Kindle Fire Will Let You Dump Ads, Force You To Use Bing

One step forward, one step back.

One thing I didn’t mention in my Kindle breakdown last week, mostly because Jeff Bezos didn’t think it was that big a deal, was that the Kindle Fire, a device that you pay for and own, will show ads at you. Yes, a device designed solely for you to buy media in a tiny controlled ecosystem will also feature ads every time you fire it up from sleep.

This isn’t new: Previous Kindles had this “feature,” but pay Amazon a $30 bounty and you could remove the intrusion from an object that you own. The Kindle Fire was not going to do this, however. Unsurprisingly, though, the rage of the Internet has changed Amazon’s mind.

Here’s what Amazon had to say, announcing the ads were ditchable:

We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We’re happy to offer customers the choice.

So, if so few of them chose to opt out, you initially said there was no opt-out on the ads because… giggles?

Speaking of advertising and greed, Microsoft cut Amazon a check and made the Kindle Fire less useful as an Internet browsing device:

Adam Sohn, general manager of communications and influencer marketing at Bing, said the “last bits” of the deal were finalized only today. Sohn said Bing would be the “initial default” search engine on the Kindle Fire HD and new Kindle Fire tablets.

We’re not trying to be bitchy here, but this is the same Bing that is currently tanking its Pepsi challenge against Google. In a tablet with a broken OS that will be fighting its users… this may not have been the best choice, guys.