Develop Bugs

[NST][Home replacement] EpubBrowser [11/04/2012]

Hi,
I did up a home replacement for my Nook simple touch, thought I would share it. This is an initial release, no doubt there are bugs, incompatibilities, etc, you were warned. There are no checks for other devices at this point, NST only.
Thanks to the nook community for the noogie.img file, touch nooter, and relaunch for source code ideas and various threads regarding quick refresh and e-ink support.
Disclaimer: Now, what I am using currently is the bare minimum, I have tried quite a bit of the work in this forum and it works well, but I wasn't satisfied or 100% confident and I wanted less installed. So, I restored my nook to stock, used noogie and copied over a rooted ramdisk. That was it, no touchcolortools, nooktouchtools installed, adw minimal this or that, or button saviors. I am sure they are great programs but I don't know enough about them or have the interest/time to do research on them to want to keep them installed.
For me, the point is to keep things simple and maintain battery life. It's an e-reader not a tablet after all. I just want to read books, check email, check a website or two, get some more use out of wi-fi since I don't live in a B&N supported nation.
​To install:adb install EPubBrowser.apk
Optional:
I also installed Email.apk and set up my gmail from there, no certificates required or a million google app files and plucking a chicken on a Tuesday after jumping on your left foot crap. No offense to those who like chicken plucking.
adb install Email.apk
Done and done.
I can do up a CWM zip upon request, but last going off I have a continuous reboot after installing the latest version and if you know enough to get the Nook's CWM installed you should be able to use adb.​See attached files.
What is not working:
Since Android doesn't really know about multiple external storage locations (at least for the Nook's 2.1 and/or my knowledge of android) EPubBrowser is unable to detect when the internal storage has been remounted, there is no notification of that, just notification of external storage. So if you plug in your usb cord to the computer the list of books will be empty even when you remove it. So if you don't have an sdcard you will have to hit the back button and launch home again to refresh.
Also, B&N books are not listed, whatever is in My Files will be scanned only. That applies to internal and sdcard storage. You can still use B&N's Library to access those.
I don't have any option of uninstalling apps either. adb uninstall works fine or you can just delete files from /data/app via adb shell.
What is working:
Launch of EPubBrowser via nook's home button, without use of nooktouchtools, it duplicates how the B&N home app works.
The notification icon for resuming reading goes through the app. As long as the book was launched from EPubBrowser it can remember the last book, otherwise the main display will show up. Reason being that for whatever reason the last page read doesn't work with the B&N home screen if it's not a book bought from B&N. But if you are just using the B&N Reader app it's not a problem.
When you are prompted which home you want you can select EPubBrowser and hit default. This may not stay set and will go away the next time you reboot.
How to use:Left / right swipes to go to the next 6, previous 6 books, no indication of the current page is displayed, (e-ink and aesthetics).
Touch a book cover to launch a description of the book, swipe up and down to scroll through the description, touch the cover displayed there to start reading. Hit back button on top of screen to exit without launching a book.
To bring up the list of apps installed, swipe a clockwise circle starting at 10 O'clock. Touch an app to launch it, left or right swipe to go back to main screen.​That's it for now.
If you have any ideas for improvements, bug reports, please provide as much detail as possible, and when you have done that add some more detail.
Cheers!
Updates:
2/19/2012:
Added screensaver for last read book. (Jpeg 75%) Settings->Display->Screensavers->EPubBrowser
11/4/2012:
Added src project

Looks nice! I'll give it a shot later when my Nook's charged.

Thank you for making and sharing, i am going to try tomorrow and tell you,

Improvements
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it

OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.

ChunC said:
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
You swipe left to go to the previous page of books. You swipe right to go to the next page of books, assuming you have more than 6 books. Personally, I know what books I have on the device so it's not a problem knowing how many are left to see for me.
The back button should be on top of the screen in the middle, not sure why it wouldn't be there on yours. I will give it a think, maybe remove the scroll control in the book description and just use gesture detection and scroll the text via code.
Responsiveness and speed will likely improve over time, I am using the gesture library, maybe there are some optimizations there I can do.
Cheers!

Googie2149 said:
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!

WANT
Noted that it does not work with go, will have to get rid of that first.
From the screenshots, I can already tell you put time into polishing! Good job!

NFHimself said:
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try it again without the GO software, but it was making everything just keep flashing, like the lock screen.

@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.

Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said

tazzix said:
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I use Calibre as well, I just connect via adb and calibre picks up the nook and I copy books over and it converts on the fly, cool program. Using Calibre data is an idea worth looking into, if I can fit it into the theme of no preferences, no extra buttons or config. There are plenty of those kind of home apps already. Relaunch for one is great, just missing a graphical front end, I was going to mod that, but decided that I didn't really need so much stuff and I wanted to learn more android API.
I did up the app using pretty straight forward epub standards (note the plural), it works with most epubs I have run across, not sure if looking for extra xml is a good functionality vs performance tradeoff. I haven't been using EPubBrowser for very long myself, so when I add more books and find something annoying I will probably make changes to fix it. I want to keep things simple, if I need a preferences menu, it is already going the wrong way.
I am not specifying any class, just a regular launch this epub file intent, so it should work with any reader. I like the stock reader myself, cool reader seems to dislike some epubs I have above a certain size, and I didn't want to deal with it.
I may github it, I am kinda time limited these days.
Cheers!

AgentSlash said:
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
More details are needed to figure that out. What device do you have? What do you have installed on it?
Cheers!

I just wiped then manually rooted my Nook, and this works now. Although I'm having some trouble with getting to the apps page after the first time I did it. Could you possible change how you get to the apps page? Maybe change it so you have to click the menu key to get to apps.
Edit: Now that I've added my books, it shows me two books, one empty, and another book. Now it just flashes and removes/re-adds the last book. :/
Edit 2: I found that there are a few books that just don't like this launcher and cause the entire Nook to start flashing. I've been adding my books one by one to see which work and which don't and I'll try and find similarities between those that don't.

Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg

ace7196 said:
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!

NFHimself said:
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone through and removed / added ebooks, and still the same problem.

Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!

NFHimself said:
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, it doesn't matter how many books I have, it's just a few specific books that crash, independent of the other books in my library, and some books are more severe than others (one makes the entire Nook start flashing (all software), others make only this app flash).

I have the same problem as the people above but I can't get past the first page. I can't seem to narrow it down to a certain book making it crash. It's a shame I love this home screen, but hopefully we can get this fixed and running great.

