In this video, I go over the camera, video playback, audio books, and a few other fun items.
Before you ask....
Yes, I loaded apk files on here that you would not normally be able to get from Amazon's Appstore. Most worked with no problems.
Nice review... the best that I have seen so far (inc the Verge etc)
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the review. I was on the fence about this and you sold me with the side loading ability. I loved the original Fire, and was looking forward to this. But after reading a few posts about it being locked, and now knowing if it will be rooted I was no longer sure about it. So side loading makes a huge difference.
Gam3r 4 Life said:
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the review. I was on the fence about this and you sold me with the side loading ability. I loved the original Fire, and was looking forward to this. But after reading a few posts about it being locked, and now knowing if it will be rooted I was no longer sure about it. So side loading makes a huge difference. Have you tried side loading the Play Store APK?[/QUOTE
The Play Store requires files to be manually placed into the /system/app folder and the permissions to be changed. That requires root. All of the other apps were either grabbed from my Nexus 7, or found elsewhere. I downloaded ES File Explorer from the Amazon Appstore, and used it to install the apks.
No PAID apps were harmed in the making of this video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
reverendkjr said:
Gam3r 4 Life said:
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the review. I was on the fence about this and you sold me with the side loading ability. I loved the original Fire, and was looking forward to this. But after reading a few posts about it being locked, and now knowing if it will be rooted I was no longer sure about it. So side loading makes a huge difference. Have you tried side loading the Play Store APK?[/QUOTE
The Play Store requires files to be manually placed into the /system/app folder and the permissions to be changed. That requires root. All of the other apps were either grabbed from my Nexus 7, or found elsewhere. I downloaded ES File Explorer from the Amazon Appstore, and used it to install the apks.
No PAID apps were harmed in the making of this video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks for the reply. Im still sold. Ill most likely be picking one up at Best Buy today. Thanks again.
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Click to collapse
Can you side load a paid app you got from the play store and still pass the licence check?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the great review !
The two apps I'm most interested in getting to work on a Kindle Fire HD are Google Maps and Google Now. I know there's no gps but I assume there is some kind of wifi based location ability ? Or just tell Google Maps where I am.
I figure maps shouldn't be too hard, what do you think ? I guess Google Now might require rooting though, is that the case ?
The device itself is pretty sick. But it's still stuck in Amazon's crappy software. It's like putting rims and ground effects on a Pinto; either way, it's still a Pinto.
Thanks for the review - I would like to see how the ComiXology app works but the fact that sideloading works takes a great load off my mind.
I'm definitely going to save up for the 8.9".
semifast said:
Thanks for the great review !
The two apps I'm most interested in getting to work on a Kindle Fire HD are Google Maps and Google Now. I know there's no gps but I assume there is some kind of wifi based location ability ? Or just tell Google Maps where I am.
I figure maps shouldn't be too hard, what do you think ? I guess Google Now might require rooting though, is that the case ?
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Click to collapse
None of the Google Apps are going to work until we get root.
Be patient.
Can you tell me if Apex works if you just install the apk?
How did you get the camera launcher? Thanks
Gam3r 4 Life said:
How did you get the camera launcher? Thanks
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Click to collapse
I obtained a camera app from the Play Store on another device, then I took the apk and installed it on my KFHD.
Related
Being that this dev community is the absolute best, I have to bring this to light.
Google Movie Support has just informed me that Google Movies will not work for rooted XOOMs. This just won't fly.
Is there anyone out there working on a fix or workaround for this?
I'd love root. I love movies. We shouldn't have to choose between the two.
gdogmcstyles said:
Being that this dev community is the absolute best, I have to bring this to light.
Google Movie Support has just informed me that Google Movies will not work for rooted XOOMs. This just won't fly.
Is there anyone out there working on a fix or workaround for this?
I'd love root. I love movies. We shouldn't have to choose between the two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel ya bro, and I'm pretty sure the devs are already looking into it. Since it is a DRM authorization issue, it is probably going to be a pretty good hack to get around it.
