$40 Amazon Fire - Worth it?

[Regolith]

The basic model of the Amazon fire is on sale now for $40. I already have a Kindle Paperwhite....is the Fire worth it?

[Ben]

I only have the original Kindle Fire, so there may be changes in later generations that negate some of what I say.

I'm not that crazy about it. As an Amazon linked tool, I think they are great, but if you want an all around tablet, I would recommend getting one of the "regular" Android devices - Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, etc.

If you have the ducats to just toss out, forty bucks is a good deal if you want to play with one and you do a lot of Amazon video watching, music, etc. However, if you're thinking of also using it as a reader, don't do it. I hate mine as a reader (that includes all tablets). Your Paperwhite (I have one too) is 1000x better as a reader.

[RevDisk]

The basic model of the Amazon fire is on sale now for $40. I already have a Kindle Paperwhite....is the Fire worth it?

I snagged one on Black Friday sale for $33 or $35 ish. Yep. I kinda sorta wish I had gone with the 16GB model instead of the 8GB model. But I treat it as disposable. It's not the best tablet, but very good to excellent at the price point.

It's insanely easy to add the Google Play store and disable ads if you're inclined. Takes about four commands. It's normal Android with a custom dashboard. You could easily override it with a different one, but I haven't seen the need. OTG accessories do work.

[KD5NRH]

Rooted it the day after I got it, and it comes in handy for all sorts of things now.  Actually makes a pretty good video player for when I just want to go hang out at the cafe and take notes on martial arts videos, or to look up details on something at the dojo.  (Usually settling disagreement over which of a half dozen moves that a particular pair of Japanese words could apply to is the right one.)  Of course, chess and MPuzzle are just better on the larger-than-a-phone-but-still-fits-a-cargp-pocket screen too.

[KD5NRH]

However, if you're thinking of also using it as a reader, don't do it. I hate mine as a reader (that includes all tablets). Your Paperwhite (I have one too) is 1000x better as a reader.

Depends on what you're reading; for plain text in normal light, I'd absolutely go to an e-ink reader, but a lot of the martial arts texts, among others, are at least moderately illustrated, and that comes through well on the Fire, as well as making for an easy way to look up whatever's bugging me as I'm trying to get to sleep without having to turn the lights back on.

[Ben]

Depends on what you're reading; for plain text in normal light, I'd absolutely go to an e-ink reader, but a lot of the martial arts texts, among others, are at least moderately illustrated, and that comes through well on the Fire, as well as making for an easy way to look up whatever's bugging me as I'm trying to get to sleep without having to turn the lights back on.

Paperwhites are backlit (actually "frontlit") and are great in a darkened room. I agree though, on something highly illustrated, like a tech manual. However, I don't like reading those on any reader. If it's something that requires referencing a lot of images, tables, or whatever, I much prefer the dead tree version.

[KD5NRH]

Paperwhites are backlit (actually "frontlit") and are great in a darkened room. I agree though, on something highly illustrated, like a tech manual. However, I don't like reading those on any reader. If it's something that requires referencing a lot of images, tables, or whatever, I much prefer the dead tree version.

Paper is good for reference materials, as long as you're not having to lug a dozen War and Peace sized tech manuals around.  I wish tablets had been around when I was doing field service.

[makattak]

I only have the original Kindle Fire, so there may be changes in later generations that negate some of what I say.

I'm not that crazy about it. As an Amazon linked tool, I think they are great, but if you want an all around tablet, I would recommend getting one of the "regular" Android devices - Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, etc.

If you have the ducats to just toss out, forty bucks is a good deal if you want to play with one and you do a lot of Amazon video watching, music, etc. However, if you're thinking of also using it as a reader, don't do it. I hate mine as a reader (that includes all tablets). Your Paperwhite (I have one too) is 1000x better as a reader.

There are. We have both the newest version and the original. (Picked up the new one on the same black friday sale as Rev, as it was too tempting.)

As a reader, the original was awful. We use it mainly for playing videos and games for the kids.

The new one is much lighter and thinner. It is much more comfortable as a reader, should you choose to use it as such.

It is still an excellent video platform and now has Alexa which I've used only to play music, but Alexa is a fun little toy. Definitely worth the $40.