[APP] PRadio - Pandora for Windows 8

PRadio is a Windows 8 Store App for Pandora. Unlike IE, this app allows users to stream music from Pandora recommendation service in the background. It works great on tablets such as Microsoft Surface. This app works only in the US. If you want to use it in other countries you need a US based proxy or VPN software such as openvpn.net
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Features Supported
* Add radio stations via the search charm
* Search for Genre, Album, Artist and Songs
* Delete radio stations via the app bar
* Pin radio stations to start menu
* Play/Pause/Skip songs
* Multimedia Keyboard Support
* Support for snapped view and portrait layout.
* History of Songs Played
* Share Song Information with other applications via share charm
* Provide feedback for a song
* Background Streaming
* Support for touch and tablets
To download the released version please visit the Windows Store and search for PRadio or open the following link in IE.
http://bit.ly/Yt9qT5
The app is only available in the US Store, if you are in another country you can switch to the US Store by going to "Control Panel\Clock, Language, and Region\ Change region."
[Update 12/14/2012]:
If you want to try out the latest version that will be available shortly on the store you will need to sideload the app. This version supports background music streaming on Surface RT even when the device is locked (Connected Standby).
Please follow the instructions given below:
1. Download Pandora_0.0.4.8_AnyCPU_Test and unzip to any folder e.g. xyz.
2. Open powershell as an administrator
3. Execute the following commands in powershell
a) set-executionpolicy unrestricted
b) cd xyz\Pandora_0.0.4.8_AnyCPU_Test
c) .\Add-AppDevPackage.ps1
[Note: Installation process might ask you to login to your Microsoft Account which is necessary to get the necessary certificates from the windows store to sign the package]
If you have feedback on the app, please post below.
What is Pandora?
Pandora Internet Radio, an automated music recommendation service and "custodian" of the Music Genome Project whose service in full is only available in the United States, with limited access in Australia and New Zealand. The service plays musical selections similar to song suggestions entered by a user. The user provides positive or negative feedback for songs chosen by the service, which are taken into account for future selections.

Wow, very nicely implemented for a third-party client! The snapped interface is very good as well. The interface when something *else* is snapped (which means it only has about 1040 pixels of width on the Surface) isn't perfect though (usable, but some stuff gets covered).
I'd be happy to sideload and test a new version.
EDIT: A bit more feedback: the app doesn't handle being backgrounded very gracefully. It will stop playing after the current song. I suppose that *could* be intentional, but it's annoying.

GoodDayToDie said:
Wow, very nicely implemented for a third-party client! The snapped interface is very good as well. The interface when something *else* is snapped (which means it only has about 1040 pixels of width on the Surface) isn't perfect though (usable, but some stuff gets covered).
I'd be happy to sideload and test a new version.
EDIT: A bit more feedback: the app doesn't handle being backgrounded very gracefully. It will stop playing after the current song. I suppose that *could* be intentional, but it's annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback, I just posted instructions to sideload the new version.
It should not stop playing after the current song, this is not intentional. Can you send me the following PRadioInformation.log file which should be present in
%appdata%\..\Local\Packages\28268splashtetra.PRadio_80qntxqrmk3vj\LocalState folder

Sorry, I should correct myself: it won't start the next song if the screen is off. Turning the screen on by itself won't start playing agian, either; you either have to use the media control and hit Play, or log in and have the app at least partially in the foreground.
If you still need the log I'll post it here in a bit.

GoodDayToDie said:
Sorry, I should correct myself: it won't start the next song if the screen is off. Turning the screen on by itself won't start playing agian, either; you either have to use the media control and hit Play, or log in and have the app at least partially in the foreground.
If you still need the log I'll post it here in a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using a Surface RT or an ARM based tablet? If yes, I believe it is going into connected standby. In connected standby, windows does not let the app get the next playlist. I need to use a different set of API to support this scenario. As soon as I get hold of an ARM tablet I will add support for this. If this is not an ARM based tablet then please send me the logs.

GoodDayToDie said:
Sorry, I should correct myself: it won't start the next song if the screen is off. Turning the screen on by itself won't start playing agian, either; you either have to use the media control and hit Play, or log in and have the app at least partially in the foreground.
If you still need the log I'll post it here in a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi GoodDayToDie or any Surface RT user,
I have created a new version 0.3.3 of the PRadio which hopefully should work in your machine. Can you give it a try? I do not own one yet so I cannot try it myself.
Instructions are given below.
Thanks
Instructions:
1. Download Pandora_0.0.3.3_AnyCPU_Test and unzip to any folder e.g. xyz.
2. Open powershell as an administrator
3. Execute the following commands in powershell
a) set-executionpolicy unrestricted
b) cd xyz\Pandora_0.0.3.3_AnyCPU_Test
c) .\Add-AppDevPackage.ps1
[Note: It might ask you to login to your Microsoft Account that is necessary to get the necessary certificates to sign the package]

Thanks! Yes, I'm using Surface RT. I'm sideloading your app now and will report later.
EDIT: Works fine! I had to uninstall the current (store) version first, but it preserved my configuration (you using the roaming AppData?) so that was no problem.
The music playback did cut out eventually, but I'm guessing that's intentional (just the "are you still there?" check, perhaps) since it was after an hour or so of inactivity, and as soon as I brought he app forward again it resumed. I'm on a free account, BTW (used to subscribe, but between them not creating a WP7 app and the advantages of Zune Pass instead, I let it lapse).
One piece of feedback: you could put a lot more info on the About page. Version would be good, for example, and I didn't actually see attribution for the CC-licensed artwork, just a mention that it was CC-BY. Other than that, love it!

Seems to be working all nice and proper for me now too, on RT.
Eats far less CPU than letting IE run in desktop mode.
Edit: Every once in a while there seems to be a delay for it loading the next song of 30-45 seconds. Not critical, just noting.
Edit2: More feedback.
1) I can't forward to the next song from the volume menu.
2) It seems to stop playing after an hour and a half or so, on a Pandora One account.
3) It'd be nice if it could remember the last station and start playing on launch
4) Related, it'd be nice if it automatically logged in on launch, not sending you to the login screen. Perhaps a settings option to clear the stored user settings, and make it log in automatically?
5) I suspect this is more of an OS issue, but outputting through a USB sound card and putting the device to sleep causes the audio to become garbled and broken.
6) The formatting seems to be a bit off in portrait mode, the 'Log Out' button on the top clips over the station name, and there's a considerable amount of deadspace at the bottom of the screen (probably a good 1/3 of the screen is wasted)
And, are the advertisements on it yours or Pandora's? If they're Pandora's, it'd be nice if you could detect if it's a Pandora One account.

does this work for cdn. IP addresses? regular pandora won't let cdn IP users
i know on android, you have to use ORBIT something app, forgot the name, and on iphone you use that hot shield free VPN

