Were looking at picking up an eReader. I was leaning towards the Kindle Fire vs Nook Color but now read about the Nook Tablet. From what I am understanding the KF is rootable now? And at this time what one would you pick and why? I do not want to buy only to regret the decision later?
Secondly when rooted does a Barnes and Noble app work on it also? And is their any problem with the cloud?
When rooted does the Android Market work also?
What are some of the things I would want to consider when I compare them? Also from what I understand you lose storage space of the cloud when rooted so loose alot of storage is this true?
molitar said:
Were looking at picking up an eReader. I was leaning towards the Kindle Fire vs Nook Color but now read about the Nook Tablet. From what I am understanding the KF is rootable now? And at this time what one would you pick and why? I do not want to buy only to regret the decision later?
Secondly when rooted does a Barnes and Noble app work on it also? And is their any problem with the cloud?
When rooted does the Android Market work also?
What are some of the things I would want to consider when I compare them? Also from what I understand you lose storage space of the cloud when rooted so loose alot of storage is this true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would reccommend the kindle fire to start off... Yes the kindle fire is very rootable when useing kindle fire utility. The nook tablet and color have options for more space however if you choose not to flash a custom ROM on your kindle fire then you have unlimited amazon storage in the cloud. (Only for Amazon stuff) you also have 5 GB of cloud storage for anything you want. Expandable (for a couple bucks a year). You will not regret buying a KF. Yes B&N app works on rooted kindle fire. No problems with the cloud so far... the android market works when rooted yes.. If you don't mind having to be connected all of the time to wifi to be able to access your books/movies/mp3 files then is it great! No when you root a kindle fire you do not lose the cloud.... that only happens if you flash a custom ROM. However devs are working on USB hosting for the kindle fire so that means flashdrives.. hope this helps you.
I can't think of much else to add. I've had mine since launch and love it. If rooting and flashing custom ROMs are things that interest you then you should definitely go with the KF. The Nook Tablet is apparently lacking in development as I've checked there and am pretty sure they don't have a stable version of CM7 yet when the KF has several rock-solid CM7 ROMs and our devs are making great strides on CM9.
Problems with WiFi Connectiviy
There have been quit a few reports of Kindle Fires not being able to connect to a secure router using WPA/WPA2 - PSK (Personal). Encryption Type TKIP+AES.
They said it works with WEP, but that isn't secure enough.
I bought a Kindle Fire last week and have not been able to maintain a connection on a secure connection. I'm hoping someone in here might have some ideas. Other sites have no been helpful, and I'm hearing support for this is extremely lacking. Hope I posted in the correct place, Thanks.
I've had the nook color and the tablet and the fire. It really depends on what you want, if a ton of support and on board storage are things you want, and don't need the fastest thing ever, the color wins. Also cheaper then the other two. If you just want root but not custom roms and on board storage with more performance then a color, nook tablet. However at a little less you have the same or better performer with custom roms to pick from and don't mind losing onboard storage expansion, the fire wins.
As I said I have owned and hacked modded whatever all 3, for me its nook color or fire, forget the nook tablet for now. I sold my color to get the nook tablet, which I returned and got a fire. I've since moved on to an Acer iconia a100 and my mom uses the fire, rolling an ics rom and doing fine. I can't answer the wifi thing other then it connected to my wpa2 wifi fine for the 15 minutes before it got rooted and rommed. Still works with my wpa2, I've since changed from dlink to Linksys routers, never had an issue not due to a rom bug.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
Mattwm said:
There have been quit a few reports of Kindle Fires not being able to connect to a secure router using WPA/WPA2 - PSK (Personal). Encryption Type TKIP+AES.
They said it works with WEP, but that isn't secure enough.
I bought a Kindle Fire last week and have not been able to maintain a connection on a secure connection. I'm hoping someone in here might have some ideas. Other sites have no been helpful, and I'm hearing support for this is extremely lacking. Hope I posted in the correct place, Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't heard these reports. Anyway, I run stock, have been for months my home connection with wpa2 has not given me any problems with my kindle. Solid.
I got a fire in trade, played withit in stock form. It does its job. I'm accustomed to stock android and am running. CM9 build as of now. The lack of storage do sent bother me because anything no want to listen to is on iheartradio or on Pandora and movies, I can find them if I need them. Mostly tho, I browse the web and XDA looking for a different from for my toys... B-)
Sent from FIREING MA LAZER... \BAUGHHHH/
Deleted. Wrong thread.
