Daily Archives: 12/16/2011

Kindle Fire as an Android Tablet

Got my Kindle Fire. I must say – I love everything about this device. It’s fast, powerful, with a very nice screen. There’re gazillion reviews out there, I am not going to repeat them, just mention what I did to make it truly perfect.

Since Fire is powered by Android OS there’s no limit to what can be done with it.

Amazon Kindle Fire as an Android TabletFirst, I rooted it. Mostly I did it so I can install Android Market. Amazon’s own AppStore is nice and all, but very limited comparing to Android Market (even if it has Market’s apps, usually they’re a few versions behind). Beware though – if you root your Fire, you will lose video streaming capabilities from Amazon, so what I did – rooted, installed Market, unrooted (luckily it’s a one-click operation with rooting app).

Second, even though I like Fire’s home screen with the carousel and everything, I am used to more traditional Android display, so I installed ADW Launcher and got 5 home screens, app drawer and all the bells and whistles. And still kept all Fire capabilities (Amazon video, music & books) via pre-installed apps, now available in app drawer.

And last, I installed Dolphin Browser HD to use instead of preinstalled Silk web browser, since Dolphin is much more capable, and superb FBReader to read my own collection of ebooks. Those two apps are permanently docked in my home screen.

I could go on and on, about how you can stream your own music and videos from your home PC via GMote app, how you can now install GMail, YouTube and any other Google app etc. etc. but that would take forever. The conclusion: Fire is an Android tablet and capable of anything Android Tablet can do.