Amazon Kindle Fire Review

This is the first of hopefully many reviews I will write in the near future. Am I going to claim I have an unbiased review? Not at all. I want to bias myself as a discerning customer. I want to make sure that what I recommend is something I would purchase myself. First off, let me start by saying that the Amazon Kindle Fire is a bit late in arriving to the tablet party. However, with Apple being the only true success in tablets, there is still plenty of room to grow. Unfortunately many of the Android based tablets have all had significant drawbacks that prevented them from competing directly with the mighty iPad. The Kindle Fire is a move to carve a new market segment entirely.

The Kindle Fire was born out of the need to unite all of the Amazon services in one device. Just as the iPhone united a phone, an iPod, and an internet communication device; the Kindle Fire unites the Amazon store, Kindle library, Amazon Appstore, and Amazon Cloud Storage. Amazon is truly committed to the cloud, and that is the basis of success upon which the Kindle Fire is built. Physically, the Kindle Fire is an understated but attractive device. No markings clutter its front face, and the rear simply has "Kindle" carved in the back face with an Amazon logo and FCC markings at the bottom. It feels sturdy and does not flex when grabbed in any direction.

The carousel may offend some,
but operation is straightforward

Operation is straightforward and smooth. Although the UI is not as configurable as many would prefer, I think that also contributes to the ultimate goal of the Kindle Fire: provide an inexpensive, user friendly means of interacting with Amazon services and fulfilling the core duties of a tablet. Oh, did I mention it only costs $200? The lack of hardware buttons requires that all navigation is done using the software buttons for Home, Back, and Menu. However, this is well integrated and allows the buttons to auto-hide when not needed. Operation is smooth, and surprisingly fast for a device with such unremarkable hardware. Only switching from the browser with several Flash-laden websites open back to the home screen really caused any hiccup at all. Some will find the carousel on the home screen to be a tad annoying. I think it is a unique solution to the Android doldrums of a grid of tiles, and aside from requiring perhaps too much precision in making gestures and finger presses, I think it really does a decent job of conveying the "recent items" category without much fuss. There is a always a grid of favorites that can be configured below the carousel for those apps or functions used often.

Web browsing is not as "silky" smooth as Amazon
would have you believe, but it certainly gets the job done

Cloud storage is another feature the Kindle Fire relies on heavily. It only has 8GB of internal storage, so you are essentially required to store most of your media on the Amazon servers. One downside to that is that your Amazon Cloud Drive contents do not appear to be accessible from the Kindle Fire, which is rather disappointing. If there was one major change I would make, it would be to have this capability as many Prime members use their free 20GB of online storage and I don't see why Amazon would not use the opportunity to convince customers to purchase additional storage. If they could allow you to store media in the Cloud Drive and stream it using the Kindle Fire, that would add value to this platform. Media playback is exactly what you expect, without disappointments. The onboard speaker is only on one side of the unit, and of decent quality. Nothing stellar, but nothing offensive in that regard. Unfortunately there is no hardware button for volume, so you will have to access the top menu each time you want to adjust volume, which could get annoying when listening to music with the screen off or during video playback when the screen has to resize for the volume menu bar. Otherwise, video playback is smooth and loads quickly. Battery life is estimated around 8 hours while playing video, which is about 2 hours shy of the iPad. It certainly won't last as long as the Kindles of the past, but this is quite a bit more and lacks the e-ink display of those devices.

The revised Netflix interface
will be appreciated by subscribers

Most of the complaints I have seen focus on the lack of additional features on this device. I think many folks are missing the point here: Amazon is betting that customers don't need features like a camera, Bluetooth, microphone, dual core processor, or expandable storage. They removed these features and instead offer a low price and small form factor. While I would prefer to have additional storage for photos or music, Amazon has made their point about what their tablet is and what it isn't. It isn't a direct competitor to the iPad- it's smaller, costs half as much, relies heavily on the cloud, and is based on Android. However, it offers a lot for a little and still performs the task of being an e-Reader rather well, offering the Kindle collection of books as well as full color magazines, comics, and newspapers. Oh, and did I mention it only costs $200? This product really does bank on the fact that customers don't want their tablet to be another laptop without a keyboard, or a giant smartphone. Many will continue to believe the iPad is the epitome of a tablet, but some, myself included, believe that the tablet market is soon to change. 

2009 Album of the Year

This award may seen sort of arbitrary because I definitely have not listened to every major album release this year. However, my criterion are simple: I want to see something complex, something different, and some true talent. For that I turned to jam bands and classic rockers, the last bastion of rock n' roll prowess on Earth. Mainstream rock and pop are automatically excluded because, well, it's crap. Honestly, lyrics don't justify a band to me- I need some real musical talent. Rap is not eligible because to win album of the year you must be a form of music.

