Dear Friends,

By 4 p.m. it is pretty dark now, and we are well into stick season. Normally, by this time of year we have some much colder weather and snow but mild temperatures have continued, so I’ll bet I get the motorcycle out this weekend.

We are right in the middle of our Anniversary Sale. I was at our Manchester location yesterday and will be traveling between the stores quite a bit during the holidays. We are opening at 4 a.m. on Black Friday in Manchester, 5 a.m. in S. Burlington and 9 a.m. here in Waitsfield (pssst…don’t tell anyone because we are officially not allowed to open until 10).

I bought a Kindle Fire from Amazon and received it this week. Our subsidiary, Hammerhead, is considering making cases for the Kindle, and aside from wanting to check it out, I need to test the fit with various cases. I want to give my initial impressions. My overall conclusion is that this is no iPad killer. Right from the start, the differences were apparent. The plain brown package that the Kindle Fire came in was in sharp contrast to the detailed packaging that came with the iPad. The box contained the Kindle, a charger and a little instruction sheet that actually ripped because it was glued into the pocket.

Getting over that first impression, it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to turn it on. The Fire is smaller but seems to weigh as much as an iPad. It is hefty. Now for some good points: When I fired it up it already knew who I was (because I have an Amazon account), and all my Kindle books that I had purchased for my iPhone and iPad were already on the device. The browser is adequate, and I was relieved to see that our website rendered just fine.

There seem to be quite a bit of apps and media to download for the Kindle Fire, and while I can see that this may be a nice product for some, it is clearly not a threat to the iPad. Let’s just talk about the screen size: the little 7-inch screen is a bit small, and this becomes very apparent when you try to type on the device, as the virtual keyboard is tiny. Never relax, Apple, but don’t lose much sleep over the Kindle Fire.