hansolo77

Wow, a birthday wish AND a lesson learned. Cool. Grats on another year bud.

What is that, an Xbox?

I need to get me a Kinect for my Xbox. Been meaning too, but I cant afford the money. Would be interesting to see how you turn this out though Adultery.

Heh I was thinking the same thing. I could repurpose everything from it; build my own cab, upgrade the computer, etc etc. But curbside pickup from the states is a bit hard to come by. Hope it goes to a good home rather than some junk yard.

Lol! What are you trying to say? You want a dedicated Happy Birthday message from us?! HAHA!! Just kidding! Happy Birthday dude, hope you have a good one!

Great update Tom and family!

That looks cool and all, but what exactly is Japanese style buttons and joystick?

I have an update.... there is an app in the Amazon store that acts as a file browser for the Kindle Fire. It gives you the same menu/folder structures you see when you're browsing the device directly when connect to your computer via USB. When you have it running, you can configure it to browse the LAN, and then you can see the shared files there. I guess the problem I was having with the home server's website method was that a few of the files I tried to get had DRM restrictions on them that I didn't know about. The nice thing about this file browser on the Kindle is that you can find a file you want, and if you click it the file will load into a temporary memory so you can see if it opens and how it looks. Then if you decide you DO want it on the Kindle, you simply do a copy/paste to the appropriate folder. The app is called ES File Explorer. You can see how it looks on their website here (only their website sucks): http://www.estrongs.com/en/products/es-file-explorer.html Here's the link in the Amazon App Store: http://www.amazon.com/ES-Mobile-File-Explorer/dp/B008K6HN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361482503&sr=8-1&keywords=es+file+explorer The only thing I miss on the Kindle that I have on my iPod is YouTube. But so far I've used it more for reading anyway, which is great cause that's what I bought it for.

I was a Playstation fanboy for years, with a PS1 and the PS2. Then I bought an Xbox 360 and liked it much more because of it's modability. I won't go into any further details. I am however, getting real fed up with the Microsoft Monopoly. Especially the whole subscribtion fee to access the Live service whereas Sony's is absolutely free and offers pretty much the exact same content and playing experience. I'll have to wait and see what M$ pulls out of their ass with their next gen xbox, but so far, I'm thinking about going back to my PS roots and getting a PS4. My friends I made up in Canada that play Halo with me everynight will just have to get over it!

Cool, might have to check that out.

Well after I posted the reply, I did try to access a shared ebook folder I have on my server. There is no way to directly access the folder. I did however manage to connect to the WHS's home page, and once logged in I could see the shared folder that way. But when I tried to download a couple of things, it didn't work (even though it said 'Download Complete'). So it looks like the only ways to get stuff onto the Fire are either direct buying through the Amazon store, plugging in the USB cable and uploading through Calibre or via Windows Explorer, or to wifi the Calibre server webpage running on the pc.

I don't have a kindle app on my fire, it IS a kindle! I know that you can connect to the Calibre library on the computer and download books through the web browser (that's what we were trying to do with my aunts today) but I don't know if you can connect to a shared network folder. Not that I'd have much use for it, but I can try.

I guess that Dad saw on the Kindle Fire forums that a lot of people are upset about the lack of series management because it exists on the older format Kindles. My aunt got an old Kindle from her neighbor and I saw how it works. There definitely needs to be some way to put a series of books together so you don't see hundreds of them all listed at once without relying on some 3rd party app.

Ok I think I can participate in this thread a bit better now, as I have my own issue. I downloaded a book series. I know what order they go in. When I added them to the Calibre library and edited the metadata, I typed in the Series name and changed the Number field as necessary. However, when I uploaded them to my Kindle, they show up out of order. Is this just something I have to live with? I think it's because it's in alphanumeric order. I thought about changing the titles to something like "1 - Title, 2 - Title" etc but that won't work if I get another series, since the next series will be inner mixed. I suppose I could have it like "Series - 1 - Title, Series - 2 - Title" but that just seems like a lot of unnessessary work. You know what I mean?

Actually it was a cheap $8 Odd Lots leatherette outside and cloth inside that secures the device with 4 corner elastic straps. It's made by a company called c|icon. I'm gonna try using it without the case and see if it improves. I noticed Dad having trouble with his too, actually tapping really hard trying to get it to work. He got the same case. I'm thinking maybe the elastic is just too tight. I guess that's what you get for going cheap. I just couldn't afford $50 for a "proper" case right now.

Lol wtf?! A fighting machine that uses guitars and DDR pad?! Hahah I gotta see the end result. If your looking for music games, i'm partial to StepMania (dance) and Frets on Fire (guitar).

Thanks guys!

Ok I bought the Kindle Fire HD from Best Buy for $199! Everything is a bit finicky at the moment. I bought a case for it too, but I think its whats giving me the problems. Like it says I type letters I'm not really typing. But I bought this so I could read with it, not do a lot of typing. I'm just in the process right now of setting it up, but I wanted to let you guys know.. Why is this all underlined???

Lol talking about eBooks in my other thread, mentioning Calibre, and I never even noticed this thread was here! HAHA!! Hopefully here soon I will have a better grasp of understanding, and be able to help participate in this thread!