As mentioned before, the two top contenders this year are Derek Trucks Band with Already Free and Gov't Mule with By a Thread. Both albums are amazing in their own right and have some stupendous guitar work.

First, the runner-up. By a Thread is such a cool album. I honestly cannot say how much I love listening to this CD. The variety of styles on each track has something for everyone. In typical Warren Haynes fashion, there are plenty of heavy riffs and slick guitar solos. Jorgen Carlsson is amazing, he is exactly what the band needed and, in my opinion, is better than Andy Hess on average. Saying that this isn't the best album of the year because it wasn't something monumental like Dose would be incorrect. In fact, I think this is the best album produced by Mule since Woody passed away. However, considering what Mule typically does, this album falls right in line. The winner this year has something special that took me by total surprise and elicited a strong emotional reponse.

Already Free is a killer. There is a special bluesy attitude to every track, and the entire album exudes this feeling of uplifting. I always break into a smile when I hit play on this sucker (which has been probably 50 times or more this year). Derek Trucks' slide work is top-notch, he has handily earned his distinction as the best slide guitarist currently alive. There are so many tracks on this album that get you tapping your foot and singing along. All of the vocals and harmonies are superb, and the song featuring Trucks' wife on leads vocals is so full of depth and deeper meaning. One of my favorite tracks is "Get What You Deserve", I've never heard anything quite like it, and really love the band's dynamic on this track. In short, the group feels so tight on this album and they pretty much scored a touchdown with every single track. Anyone who doesn't own a copy of this album should probably make their next move to be to the record store to pick one up. Once you start listening, you'll replay it over and over until you have every song in your heart.

Both of these albums should be purchased by all lovers of music, and the Gov't Mule album has a slight caveat to being runner-up: if I was asked to recommend which band to see live if they could only choose one I would immediately tell them to see Mule. Derek Trucks is great to see live, but after hearing both albums' material played live, Mule does a much better job of improvising on it and putting together a more involving show. Every show of theirs is something great, and they don't disappoint to this day. Warren Haynes has such a large library of songs to choose from that you never know what might get played or who might be guest-starring in a show. Derek Trucks plays a little more closely to the album, but aside from Already Free his material might be a little too offbeat for most people, including me.

Rating something higher than music from my favorite band was difficult, but I think Already Free deserves recognition due to the unique style and memorable licks which immerse the listener and virtually place him in the Trucks home studio with the band. Bravo, after all this 2010 is going to seem quite dull.

Review: "By A Thread" - Gov't Mule

Halfway through this week I took delivery of the new Gov't Mule album, "By a Thread." Now, anyone who knows me will confirm that Mule is my favorite band to listen to and to attend concerts for. However, I was slightly disappointed that they released a new album so close to the end of 2009. Why? Earlier this year, Derek Trucks Band released a killer album, "Already Free." When I had listened to that album I said it was hands down the best album of 2009, perhaps unless the Mule released an album. Well, here it is.
This is a preview of the album that I pieced together to give you a sampling of the flavor of this disc:



The Review:
Needless to say, this album is awesome. Warren Haynes and gang never fail to impress me, and with Jorgen Carlsson onboard they have a new style at bass which is immediately apparent from the first few seconds of this album. All of the guitar work is stellar, and is somewhat of a depart from the power trio style of before. Everything sounds a bit more full, with more layers of guitar and keyboard than previously. Also, just like Already Free, Gov't Mule decided to try a more bluesy tone, although Mule remains a Southern Rock band whereas Derek Trucks lays down a set of Delta Blues tunes that cannot be rivaled in today's music scene.

One of the things I love about "Already Free" is that I don't really have that 'least favorite' track, the one that I always skip. Every since track on that album is great, and for the most part "By A Thread" is the same way. Their last album, "High and Mighty" had a few tracks that dragged on- and for a jam band, Mule is quite capable of avoiding that effect.

Obviously hearing the music for yourself is the best judge of the album, so commenting on detail is pointless. Warren busts out some amazing slide riffs on this album, but does seem to use the same tone for most of the slide licks. Not that it is a bad thing, because his tone is beautiful, but he isn't able to diversify as much as he did in "Dose" or their self-titles album. Either way, Warren Haynes gets better at playing every day, and does not disappoint.

My final verdict on this album is: 9.0/10.0
It isn't perfect, but it will definitely get many listens and should be in every jam band, southern rock, or blues lovers' collection. If you have $15, you would be foolish not to get this album.
As for whether it will win the Best of 2009 award (to be awarded in December), all I can say is that I am still heavily contemplating passing up an album by my favorite band for one of the best blues albums of all time. (Spoiler?)