I’m guessing that yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle was probably the last use I’ll ever make of my Kindle Fire HD 8.9. I read today’s Chron (and WaPo) on the spiffy new Samsung Tab S6 Lite we picked up earlier in the week, very similar to the tablet my wife purchased a while back.
All I really ever used the Kindle for was reading the daily newspaper(s): I prefer print books and have a two-screen notebook setup I use for my computing and social media needs. And I’ll probably mostly use the Samsung as a newspaper reader, although possibly for more.
The end of the Kindle era was pretty much established for me when Amazon shut down the Kindle Newsstand, ending subscription delivery of newspapers. That meant getting via Silk, which we’ve always regarded as The World’s Worst Browser. And in the past few weeks the Fire’s been getting a bit cranky, shutting down for no apparent reason. And, to be sure, whenever I brought up the Chron and wanted to use the e-edition, the only reading mode that makes sense to me, It made me click on a box reminding me that the device couldn’t handle the paper properly. (Not sure why, but that’s no longer an issue.)
The Ssmsung has a larger screen (10.25″ rather than 8.9″), probably a sharper one (actually fewer ppi–2000×1200 compared to the Fire’s 1920×1200, and vastly faster CPU–and, of course, it runs pure Android, not Kindle’s “special” version.
Here’s the thing: I had that Kindle Fire for just under eleven years–the device was registered with Amazon on December 22, 2012. It was the cheap version with lock-screen ads (for a few years, then they went away). Apparently it cost $299, although I remember it being even less. (The Samsung is just slightly more expensive–but that’s comparing 2023 dollars to 2012 dollars.)
The real message: ELEVEN YEARS of daily use. I’m pretty pleased with that. Wonder how long I’ll use the Samsung?
[I’m still using a 19″ Sony LCD display as my second screen, and that display was manufactured in October 2005, so I’ve probably had it for more than 17 years. Of long daily use. And it still works beautifully.]
