Monday, January 2, 2012

Kindles for Christmas

So I got that Kindle I wrote about a few weeks ago. It was actually for our son for Christmas, but I justified opening it and "configuring" it for him because of Amazon's free app of the day. I was glad to be able to get a bunch of games and few other things on it for him in advance of Santa putting it under the tree. My friends laughed at me for how much time I spent "configuring" it.



Anyway... I also secretly got one for Keri. She played with our son's a few times and I could tell that she would like one, so I got one and secreted it at my office. Christmas secrets are fun.

Christmas morning... surprise, surprise... Keri got me one too. We both pulled out these "special" packages that weren't under the tree and handed them to each other. Fun! So now we have three Kindle Fires in the house. Fun, fun. All those apps and stuff now get used thrice. Fun, fun, fun!

Probably my favorite thing about the Fire is the Church's Gospel Library app (which is now available for the Fire natively--- no more need to sideload it). Scriptures, conferences, study manuals, lesson manuals, handbooks, etc. --- all in one place, cross-referenced and "clickable." With an LDS account, you can even sync your study notes and highlights with the online study notebook at lds.org. The ability to "play" with this app has lead me to spend more time in the scriptures and in conference addresses than I ever have. Hurray for technology, eh?

We also upgraded our internet from DSL to cable. All these wireless devices in the house competing for bandwidth, and the overall cost will be lower once we dropkick our land-line.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay!
But what about the kids? If you get rid of the landline and there is trouble how are they going to call you/police? I've always wondered how people can kick the land line with kids at home. I know that some people use cell phones but in my experience; kids with cell phones don't last too long. The toilet eats the phone, it gets misplaced etc.. I'm curious to know what your solution is? I too don't want a landline but having a phone tied to the wall never gets lost, everyone knows where to find it and you get quality calls from strangers at dinner time!

Unknown said...

Hey Cody. Happy New Year.

That's a good point that we haven't figured out entirely yet. We'll probably go with Ooma or a similar VOIP phone to maintain a reliable, findable phone.

What other ideas strike you?

Unknown said...

Will Ooma do 911? I know Skype wont do that. What about power? If the power goes out and the phone is reliant on power/internet then :(

I've heard mixed things about 'phonejack' I know people that use it a lot but hate it. It's cheaper/easier to get a new phonejack and service than to renew it so they are constantly changing numbers.

Technology should make things easier. I think people shouldn't have to adapt to it, it should adapt to the people.

I have no ideas what to do. Maybe find a store from the 90's and buy your kids beepers? 2 way radios? Teach them to make smoke signals with a grease fire in the kitchen? Everyone an iPhone?... I like that one. Everyone an iPhone! You all win!

Unknown said...

Ooma has 911. Power is an issue, of course. It relies on an internet connect, which relies on power.

We are considering getting a cell phone for the house. Funny, huh! A mobile phone to leave at home.

DeShawn said...

I won a Kindle Fire at my company holiday party and gave it to my wife for Christmas. She loves, loves, loves it, and she is in no way a "gadget" girl.

Unknown said...

That's perfect, DeShawn. We love ours and get lots of use from them every day. For example, Gospel Library for Kindle Fire is wonderful. Not flawless, but very, very good. (I'm sure you know that though, right?)