I'm confused by 2 things on this topic:
1) why does it matter if its rooted or not?
I would assume the answers is because root would allow us some magical privledge of copying a cache and possibly extracting video and then redistributing.
2) how the frig can it tell?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
that is why i cannot watch green hornet. i rented it to see how it would look on the xoom and it will not play
Kcarpenter said:
2) how the frig can it tell?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is either one of: (1) checking for the ro.secure property being set, or (2) doing something "rootable", like being able to read a certain file/directory, etc.
If in the former case, I don't have an idea of what to do that wouldn't require the HC source, but in the case of the latter, it'd be relatively easy to ... wait- don't let me help El Goog out. It's not rocket science (think rootkit, but in reverse).
Well instead of listening I tried it as well with The Green Hornet and couldn't download it. Kept getting error but these developers will come up with the answers they have been nothing short of amazing when it comes to the Moto Xoom
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
kcrudup said:
My guess is either one of: (1) checking for the ro.secure property being set, or (2) doing something "rootable", like being able to read a certain file/directory, etc.
If in the former case, I don't have an idea of what to do that wouldn't require the HC source, but in the case of the latter, it'd be relatively easy to ... wait- don't let me help El Goog out. It's not rocket science (think rootkit, but in reverse).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming scenario 2, wouldn't Super User prompt for permissions? I would think its likely.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
This is the same with the blockbuster app on the Atrix. I can set SU to block requests from the app, but as long as I'm running rooted, it refuses to play (and tells you when you launch the app).
I don't understand the difference between this and running Itunes or Netflix on a "rooted" (admin capable) PC. Why is the phone different?
This is not development. Moved to general.
theimpaler747 said:
This is not development. Moved to general.
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Your forum, you run it your way, just a question.
With all due respect, couldn't OP remain if modified to [REQUEST] since it's a dev request? General is so filled with crap I think this may get lost. :/
bishop72 said:
that is why i cannot watch green hornet. i rented it to see how it would look on the xoom and it will not play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So did you still get charged for it? The wifi version won't even get the movies for awhile. I don't know why Google doesn't have it ready for both.
It isn't very surprising to hear. None of the major studios will allow media to be downloaded without some form of restrictive DRM and root access probably violates their policies.
rebill said:
So did you still get charged for it? The wifi version won't even get the movies for awhile. I don't know why Google doesn't have it ready for both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
? I saw the movie link in Web version of Market.
Yeah, you can order/get charged for it but it won't work. Need to contact customer service to get a refund. They told me they'll consider putting in a warning in the future before you buy it.
cur8or said:
Yeah, you can order/get charged for it but it won't work. Need to contact customer service to get a refund. They told me they'll consider putting in a warning in the future before you buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would make more sense for it to check if you're rooted before the transaction goes through.
Nice Google, what a great way to pit the development community against you, even though Android would be nothing without us. Sellout.
Strange, I have unlocked and rooted Nexus One and could play any Netflix video in official Netflix app, so DRM works on rooted system. So may be it's problem with something else?
If you order thru your web browser by going to the web based android market and play it thru your web browser it works.
Thanks for the tip on the browser market thing it works
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
nbajwill55 said:
Nice Google, what a great way to pit the development community against you, even though Android would be nothing without us. Sellout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol you're an idiot. It isn't googles fault they had to do this. If you were selling movies and wanted to make some money, would you want them to be distributed for free without your permission? I think not...
Just completed the Dexter Mod to allow Google Play on my A7.
All appears working fine, except that Google play will not allow me to purchase any apps. I get an Error ("An error occurred, please try again"), everytime I touch the price button on any app or music.
I've rebooted the device without clearing the issue.
Any ideas?
Oh yeah, this device is not on Googles list of supported devices.
Thanks
Update - Still no joy. Free aps download, but cannot buy
I decided to try to re-do the mod.
I first went to Google and deleted all my accounts.