[Regolith]

I guess I should state that I don't have a whole lot of money to throw around right now. I've got $170 or so of disposable income from Christmas and my birthday, and I'm going to be using a good portion of that to buy a new hard drive (current 600GB one is quickly filling up) and either modifying or buying a new computer case (current one is missing a foot, has overly loud fans, a broke front USB port, weighs a ton and has a few other issues that are mostly aesthetic). I could just about fit the Fire into that if I compromise a bit on the other things, but I'm not sure if I should. It's damn tempting, though...

[zxcvbob]

I have a paperwhite.  I don't use it much, but when I do I really appreciate that its Internet browser sucks, and it's really only good for reading books offline.  I spend way too much of my time connected.

Not sure if that answers your question.  $40 sounds like a good deal.  But I don't want one.

[K Frame]

Woot has refurb Kindle Fire HD 9" tables on sale today.

http://www.woot.com/category/computers?ref=w_gh_cp_4

[Regolith]

So I was in Staples yesterday looking for something unrelated and noticed they had the Fire at the $39.99 sale price. Gotta say that it's a lot harder to turn down an impulse buy when its sitting there staring you in the face, so I guess that's something Brick and Mortar stores still have over internet retailers...

So far it isn't too bad. I expected it to be slower than it is; I haven't been disappointed with the speed yet. I was fine with the 8GB memory, until I got it running and noticed that the OS takes up a pretty good portion of that, so its more like 5.67 GB.  Gonna have to spring for a memory card sometime in the future.

The battery life isn't too bad. Looks like you can get 3-4 hours of streaming out of it. The 7 hours quoted must be with wireless off and the screen dimmed, and you're only running the Kindle app or something.


Anyone have any resources on how to jailbreak this thing? I've been looking into it, but it's a bit hard to tell which websites I can trust not to load it full of spyware or viruses. At the very least I'd like to get Google Play on it so I have an option for apps outside the Amazon's Appstore. I did manage to get Firefox on it, so at least I have a browser that isn't Silk, which seems to have a problem with playing the volume of internet videos at a way too low level.

[Ben]

So I was in Staples yesterday looking for something unrelated and noticed they had the Fire at the $39.99 sale price. Gotta say that it's a lot harder to turn down an impulse buy when its sitting there staring you in the face, so I guess that's something Brick and Mortar stores still have over internet retailers...

Staples, and probably otherB&M retailers, are really looking to compete with Amazon. I finally upgraded to a laser printer last month, which they were selling on sale for $75 less then Amazon. Then they price matched Amazon on toner and the guy told me they will price match Amazon on anything in stock. I only learned that because he wanted to sell me toner, but I told him I was just gonna buy it on Amazon (figuring they would be way cheaper). When he price matched, I said "what the hell."  :)

[RevDisk]

Anyone have any resources on how to jailbreak this thing? I've been looking into it, but it's a bit hard to tell which websites I can trust not to load it full of spyware or viruses. At the very least I'd like to get Google Play on it so I have an option for apps outside the Amazon's Appstore. I did manage to get Firefox on it, so at least I have a browser that isn't Silk, which seems to have a problem with playing the volume of internet videos at a way too low level.

Yes, you want an SD card. That's pretty standard, though. I keep a 128 or 200 gig microSD card in my phones, generally tiny cheap $20 64 gig cards in my tablets.

No need to root or jailbreak. I mean, you can, but you don't need to do so and there's some reasons not to. I just installed the Google play store on mine and was happy, but you can easily root your tablet if desired.

http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/

Download Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip , unzip, install the ADB driver, run 1-Install-Play-Store.bat. Done.

If you MUST root it, go to http://www.rootjunky.com/amazon-fire-5th-gen-supertool/

[Regolith]

Yes, you want an SD card. That's pretty standard, though. I keep a 128 or 200 gig microSD card in my phones, generally tiny cheap $20 64 gig cards in my tablets.

No need to root or jailbreak. I mean, you can, but you don't need to do so and there's some reasons not to. I just installed the Google play store on mine and was happy, but you can easily root your tablet if desired.

http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/

Download Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip , unzip, install the ADB driver, run 1-Install-Play-Store.bat. Done.

If you MUST root it, go to http://www.rootjunky.com/amazon-fire-5th-gen-supertool/

How did you get Google Play on there? I've looked around and couldn't really find a "legit" way, i.e. through Google or Amazon. I found some third party sites that had the apk files for it, but I don't really have anyway to verify that they haven't been loaded up with malware.