But since I'm here anyway...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23747567
I saw the new Kindle Fire SD announced with slightly better specs available for $159. I wanted to buy it and also sign up for Prime to stream video and borrow books and have apps and stuff, plus root it and run Android 4.1 so I can have an awesome cheap "android tablet" with Amazon Prime
Is it worth the $280?
Will there be development?
Thanks in advance for aiding a little noob.
Encerspay said:
I saw the new Kindle Fire SD announced with slightly better specs available for $159. I wanted to buy it and also sign up for Prime to stream video and borrow books and have apps and stuff, plus root it and run Android 4.1 so I can have an awesome cheap "android tablet" with Amazon Prime
Is it worth the $280?
Will there be development?
Thanks in advance for aiding a little noob.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy it because you want to use it as an Amazon tablet. Whether or not these can ever be used as an Android tablet is the big question mark right now. There are rumors and much speculation about whether or not the bootloader will be secured in some way. The way that Amazon is marketing these things with lockscreen advertising, they have plenty of reasons to keep them from being easily manipulated like the first generation devices. Nobody will have any good idea about their potential until the right people start looking at them.
I have no idea where this $280 figure comes into play.
EDIT: I'm not sure the SD version is a good buy anyway. For $40 more, you get the better display, double the storage, bluetooth, HDMI out... that seems like the better choice.
kinfauns said:
Buy it because you want to use it as an Amazon tablet. Whether or not these can ever be used as an Android tablet is the big question mark right now. There are rumors and much speculation about whether or not the bootloader will be secured in some way. The way that Amazon is marketing these things with lockscreen advertising, they have plenty of reasons to keep them from being easily manipulated like the first generation devices. Nobody will have any good idea about their potential until the right people start looking at them.
I have no idea where this $280 figure comes into play.
EDIT: I'm not sure the SD version is a good buy anyway. For $40 more, you get the better display, double the storage, bluetooth, HDMI out... that seems like the better choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The $280 includes Prime, sorry I didn't clarify that
$40 doesn't seem like much at all, and your views on the SD tablet are very interesting. I honestly haven't even considered the HD version. I'll check it out.
Thanks for the input.
It's still a question mark on whether the developers will be able to root the new fire easily. I suggest waiting for a month or so.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
The new Kindles have a locked bootloader, but I have a feeling they'll be easily bypassed since Amazon lets you do manual updates via USB.
Ok you're asking us about 2 separate things. In my opinion, Amazon Prime is only worth $80 if you buy a lot of stuff online.
If I were in your shoes, I'd buy a used Kindle Fire or I'd find a way to get $40 together and buy a Nexus 7.
Hello, I don't know a lot about this as I've never unlocked a device before, but I am reasonably savvy on the PC if given pointers.
I tend to just use the PC (w7-64) when I have time, or my Galaxy S3 when I am about. Recently we bought my daughter a Kindle Fire HDX. Under device model it lists itself as a 3rd Generation.
We however cannot get it to do many of the things we'd like it to do because it cannot use the android store. It's extremely frustrating for her and us. It appears that is because Amazon does not permit it to, even though I unlocked "Apps from Unknown Sources" we are still running into all kinds of blocks.
We dont use the Amazon FreePlay, though it would be nice if that could work if this device ran as a native Android device just in case, but can live without it if not.
I have read Kindle Fire for Beginners ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1552547) but the thread is from 2012 and Im not sure how things have changed from the generations of Kindle Fires.
So....
Where do I start?
I need a set of pages (or threads) with walkthroughs for a 3rd gen. Browsing through the site here, I saw a thread for 1st gen devices, and a lot of threads about unbricking from ROMS, Im not sure I fully need a ROM and probably just root permissions, on the other hand a ROM may be nice. One thing I dont have is a lot of time, and if it's too difficult I can sell the Kindle and buy a Samsung tablet at Costco or something. I just hate to waste money though.
Thanks for your time and help!
You need to go to the kindle fire hdx forums.
That would be me!! lol. Amazon made me an offer I couldn't refuse -$159- I got the free year of prime- I paid for it last year by accident and ended up getting a lot of use out of it, so this made it easy. And the phone was $60 (after putting $99 towards prime), and I opened an amazon CC which gave me $40 in an instant credit- so this phone was $20 in the end!! plus taxes of course.
Before I pulled the trigger I looked to XDA to see where development was for this phone- and it looks like it is picking up and starting to move- so I will be getting this new fire phone tomorrow!!! I have to confess I have been using an iphone 5s (JB of course!) for the last year and a half and have been missing the challenge of rooting, romming, and making the best out of the hardware that is lacking due to poor software.
My plan is to put on the latest update and add google play market- leave it unrooted for now and see how it goes. But I am keeping my eye on beta CM11 and seeing how far it goes with CM 13 possibly in the future!!
