black card indicating what each of the ports are.  No words, just icons.  Headphones.  Volume.  Microphone.  USB connector.  Power.  Camera hole.  Another camera hole (in the back).  And a video out (?)

It's virtually the same width as my iPad mini, maybe 3/8" less.  And maybe 1/2" shorter in height.  The width of the video display is just slightly less than the iPad mini, maybe 1/8" inch.  And probably an inch shorter in height.

No instructions.

Well, the tablet is in one of those plastic envelope/wraps.  So I'll take it out of that.

I don't know if it's charged, so let me press the power button.

Hold it down a little while and the amazon logo comes on, followed by the word fire.  Installing the latest software.

Got to the Welcome screen

Please select your language.  English (United States).  You can choose one of three font sizes.  It starts on small.  I guess the target audience are younger people who have good eyesight.  I'll choose the medium size for now.  Then press Continue.

Connect to Wi-Fi.  An internet connection is required to set up your device.

Choose my network and enter the password.  Connect.

Sofware Update.  The latest Fire software is being downloaded. Once complete, it will only take a few minutes to restart your device and install the latest features.

Please connect your Fire to a charger to ensure you have sufficient battery charge to complete the progress.

OK, connect it to charger.  The cable is pretty short (looks like a standard cable, like the one used to charge my bluetooth headset).  I imagine it would work with the Apple plug, but I used the one it came with.

Installing updates.  Please wait.
Installing system update...

While waiting, I checked my email using the iPad and I see I got a message that "You have successfully registered your device".  "You have successfully registered your Amazon device and it is ready for use.  We hope you enjoy your device.

The screen blanked out and the tablet restarted.  fire appears on the screen.  for a while.  I guess it's updating.

Optimizing system storage and applications.  This will take approximately 10 minutes to complete

Confirm Your Account - MY NAME

Your Fire is registered to MY NAME and your timezone has been set using your Wi-Fi Network.

I guess there's an option to change the account, by tapping Not MY NAME (which is right below the above text, but I tap CONTINUE (meaning that I agree to "all of the terms found here. Your music will be saved to the Cloud to protect your purchases.  The voice features process and retain audio in the Cloud to improve our services.)

CONTINUE

Family Setup

You can set up the device to use and share with your family or set it up just for you.  Each member of your family has a personalized experience, just for them, including a custom home screen, collections, and preferences

Adult Profiles
You can have two adult profiles.  Add the second adult in Profiles and Family Library settings.
Share management of Parental controls, share content with Family Library and share Prime benefits.

Set up Child Profiles?
You can have up to four child profiles

Yes.  Set up child profiles and choose to add over 10,000 kid-friendly titles with Amazon FreeTime Unlimited.  You can also share books, videos, and apps you've purchased.

Not now.  You can always add child profiles later in the FreeTime app.

Select Not now.

CONTINUE

Enable Location Services

Allow Maps, other apps and Amazon to use location and related information.

NO THANKS  ENABLE

ENABLE

Backup & Auto-Save

Backup and Restore
Back up your Fire settings, bookmarks, search history, email and wireless configurations, and more to the cloud so that you can restore a Fire device later.

Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon
Wi-Fi passwords, including those previously entered, will be save to Amazon to help you connect your other devices.  To change this later, go to Settings > Device Options > Backup & Restore > Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon

Auto-Save Photos and Videos
Automatically upload your photos and videos from this device to Amazon Cloud Drive.  Anything saved in the Cloud Drive will be safe and accessible from almost any device.

The default for all of the above is on.

NO THANKS  CONTINUE

CONTINUE

Connect Social Networks

Connect your social networks to share your reading progress, game achievements, photos, and more.  You can also sync your contacts and calendar.

Connect Your Twitter Account
Connect Your Facebook Account
Connect or Create Goodreads Account

CONTINUE (without connecting)

Try Audible with 2 Free Audiobooks  (in the fine print: After 30 days, your membership renews at $14.95 per month)

START YOUR FREE TRIAL  No thanks (in comparatively small print)

No thanks

Welcome!

This tutorial will guide you through some of the major features and functionality of your new Fire tablet.

Exit  Start

At the top I see MICHAEL's Fire (identifying the device).   The wi-fi signal indicator.  The battery indicator (currently 60%).  And the time (currently 4:42)

At the bottom is an arrowhead facing left, a circle, and a square.  I don't know what those mean.  Ah, it's the navigation bar.

Let me plug in my earbuds and see if there's audio

Start

Home
The Home page displays a list of your installed apps.  Quickly find your recently opened content by swiping to the Recent page to the left of Home

Next

Content Pages
There are dedicated pages for Books, Video, Games, and more.  Each page allows you to easily access recently opened or purchased items, or discover new, personalized content.

Next

Switching Content Pages
You can navigate to different pages by swiping right or left or by tapping a page name.  (I now see in the background a book I had purchased previously.  Actually the book, because I think I think that's the only e-book I've ever purchased.)

Next

Scrolling Content Pages
To see more content and recommendations on a page, simply swipe up

Next

Accessing Library and the Store
Access the items you've bought or downloaded by tapping the Library icon on a page.  To shop for more content, tap the shopping cart to go to the store.

Next

Navigation Bar
At the bottom of the screen, tap [arrowhead] to go back to the previous screen, [circle] to navigate home (why don't they use a house icon?), and [square] to quickly switch between recently opened apps and content.  [OK, they got to it eventually.]

