I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoy using Amazon's latest Kindle Fire tablet, the HDX 8.9.
It's amazingly light (13.2 ounces, not even a pound!), fast (a 2.2GHz Snapdragon processor), with a responsive touch screen and great screen quality. Plus it has goodies like front- and rear facing cameras, surround sound, and the battery lasts forever. It's a joy to play with.
But for the past few weeks, I've been trying — mostly unsuccessfully — to use this tablet for work, not just play. By work I mean email, creating and editing documents, backing up documents to Amazon's built-in cloud service, and sharing them with my main work computer, a MacBook Pro.
I've been testing the Fire HDX as a work machine because Amazon has added a whole bunch of enterprise-friendly features to it, like support for corporate email, a bunch of security options and, most importantly, the ability to share documents with my work computer via the cloud.
Amazon upgraded the HDX to go after an area where the Apple's iPad has been killing it: work tablets. Over 90% of tablets in the enterprise are iPads and nearly all Fortune 500 companies are using iPads, Apple's CEO Tim Cook says.
That's a potentially huge market for a Kindle with its low price, $379.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
The easiest part of using this tablet for work was setting up email. I Just put in my email and password. Worked perfectly.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
Enterprise users can also easily add Microsoft Exchange email accounts, though they might need some info from their IT department to do that.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
Downloading documents as email attachments worked well. It even recognized when I had already downloaded the attachment and "restored" it.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
Multitasking between open apps was easy. Just swipe up on the bottom of the screen.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
The Kindle Fire has a bunch of corporate security features to protect work documents.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
You can also encrypt your files so no one without your password could see them if you lost your device.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
With the Kindle you can log on to a protected corporate network, called a VPN.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
By default, you can view files on the Fire HDX, but not create or edit them, particularly spreadsheets. Not even with Google Docs in the browser. Silk, the Fire's browser, is a mobile browser. Google restricts features for mobile browsers. For instance, it won't let you add more columns to a spreadsheet.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
I had to buy an app, OfficeSuite Pro 7 by Mobile Systems, to create spreadsheets or edit documents. It costs $15.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
OfficeSuite Pro 7 worked as advertised. I could create and edit documents, even spreadsheets.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
Sharing documents created on the Kindle with other devices, like my work PC, was another story. This is supposed to be easy using Amazon's cloud drive.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
First, I had to install Cloud Drive on my Mac by downloading the app.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
It successfully installed but ...
Business Insider/Julie Bort
... required that I also install an app called Java. So I did that, too.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
After the cloud was set up on my Mac, I tried to share a document from my Kindle. But the Kindle wouldn't let me put the document I created on it into the cloud. It offered no option for that.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
So I used the Mayday button. Very cool. Stephanie appeared in a Skype-like window. She couldn't figure out how to share my file to the cloud, either.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
She connected me to the cloud help experts. This kind of tech support was audio-only through the Kindle. That person was stumped, too.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
In the end, the answer was: "No, you can't put documents you create on the Kindle into Amazon's cloud." You can email them if you need to share them or access them from another device.
Business Insider/Julie Bort
In the end, I liked the tablet, the Mayday button and the price ...
Amazon
My conclusion: This is a great tablet for people who want to mostly play and do some email and occasional work.
Or don't plan on creating many documents on this device.
Or are fine with sharing documents through email instead of the cloud.
It's especially good for those who want a high-definition tablet at an affordable price.
Now check out the Kindle Fire HDX's other features ...
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-a-kindle-fire-tablet-for-work-2014-4?op=1#ixzz30CfacH4e
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