Thanks for the feedback GoodDayToDie & netham45.
The music playback did cut out eventually, but I'm guessing that's intentional (just the "are you still there?" check, perhaps) since it was after an hour or so of inactivity
>> I know why it fails to play after an hour....Connected Standby, I will fix this in the next release.
>> you could put a lot more info on the About page. Version would be good, for example, and I didn't actually see attribution for the CC-licensed artwork, just a mention that it was CC-BY
I will add version in About page. Currently if you run the app and in taskmanager search pandora.exe, right-click and go to properties you can see the version. I will add attribution too. Good catch!!
>> I can't forward to the next song from the volume menu.
Forwarding is currently disabled as Pandora does limit the number of skips after some time. If a users keeps on skipping he/she will eventually hit this limit and there is no UI to message this to the user. This also prevented my app to be certified in the store so i decided to disable it for now till i figure out a better way to deal with this.
It'd be nice if it could remember the last station and start playing on launch
Good feedback, I will add in the next release.
Related, it'd be nice if it automatically logged in on launch, not sending you to the login screen. Perhaps a settings option to clear the stored user settings, and make it log in automatically?
Currently it should automatically login based on the credentials stored on the machine. Do you want a way to clear the settings?
I suspect this is more of an OS issue, but outputting through a USB sound card and putting the device to sleep causes the audio to become garbled and broken
Interesting....Thanks for reporting it. I would need to get hold of a USB sound card to try this out. Was this on the RT device?
The formatting seems to be a bit off in portrait mode, the 'Log Out' button on the top clips over the station name, and there's a considerable amount of deadspace at the bottom of the screen (probably a good 1/3 of the screen is wasted)
Thanks Log Out button should not have appeared. Will fix it and i will try to make better use of the real estate.
And, are the advertisements on it yours or Pandora's? If they're Pandora's, it'd be nice if you could detect if it's a Pandora One account.
The advertisements are mine...Not Pandora's maybe i can reduce the number of advertisements if that is a big eye sore. Thanks again for the feedback.

cobyman7035 said:
does this work for cdn. IP addresses? regular pandora won't let cdn IP users
i know on android, you have to use ORBIT something app, forgot the name, and on iphone you use that hot shield free VPN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use any VPN software to connect to US based server (I tried openvpn.net although has a data limit) you should be able to use the app to listen to pandora via the app. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

hsalps said:
Thanks for the feedback GoodDayToDie & netham45.
Related, it'd be nice if it automatically logged in on launch, not sending you to the login screen. Perhaps a settings option to clear the stored user settings, and make it log in automatically?
Currently it should automatically login based on the credentials stored on the machine. Do you want a way to clear the settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sends me to the login screen most of the time when I launch it, or if I come back to it if it's been inactive for 5-6 hours.
hsalps said:
Thanks for the feedback GoodDayToDie & netham45.
I suspect this is more of an OS issue, but outputting through a USB sound card and putting the device to sleep causes the audio to become garbled and broken
Interesting....Thanks for reporting it. I would need to get hold of a USB sound card to try this out. Was this on the RT device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I'm using RT, though further testing shows that I get the same result no matter what music app I use, so I blame the OS.

netham45 said:
It sends me to the login screen most of the time when I launch it, or if I come back to it if it's been inactive for 5-6 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you send me the PRadioInformation.log file which should be present in %appdata%\..\Local\Packages\28268splashtetra.PRadi o_80qntxqrmk3vj\LocalState folder? This should help me understand why it is not saving the password on RT.
netham45 said:
Yes I'm using RT, though further testing shows that I get the same result no matter what music app I use, so I blame the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you also give details of the USB audio device like Manufacturer, Version etc? I will report this to Microsoft.

Superb app good sir! lives on my second monitor if not just for the cool background
Thanks!

cammykool said:
Superb app good sir! lives on my second monitor if not just for the cool background
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks cammykool!!

why not put it up in the windows store?

The previous version is actually already up there. We've been helping test the next release, at which point hsalps will presumably release a store update.

hsalps said:
Can you send me the PRadioInformation.log file which should be present in %appdata%\..\Local\Packages\28268splashtetra.PRadi o_80qntxqrmk3vj\LocalState folder? This should help me understand why it is not saving the password on RT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't seem to get it to replicate it now. =/
hsalps said:
Can you also give details of the USB audio device like Manufacturer, Version etc? I will report this to Microsoft.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried it with two Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 headsets and a generic unlabeled USB audio card.

so im using a test build?

cammykool said:
why not put it up in the windows store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The store guys are approving the latest version of the app right now (Takes 7 days ). I will update this thread when it is available on the windows store. The older release is already in the store.

Requesting feedback on new app - NotiFire

Update 5/8/14 - Just wanted to let everyone know that I've released this app under a new name to the Amazon Appstore, now called "Signal for Fire TV". I really appreciate all the feedback and most the suggestions made it into the initial version, including Tasker support. I've also removed the temporary demo version.
Some links:
Download the app here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/dl/android?p=com.jigawattlabs.signal
Details on app here: http://www.jigawattlabs.com/signal-for-fire-tv
Tasker instructions here: http://www.jigawattlabs.com/tasker-instructions-for-signal
Thanks for all the help!
-Gregg
*********************
Update 4/28/14 - just uploaded new version to (removed)
Added help screens and fixed a few bugs. I think this is feature complete for the first release, except for how to charge for it. Demo and Paid version, or in app purchase?
*********************
Update 4/27/14 - just released an updated version of the app. Please install on both the FireTV and your Android phone/tablet. Changes include:
- Send notifications to all FireTV devices (although the Send button on the FireTVs tab only sends to the currently selected FireTV)
- Privacy settings on FireTV side to turn on/off the sender name and the actual message
- Added ability to get notified when any app posts a notification.
To enable app notifications, the following are REQUIRED
- You must be running Android 4.3 or above. The app takes advantage of a new app notification feature introduced in 4.3
- You MUST first hit the "Enable App Notifications" button in the APPS tab, and make sure the NotiFireTV app has a checkbox next to it
- Select the apps you want to get notifications on. For example - Gmail and mail are likely candidates
Please post your comments and suggestions. And thanks for all the great feedback.
*********************
Hi all. I've developed a new app specifically for the FireTV called NotiFire, and I'm looking for feedback before I release it. The basic idea is that if you get a phone call or text message on your phone or tablet, a notification will pop up on the FireTV showing you the notification and who it's from.
It doesn't matter if your Android device isn't near by or silent - it just needs to be connected to the same wifi network (and same channel if you have multiple channels). I plan to add additional notifications over time.
There is one apk, and it needs to be installed on both the FireTV and your Android device. You can download the latest version here: http://jigawattlabs.com/notifire/NotiFire.apk
On the FireTV, do the following:
- adb connect (ip address of your firetv)
- adb install NotiFire.apk
- From FireTV home screen, go to Settings->Applications->NotiFire->Launch Application
- You can leave all the check boxes checked if you want, but you should set the FireTV name - maybe something like "Living Room"
- Exit back to the home screen
On your Android device
- Launch the NotiFire.apk
- If all goes well, within a few seconds you should see a line in the list for your FireTV. If you have multiple FireTV devices, they should show up
- Select your FireTV and it's name should turn orange to show it's now the default FireTV
- Go to the Notifications tab and make sure the notifications you want to send to the FireTV are checked
- Exit the app
At this point, any time you get a call or SMS message, you should get a notification on the FireTV - even in the middle of watching a movie or whatever. The NotiFire app doesn't need to be visible on either the FireTV or your Andorid device since they run background services that will also start up when you reboot either device. So you really don't need to launch the app any more on either device, except if the FireTV IP address changes. If it does, just launch the NotiFire app again and re-select your FireTV.
You can also just send a simple message from your phone to the FireTV by entering some text at the bottom of the Fire TVs tab and hitting the send button.
Permissions
Note that there are a lot of permissions that the app requests. Here is an explanation:
Checking WiFi status and sending messages across the network:
INTERNET
ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
Keeps the devices going into such a deep sleep they won't respond when needed
WAKE_LOCK
For device discovery, send broadcast to all devices on network to see which are FireTVs:
CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE
See if my background process is running:
GET_TASKS
Reverse lookup to get name of caller/SMS sender
READ_CONTACTS
For caching files
READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
Detect if a phone call or SMS message is received
READ_PHONE_STATE
RECEIVE_SMS
Automatically start background service on startup
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED
Known issues:
- (Fixed by locking orientation) After an orientation change on the phone/tablet, app doesn't seem to detect FireTV devices. For now, just close and open app again
- (Fixed) Preference changes on FireTV don't seem to take effect until you close and restart the NotiFire app again