I did the Dexter mod again from scratch and set up a new Google Acct after the reboot.
Going to Google Play updated the Android Marketplace to Play Store on the tablet.
Using Google Play I still cannot buy an app, but I can download a free one. There are only two apps listed anyway. Missle Command which I cannot buy for $0.99 and 8Track, a music app which is free and downloaded fine.
The first time I did this there were a bizillion apps available, although I could get to none of them.
Any ideas here?
***** Another Update: I discovered I can buy apps using Play Store through my PC for the A7 which upload fine, but still not directly thru the A7
Another Update: Success
Seems like after waiting a while and not using the tablet's Play Store, when finally returning, I have a full list of games and apps.
I also just successfully downloaded a free game (Angry Birds Space) directly from the A7.
This is good news!
I had read elsewhere that on another tablet (Samsung, I believe), ignoring the Play Store app on the tablet for a while would eventually alloe it to work properly.
Seems like that's the case here.
Wow, quiet group here! Lots of views on both of my current threads and not a single comment. I know everyone was just waiting for me to figure it out myself ;<)
Dexter has more than a dozen Mods for at least 3 OS on at least 6 platforms. Probably that is the reason that no one replied ??
Dan
rockethead26 said:
Wow, quiet group here! Lots of views on both of my current threads and not a single comment. I know everyone was just waiting for me to figure it out myself ;<)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been in this forum in a while just pop in once in a while, might find better help for the a7 at tabketroms.com, but any ways have you tried clearing the cache and data of the google play store in your settings?
Thanks for the recommendation on the other site. Everything works fine, but the device is listed as not supported by a great majority of the apps. It's kind of a worthless tablet, at least it was free.
rockethead26 said:
Thanks for the recommendation on the other site. Everything works fine, but the device is listed as not supported by a great majority of the apps. It's kind of a worthless tablet, at least it was free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I been using the cm7 which uses a modified build.prop for the xoom, or you could easily find a modified market here on xda
Sent from my EVO using XDA Premium HD app
smallba said:
I been using the cm7 which uses a modified build.prop for the xoom, or you could easily find a modified market here on xda
Sent from my EVO using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I'll just let this one die a quiet death.
I can't overstate how impressed with this little box I am. I picked one up last month on a trip to the US (I'm from Canada) and thought I would play around with it and see how it would work in Canada. With Unblock US and an Amazon account with prime I have been able to access all my prime amazon content on it. As well as US Netflix, Hulu, ETC.
XBMC is very easily sideloaded onto it as well, with or without being rooted which opens up a whole new world of content and goodies.
And once rooted you can do even more cool stuff. I followed guides to add the google app store, remove unwanted menu options, change the launchers, add game controllers, move apps to external drive, and much more. I just installed Google Play Music and now I have complete access to my google music account on the FireTV which is very cool. I'm sure there are tons of awesome apps that work on the FTV. Another favorite is Droidmote Server so I don't keep having to unplug my external drive to use a mouse or keyboard (which many google apps need)
I sold my 2 Apple TV 2's for a very nice profit and I'm going all Fire TV. The only advantage I think to the Apple TV's is if you have itunes and are invested in the Apple Ecosystem which I was not. The menus and everything are much speedier and my ATV2's were prone to random crashes while in XBMC which drove me crazy.
I'm really looking forward to playing around more with this unit and seeing what all the development community can do with it. I think its already awesome and it has a ton of more potential.
question for you
I am in Canada also and use unblock us. Have you tried using the A&E, Lifetime or History Channel apps? For whatever reason they wont work and I am wondering if somehow they realize that you are not in the US. I have no problem with any other apps. Trying to figure out if its a Canada issue or maybe an issue with the app's of fire tv.
rotor00ter said:
I can't overstate how impressed with this little box I am. I picked one up last month on a trip to the US (I'm from Canada) and thought I would play around with it and see how it would work in Canada. With Unblock US and an Amazon account with prime I have been able to access all my prime amazon content on it. As well as US Netflix, Hulu, ETC.
