Kindle Fire Review

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Kindle Fire Review
Kindle Fire 7″, LCD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers


I just received my kindle fire today. I had a hard time deciding between the HD, this, and the paperwhite. I decided on this one, because I really thought I’d like the immersion reading. I have an audible account and I’ve been reading along to the audiobooks. It’s amazing how fast I can get through the books (at 3x speed) and I really retain the info. The immersion reading is super-easy to use and definitely worth upgrading to this. The whole point of the kindle is to read more, and this new feature makes it possible to read 2 or 3 times as many books in the same amount of time. I’m an average-speed reader and was able to read 4 books (with the help of the audiobook reading pace) in the last 30 days and one was the 800+ page Stephen king, “11/22/63″.

I also tested out the text to speech. It’s a lady’s voice and much, much, easier to understand than the text to speech on my kindle keyboard. It also has many speed options and I think it reads faster than my kindle keyboard version. I am very, very pleased with it.

It is much more responsive than the previous kindle fire I’m upgrading from.

If you are worried about the free offers, don’t be. I DETEST commercials and advertising so much, I quit reading magazines and watching television. The offers only show on the startup, no big deal. I already took advantage of a $5.00 credit for amazon video. I was able to rent two movies and it only cost me 89 cents, when it was said and done, and I was planning on renting Hunger Games tonight, anyway. So, so far, I don’t mind the offers at all.

My favorite feature is the immersion reading and the text-to-speech improvements. I also downloaded all the free kindle books with the free audiobooks for the immersion experience. These are books I always wanted to read,but never had the discipline to just read them. Reading and listening to those books are worth the price of this new gadget, IMO.

Way to go, Amazon, for a great product and a great price!

P.S.
I have an iPad, and the last time I went on vacation, I left it at home and brought only my fire and kindle keyboard. I didn’t miss my iPad at all and this new gen fire is even better. Seriously, it’s that good.
Kindle Fire 7″, LCD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers

Kindle Paperwhite Review

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Kindle Paperwhite Review

Kindle Paperwhite, 6″ High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi

The following Kindle Paperwhite Review is very useful for deciding to buy a Kindle.

…… I love my new Paperwhite Kindle. I’ve been using an aging keyboard Kindle 2, waiting for a version with a built-in light like this. Amazon really got it right with the light on this one.

The high resolution screen is noticeably easier to read, and the user interface is well thought out.

The form factor is also an amazing improvement. I like the tactile feel of the Kindle’s back, although I’m awaiting shipment of Amazon’s leather case because I like to take my Kindle everywhere and this device feels small and delicate, and I’ve liked the old Amazon leather case on my old Kindle.

The one thing keeping me from giving this product a 5-star review is a software issue that really irks me: I paid the extra $20 to have a Kindle without advertising, yet the entire bottom half of the home screen in cover view is taken up with Amazon’s recommendations for me to buy new books. This is advertising, and it is totally unacceptable in a product that costs extra just to avoid advertising. Targeted advertising is still advertising, and there’s not enough space on this screen to make any amount of advertising okay with me.

If I ever want to see what Amazon recommends for me, I’ll visit the Amazon Store and look myself. The end result of this unsolicited advertising on my home screen is that I have to scroll past it to see more than three of the titles on my device, whereas if the ad was gone, I could see six titles right away on the home screen. Given the way the Kindle’s user interface is designed, going to the home screen is necessary to get just about anywhere else, so this advertising block causes me to have to scroll past it over and over again, gumming up my otherwise smooth user experience on the device.

Amazon could easily make this optional with a software update, and I hope they do so very soon. At the very least, this unsolicited, mandatory advertising on the home screen needs to be explicitly disclosed on the sales pages. Had I known that there would still be advertising I could not remove on my device, I might not have paid $20 to avoid advertising.

Until Amazon gives us the option to disable these “recommendations” on the home screen, I’ve used parental controls to just disable the store completely on my Kindle. That does make the ads go away, but it’s not really a convenient solution, because if I ever actually want to buy something on my Kindle, I’ll need to type in a password and re-enable the store. I’ll more likely use a different device for all purchases. This forced advertising, then, really backfires in my case because instead of enticing me to buy more books right on my Kindle, it’s prompted me to shut the store down completely on the Kindle…

In this regard,an Amazon.com official commented on this review (What’s this?)
The Amazon Kindle team saysOctober 26, 2012
AMAZON OFFICIAL

Thank you for your feedback.

We wanted to let you know that in the coming weeks, a free software update will be coming to Kindle Paperwhite. Among other features, we’re adding a setting that will allow customers to control whether or not personalized recommendations appear on the device homepage.

We hope this information helps.

Thanks,
The Kindle Team…

Hope you like this Kindle Paperwhite Review.

Kindle Paperwhite, 6″ High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi

Cobra XRS 9945 Review

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Cobra XRS 9945 Review
Cobra XRS 9945 Voice Alert 15-Band Radar/Laser Detector with Full-Color DataGrafix Display, Digital Compass, and Upgradeable Features

Drive safety is the most important thing.The following is one of the Cobra XRS 9945 reviews, which you may find of interest and beneficial:-

“Saved a tone of money with this. I’ll be honest and I am sorry for this, but I do speed on freeways in America. Sorry, but in my opinion speed limits are way too low here. It’s hard to drive on Autobahns with no speed limits one day, and then the next thing you know, you live in America and you have to live with 55/65 mph. So to cut the chase, I’ve purchased this unit to avoid tickets and to replace my previous lower end Cobra that had a lot of false alarms.