Next

Quick Settings
Access notifications and frequently used settings by swiping down from the top of the screen (as opposed to the bottom of the screen for the iPad).  From here you can tap Help for more info.

Replay  Finish

[The power is down to 56% and the time is 4:55.]

Finish

The home screen is now displayed.

At the top is NEW ITEMS.  The current new item is The Washington Post with a picture of Hillary facing left, Trump facing right and the words "What they were like in their 30s".

Then three rows of icons five across.
First row: Shop amazon, Silk..., Appstore, Amazon Video, FreeTime
Second row: Kindle Books, Amazon Music, Kindle Newsstand, Amazon Photos
Third Row: Amazon Games, Goodreads, Amazon Offers, Email, Calendar

OK I see a slight bias here on the home page.

[Wait there's more.  If you turn the table horizontally you get three rows of icons but now seven across.  The additional icons are camera, docs, contacts, clock, weather, help.  And if you scroll up to the next page, you get settings, my videos, photos, calculator (the calculator was up on a previous row but I moved it).  Hmm.  Now holding the tablet vertically I get five rows of five icons each.  The Washington Post icon is gone.  Maybe because I deleted it.]

Scrolling to the next screen is books

Featuring the book I bought (Miss Minimalist).  I think I bought it for 99 cents, but now it's $2.99.  But free to read on Kindleunlimited.  [Actually Kindleunlimited is a subscription service.  If you want to borrow books for free, you need to find those in the Kindle Owners Lending Library.  It's not necessarily easy to find which books are in there.  But here's some help.  Go to books.  Then click on Kindle edition.  Then check the box to the left of Amazon Prime.]

Scroll to the next screen.  Video.
At the top is Watch Next with the videos I've recently watched on Amazon

At the bottom half of the screen is Prime Originals & Exclusives

Scroll to the next screen.  Games.
Your games library is empty.

Below are games recommended for you in Amazon Underground.

Scroll to the next screen.  Shop

Looks like you can actually purchase items from Amazon here.  Kind of cool.  Top of the list.  SanDisk 32 GB micro SD Memory Card.  Sneaky (and smart).

Scroll to the next screen.

APPS

Here's where you download apps like Youtbue, Netflix, Facebook.  I guess I'll be returning here soon enough.

Scroll to the next screen.

Music

Top of the page is Elvis Presley.  Also Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, The Isley... Marty... Roy Orbison

I assume if I press Library at the top right, I'll get to see what I had added to my library.  I'll come back later.

Scroll to the next page.  AUDIOBOOKS

Audiobook you purchase from Audible or the Amazon Audiobooks Store will appear here.

Scroll to the next page.  NEWSSTAND

The Washington Post is featured here.

Then below are Best Sellers such as Shape, US, The Atlantic, etc.

Scroll to the next page.  I can't that's the end.

OK, let's check out the Library.

It goes to the content I have purchase from the Newsstand, which is namely nothing.

OK, scroll back to Music and access the Library.

Don't see anything.

Press the arrowhead to back (this is more like a computer in this sense vs. the iPad where you just keep going).

Scroll to APPS, then access Library.

I see all the apps that I had previously downloaded on my Fire TV.  OK, that's kind of neat.  Well not all. I don't see Netflix and Hulu for example.  For some reason, the Washington Post showed up.  Delete from cloud.

***

My first impression is that this is a neat enough device to entice and make it easy for consumers to access and purchase stuff from Amazon.  I'm guessing this might even be a loss leader to get people to come to their store.  (Not so, says this guy.)

***

Exploring the Video section.  Oddly I don't see my Watch List.

Well let's go the Home Screen and select the Amazon video app.  OK this looks more familiar.

At first use, I don't like the shorter screen as compared to the iPad.  Seems like there's something missing.  I guess I'll get used to it.  (I guess it's more like the iPad adds stuff rather than it's "missing".)

Let's go the Appstore and install Netflix.

The first screen takes me to underground apps & games.  Where apps, games, and even in-app purchases are actually free.  Underground means that you not only get the app for free, but all in-app purchases cost you absolutely nothing.

CONTINUE

Let's scroll down toe Your Top Categories.  Movies and TV.

Top Free in Movies & TV

YouTube, Netflix, HBO GO

OK choose Netflix.

GET
DOWNLOAD
OPEN
Sign In

Ah here's the difference.  I tried to close the screen by using the close gesture with my fingers.  But it doesn't work.  You have to press the back arrow.  I guess that's OK.

Now where's the Netflix app?  It's on the Home screen, but you have to scroll up to see the second screen.

Let's try the Silk browser.  I wonder if I can watch free hulu.  Let's see try Cesar 911.  Nope.  It was smart enough to say that I can watch 7 full episodes for free on your computer at Hulu.com

OK, back to the App Store and install the Hulu app.

One thing I notice when downloading apps is that it doesn't ask you for your password.  Maybe there's a setting where you can change that.

OK that's enough for now.  More later I guess.

For now, I guess it's OK.  Especially when you can buy 6 of these for the price of one iPad Mini.

*** [5/13/16]

Here's something odd.  I installed the CBS app.  It works, but for some reason there's no Live TV (like on the iPad, Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV).   Apparently that feature works on Android but not on the Fire tablet.  Odd.