XBMC is very easily sideloaded onto it as well, with or without being rooted which opens up a whole new world of content and goodies.
And once rooted you can do even more cool stuff. I followed guides to add the google app store, remove unwanted menu options, change the launchers, add game controllers, move apps to external drive, and much more. I just installed Google Play Music and now I have complete access to my google music account on the FireTV which is very cool. I'm sure there are tons of awesome apps that work on the FTV. Another favorite is Droidmote Server so I don't keep having to unplug my external drive to use a mouse or keyboard (which many google apps need)
I sold my 2 Apple TV 2's for a very nice profit and I'm going all Fire TV. The only advantage I think to the Apple TV's is if you have itunes and are invested in the Apple Ecosystem which I was not. The menus and everything are much speedier and my ATV2's were prone to random crashes while in XBMC which drove me crazy.
I'm really looking forward to playing around more with this unit and seeing what all the development community can do with it. I think its already awesome and it has a ton of more potential.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
teryaki said:
I am in Canada also and use unblock us. Have you tried using the A&E, Lifetime or History Channel apps? For whatever reason they wont work and I am wondering if somehow they realize that you are not in the US. I have no problem with any other apps. Trying to figure out if its a Canada issue or maybe an issue with the app's of fire tv.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't you still need a US credit card address for Unblock???? if not how did u set it up??
unblock us
You don't need a us credit card address for unblock us, it's a Canadian service from a Canadian company. You need a US credit card for the amazon service.
dillfever said:
don't you still need a US credit card address for Unblock???? if not how did u set it up??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
teryaki said:
You don't need a us credit card address for unblock us, it's a Canadian service from a Canadian company. You need a US credit card for the amazon service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh got ya.....was thinking of amazon,tanks...dill
was just on unblock us there's no info on the AFT, says there still testing.?
Yes they are still testing I guess, but rest assured it works...I use it everyday.
dillfever said:
was just on unblock us there's no info on the AFT, says there still testing.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
teryaki said:
I am in Canada also and use unblock us. Have you tried using the A&E, Lifetime or History Channel apps? For whatever reason they wont work and I am wondering if somehow they realize that you are not in the US. I have no problem with any other apps. Trying to figure out if its a Canada issue or maybe an issue with the app's of fire tv.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those particular apps aren't working for me either. They just crash back to the home screen. I think its a Canada thing as unblock.us does not officially support Fire TV yet. If you get yours working let me know and I'll do the same.
Ok that sounds great, thx.
rotor00ter said:
Those particular apps aren't working for me either. They just crash back to the home screen. I think its a Canada thing as unblock.us does not officially support Fire TV yet. If you get yours working let me know and I'll do the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're dirt cheap today but if I can't put my own ripped films on then I'm not going to bother and will just get an Android tablet for a little more. I've seen there is currently no working root method.
Primarily will be for the kids for films so if I have to put up with a tablet on Marshmallow it's not the end of the world.
TIA
You can load anything with a USB connection to your computer. Whether or not you have an app that can access said content is a different story.
However, thanks to this thread, you can install Google Play on it https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/how-to-install-google-play-store-fire-t3486603 make sure you head over there to thank the OP
I picked one up on the Prime sale - its a well built little tablet for the money. The Prime OS is pretty ugly, though. Left it stock for maybe an hour before I installed the Google store, LaunchHijack and Nova. I know the Prime stuff is still there, but hiding it under the launcher makes a world of diference.
Taypo2k said:
I picked one up on the Prime sale - its a well built little tablet for the money. The Prime OS is pretty ugly, though. Left it stock for maybe an hour before I installed the Google store, LaunchHijack and Nova. I know the Prime stuff is still there, but hiding it under the launcher makes a world of diference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, I think the app you are referring to is called:
LauncherHijackV2
and there is a 2.1V
johnjingle said:
Just to clarify, I think the app you are referring to is called:
LauncherHijackV2
and there is a 2.1V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the correction. That's correct.
