

Please do not buy the Kindle fire - Edmond
http://colabopad.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-not-buy-amazon-kindle-fire.html

======
_pius
The author bought the ad-supported version of the Kindle and is now shocked —
_shocked_ — that the device is displaying ads.

This post really does add zero, if not negative, value to Hacker News.

~~~
Edmond
Maybe you were quite careful when making your purchase, I wasn't. I only
wanted a relatively cheap starter tablet which I thought was what I was
getting.

I didn't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry if
this is a naive expectation.

As far as what should or not be posted to HN, I believe that is why there is
an up/down voting system.

Your tone is unnecessarily condescending.

~~~
jamesbritt
_I didn 't expect to receive a device primarily meant to serve me ads, sorry
if this is a naive expectation._

The product page says the ads only appear on the lock screen. They do not (or
should not) appear when actively using the device.

Is this not true?

I'm genuinely curious because it would suck big time if you are shown ads
outside of the limitations the product page describes.

~~~
Edmond
They do in fact show ads in the form of other book "recommendations" based on
what you've read.

Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider
acceptable consumer/merchant relationship.

When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my
calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during
the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would
not have bought it.

We haven't even gotten into the insidious implications of this type of
intrusive marketing for people (kids especially). This is not about
moralizing, I simply consider this unacceptable, others may defer.

~~~
jamesbritt
_When I bought my kindle, looking for hidden gotchas was simply not part of my
calculation. I expected I was buying a device...if there was a popup during
the checkout process that said this product is ad support, I absolutely would
not have bought it._

Interesting. I bought mine from Amazon.com and it was quite clear that I had a
choice of ad-supported or, for a higher price, ad-free. All of this info was
on the product page, and it never felt like anything was hidden.

I think this page is pretty typical:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CU0NSCU/ref=kin_comp_dk_so_img)

There's a clear choice of "With Special Offers" and "Without Special Offers"
with a link to a popup that explains what this means.

If you bough yours from a different site or if the Amazon page did not
indicate these options then I can understand feeling cheated.

I also had planned on rooting my device (at least to the extent that I could
replace the ads with my own images) but I was never able to accomplish that.
For me it ended up to be not a big deal, but I knew from the description of
the product I was buying an ad-supported device in the first place.

 _Ultimately I think we may be of different minds about what we consider
acceptable consumer /merchant relationship._

Well, since I agreed to the Kindle deal I'm OK with it. Amazon.com was quite
upfront about what they were selling. I would not be OK if there was nothing
to indicate I would be seeing ads.

This is something that annoys me with Tivo. I don't recall that they were as
clear when I ordered the service that in addition to an annual fee I would
also have to look at stupid banner ads on assorted screens. Also, as far as I
know, there is no way to opt out of this (such as by paying more, as with the
Kindle).

