????軟件方面，亞馬遜為Fire選用了谷歌（Google）的Android操作系統(tǒng)（其內(nèi)核代號為“姜餅”）并創(chuàng)建了以灰色和橙色為主的全新用戶界面。主屏幕設(shè)計得像一個書架，屏幕上有四大板塊：一條纖細(xì)的狀態(tài)和通告欄，用以顯示電池狀態(tài)或后臺運(yùn)行的程序；一個橫欄，按照媒體類型分門別類地展示書籍、視頻和軟件；一個虛擬的“旋轉(zhuǎn)木馬”式封面瀏覽器，可供點(diǎn)擊瀏覽近期看過的媒體；一塊特定區(qū)域，可供用戶做書簽標(biāo)記。

????一般情況下，在Fire上的閱讀體驗(yàn)與基于電子墨水的最新款Kindle同樣流暢，但是新型處理器使運(yùn)行速度要更快些。但是由于它采用了彩色屏幕，因此和iPad，Nook Color及其他平板電腦一樣，在室外閱讀可能就會頗為困難。另一方面，照片和其他圖形也可彈出展現(xiàn)。用它來讀像《時尚先生》（Esquire）這類以圖片為主的期刊時賞心悅目，同時要標(biāo)出一些生詞或做些批注也來得更快捷。閱讀漫畫書時，我確實(shí)注意到翻屏有點(diǎn)遲滯，但在讀其他內(nèi)容時就沒有碰到這種問題。

????Fire的一大引人入勝之處是能從亞馬遜公司內(nèi)部和第三方服務(wù)商處獲得大量精選視頻。亞馬遜將Fire上的視頻分成三大類：尊享即時視頻，電影和電視節(jié)目。亞馬遜用戶可以很方便地找到或搜索內(nèi)容，隨后就能向亞馬遜租用或購買了。雖然能在Fire上租借高清視頻，但它本身只支持標(biāo)清視頻播放。因此，如果要租高清版的《X戰(zhàn)警：第一季》（X-Men: First Class），它只能在其他兼容的設(shè)備上播放，在Fire上則只能觀賞標(biāo)清版。亞馬遜應(yīng)用程序商店（Amazon Appstore）即將推出成千上萬種第三方應(yīng)用程序，流訂閱（Hulu Plus）及流暢播放的網(wǎng)飛公司（Netflix）視頻軟件也在其中。

????亞馬遜的Silk網(wǎng)絡(luò)瀏覽器也已獲得廣泛關(guān)注，因?yàn)樗c其他網(wǎng)絡(luò)瀏覽器的工作原理不同：有些網(wǎng)頁上載是由亞馬遜的EC 2云服務(wù)完成的，有些則由Fire自身來完成。數(shù)據(jù)會為了這款平板電腦而進(jìn)行優(yōu)化處理，因此正像公司所解釋的，一幅3MB的圖像可能被壓縮成50K的文件。游湖瀏覽特定網(wǎng)站時，Silk還會分析其他用戶瀏覽這些網(wǎng)站的一般規(guī)律，并根據(jù)這些行為特征，設(shè)法預(yù)測當(dāng)前用戶下一步將點(diǎn)擊什么，并預(yù)先載入相關(guān)內(nèi)容。

????For its software, Amazon took a version of Google's (GOOG) Android operating system (for the hardcore, codenamed "Gingerbread") and built a new user interface dominated by grays and orange. Designed to look like a book shelf, the home screen displays a thin status and notifications bar to display battery life or messages from apps running in the background, a row that categorizes items by media type like books, videos and apps, a virtual Cover Flow-like "carousel" of recently-browsed media to swipe through, and an area where users can bookmark things.

????The reading experience is usually as fluid as the latest crop of e-ink-based Kindle devices, but things hum along a little faster thanks to that processor. But just like the iPad, Nook Color, and other tablets, you may have trouble reading outdoors thanks to the device's color screen. On the other hand, photos and other art pop. Reading a photo-friendly periodical like Esquire is a pleasure, and little things like highlighting words for definitions or making notes are much faster. I did notice some lag swiping between comic books panels, though I didn't run into that problem when reading other media.

????One of the Fire's draws is a decent video selection from in-house and third-party services. Amazon breaks up the video section on the Fire into three main categories -- Prime Instant Videos, Movies and TV Shows. The company makes the experience easy to stumble upon or search something out, then either rent or purchase it. Though you can rent HD content on it, the Fire only supports standard definition video. So if you rent X-Men: First Class in high definition, it'll play in HD on other compatible devices, but in standard definition on the Fire. Hulu Plus, and a smooth-running version of Netflix, will also be among the thousands of third-party apps available at launch from the Amazon Appstore.

????Amazon's Silk has received a lot of coverage because it works differently from some other web browsers: some of the work of loading web pages is done by Amazon's EC2 cloud service, and some is handled by the Fire itself. Data is optimized for the tablet, so as the company explains, a 3-megabyte image may be crunched into a 50-kilobyte file. Silk also analyzes how other users typically navigate a particular web site you're visiting and based on the behavior, tries to predict what you'll click on next and pre-load it.