@ggow- you seem to be very ambitious with this phone!!!! You are doing some great work and I am following your development closely :good::highfive:. I have never used safestrap before, but I may just have to give it a whirl. You make it very tempting
Why was I interested in this Fire Phone??? I bought a kindle 7 hdx last year and hacked that to run google market and it turned out to be a pretty great tablet that I also got a great deal on. It has the fire OS running along side google market with a great launcher running to swap back and forth. So kindle, instant videos, amazon music, and all the google apps too. It's specs were very close to the ipad mini and was a third of the cost. I gave it to my daughter to use in NYC running on att and she has had no complaints with how I modded it. And she is not very techy! :silly:
I am getting a little bored with my 5s and wanted a bigger screen- I passed on the 6+ since we are no longer getting subsidies and $850 for a phone seems ridiculous!! I don't know if 0.7 inches will make much of a difference, but for $20, I just had to find out
I have a Fire Stick TV also and I want to see how they work together. Very excited to receive this phone tomorrow.
Even after all the horrible reviews I read and watched on you tube!! Hopefully these modifications developed here will make it great!
Geez!!!! 75 views and no comments? Come on people- loosen up and let me know if you love your fire phone or hate it or Hate me cause I got it so cheap:silly: Please share your experiences with your Fire Phone. By now it's a year old, but still looks like a great phone for $60. I am basically a really cheap bargain hunter and wait for things to go on sale. This was really a good one.
Share what you did to make it a great phone! Would love to benefit from your experiences.:highfive: Do you love the Fire OS? Do you love the Market? Or CM11? Please share And I thank you in advance:good:
Great phone for the money. If throw yourself into the Amazon ecosystem the fire OS works quite well but I think only Jeff Bezos has done that so far. I'm using it with a custom launcher at the moment but when cm11 is final I might adopt it.
sashusmom said:
Geez!!!! 75 views and no comments? Come on people- loosen up and let me know if you love your fire phone or hate it or Hate me cause I got it so cheap:silly: Please share your experiences with your Fire Phone. By now it's a year old, but still looks like a great phone for $60. I am basically a really cheap bargain hunter and wait for things to go on sale. This was really a good one.
Share what you did to make it a great phone! Would love to benefit from your experiences.:highfive: Do you love the Fire OS? Do you love the Market? Or CM11? Please share And I thank you in advance:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you asked:
The hardware is incredible for the price. The antutu benchmark puts it slightly faster than a galaxy s5. However, the bells and whistles (extra cameras, 3D, etc) are irrelevant at best. -- The os is terrible. It works well enough but is far behind other smart phones' os. Also, Amazon's wish to completely control your "experience" gets in the way of good hardware. If you root and then add gapps and the google now launcher, the phone is better to use, but still feels wrong, especially when certain apps can only be added through amazon's app store. -- Finally, I'm still irked by the locked bootloader. It was at this stage I put it in the drawer to use as an emergency backup - or maybe a "mini-gamer" for kids.
Then came ggow and his work to bring CM11 to the phone. Thanks to him, I now use it as my daily driver. I have added Xposed Framework with a few modules, all my favorite apps, and the phone is great! The only annoyance is that there are very infrequent random google play services stops which quickly correct themselves leaving a msg that needs to be swiped away. This is no big deal and ggow might have this fixed by the time you read this. Ggow also mentioned bypassing lollipop (CM12) and looking to "M" for his next major upgrade. How this will happen with a locked bootloader I don't know, but all praise to the person who brought my firephone backed to life.
Enjoy your firephone.
I bought the Fire Phone 6 months ago (I think, don't remember), when it was $189 (and a year of Prime). Having a phone with those specs at $90 was a great deal and hard to refuse. Bought it, got it, and the first day of using it I was amused with how different it was from stock Android. I had a Nexus 5, which got stolen, and I wandered with a low-end phone until I bought the Fire Phone. The Fire Phone couldn't be more different from the Nexus 5, software-wise. I saw the lock screen, toyed with it and thought: "Wow, it moves depending on where I look it from, nice!" (my first lock screen was the one with the time made from the stars and the moon with below it) but also "Did Amazon really need 4 cameras just for that? It might drain my battery" and "Which real-world use could I give to this feature?"
Yes, it was nice to see how things moved thanks to the Dynamic Perspective feature, at least at first; then, like all novelties, my attention to it faded and eventually I disabled it. Having my battery drained wasn't worth for a feature I wasn't paying attention to and which the only real-world use I could think of was showing it to some friend to surprise them a for a little time. And because this phone doesn't have a removable battery, I couldn't afford to lose it for some gimmicky feature.