Yeah I was already reading a little about rooting it for the very purpose of running apps not directly supported on the Fire because of Amazon's lock outs. I found the way to do it, but I wasn't sure what to do with it after the fact. I'll check out CyanogenMod and see if it's something I'd consider. Also, I'll read that side by side review here as soon as I finish replying. When it comes down to it, I'm really only interested in having the eReader functionality. Other apps and what not aren't the reason I'm buying one in the first place. I have an iPod Touch that runs apps, and if theres something I need I can use that. Don't get me wrong though, I like apps, and my iPod certainly has a lot of them.

Cool... how good is the quality of the screen? The Kindle Fire HD is a 1280 pixel resolution, but the Galaxy 2 is a 1024. I read a side-by-side comparison on c|net and they said hands down the Fire was better for all things the Fire was meant to do. Meaning, if I were to use the Galaxy as a Fire, I'd be ahead to get a Fire. Do the benefits of the extras really make the Galaxy that much more scale tipping in it's favor? I have no use for a camera, since I bought a Digital SLR last tax season. The GPS would be cool but I'd never use it. I don't travel, and I rarely go more than a few blocks when driving to work. The processor isn't as good as the Fire's either. Seriously the only benefits I see is the added ability for storage expansion. If theres an easy way to move files around on your network on the Fire, I don't really need to get the extra storage option either. I honestly think I'm gonna get a Fire, not just because Dad has one (which was a total shock, I seriously didn't know he was getting one) but because when I compare it among the others in that price range, it seems to be the better buy. Unless somebody can convince me otherwise. I was considering the Paperwhites for a while, but I think the added ability of a color screen and other web available options make the Fire more appealing, for $50 more.

Crap, sorry dude I guess I spilled the spoiler beans. I won't give you anymore details I promise! Just know that it was epic and caused a lot of issues post event. I bought up a whole bunch of #1's recently too. DC just did a huge reset and re-released all their books starting at number 1. Marvel is in the process of doing so right now as well, post the AvsX event. Kinda sucks though because they're restarting books that lasted for decades... like The Amazing Spider-Man (made it to 700) and Uncanny X-Men (made it to 544). Kinda dumb reset the numbering if you ask me. But, I bought all the number 1's when they came out, and kept buying a couple of them. I also spent a long time looking through my shops long boxes he had marked down to 75 cents and grabbed a whole bunch of number 1's from there too. I bought a really sweet program to catalog my collection so I know what I have. It also has a web hosting service where you can list your catalog for other people to see. Here's my current list as of the additions from yesterday: http://connect.collectorz.com/users/hansolo77/comics/view

Yeah I still don't have a cell phone. I got a chance to play around with Dad's Fire just now. It looks great. I'll probably go that route. However, I had a physical at the doctor today and discovered they had free wifi, so I spent the time waiting reading reviews at Best Buy. Got a bit down the page and saw a section "Customers who viewed this item also viewed these..." and listed a Samsung Galaxy II for the exact same price as the Fire. When comparing the two, the Galaxy looks a lot more robust, in that it is an all encompassing tablet, not just an eReader. One of the benefits I see on the Galaxy is that it has expandable storage via a MicroSD card slot. That could theortically come in handy, although I haven't even filled up 8gb's worth of the 32gb available on my iPod touch. Books/Magazines probably don't take up that much space. Something else Dad discovered is a program for the PC (I think it's called Calibre?) that converts ebooks you download (from torrents, library, etc) into a Fire-friendly format that treats it like any other book gotten from Amazon directly. That would include things like the Text-Speech (not that great from what I could tell) and adjustable font sizing and spacing. If there is something like that for the Galaxy, its just one more pro point for it. On the downside though, the Galaxy doesn't have as high a resolution as the Fire, and that might hurt value/quality for me. BUT the Galaxy has 2 cameras, an accelerameter, GPS, and I believe it said free 3G. All these things make the Galaxy look so much more better, but I'm also afraid they may just be gimmicks and such that I won't really need. I need to read some reviews or something from people who have bought both and see which they prefer better.

I can't afford something that expensive. I only got $600 on my tax return and most if not all of it is going towards fixing my car's overheating engine problem. I'm just looking at what my options are right now, and moving ideas around.

Well I spent a fair bit of time reading some reviews and what not, and I'm definately leaning towards either the Fire or the Paperwhite. My dad left to go pick up my stepmom from work and I was researching. When they got home an hour or so later, she said "ask your dad what I'm getting him for Valentines Day". Sure enough, he's getting a Fire, and it's coming tomorrow (2-day shipping). So I'll at least get my hands somewhat on a working device without the issues of being pressured. Comparing the 2 devices though, it really is going to come down to what I would find most useful. The Fire seems to me to just be a baby tablet; color screen, movies, games, apps, pictures, music, etc. The Paperwhite however is just a plain text reader. Something I'd like to see that Dad had mentioned is the ability to read magazines (like photography and astronomy stuff). The Fire would come in handy in those situations. On the other hand, I like the LONG battery life you get with the Paperwhite and other older gen Kindles. I'll just have to wait and see how the Fire performs for Dad as a reader, and not just another media player device.