Amazon preparing update to improve Kindle Fire performance

Amazon's Kindle Fire has been a huge success so far, thanks to the low cost and high standard of online store support. That said, many reviewers and consumers have been complaining about the lackluster performance.

Amazon have taken the criticism on board and have announced they will release a software update shortly to address some of the problems.

The New York Times were rather damning with their criticism saying that it lacked volume control buttons and very long load times for webpages. They also mentioned the poor placement of the off switch and that the device lacks privacy protection on a software level. Other publications have said that the Kindle Fire lacks parental controls, which is a concern for parents who want to block pornography from view.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen was also very negative, giving the device an extremely poor user experience rating. He said “The most striking observation from testing the Fire is that everything is much too small on the screen, leading to frequent tap errors and accidental activation. You haven't seen the fat-finger problem in its full glory until you've watched users struggle to touch things on the Fire. One poor guy spent several minutes trying to log in to Facebook, but was repeatedly foiled by accidentally touching the wrong field or button — this on a page with only 2 text fields and 1 button.”

Amazon said they are aware of complaints and will release the ‘over the air' update within the next couple of weeks, probably in time for the Christmas holidays. This update will give performance enhancements and multitouch navigation. They are also added better privacy support, allowing users to edit the recent activity list.

Amazon have yet to supply detailed sales figures but they are claiming that it is their best selling product since pre orders began. CEO Jeff Bezos is very positive about the device, saying they are building millions of units, and more than initially planned.

Kitguru says: Have you bought a Kindle Fire yet? are you happy with the user experience?

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