Just tested sideloading the app to the Fire and installing it on my Note 2. Works like a charm! Thanks for a great app
Will it be able to notifications beside phone calls and SMS? Should be fairly easy to add with the current implementation already in place.

I think so. Just wanted to get the basic framework in place first and then add on from there. I'll have to see how to get copies of all notifications.
Thanks for testing!
-Gregg
Equalizer said:
Just tested sideloading the app to the Fire and installing it on my Note 2. Works like a charm! Thanks for a great app
Will it be able to notifications beside phone calls and SMS? Should be fairly easy to add with the current implementation already in place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I will try today, thanks

:good: Works great on my Nexus 5 and Fire TV. The only thing is that I can't actually see my FireTV being paired but it works. The app is fantastic, you should develop it further, I would pay up to 4.99 for a full-functioning version. Can it connect more than 1 device, for example my phone and my gf's phone?

Thanks for testing Solo, and for suggesting a price. It would great to get other opinions here on that too. Also, how about the name? I did find there were a couple of other apps called NotiFire, none related to the FireTV.
I designed the app so on the FireTV side, it will receive notifications from multiple devices on the same network. So if your phone and your girlfriend's phone are both connected to the same network, you would see notifications on the FireTV from either. And on the phone/tablet side, it does support showing any number of FireTV devices, but right now it will only send notifications to the one that was last selected. Do you think it should send to all FireTV devices? If you do try it with multiple phones/tablets, let me know how it works out for you.
I also think I have a way to capture notifications from any app, although that feature would only work on Android 4.3 and higher.
One other thing - the version I posted is a timed demo, so it will expire around May 19th unless I replace it. Hopefully I'll post the production version before then.
-Gregg
solo said:
:good: Works great on my Nexus 5 and Fire TV. The only thing is that I can't actually see my FireTV being paired but it works. The app is fantastic, you should develop it further, I would pay up to 4.99 for a full-functioning version. Can it connect more than 1 device, for example my phone and my gf's phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

greno1 said:
Thanks for testing Solo, and for suggesting a price. It would great to get other opinions here on that too. Also, how about the name? I did find there were a couple of other apps called NotiFire, none related to the FireTV.
I designed the app so on the FireTV side, it will receive notifications from multiple devices on the same network. So if your phone and your girlfriend's phone are both connected to the same network, you would see notifications on the FireTV from either. And on the phone/tablet side, it does support showing any number of FireTV devices, but right now it will only send notifications to the one that was last selected. Do you think it should send to all FireTV devices? If you do try it with multiple phones/tablets, let me know how it works out for you.
I also think I have a way to capture notifications from any app, although that feature would only work on Android 4.3 and higher.
One other thing - the version I posted is a timed demo, so it will expire around May 19th unless I replace it. Hopefully I'll post the production version before then.
-Gregg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it would make sense for the app to send notifications to all FireTVs; I have 2 so I wouldn't want to have to select each time I am moving around.
The thing is, I don't even see the FireTV in the device list:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Yet it is functioning just fine!
I will try with multiple phones next week.
Gmail and Viber is what I am looking forward to

OK, I think that makes sense. I'll have it send to all FireTV devices. There will also be an option on each FireTV to turn off some notifications.
There is an issue with an orientation change that once you rotate it, it won't show any FireTVs. Closing the app and restarting works, but I also have a fix ready to go soon. But once the phone/tablet finds a FireTV, it knows the IP address and can send messages to it - even if it can't find the FireTV again on subsequent scans.
I now have a way of capturing all notifications, so I'm working on the UI for that to turn on/off notification forwarding to the FireTV. But it should be able to show whatever text is in the notification - like an email summary.
-Gregg
solo said:
I think it would make sense for the app to send notifications to all FireTVs; I have 2 so I wouldn't want to have to select each time I am moving around.
The thing is, I don't even see the FireTV in the device list
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Works on my Sony Xperia Z1s.
The only issue I had was although I did set the name of the device on the firetv, when launching the app on the phone it just showed "firetv (no name)" - but it functions and seems to work well.
I have a suggestion. How about two privacy options for SMS notifications.
- Do Not Show contact Name for SMS notifications.
- Do Not Show actual message content.
It would just be nice to have so everyone using your firetv does not see your private info.
Keep up the great work. I like where this app is going.

That's a great suggestion - I'll add those privacy options.
Regarding setting the name, there is currently a bug where the settings on the FireTV don't seem to take effect until the app shuts down and restarts itself. So if you did a force stop on the FireTV client and started it again, you should see the new name.
-Gregg
jpage101 said:
Works on my Sony Xperia Z1s.
The only issue I had was although I did set the name of the device on the firetv, when launching the app on the phone it just showed "firetv (no name)" - but it functions and seems to work well.
I have a suggestion. How about two privacy options for SMS notifications.
- Do Not Show contact Name for SMS notifications.
- Do Not Show actual message content.
It would just be nice to have so everyone using your firetv does not see your private info.
Keep up the great work. I like where this app is going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This is an awesome app, can't wait for a full-fledged version :fingers-crossed:

I ran into a bit of a snag. My hope was to have one APK that you install on both the FireTV and your Android device. But to enable 3rd party app notifications, I need to build the APK on 4.3 or higher. But the Amazon SDK is built on 4.2. So it looks like I'll need to manage two apps. Ugh.

greno1 said:
That's a great suggestion - I'll add those privacy options.
Regarding setting the name, there is currently a bug where the settings on the FireTV don't seem to take effect until the app shuts down and restarts itself. So if you did a force stop on the FireTV client and started it again, you should see the new name.
-Gregg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can call it Girlfriend mode
Got it, thanks.

