Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I keep having to add more cons to this review! I am really hoping I can update this post and give it more stars in the future (after a software update). Pros: -Bigger than I expected, but fits well in smaller hands -Completely awesome parental controls when it comes to how long and when they can be on. You can tell it when to turn off and turn on (bedtime, wake-up time, etc.), how much time, total, they can spend playing each day, and if you want them to spend a certain amount of time reading books, playing apps, watching videos, etc., before they have free reign. - Freetime is great! More books than I had time to scroll through, and many great apps and videos, too. - the case is nice, but we already had that on our 7" kindle, so it's nothing "new", but it is very nice that it's included - We obviously haven't had to use the warranty, but it promises to be great, so... Cons: - 8gb does not get you very far! There are so many great apps and books that you and your kids will want to download, but you'll end up doing a lot of deleting and adding. - This is the biggest complaint, and I consider it to be a huge FAIL by the team who came up with this kid's edition: parents cannot control, AT ALL, what their kids have access to in the freetime library of apps, movies, and books! When you initially register, you have two options- Teens, or Kids (freetime). After that, your kids have full access to anything and everything in the library. Yes, I would agree that probably 99% of it DOES fit in the 3-8 year old range. HOWEVER, what is appropriate and good for an 8 year old, is not always appropriate and good for a 3 year old! I have a 3yr old, and a 6yr old who is on the spectrum for autism, and also has an anxiety disorder. There are many books, apps, and videos that contain content that would be way too scary (ghosts, monsters, witches, etc.) for either of my little kids. However, no amount of restrictions, goals, or parental controls (except taking the kindle away completely) will prevent your kids from viewing, and downloading, anything they want, and my kids are either too young, or don't understand enough not to download and watch/play things like that. I have talked to customer service about this, and she did say that they would be including it in the next software update. However, this was completely NOT what she said in the beginning and middle of the conversation, and even if this is true (which I hope it is), I have no clue when they plan on updating the software. It could be this week, or next year. -Switching between my profile and my son's (when I was trying to figure out if I could edit the freetime library content available to my son) has been really rough! pop-ups telling me to remove item from my storage before I can logon to my son's account, however, all of the items to delete are on his profile, and apparently you have to be on your individual profile to delete your items, so every time I tried going to my son's account to delete items, the pop-ups kept coming back and telling me I had to delete storage. Incredibly frustrating! - Every Single TIME I have switched profiles, I have to go through the entire process of turning wifi back on, searching for a network, and signing in ( at my house). I have never had this problem with our other kindles (that also have multiple profiles), so I don't understand why it is so complicated on this. -There is absolutely NO organization to the apps, books, etc.!!!!!! Why???? Why in the WORLD did someone think that would be fine? You cannot filter your search when trying to find apps you might be interested in. When you do add apps to your kindle, they will not automatically be added to your home page, carousel, or any of section! Unlike EVERY SINGLE OTHER KINDLE AMAZON HAS MADE, there is NO "Device" "Cloud" option to see what you already have downloaded on your device. So if you want to play an app, or read a book that you've downloaded, you have to scroll through EVERY SINGLE app and book in order to find it! Even the tech I talked to today couldn't believe there was no way to filter what they already have downloaded. -No Central Home button. This would be a really useful feature for kids. An external button they can push to get back home. -Battery life is pretty awful. I guess that's what happens when you inadvertently pay to be Amazon's guinea pig, because they clearly did not test this with any parents!! Overall, this has SO much potential! I am excited about the idea of it, but it is falling short with the lack of content control. If this concerns you, I would suggest waiting until Amazon gets their geniuses back in the drawing room to fix this!