Any deals on a Kindle Fire?

[daughtersrus]

I'm really stumped on what to get DD#3 for Christmas. A little background. DD is pretty severely disabled. Lately she has been playing simple online games at school with a touch screen computer. DD#1 brought home her touch screen laptop from school (she's a SpEd teacher) and they had fun playing the games. There's no way that I can afford a touch screen laptop and honestly an Ipad is also out of reach. Another teacher friend suggested a Kindle Fire. She referred to it as a "poor man's Ipad"

Are there any deals out there? The lowest price that I've seen is $199.

Edited to add... Would the Kindle Touch work for what DD would use it for?

 

[la79al]

How old is your daughter?

 

[riley2008]

No deals on the Fire as they were just released last month and are selling like hotcakes.

Yes, the Fire would work for what you want. Our speech therapist is starting to move kids off the iPads for voice output and on to Fires and other 7" and 10" android tablets. The smaller size makes them more portable, but if you DD has fine motor difficulties, the smaller size could be a hinderance.

You may also want to check out the Samsung Galaxy (imo it's the Android equivalent to the Apple iPad, even in cost). They have a 10", 8.9" and 7" version. We got our DS an Acer Iconia 8g on black Friday for $229. (You can upgrade the memory on these by adding a micro SD card.) We've been playing around with it and we love it. It will do everything DS needs and the screen sensitivity is good.

HTH

 

[la79al]

How old is your daughter? And I think $199 is pretty much the price everywhere for the Kindle Fire. It just came out a few weeks ago.

 

[daughtersrus]

My DD is 17yo but because of the disease functions closer to a 5 yo. She also has hearing loss (wears hearing aids) and vision loss (can't see out of right eye). She is non-verbal, has motor skill problems (can't hold a spoon/fork, sit by herself, walk...) but can reach for a switch and uses a touch screen at school. I've never seen the Kindle in action so I'm wondering if her touch will be hard enough to activate it. When you download books, do they have an audio feature where she could touch the screen for it to go on to the next page?

I really dislike this time of year ( and her birthday) because it really brings her problems to the surface.

I just hate spending $200 on something that she wouldn't be able to use.

 

[luvmyeor]

The Kindle Fire does not have text to speech.

 

[Sandy321]

Amazon discussion boards really caution people to NOT think of the Fire as an ipad - it is $199, and dd and I looked at one at Best Buy, and we did fall in love, dd loved the color, the music feature, and some of the games - I liked the magazines that could be read on there -

and honestly, its not a good ereader either (no text to speech, no eink) I know dvcLiz will come and post, she's much better informed and expressive than I can be - I only have a little bit of information (and thus, that can be dangerous)

You say your other dd is a sp ed teacher - she played with a touch screen with your dd, so maybe she can be a better at helping you with this question...

 

[yoopermom]

I just got my Fire and am loving it, but as of right now, the "touch" part is pretty iffy (ok, I just have fat fingers ), so I've been using a stylus. There's a software update rolling out soon that "might" help with this, but I wouldn't count on it.

If she has small motor control, I would hold out until you can afford one of the larger ones with a 10" screen (Amazon is rumored to have one coming out in the spring).

And I wouldn't call it a "bad" ereader. I've set the color to beige, and it's not bad (although not as clear as the e-ink is). I never used the text to speech on my Kindle 2 because it was the "robot voice". If anyone is thinking about a Fire, and really loves audiobooks, audible.com has a great deal on it if you agree to their monthly subscription price.

Good luck to you!

Terri

 

[riley2008]

My DD is 17yo but because of the disease functions closer to a 5 yo. She also has hearing loss (wears hearing aids) and vision loss (can't see out of right eye). She is non-verbal, has motor skill problems (can't hold a spoon/fork, sit by herself, walk...) but can reach for a switch and uses a touch screen at school. I've never seen the Kindle in action so I'm wondering if her touch will be hard enough to activate it. When you download books, do they have an audio feature where she could touch the screen for it to go on to the next page?

I really dislike this time of year ( and her birthday) because it really brings her problems to the surface.

I just hate spending $200 on something that she wouldn't be able to use.

I'd really look into a reburbished Android tablet with a 10" screen. Looks through the applications/games that you are thinking about too. There are lots of great aps out there, including free voice-output communication software too.

 

[LilMamiBella]

I think you can get $100 off if you sign up for an audible (audiobook) membership.