Great idea! I'd say for your roadmap it'd be great if you could incorporate IFTTT and Tasked support.
Also, I would change the name...I think the premise of the app is great and you'd do well to make the name generic so that it could be used on other devices (googletv, chromecast, tablets (think integrated custom installations in cars etc))
Just my 2 cents, great work!
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using Tapatalk

Thanks for the suggestions. IFTTT and Tasked support is a good idea. Maybe I'll add that in a subsequent release. But it shouldn't be too hard to implement.
I hear what you are saying about the name. I also develop apps for Chromecast and Roku, but this type of notification over top of other running applications/media wouldn't be possible on those platforms because they don't support multitasking (at least as far as I've been able to determine). It could run on other Android devices, but you probably are already getting the same notifications on those anyway - except for phone and text messages.
I should have another more complete version out in the next couple of days. It will support app notifications as well as calls and SMS messages. It will send to all FireTVs, not just the currently selected one. It will also have the privacy settings (or Girlfriend Mode) on the FireTV.
I also found a way to keep this as one APK and still compile with Android 4.4. For those trying something similar, I created a library project that was built on the Amazon 4.2.2 SDK, and my main project I built with Android 4.4 but linked in the library. It built fine and runs ok on both Android and FireTV devices.
I really appreciate the feedback - keep it coming! Especially on the name.
Edvard_Greig said:
Great idea! I'd say for your roadmap it'd be great if you could incorporate IFTTT and Tasked support.
Also, I would change the name...I think the premise of the app is great and you'd do well to make the name generic so that it could be used on other devices (googletv, chromecast, tablets (think integrated custom installations in cars etc))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Sure thing, I don't develop for these platforms, but for something like Chromecast at least could you wrap the stream with effectively a dynamic transparent subtitle?
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

Oh man, I will test this on my Moto x when I get home. Very promising.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

App update - 4/27
Based on the great feedback from everyone, I just posted a new version of the app. Please install on both the FireTV and your Android phone/tablet. Please see first post in thread for download link and instructions.
Changes include:
- Send notifications to all FireTV devices (although the Send button on the FireTVs tab only sends to the currently selected FireTV)
- Privacy settings on FireTV side to turn on/off the sender name and the actual message
- Added ability to get notified when any app posts a notification.
To enable app notifications, the following are REQUIRED
- You must be running Android 4.3 or above. The app takes advantage of a new app notification feature introduced in 4.3
- You MUST first hit the "Enable App Notifications" button in the APPS tab, and make sure the NotiFireTV app has a checkbox next to it
- Select the apps you want to get notifications on. For example - Gmail and mail are likely candidates
Also make sure you actually run the NotiFire app on the FireTV side after doing the adb install.
Does anyone have two or more FireTVs they can test with? I only have one myself.
Please post your comments and suggestions. And thanks for all the great feedback.

I supposed it could if I could control the stream. But I couldn't add that on top of, say, the stream from Netflix.
Edvard_Greig said:
Sure thing, I don't develop for these platforms, but for something like Chromecast at least could you wrap the stream with effectively a dynamic transparent subtitle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I just uploaded new version to (removed)
This is feature complete for release one, and would really appreciate some feedback before I release it.
I'm thinking of using in-app purchase to unlock the full set of features. What do you think would be reasonable functionality to offer free for people to test with before purchasing? I was thinking of just enabling either phone calls or SMS messages, and doing an in app purchase would unlock all the functionality. I'm also thinking of offering it for $3.99. Thoughts?
Also, since users will need to go to the Amazon app store to get the app installed on the FireTV, I guess it doesn't make sense to make this available on any other app stores, like Google Play. Otherwise people would wind up having to pay twice - once for the FireTV app and one for the phone/tablet.
Still trying to decide on an app name, but I'm now thinking NotiFireTV since there are other apps called Notifire. I still welcome feedback on this. I also changed the app icon.
-Gregg

"Continue to Amazon Appstore" external market issue

Hi folks,
I've got a Fire Phone, with default Fire OS 4.6.1
I am not quite ready to get into rooting it and adding a new OS, as I don't have the time.
So in the interim I have the Google Play Store installed, along with a launcher that's more to my liking.
I have the issue that when I click on links in apps which, I assume, are intended to launch the Google Play Store, I get a message from Fire OS saying,
Continue to Amazon Appstore?
This app is trying to open a link with an external market that is not available on your device. Would you like to open this link with the Amazon Appstore instead?
[CANCEL] [CONTINUE]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I click cancel, then the link does not open. If I click continue it goes to the Amazon Appstore and can't find what the link relates to (obviously).
I saw someone else posting something about this, and they were advised to edit some settings in the Manage Applications settings, and also External Market settings. Since updating to 4.6.1 I don't seem to be able to find any Manage Applications settings, no External Market settings (not even sure if those existed on the pre-4.6.1 OS that was on here when I received it).
Is there a way to set this thing to allow Google Play to launch when Play links are clicked?
Cheers,
J

On an unrooted device:
- Go to "settings" and look for "manage applications", select "all", to see every app installed...
- Disable the "Appstore"
As long as the Amazon appstore is disabled, Play Store will intercept the links.
It's not very comfortable, I know. On a rooted device, I used a shortcut to dis-/enable the Amazon Appstore to get the job done faster.
As of now, there is no official way to set the "Play Store" as your default store (of course not, why would Amazon be interested in that option ^^).

Bingo Bronson said:
On an unrooted device:
- Go to "settings" and look for "manage applications", select "all", to see every app installed...
- Disable the "Appstore"
As long as the Amazon appstore is disabled, Play Store will intercept the links.
It's not very comfortable, I know. On a rooted device, I used a shortcut to dis-/enable the Amazon Appstore to get the job done faster.
As of now, there is no official way to set the "Play Store" as your default store (of course not, why would Amazon be interested in that option ^^).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Bingo,
Thanks for the help.
The thing is, since it updated to 4.6.1 (and I see that last night it updated itself to 4.6.3 on its own accord) the "Manage Applications" option that was there previously has gone. There is now just an "Applications" option. And that
Okay... at last I've figured out where "Manage Applications" went since 4.6.1 update. There is now just an "Applications" menu. Touching that expands it to show various options. One of those options is "Force quite or clear data for applications". This is now the way to access the "Manage Applications" screen. The first option on that expanded "Applications" menu is "Manage the settings for individual Amazon applications on your phone". The wording of this had me thinking that this had somehow replaced the Manage Applications option.
Cool. I've now disabled Amazon AppStore.
Thanks.

This Fixed My Issue
I fixed my issue by going to the Applications menu under Settings (little gear in dropdown menu) then going to Manage Applications, then selecting All Applications from the dropdown there. I found the Appstore, clicked on it, selected Force Stop and Clear Cache. That seemed to do the trick. I also have Allow 3rd Party Apps selected, which can also be found under Applications in settings.

I've been searching everywhere for this solution. Youtube and google, and yes finally someone who just needed google play apps to not be redirected to kindle appstore. It worked by disabling the appstore. <3 The ES File Explorer helped me to uninstall the updated version and now apps can be directed to google play. Thanks for saving me from having to root. I like the launcher option from google play. Don't have enough patience to root and then it possibly doesn't work. TOT! Ty for solution!

My 4.6.3 new phone seems to work well in this regard without any setting being made. Just disabled Amazon store auto update. At first I had that redirect to Amazon problem, but then some other Google store link just redirected to Google play app.