Summary:
Fake alarms reduced by 90% (besides funny moments such as warning me of Train and Railroad when going to Safeway)

Cobra XRS 9945 Voice Alert 15-Band Radar/Laser Detector with Full-Color DataGrafix Display, Digital Compass, and Upgradeable Features

Voice warning comes handy
Detects highway patrol/cops from far far away, including their most advanced guns, thus saving you a fortune.

Beware some officers know their job well: Will not protect you from those smart officers, who know how to ticket you by tailgating you. No detector will help you against that one. Trust me I got ticket that way.

Checked legality with friend of mine who is an Officer and found out that these are not illegal in California. BUT:Keep on mind that seeing one in your car will certainly NOT make Officer happy, and it WILL put you in A bad light.

To conclude: Well paid off investment. I was supposed to be ticketed dozen of times w/out this. At least I am honest and hope that helps. But don’t be me. I still don’t encourage you to you to speed and drive unsafely. Be smart, at the end of the day all that speeding, will save you only 2-3 minutes. I promise to change, too.
:)

P.S. If in need for speed: Go to the race track.”

Hope you like it. More reviews on Cobra XRS 9945 will be presented later.
Cobra XRS 9945 Voice Alert 15-Band Radar/Laser Detector with Full-Color DataGrafix Display, Digital Compass, and Upgradeable Features

Garmin Zumo 660 Review

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Garmin Zumo 660 Review
Garmin zumo 660 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Motorcycle Navigator

The following review on Garmin Zumo 660 has some very important points we all, as consumers, may find of interest.It’s one of the consumer product reviews from Amazon I would like to share…

-The screen is bright enough to be read under almost all conditions, even when wearing sunglasses on a sunny day. The only time I could not see the screen properly was in direct sunlight with the sun shining straight onto the unit from over my shoulder. This was seldom an issue. Screen=5 stars.

-The MP3 player was generally good, but lacked an equalizer. This is especially an issue on a motorcycle where wind noise drowns out bass. An equalizer is surely just a software issue, so there is no excuse for it not being on an $800 unit. MP3 player=3 stars

-The mapping software that comes with the unit is generally easy to use, and routes are easily loaded into the Zumo. Mapping software=4 stars

-The automotive mount that comes with it works well. I have used the unit in cars almost as much as on my motorcycle. Automotive mount=5 stars

-Routing, directions, etc. are good. It will occasionally direct you down a goat path, or tell you to go right, then make a u-turn a half mile later. I can only imagine the complexity of writing this software, so I won’t ding the score too hard. It is as good as any unit I have used (which isn’t that many), but not perfect when the roads are a bit tricky. Routing=4 stars

-Lane assist doesn’t seem to do anything. In all the miles I have covered with this unit, it never once told me which lane to be in, and I could have used assistance on more than one occasion. Maybe it only works in certain large cities. As far as I can tell, it is a totally useless feature, if you can even call something that doesn’t exist a feature. Lane assist=1 star, zero stars if zero is a legal rating.

-I really like the fact that there are two user-selectable fields that show up on the main map screen. This is one of the features that prompted me to buy this GPS. For example, when I am driving in the mountains, I like to know the elevation, so I can set one to continuously show elevation. All told, there are perhaps 20 different items to choose from, such as speed, time to next turn, arrival time, etc. User-selectable fields=5 stars

-One thing that REALLY annoys me is the fact that cities do not show up on the GPS. You can be rolling down the road, and all of a sudden you are in a town, without even knowing you were approaching one. A GPS is a moving map, and when people look at maps they look for basically two things: roads and cities. How can you not have cities show up? This is truly amazing how Garmin could have made such a basic blunder……Hopefully this will be corrected with a future firmware upgrade. Lack of Cities=0 stars, even if 0 stars is not allowed.

-I did not use the bluetooth feature, so I cannot comment on any of those features.

-I purchased this through Amazon and, as usual, they did an excellent job.

Overall, I am quite happy with this unit, but Garmin really needs to fix that city problem…

Hope you enjoy reading this Garmin Zumo 660 review.
Garmin zumo 660 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Motorcycle Navigator

Beltronics Vector V955 Review

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Beltronics Vector V955 Review
Beltronics Vector V955 Radar Detector

I read many product reviews on Beltronics Vector V955 and find some very interesting reviews written by people who uses it.

The following is a case I believe most people may have same or similar situation and experience. Please check it out :-

“My wife and I live 100 miles away from where we both work and we commute daily to and from. Prior to getting the Beltronics 955, I was a nervous wreck driving a total of 3-4 hours a day. I have been driving the commute now for well over a year and I received only 1 ticket but I had to be constantly hyper-vigilant. I did not purchase the device to speed at will, just to provide peace of mind on a long dangerous commute.

The device has performed quite well so far. During the first quarter of the drive there are speed limit postings with embedded Ka band to give you a readout of your speed versus the posted limit. Consistently, I pick up the Ka signal from the sign at 1.4 miles out—long before it can ever pick me up. By the time the sign picks up my speed (something you can see on the readout for at least 1/4 of a mile) I have been aware of its presence for over a mile and had plenty of time to react. I have been made aware of 6 individual situations over the past week where I had considerable time to adjust my speed before actually seeing the cruiser. I might add the highway where I have had the most positive IDs has very few straight runs and many blind corners. I have had no Laser or POP situations to verify warning times. I don’t believe New Mexico State Troopers use Laser or POP twixt Santa Fe and Albuquerque or on the Santa Fe bypass road, but I am sure I will detect it if they do.

On city mode within Albuquerque, I get very few false alarms.
Overall, for the first week of operation I am extremely impressed by the range and detection of the 955. I have had no technical problems with the device thus far.”

It’s a helpful review, I would say. It gives me a good understanding of the performance we can expect from Beltronics Vector V955.
Beltronics Vector V955 Radar Detector