I just recently purchased an Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (2021 release) for my son who is almost 8. I sideloaded Google Play on it so I could download the games I pay for each month or have made a one time payment for. Everything seems to be working fine except for the fact that my son has downloaded some games from Google play that have in app ads to watch to help further game play and they will not load. When you try to click the button to watch the ad nothing happens. I've tried searching for a resolution to this but I'm not finding a whole lot. I've tried to download the games that have the in app ads from the Amazon store but sadly most are not available through Amazon. This wouldn't be such a big issue except for the fact that my son has Autism level 3 and doesn't understand why the ads aren't working. Explaining it to him doesn't help because he doesn't have the ability to understand it. It's just resulting in him getting super frustrated and thinking I'm doing something to prevent his game from working. I've seen posts from people asking about this issue but no one seems to have an answer on how to fix it or if it's even fixable. Is there a way to get these in app ads to work on side loaded games? The only reason I even bought this tablet was because it gives my son more freedom to do stuff while keeping him out of the things he shouldn't be in. We had a heck of a time keeping him out of stuff on other tablets as he's able to get out of all kid launchers we've tried and other security measures. Someone please tell me there's a way to fix this!
Did you ever find an answer to this problem? I'm hoping we can get some ads on ours as well.
Sweettongued1 said:
Did you ever find an answer to this problem? I'm hoping we can get some ads on ours as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late reply. No, I still haven't found a resolution to this. The in app ads work on many of the games that are downloaded but some they just won't load on. My son loves the game Sand Balls and both versions of that game we're having this problem on among some others. I have tried searching every where for a resolution to this but have only found very few mentions of it with no fix. One person said that there was no fix for it at the time they were commenting but it was an old post so I was hoping someone figured it out by now but I guess not. Have you had any luck since you replied?
tenessa982 said:
I just recently purchased an Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (2021 release) for my son who is almost 8. I sideloaded Google Play on it so I could download the games I pay for each month or have made a one time payment for. Everything seems to be working fine except for the fact that my son has downloaded some games from Google play that have in app ads to watch to help further game play and they will not load. When you try to click the button to watch the ad nothing happens. I've tried searching for a resolution to this but I'm not finding a whole lot. I've tried to download the games that have the in app ads from the Amazon store but sadly most are not available through Amazon. This wouldn't be such a big issue except for the fact that my son has Autism level 3 and doesn't understand why the ads aren't working. Explaining it to him doesn't help because he doesn't have the ability to understand it. It's just resulting in him getting super frustrated and thinking I'm doing something to prevent his game from working. I've seen posts from people asking about this issue but no one seems to have an answer on how to fix it or if it's even fixable. Is there a way to get these in app ads to work on side loaded games? The only reason I even bought this tablet was because it gives my son more freedom to do stuff while keeping him out of the things he shouldn't be in. We had a heck of a time keeping him out of stuff on other tablets as he's able to get out of all kid launchers we've tried and other security measures. Someone please tell me there's a way to fix this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had been looking for an answer for this myself as well as a way to make the Fire a bit more "regular" Android-y vs. Amazon's Android. This past weekend I put Fire Toolbox on my (Windows) computer - https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/windows-tool-fire-toolbox-v30-2.3889604/ . Through this I disabled the Amazon Appstore which helped some of my games be able to utilize the extra in-app functionality (as well as open app store page links with Google Play Store instead of opening the Amazon App Store). With that said, I checked a couple old games I used to play and one still said no ads available (though if I clicked again, I still got the reward for it) and another game that still wouldn't let me click them.
I don't know if disabling Amazon App Store would screw things up for you/your son and how you get your apps, but if not, it might be worth a try? Or, if it doesn't work, maybe there's something else that can be disabled via Fire Toolbox that can help? I haven't had much chance to dive into it yet to see if I could get those other in-app ads to work or not yet, but thought I'd pass along what I've found so far in case you're still trying to find a solution.