For me, clicking on Disable App Store doesn't seem to be doing anything. Unable to disable and blocking of external market link continues

Can someone please help, nothing in here worked.
I tried going to settings -> apps and games -> manage all applications -> All -> Appstore and pressed "clear cache", "clear data", and "force stop", and it didn't help.
I also tried going to settings -> Apps and Games -> Amazon Application Settings -> Appstore -> External Market Links -> Don't Open and now it says "External Market Links Disabled You can choose to open external market links with the bracketbracketAppstore_long_namebracketbracket. Update this option in the External Market Links section of the Appstore settings." (I had to type bracket instead of using [ because it said I was using BBcode and couldn't post)
I'm using a 5th generation fire running Fire OS 5.3.6.4

Fixed it
I just figured it out.
Settings, Applications & Parental Controls, Configure Amazon application settings, Appstore, External Market Links, Don’t Open
This will prevent the Appstore from trying to open links for external app markets. It doesn’t prevent the links from opening with the correct market, just makes that message stop popping up and click-jacking you into oblivion. So now when you click on a link, a little box will open with apps to choose from to open the link, like your browser or Google Play Store, for example.
I want to keep using this phone, because it’s potentially a good privacy phone, without all the tracking stuff installed. Sorry, that would mean no Google Apps...but I use some apps that apparently won’t get notifications unless GAPPS are installed. I heard MicroG can fix that but it doesn’t seem to work. Anyway if I could fix that and maybe upgrade the camera module to a better quality camera, it would be a better phone...almost perfect actually.

thanks for your helpful post
Ninja000 said:
I just figured it out.
......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for posting today!! So happy to see people still using this nice phone. I too want a simple "relatively" private phone, plus I actually preferred the Fire OS UI (which is much better version of Fire OS than we have on Fire tablets).
But I came here because I was fearful that Amazon has bricked my device. It suddenly became "de-registered" and the menus for registering to my Amazon account do not work -- I'm not able to register. And I'm not able to use ANY app that I got from the Amazon app store, and I lost ALL of my nice customizations (organizing my apps into folders, etc -- a huge amount of work because I have a ton of apps).
Probably I should start a new thread on this issue but I wanted to post here in gratitude that people still discuss this phone, plus it is an app store (and bigger...) issue, so it is not entirely unrelated. I will try some of the above advice because perhaps it allow me to launch apps without the Amazon App Store demanding log in.

dini77 said:
Thanks so much for posting today!! So happy to see people still using this nice phone. I too want a simple "relatively" private phone, plus I actually preferred the Fire OS UI (which is much better version of Fire OS than we have on Fire tablets).
But I came here because I was fearful that Amazon has bricked my device. It suddenly became "de-registered" and the menus for registering to my Amazon account do not work -- I'm not able to register. And I'm not able to use ANY app that I got from the Amazon app store, and I lost ALL of my nice customizations (organizing my apps into folders, etc -- a huge amount of work because I have a ton of apps).
Probably I should start a new thread on this issue but I wanted to post here in gratitude that people still discuss this phone, plus it is an app store (and bigger...) issue, so it is not entirely unrelated. I will try some of the above advice because perhaps it allow me to launch apps without the Amazon App Store demanding log in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem! "Sharing is caring" :laugh:
Yeah I like it too! I wish it was still supported by Amazon, but the bad press killed it.
As for not being able to use your account...you might try a factory reset, BUT...
FIRST: backup your APKs and saved files via USB to PC (can use file browser in Windows)
or MAC (will need this --->android.com/filetransfer/<---), and make sure under Battery and Storage, USB Connection Type is listed as File Transfer.
This is important because once you regeister, it might restore your last cloud backup, which I assume is probably pretty old after reading your reply.
Next:
Perform the Factory Reset OR...
To reregister your phone go to Settings, My Accounts, either "Register your phone" if that is an option (mine says "Deregister"), or maybe Manage your Amazon account.
The later will probably redirect you to the Amazon website, because the Amazon Shopping App is no longer supported on this older OS.
*I haven't found a newer version of the Amazon Shopping App that works on the Android 4.4 based Fire OS 4.6.6.1.
The other thing is you might be able to do it via the Amazon website, you probably have it listed under your account still, just need to find it.
I'd contact Amazon help to learn about how to do it that way. They might not know off hand, since the phone is no longer technically supported,
but they will definitely still try to help you.
I would really love it if someone on this forum could pull the launcher and everything from this version of Fire OS to work on the newer Android Roms like Cyanogen Mod,
because then we could just replace the old unsupported apps with the new versions. That would be awesome! I realize 2gb Ram would be a little low for the latest Android,
but just having a little newer OS version that is still supported by Amazon would be great. I really enjoy the Kindle App on this, because it has text to speech and
that is really convenient.
BTW, do you have the Google APPS installed on yours? I have them installed on mine, and it drains the batter like crazy,
granted, it's the original battery from 2014, but still.
Side note: If anyone has an extra screw(s) for the bottom they're willing to part with, I'd be willing to buy one (or a handful).
Lost one in the carpet (I know *rolls eyes) when I had to replace the camera module due to some (I guess) scratches or something actually on the sensor itself.

Thanks for all of your advice!! Very much appreciated. I tried one of them right away, which is to check My Devices on the Amazon site, but the phone is no longer listed (it used to be). So that only lists registered devices. Once it is de-registered, it is not considered to be my device. But, you are correct that Amazon customer service may possibly help, because if you buy a device from Amazon, it usually automatically gets registered to you (unless you say it is a gift), and that automatic registration is probably done via some code on the device box probably its serial # (that is, they don't register it by messing with the actual device, I'm guessing). But to be honest I'm not too hopeful about this. But something to try.
Before you replied, I started a new thread on this, mostly to warn people not to de-register their devices, because I think it may not be possible to register again. And this could be a very recent development. Amazon usually sends an email warning when an older device will no longer work, but maybe this was not intentional. I never realized that so much of the function depended on the registration, as if it were an Echo device!
I do have a collection of APKs saved so at least I won't need to re-download, but because I have so many apps, it would still be a lot of work to set things up from scratch, especially since I don't think it will work. I don't think my system is corrupted. Just de-registered. A soft reset (long-press of power button) did not help. Again this just happened by itself -- I had not added anything new or did any updates. So it is not likely that my install got messed up.
I'm always confused when people mention "Google Apps" -- if that means the Play Store and its dependencies, then yes, I have that. But I did not install GMail or Docs or Drive, etc. I minimize using Google things on this phone.
About the screws, eBay may have them. eBay has almost everything.
Ninja000 said:
No problem! "Sharing is caring" :laugh:
Yeah I like it too! I wish it was still supported by Amazon, but the bad press killed it.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it is just extremely difficult for "alternative" phone systems to survive, which is soooo sad, because I like interesting variety. I also love Meego, and Windows 10 Mobile. Meego had just one model (it was from Nokia, not released in the U.S.; it was planned to be the Nokia successor for their older Symbian OS). Well, maybe FireOS is not truly "variety" because it is after all essentially Android, but much less messy or annoying, in my opinion. I really like how the Settings are organized. And I like the Carousel, especialy how nicely it works with the built-in apps like weather and email. Being basically Android, it actually had the best chance of survival out of the "Alternatives." It could use most of the same apps as a "real" Android.
The reason for quick death are probably multi-faceted but my guess is the problems with the earliest version of the OS were the most serious thing. And that led to the bad press, so you are correct, that is what did it. I got mine after the "fire sale" and by then the system was much nicer, with the most annoying or serious issues all fixed, so I only read about the early issues. I feel terrible for the (former) Amazon employees who put a huge amount of effort into this thing. (Like Meego, too!) And the hardware is still very nice, better than my Fire Tablet that is much newer. I really thought it would last me for years, for the sorts of things I used it for. (Another thing I liked to do is control my Squeezbox music streaming devices. And listen to podcasts. Things like that.) There are so many uses for an older device. And I enjoyed this one.
Since at the very minimum this device is a Kindle book reader and Amazon music player, Amazon loses by not providing some bare-minimum support for it. My first Kindle e-Reader from 2011 still works great. But my guess is, the number of people still using this phone is super low. Which is why I was happy to see your post!

