I’ve been batting around the idea of getting the kids a tablet computer for a while now. Something that’s easy for them to use, lets them play their stuff (Facebook-based Flash games and Poptropica, mostly), and that won’t get infested with malware they download along with their Windows games.
The iPad is right out. Too pricey for five and seven year old kids to play with. iPads won’t play their Flash games so it’s a non-starter.
Android tablets like a good fit. The Amazon Kindle Fire is Android-based and the price is right at $199. I like Amazon and already have a Prime membership and a Kindle. They already have loads of content and they’ll have an app store with apps built for the Fire’s 7 inch screen. The Fire supports Flash, and Amazon has some sort of whizbang technology on their servers called Silk that’s supposed to speed up the Flash experience.
Any reason not to pre-order one for Christmas?
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I would test out some of the games on a similarly equipped phone or tablet. I have a reasonably modern Droid X and the flash performance is pretty terrible. Overall I’ve not had very much luck with flash on android devices. Other than that the kindle fire looks to be one of the best tablet values available.
Interesting. I wonder if poor Flash performance on other Droids is why Amazon makes such a big deal out of the Fire’s fast processor and the Silk pre-processing they do on their servers. (And also why Apple nixed Flash on the iPad.)
What did you decide? Did you pre-order?
Thanks!
I sure did. They ship on November 15th. Mine is supposed to be here the 17th.
Very cool! I actually thought about picking up a Fire for Wee Bot to use as both a reader and toy, like you describe for your kids. You’ll have to post a review when you have a chance to play with it.
You got it:
http://www.lesjones.com/2011/11/16/kindle-fire-first-impressions-using-it-with-children/