<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Hmm. I bought the 7" Kindle Fire from Amazon on sale for $40 on the 5th after seeing a note on boingboing ( <a href="http://boingboing.net/2017/02/05/amazon-fire-tablet-on-sale-for.html">http://boingboing.net/2017/02/05/amazon-fire-tablet-on-sale-for.html</a> ). Until you gain root access to your tablet, it is basically owned by
Amazon. They won't let you use it for much that doesn't involve giving
them money. That may or may not bother you. It's possible to install the Google playstore app on an un-rooted Fire, which gives you marginally more control. I didn't bother with the shipped UI much, but from what I saw it was very difficult to load and use non-Amazon apps on it. You can't change the launcher on an un-rooted Fire. Some Google apps also may not run on the Fire builds of Android. The Fire as shipped has a plethora of garbageware which you're not allowed to remove without root access. The Fire I bought has an SD card slot, but it only contains 8 gb of internal storage.<br><br> I lucked out. My tablet came with FireOS 5.3.2.0 installed, which is downgradeable to FireOs 5.2. I was able to find that version by groveling around on the web a bit. 5.2 is vulnerable to Kingroot ( <a href="https://kingroot.net/">https://kingroot.net/</a> ). The next point release (the current one) is 5.3.2.1. Trying to roll back that version will brick the device. It may not be rootable although some reports hint at success with Kingroot. I cannot say whether the device you buy from Amazon today will have a rootable version of FireOS on it. Swappa ( <a href="http://swappa.com">http://swappa.com</a> ) has a bunch of Kindle Fires in various prices, ages, and conditions. Those devices almost certainly have older, easily rootable versions of the Amazon ROM on them. <br><br></div>Sound quality is good but not great. It's loud enough to hear from across the room in a quiet place. I wouldn't try to use it for music while practicing though. The speaker is in the lower right rear of the case. A paper clip will stick to the magnet there. I haven't experimented with ROMs beyond the Nexus Lollipop build I have on there right now. Other software might change the sound quality. CyanogenMod comes with a fairly sophisticated mixer. You can still find the CM 12 build for the Fire out there. I tried to put that on my Fire but did not succeed. So far to the best of my knowledge there are no Lineage ( <a href="http://lineageos.org">http://lineageos.org</a> ) builds for the Fire. I hope that changes eventually.<br><br></div><div>The 2 MP rear-facing camera is also mediocre. But heck, for $40 it's great for sitting on the couch drinking and browsing. And it keeps me off my computers, where I have a tendency to get involved with development after a beer or two. This has generally been a Bad Idea.<br></div><div><br></div>-- CHS<br><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 11:11 AM, Greg Clifton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gccfof5@gmail.com" target="_blank">gccfof5@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Two questions for CS:<div><br></div><div>1) Whence come this Kindle Fire?</div><div><br></div><div>2) How good is the audio on the device sans head phones? I listen to a lot of streaming radio and my iPad has issues now and this could be cheaper than fixing it.</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 10:34 PM, Charles Shapiro <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hooterpincher@gmail.com" target="_blank">hooterpincher@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><br>It was Sunday. Mostly the NYT.<div><br></div><div>--CHS</div><div class="m_8748093216155645437HOEnZb"><div class="m_8748093216155645437h5"><div><br>On Monday, February 13, 2017, Chris Fowler <<a href="mailto:cfowler@outpostsentinel.com" target="_blank">cfowler@outpostsentinel.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000"><div><br></div><div><br></div><hr><div><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010ff;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><b>From: </b>"Pete Hardie" <<a>pete.hardie@gmail.com</a>><br><b>To: </b>"Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!" <<a>ale@ale.org</a>><br><b>Sent: </b>Monday, February 13, 2017 3:00:32 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [ale] I Win, I Win!<br></blockquote></div><div><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010ff;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.696px">"read the paper while"</span></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I read a "paper white". I think it was 40 to 80lbs. 25 years ago? </div></div></div></div></blockquote></div>
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