dini77 said:
Thanks for all of your advice!! Very much appreciated. I tried one of them right away, which is to check My Devices on the Amazon site, but the phone is no longer listed (it used to be). So that only lists registered devices. Once it is de-registered, it is not considered to be my device. But, you are correct that Amazon customer service may possibly help, because if you buy a device from Amazon, it usually automatically gets registered to you (unless you say it is a gift), and that automatic registration is probably done via some code on the device box probably its serial # (that is, they don't register it by messing with the actual device, I'm guessing). But to be honest I'm not too hopeful about this. But something to try.
Before you replied, I started a new thread on this, mostly to warn people not to de-register their devices, because I think it may not be possible to register again. And this could be a very recent development. Amazon usually sends an email warning when an older device will no longer work, but maybe this was not intentional. I never realized that so much of the function depended on the registration, as if it were an Echo device!
I do have a collection of APKs saved so at least I won't need to re-download, but because I have so many apps, it would still be a lot of work to set things up from scratch, especially since I don't think it will work. I don't think my system is corrupted. Just de-registered. A soft reset (long-press of power button) did not help. Again this just happened by itself -- I had not added anything new or did any updates. So it is not likely that my install got messed up.
I'm always confused when people mention "Google Apps" -- if that means the Play Store and its dependencies, then yes, I have that. But I did not install GMail or Docs or Drive, etc. I minimize using Google things on this phone.
About the screws, eBay may have them. eBay has almost everything.
I think it is just extremely difficult for "alternative" phone systems to survive, which is soooo sad, because I like interesting variety. I also love Meego, and Windows 10 Mobile. Meego had just one model (it was from Nokia, not released in the U.S.; it was planned to be the Nokia successor for their older Symbian OS). Well, maybe FireOS is not truly "variety" because it is after all essentially Android, but much less messy or annoying, in my opinion. I really like how the Settings are organized. And I like the Carousel, especialy how nicely it works with the built-in apps like weather and email. Being basically Android, it actually had the best chance of survival out of the "Alternatives." It could use most of the same apps as a "real" Android.
The reason for quick death are probably multi-faceted but my guess is the problems with the earliest version of the OS were the most serious thing. And that led to the bad press, so you are correct, that is what did it. I got mine after the "fire sale" and by then the system was much nicer, with the most annoying or serious issues all fixed, so I only read about the early issues. I feel terrible for the (former) Amazon employees who put a huge amount of effort into this thing. (Like Meego, too!) And the hardware is still very nice, better than my Fire Tablet that is much newer. I really thought it would last me for years, for the sorts of things I used it for. (Another thing I liked to do is control my Squeezbox music streaming devices. And listen to podcasts. Things like that.) There are so many uses for an older device. And I enjoyed this one.
Since at the very minimum this device is a Kindle book reader and Amazon music player, Amazon loses by not providing some bare-minimum support for it. My first Kindle e-Reader from 2011 still works great. But my guess is, the number of people still using this phone is super low. Which is why I was happy to see your post!
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Yeah I completely agree. I got mine for $199 and a year of Amazon Prime included made the phone basically $99. ? I happened to think of one more possibility. Maybe there is an Amazon Fire ?services app (like Google services) or account manager app that got automatically updated by your Google Play store, or even replaced by a version off the Play store that led to this issue, because like I mentioned mine is actually still working aside from the Amazon Shopping app, and some apps that require a newer google services to get notifications.
I actually had flashed several different Roms on this phone and yeah the stock (but updated) Fire OS 4.6.6.1 is definitely the best. --Amazon account registration is part of the initial setup BTW, so factory reset might work.
I made the jump over to iOS after experiencing the Android 7&8 difficulties on a few other devices and battery gate with Samsung phones. Now I am experiencing a crapy battery life issue with my iPhones. My Fire Phone is from 2014, original battery and still has better battery life than even my iPhone XS Max. Wow ? So yeah, there is something to Fire OS being so light that makes it probably just about the best OS for a phone. The last time I flashed back to stock I used a ROM from this website, but I don’t remember what thread that’s on. I think it’s in the Cyanogen 11 Rom thread for this device. Maybe try flashing that. And you could actually (if you don’t mind losing the storage space) create a backup Rom from your current one, then make a new slot in twrp or whatever it’s called and have the other Rom installed on there. Then check to see if it’s possible to register on that version. If it doesn’t work, no big deal you will still have your backup rom with all your data. If it does work, then you could transfer your stuff over via usb. That would save you quite a bit of time incase it decides not to work. You can do a root and install the other rom right from your fire phone these days. That’s a bonus.
What happens when you open Amazon Instant Video? Does it ask you for a loggin? That would be awesome. BTW My Kindle Fire HX 7 is still working great too, just starting to slow down a bit. I also have a 6" Fire HD. I really agree Fire OS is super clean and alot of modern OS's are not that great and way too heavy for what most people need, especially on mobile devices.

Thanks again for your advice, especially since I will almost certainly end up flashing this thing. I have done a lot of "phone hacking" in the past -- even back in flip phone days -- but it is very time consuming and I'm super busy now. But it is kind of fun. So, maybe later.
I did not have Google Play (or any app store, on any of my devices) to be set to automatically update apps. Tho I think the store itself and its dependencies may still update, even if my apps don't, and I can't control that. And sometimes my setting to not automatically update is "reset" when a google component is updated. So it is conceivable that something got automatically updated and that caused my issue. I did have to reset the "do not update" setting.
I'm curious to see if anyone else has this issue, because if no, then you are right, I should just re-flash. I downloaded the latest Fire OS a while ago -- I collect stuff like that because you never know when it will be no longer readily available. So the phone is definitely not dead -- and it is nice that I have options for how to set it up. I'm glad to have the community contributions for that -- I did read thru those hacking posts.
I bought a spare battery a little while ago because I was worried they would be hard to get once I need one. But my currently installed battery, the original, is very satisfactory. So definitely I'll keep using this nice phone for a while.

