[ale] Ultra cheap tablet discussion. Are they useful or can they be made useful?

[DJ-Pfulio]

The new Fire8 w/ USB-c charging was down to $60 yesterday.  https://slickdeals.net/f/14159888-32gb-amazon-all-new-fire-hd-8-tablet-w-special-offers-10th-gen-2020-various-colors-59-99-more-free-shipping-via-amazon  That deal expired.

Rooting the Fire8 2017 was pretty easy. They use a timing issue in the kernel, so it can take 1-5 attempts, but then you are in.  I've only needed to get root a few times to setup things I wanted and remove some amazon bloat. Haven't bothered with root access in about a year, so perhaps it doesn't work anymore? IDK.

Amazon has not undone any of my changes in later updates that I have noticed. Mainly I setup a huge /etc/hosts file to block 130K IPs when outside the home LAN.

If my current Fire8 died, I'd buy a replacement within 7 days for $50 or less. No question.  $60 is just a little more, but I'd probably think an extra week about that higher cost. I use it for a Kodi controller, vlc for music and videos, and to read DRM-free ebooks. I don't use the Kindle app.  Before my library card expired (how to get that renewed with COVID?) - I was signed up for a few public library services to get ebooks and audio books. I like bedtime stories. ;)

On 6/29/20 5:39 PM, Charles Shapiro via Ale wrote:
> I'm fond of my Rooted and re-imaged Amazon Fire.  Rooting these devices is tricky, as Amazon actively works against you.  Best advice I can give is to research software versions and rooting methods, then buy the right one from Swappa.com or someplace.  Whatever you do, don't install OTA updates.