Then I saw the Carousel, which is the home screen where the most recent apps are shown, with the notifications below it. They were affected by the Dynamic Perspective too. I hated that dotted pattern they used for the Carousel, and then I tried to change it for, say, whatever picture this phone could've come with.
I went to Settings, and was surprised to see, first, that that annoying dotted pattern was there too, and then that there wasn't a way to change the wallpaper. I thought "Come on, it's 2015, every OS in the friggin' world has a way to change the wallpaper. It's the most basic form of customization. Even Apple (which I don't hate), with all that walled garden feeling, allows you to change the wallpaper." But Amazon's FireOS didn't (I haven't ever seen a Kindle Fire tablet). My phone shipped with version 3.6.8, and we had to wait until May to see such a basic feature with the upgrade to 4.6.1. I got annoyed by that, but there was nothing I could to about it.
I checked the pre-loaded games, which make heavy use of the same Dynamic Perspective. I half-liked the Planet Blocks game and played it for a while. After that, I forgot I had it and remained hidden.
Then I went to the Appstore to see what was new. I knew the Appstore didn't have any Google app, and understood it. Amazon had an equivalent to every Google app and, even though I didn't like how they looked, they got the job done, and that was what mattered. Downloading and installing was what I was used to, and updating was a breeze.
But I guess I missed some apps that weren't on the Appstore and was lazy to not sideload all of them. I needed to see good ol' Google on this phone, so I went to XDA and checked if there was a way to sideload Google Play Services. After all, underneath all the Amazon skin and no traces of Google, FireOS was Android at the heart (3.6.8 was based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which was pretty outdated even then). There was a way to install Google Play Services, and there was a way to root the phone too, but only if you were brave (and foolish) enough to downgrade to 3.5.1 (it was a bad idea, because if you did that, there would be problems with the Amazon account registration and also some nasty overheating issue). So, I stayed with just installing Google Play Services. It went smoothly and finally got Google. With the Play Store I'd be able to download and install SwiftKey and maybe Google Now Launcher or Nova Launcher.
I got no luck with SwiftKey. It installed, but then you couldn't use it unless you activated it via ADB. After that, got SwiftKey. And about launchers, they worked, except for widgets (which weren't supported in FireOS) and the wallpaper (there was a way to change the wallpaper in Nova; you could choose the image, but it never worked; you had to like the black background because it was the only option). I checked other launchers, some supported widgets (not all widgets, but some) and some found a way to change the wallpaper. I stuck with Buzz Launcher, which made the phone look and work most similar to Android.
I hoped Amazon would sometime hear what users here at XDA (and everywhere else) had to say. The Fire Phone was a great piece of hardware, but its software was a bummer. People were trying to google it but all you could do was sideload Google Play Services. The bootloader was locked (and still is), and the Towelroot method for rooting didn't work for 3.6.8, so downgrading was the next stage for googling up the device. I remember seeing some guys here at XDA offering some money to the first person to unlock the bootloader, and some people sending a letter to Jeff Bezos himself to unlock it and then also a Change.org petition, taking the example of the HP TouchPad tablet (it saw new life after HP unlocked its bootloader, after which people flashed Android instead of the built-in webOS, becoming the second-most selling tablet of 2011). It never happened.
Then it was the question if the phone would ever receive a FireOS 4 update (based on Android 4.4 KitKat), given its lackluster sales. It finally happened on May, and came with very necessary changes to help customize the phone.
This new version would eventually be rooted via Kingroot, which is a very shady-looking app for rooting. It worked, and then there was a way to change it for SuperSU, a more reliable root app. With all the long wait, knowing a developer found a way to flash a ROM even with the locked bootloader was a relief. I flashed it as fast as I could. Now I'm using Cyanogenmod 11 and it's great (no trace of Amazon). It's still beta (the developer uploaded the first build just 4 days ago), but it works pretty well right now, and it'll only get better.
Now we can use a phone that has a great price and good specs with a great OS to match. To the people out there wondering if the phone is worth the price (right now it went back to $449 and comes with a year of Amazon Prime, with $99 alone, so the phone's real price is $350), no, it's not, you could get a OnePlus One at that price (which comes with Cyanogen OS), or a Moto X, or a Xiaomi Mi4, or many other great phones below $350 (and then if, and only if, you want Amazon Prime you can subscribe). When it gets a big discount, which happens from time to time (last one was this week and the price went down to $159), it gets more attractive (especially if you were going to subscribe to Amazon Prime). The phone has many gimmicky features which are really useless, uses an OS that is difficult to adapt to, and is overpriced most of the time (no wonder Amazon failed to sell it at launch at $199 with AT&T contact, or later at $649 unlocked, or now at $449), but may be a great deal when bought at discount (this week the real price of the phone was $60, and at that price you cannot get any smartphone off-contract) and if you're willing to tinker with the phone and flash a ROM (Cyanogenmod 11 is the only one right now, but might be more in the future), it makes a pretty good phone.
A quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera and 2.1MP front camera, 1080p recording, 32GB of built-in storage and now the ability to flash Cyanogenmod 11 for just $60? I'd buy it.
Wow!! Great responses guys. I thank you for taking the time to offer your opinions and I really look forward to receiving my Fire phone
Got my Fire phone!!
I really like the screen- overall size of the phone is not really bigger than my 5s but the screen real estate is a little bigger. It's not so lite that you will drop it or so thin you will drop it either. When I use my 5s bare, I have a hard time hanging onto it. It's in a wallet case that I can get a good grab onto. I like a little heft to it and it does feel good in your hand.
I have the incipio folio case on this fire phone that I got for $10 from ATT online store. That was a really good deal. Also did a screen saver just because I like them and the protection from minute scratches they provide.
So, on my Amazon account it was registered to me and the free prime was added on. When I went to set up the phone it requires you to register again to your account and I got all errors that it couldn't be done at this time, blah blah blah. I researched it and apparently this was a big problem at launch too.
So I updated it to the latest of 4.6.1 (820) and tried again, same deal. It just wouldn't register. So I de-registered it on my computer, and tried again on the phone, no go. You can't use the phone without it being asso. with an amazon acct- no apps at all are usable, even the preinstalled ones. So I chatted online, they couldn't help me and wanted to have their Fire Team support call me back- but I couldn't at that time so I will deal with it tomorrow. I'll have to search this forum and see if there's any info about it.
In the meantime I got the google apps working so now I at least have a pretty good list of apps, but no amazon services working yet. I still have to add a sim card and check the basic call functions- since it is a phone.
The benefit of picking up a phone that is a year old is you guys have already tackled the tough parts of rooting, modding, roms, etc. I checked out this forum before purchasing and was pleasantly surprised that you just made the break through just this week for CM. I may have to check that out! I have the att Mega and that poor orphan phone is so crippled most guys just walked away. I Love it for it's 6 inch screen size. The iphone 6+ was in my thoughts but can't justify that price tag. My mega was a penny when we still did subsidies.
I thank you all for your perseverance and hard work and your stick-to-it-ive-ness:good: This could actually be a decent phone with all the modifications. I am hoping I can leave it as is and swap between the Fire OS and the Nova launcher. Hopefully I'll get it registered correctly tomorrow. It's nice getting back into android after apple. I like them both- but I do get bored.
*************************************************************************
So even though it is 3 am here, I just got off the phone with fire phone support and I was told it was a system wide outage and there are many people having this problem. They will get back to me!! I won't hold my breath here
**************************************************************************************************************
Talked again to amazon and I am "on the list" to have this registration fubar sorted out. She took additional info- my mac address on the phone specifically, and supposedly this will be fixed OTA magically. We'll see.
I do have a working sim in and phone calls work fine. I have issue with the tinny sounding speakers that are suppose to be stereo- Sounds terrible- especially with music clips ringtones. Pandora sounds bad too. I did read the reviews about the sound and it appears to be true.
******************************************************************************************
So Amazon finally fixed the registration problem OTA. I can now access my Amazon stuff. Problem solved.
Hello guys.
I bougth the above mentioned (which I'm not sure the information is 100% correct, but windows properties when i connect the fire stick to it says firmware1.0) some years ago and i was scammed.
Bouight it from a third party, obviously, and the phone stoped existing soon after.
Yes, stupid, i know.
I have confirmed that the device in question is banned on amazon, due to misplaced/stolen and they cant help me (whicH i totally understand).
It just pains me - A LOT more than being scammed - having a piece of hardware that is actually in good shape and throwing it in the garbage.
Is there something I can use this for? I've tried browing the internet but I come a accross a lot of jargon that throws me off.
I'm tech savy or computer savy enought to follow tutorials but I cant really understand where to start or even to be sure if this device can be worked on.
Please tell me if this is something i should persue and if you can lend a hand in pointing me the right way or if it's pointless and ill throw it in the garbage.
Thanks everyone.
Edit: i think this is what windows identified the stick as
Fire TV Stick 4K – 1st Gen (2018)AFTMMFire OS 6