dini77 said:
Thanks again for your advice, especially since I will almost certainly end up flashing this thing. I have done a lot of "phone hacking" in the past -- even back in flip phone days -- but it is very time consuming and I'm super busy now. But it is kind of fun. So, maybe later.
I did not have Google Play (or any app store, on any of my devices) to be set to automatically update apps. Tho I think the store itself and its dependencies may still update, even if my apps don't, and I can't control that. And sometimes my setting to not automatically update is "reset" when a google component is updated. So it is conceivable that something got automatically updated and that caused my issue. I did have to reset the "do not update" setting.
I'm curious to see if anyone else has this issue, because if no, then you are right, I should just re-flash. I downloaded the latest Fire OS a while ago -- I collect stuff like that because you never know when it will be no longer readily available. So the phone is definitely not dead -- and it is nice that I have options for how to set it up. I'm glad to have the community contributions for that -- I did read thru those hacking posts.
I bought a spare battery a little while ago because I was worried they would be hard to get once I need one. But my currently installed battery, the original, is very satisfactory. So definitely I'll keep using this nice phone for a while.
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Was just thinking of going back to this phone as my primary phone. My problem is trying to get Micro G or something to work, for spoofing google services, because I want to use some apps that require google services, else they won't receive notifications. I also found on app I use, it's Korean, Kakaotalk is not receiving notifications when closed anymore. I haven't figured out why yet. Saw another thread about notifications on 3rd party apps not working, but didn't see a solution. I would also like to see a camera upgrade (4k video) and maybe a speaker upgrade and storage would be nice, but obviously that would require some soldering that I'm not willing to do, but maybe if I had a few doner phones would try it.:laugh: happy thanksgiving by the way!

I just went back to a Nokia N9 as my primary, at least for voice and weather and such basics (MeeGo OS, and battery lasts for days, good quality voice, nice small size, does not crash, etc). But I have my iPad and iPhone SE (the older model) always turned on so that covers all my needs. So, it is perfectly fine to use an old phone as primary so long as you have another device to supplement what the primary lacks. The Fire Phone would also make a primary. Tho in my experience it is not as stable. The "mishap" in this thread was not my first serious hiccup. See also the thread on all apps crashing if they require the address book (including the phone). That one is serious and reoccurs. (I think it is caused by having a very large number of apps on the phone. Usually fixed when I delete one of the larger apps.) So in other words at least with the original OS, stability is an issue. Maybe the custom firmware on this board is more stable.
Have a great thanksgiving!

New Way to Bypass LG - Google Factory Reset Protetion on VARIOUS Devices!!

New Way to Bypass LG - Google Factory Reset Protection on VARIOUS Devices!
Ignore the poor grammar, typos etc.. Bits and pieces from notes.
--needed--
bluetooth (needed)
data cable (needed)
computer (needed)
Factory reset phone, forward through setup wizard and turn on wifi then... --->
enable service menu with tool - so youll need to select the modem port then on the app goto "open port lg" then after this goto option "open hidden menu" now you are in the hidden menu. --->
goto - on hidden menu .. field test -> gps test -> gnss test or gns pos test -> now youll see a warning screen hit ok. youll now be in location within settings ---->
turn on -> google location history at bottom click it -> top right 3 dots click then view/manage which brings you out to maps.. now hit back button and you will be in maps now.
-
online way - online way into the removal process
offline way - offline way around and into the removal process
-online way -> Hit top left 3 bars and then start driving and set destinations to KFC for example, start driving then press the mic at top right and say "settings"
[Online] In settings goto Apps -> disable and force stop if you want, google play services, both setup wizards, google account manager, and google services framework and also clear data for each also if you want
Next reboot, and when phone opens up to setup wizard use your bluetooth and say open google or just press it and on the google screen when it pops up search for example gmail then scroll down through the results until you see a big gmail icon and 3 dots to the left.. hit these and share.. it might also look like a share icon instead then share to msgs ... put in a random number and some txt, attach your location by hitting the paperclip. make sure to send it (doesnt actuially go through unless youve active service card in..)
Click on the location link and click connect and it will open up maps, start a route, start driving then push the microphone and say open settings. When settings opens up goto Security and enable unknwon sources.. press bluetooth again and say open google or toggle back to the google search screen (bluetooth is your best bet as UI will crash sometimes and put you back at the setup wizard)
When google opens click on the G at top left then search for example "frp video youtube" for example.. scroll down results until you see a youtube site link and click on it. This *should* open up youtube once it opens up top right click and goto about and this will open chrome ..now search in google this http://google.com
download these: (your typical stuff for example "vnrom_frp, gam_6.0, apex launcher (or any other launcher... id suggeat older versions as newer can reset your order and land you back at the setup wizard) .
[Offline] Hit 3 left lines at top and then go down to offline areas and youll see offline areas settings then click on settings under "to save your cellular data while using google maps" click top right 3 dots and click show tab view now all the settings sections are back
Turn on bluetooth and pair ear piece incase you mess up and need to get back to zomewhere
Follow through as you would online version.
Let me know if you find the AT commands!
Credits for app attached in next post goto those Yemen Fellas who have so far been able to bypass anything in front of them LG/Samsung Carrier - Sprint!! Tracfone --> FRP/Unlock
Credits also to XDA user @CXZa as if it weren't for him i probably would not have looked deeper into AT commands (still have barely scratched the surface).

almost forgot... here is the app to use in the steps leading into the OS for factory reset bypass.

Tap this and that.. These are kind of fun - sometimes. Sometimes quite complicated.
This one is for LG m250f 2017. Should work for mine too, m250n.
(Two seconds wasted...)
Not long ago I accidentally removed my Google account when testing vold triggers.
Simply by doing
setprop vold.decrypt trigger_shutdown_framework
and
setprop vold.decrypt trigger_restart_min_framework
did the trick. Other accounts are kept and no resets, etc... only but is that you have to have a root access...
The min framework was totally empty of icons, didn't ask for the pin.
I don't how the trick works on other devices. It was a LG...
To restart normally after it.
setprop vold.decrypt trigger_reset_main
setprop vold.decrypt trigger_restart_framework

Thanks. I will take a look. Almost seems like everything I am doing is too much. These LG devices are a tad bit more difficult in areas i guess you could say.
also.. hope you ignored all the other b#ll**** I had in the removal guide ha.. simply my personal notes.

noidodroid said:
Thanks. I will take a look. Almost seems like everything I am doing is too much. These LG devices are a tad bit more difficult in areas i guess you could say.
also.. hope you ignored all the other b#ll**** I had in the removal guide ha.. simply my personal notes.
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There isn't any good or bad, nor better in these, IMO. As long as some method works it has done its job perfectly.
Yeah, many times LG is in a league of its own, in many ways...

noidodroid said:
Thanks. I will take a look. Almost seems like everything I am doing is too much.
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Really? Some detailed in here might beat your doing-too- much easily...
Search - LG Tribute Blog

CXZa said:
Really? Some detailed in here might beat your doing-too- much easily...
Search - LG Tribute Blog
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Thanks buddy. I will check that out. Never heard of the site until now.