Usage - Solar Charger

I picked up a Solio solar charger for my Fire at Radio Shack. It will be useful for trips, camping, power outages (offline, of course since the network will also be down) or other times when I'm away from a power source.



To try it out, I let the Fire battery go down to 69% then plugged the Solio in. After about 20-30 minutes, I checked the power on my Fire again and it was at 63%.

Come to find out, I didn't set the charger correctly and was using the Fire to charge my Solio. Sometimes it's worth the time to read the instructions.

This is what I bought:

Solio® Bolt Solar Charger
Model: S620-AH1RW | Catalog #: 23-1522
Cost: $69.99

You can see it (and order it) here:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12322646

The Solio folds to half the size shown above.

This could also be used to charge cell phones and other devices using a USB or micro-USB connection..

Technical - First Production Update

Amazon is getting ready to upgrade the software on the Kindle Fire.

All computer companies do this for any supported product. This seems to be coming pretty quick. My interpretation is that it shows that Amazon is responsive to market feedback. However, what time will tell is how efficient their release process is. That is, how well has it been tested before throwing it over the wall at their customers.

I'm also interested in seeing if the update will be optional, or will the Fire detect an update and "automagically" install it for you.

If it's optional, I'll wait a couple weeks before putting it in to ensure that all the bugs are worked out. With any upgrade, it's good to remember the old saying about Microsoft products: Never buy Microsoft product until service Pack 2 (the second major update). if you've ever updated operating systems before, then chances are you've been burned once or twice.

Here's an article describing the first release: Kindle Fire: Major Software Update Soon, By Paul McDougall InformationWeek December 12, 2011

UPDATE: The upgrade installed itself with me even knowing it.

I did notice that my Fire is more responsive to touch and that the browser works faster. My opinion is that the upgrade added value.

Downside - Clunky Volume Control and Kiddie Shopping

In an article titled "Amazon plots Kindle Fire update: Aims to weather first flap" a couple issues are brought up with the Kindle Fire.

One issue has to do with the lack of an external volume control and the number of clicks required to make adjustments. In the user world "clicks" are never considered to be a good thing.

So while Fire users develop calloused fingertips, Amazon is releasing a patch in two weeks to address this (rather insignificant) characteristic.

The second issue identified has to do with the click-to-purchase feature of Amazon products. Sure it's convenient. However, those that give these devices to kids may be in for a surprise when they receive their monthly credit card statement and discover that the kiddies have gone shopping.

Perhaps the ability to set an optional password for purchases would be an easy fix.