Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

(for the record, we have not returned it yet, but I think we probably will, it's her call) We received the Fire on the 16th. Luckily it was a 'gift' so it wasn't pre-registered. I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend who is a former PC, and now a happy Mac user. The hype all lead me to believe that this was going to be kind of a cool in-between device between her laptop and her iphone4S. Not at all. This device feels like something from around 2004. If this was 2004, it would seem really cool. but it's not. Here's my list of complaints and observations so far: * power button is in a TERRIBLE spot - the bottom. we have both accidentally hit the button more than once. But wait - can't you just rotate the device around that the screen will re-orient so the button is on the top? No. Oddly, and frustratingly, some apps, will, some won't. That should be baked into the OS, not dependent on the App! * It gets hot. uncomfortably hot, and only after 20 minutes of use. and it only gets hot in the bottom portion - where more than likely you are HOLDING it, oh yeah, and accidentally hitting the power button. * touch screen is inaccurate. If you hold the device at an angle in the sun, you can clearly see the spacing of the touch sensors, and then you will know why the touch screen is so dodgy. they really cheaped out on this with very few sensors. I get why, for the price point, but with so many apple devices out there, that's GOT TO BE considered the standard now - the iphone Edge came out YEARS ago, no being able to measure up to that is just not gonna cut it. The credit card signing pad at the grocery store has better accuracy than this. * scrolling is jittery, stutters, and un-even. So everything has to have scrolling nowadays, but it's a fail on the Fire. It actually hurts my eyes to try to watch the screen as it scrolls, it stutters and jitters in a very unpleasant way, I can only describe it as a strobe effect. * screen does not dim enough. come on Amazon - it's a KINDLE! I'm guessing that more than 1/2 of all kindle users read in bed! in a DARK BEDROOM. even at the lowest setting, the Fire is obnoxiously bright for nighttime reading in bed, and not useable as a reader in that scenario. * not a good Ereader, in general. The Fire screen doesn't even compare to a Kindle Eink screen. period. * No lock. seriously. there no way to password protect the device. You leave it in a cab, on the subway, a bus, restaurant, where ever, and whoever picks it up instantly has access to your amazon account, and can happily start making charges, not to mention, if you've got email set up on it, all the security risk potential there. This, in my opinion, is the second most glaring and epic FAIL of the Fire. Because it would have been SO EASY to have fixed this when they developed the software. (see below for the worst of all) * Multi-touch? there's ONE multi-touch gesture. that's it. zoom. and it doesn't work in a lot of places you'd expect it to. Basic places. Like Google maps. Seriously? Isn't this thing running on an OS created BY GOOGLE?!? But no, you have to use the little + and - buttons for zooming. * Browser. completely fails to live up the the hype Amazon gave it (I watched ALL the demo videos and pre-release reviews I cold get my hands on). My iPhone is faster on the same wi-fi connection. But worse that the speed, the browser isn't even full screen.(the top and bottom go unused. I'm sorry but when you only have a 7" screen, every little bit makes a big difference. * the 'carousel' GUI. (graphic user interface). Okay, this is the big one. First off, as every other 1 star review has mentioned, there's zero privacy. When you turn it on, you are faced with a gigantic display of recent activity, on a virtual 'shelf'. Giant and often poorly rendered icons of WHATEVER 6-10 things you happened to have been doing last on the Fire are there for all the world to see. But what's even worse is this: YOU CANNOT CHANGE IT. you can't delete stuff from there, you can't re-arrange stuff in there. it's just there. and WAY TOO BIG. how about a home screen you can customize? Amazon will tell you that you can use 'favorites'. But no. favorites only stack up in whatever order you put them in there - you can't arrange that either. It really boggles the mind. what were they thinking? That's all for now. Hope this helps.