[RevDisk]

How did you get Google Play on there? I've looked around and couldn't really find a "legit" way, i.e. through Google or Amazon. I found some third party sites that had the apk files for it, but I don't really have anyway to verify that they haven't been loaded up with malware.

*shrug*

As I said, tis the way I've done it and I've used that particular site on a lot of devices. No issues so far, but even legit sites do get hacked or distribute malware. I tested it on a sandbox WiFi environment, and it didn't have any suspicious traffic other than the 'legit' surveillance that Google does. Which is a lot.

[K Frame]

You can hack google play onto your tablet, but you can't fix the quote button...

 

[RevDisk]

You can hack google play onto your tablet, but you can't fix the quote button...

 

Buddy of mine was a volunteer coach. He always kept the signup sheet for volunteering coaching on hand. When someone in the crowd got vocal about how he was coaching, he would hand them the sheet. If the person felt their judgment was superior to the job he was doing, said person was very welcome to have the volunteer job.

Since the issue is only impacting a handful of folks, there is no security risk and I didn't want to inconvenience the majority of users, I've been waiting until a suitably low traffic period of time to wipe and clean install everything. It's a slow process and can take two hours if everything goes well. If it was significantly impacting folks or even blocked any users, I would have been on it immediately. Unfortunately work and sidework has been busy so my late night or early morning maintenance slots have been eaten up lately by paid work.

But if you think you can do a better job and have the time/inclination, I am perfectly willing to hand over server duties to you. Not upset or anything, very willing to have an alternative willing to step up and do a better job. You may have a more flexible schedule that would allow you to better fill the volunteer position. Want me to ask Nick and Oleg?

[K Frame]

Do you need some adult coloring books and play dough?

If you've not learned that APS isn't exactly a psyche safe zone and you're subject to some good natured ribbing now and again, then what the *expletive deleted*ck are you doing here at all?

[KD5NRH]

No need to root or jailbreak. I mean, you can, but you don't need to do so and there's some reasons not to.

CyanogenMod (now LineageOS) beats the heck out of the Fire's interface if you're used to regular Androids, and has a lot less extra junk that you don't need.

[zxcvbob]

Do you need some adult coloring books and play dough?

If you've not learned that APS isn't exactly a psyche safe zone and you're subject to some good natured ribbing now and again, then what the *expletive deleted*ck are you doing here at all?

Tell me more about these "adult" coloring books...

[KD5NRH]

Tell me more about these "adult" coloring books...

https://www.amazon.com/Calm-Down-Irreverent-Adult-Coloring/dp/1522864741/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486998915&sr=1-4
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Yourself-Im-Coloring-Swear/dp/2376190053/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486998915&sr=1-5
https://www.amazon.com/Swear-Word-Coloring-Book-featured/dp/1530428017/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486998915&sr=1-10
https://www.amazon.com/Cheer-Up-Irreverently-Positive-Irreverent/dp/1534602089/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486998982&sr=1-23
https://www.amazon.com/Swear-Word-Coloring-Book-Featuring/dp/1532841361/ref=sr_1_43?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486999072&sr=1-43
https://www.amazon.com/Off-Coloring-Swear-Word-Book/dp/1946449997/ref=sr_1_77?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486999134&sr=1-77

[MillCreek]

I have not installed Google Play on my Fire tablets.  I use one of the apk downloader sites to sideload apps from Google Play onto the Fire.  Google Play is a necessity for some of the Google apps, but I have not found any Google apps that I cannot live without on the Fire.

[Regolith]

*shrug*

As I said, tis the way I've done it and I've used that particular site on a lot of devices. No issues so far, but even legit sites do get hacked or distribute malware. I tested it on a sandbox WiFi environment, and it didn't have any suspicious traffic other than the 'legit' surveillance that Google does. Which is a lot.

Ah, I missed that you had already listed the way you did it. Thanks for the info. I might give it a try.




Meanwhile, I found this on the appstore last night: Stellarium Mobile Sky Map.  Shows stars, constellations, deep sky objects, satellites, etc. Can put it into accelerometer mode so you can hold it up, and it will show you what your looking at.

That right there justified buying the entire thing. I've got the (quite good, and free) desktop version on all my regular computers, but with the Fire I can take it outside and use it there, which I couldn't easily with my other computers.