Fire HD 7 (5th Gen) - How do I make it better? - Fire HD 6 and 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Bought it for the kids and although what it offers for them is good, there's a lot that sucks.
I don't really want to root it but want to use it like any other Android tablet.
What are my options!? The Chrome and PlayStore threads are out dated.
I have rooted an replaced the OS on a Samsung Tab 10.1 before but unhappy with how it performs, hence wanting to avoid rooting

This was a crap investment!! haha

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[Q] Tablets for younger Kids

Hi Folks
I'm looking to buy a tablet for my 3yo daughter for Christmas. My main aim is to give her something that will teach her about the metaphors that we use (pinch,zoom swipe, icons, home screen etc) as preparation for the tablets she'll encounter when she gets to school. I like the Kurio 7 and the Nabi 2 with it's Monarch OS, but it hasn't escaped my notice that for only a little bit more I could get a Nexus 7. Does anyone know of a replacement android OS build/flavor/rom that would give a similar experience the nabi 2 on a nexus 7, or even a cheaper android tablet?
There is a lot to be said for just buying a kid friendly tablet out of the box, rather than hacking around trying to make one out of a regular tablet, but it's worth checking if anyone's been down this route before.
Jim
I too have been looking for something as you have suggested. It would be great to have a ROM like the one on the Kurio put onto my "old" Asus Transformer. If you do come up with anything be sure to share. :good:
jasonmav said:
I too have been looking for something as you have suggested. It would be great to have a ROM like the one on the Kurio put onto my "old" Asus Transformer. If you do come up with anything be sure to share. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest you are better off installing Kid Mode app by Zoodles which functionally is better than the Kurio and Nabi offerings
I'm sure that they're apps that have a "Kid Mode" on the Android PlayStore.
I'd recommend getting the Nexus 7 just because she'd be able to use it for quite some time.
If anything, you can install a custom launcher and tweak everything so it'd be more kid friendly. Load it up with apps that is educational for her, and use parental controls to control what she does.

[Q] Interested in the HDX 8.9", have Nexus 7 now..

So I have the new nexus 7 now. But really want the larger screen. Because the Fire is locked with amazon, would the nexus still be the preferred tablet just because I can get the google play store on it?
Do you guys that use the HDX feel that it does all you need and you dont feel slighted because you cannot get to the app store of google?
acdcking12345 said:
So I have the new nexus 7 now. But really want the larger screen. Because the Fire is locked with amazon, would the nexus still be the preferred tablet just because I can get the google play store on it?
Do you guys that use the HDX feel that it does all you need and you dont feel slighted because you cannot get to the app store of google?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't feel slighted because I side loaded most of what I use and like. It's an annoyance but it works. The screen is world's above nexus 7 2013 and the hardware is better but if you overclock and use cm the nexus 7 is close in performance. I hope for a working google play store every day or even better a custom Rom but I can easily get by like this. One thing I will say for fire OS though is I like the navigation bar better than stock vanilla android.
Obviously I do own both tablets and many others to boot so I have first hand experience with both.
conan1600 said:
I don't feel slighted because I side loaded most of what I use and like. It's an annoyance but it works. The screen is world's above nexus 7 2013 and the hardware is better but if you overclock and use cm the nexus 7 is close in performance. I hope for a working google play store every day or even better a custom Rom but I can easily get by like this. One thing I will say for fire OS though is I like the navigation bar better than stock vanilla android.
Obviously I do own both tablets and many others to boot so I have first hand experience with both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if I left it stock, I could still side load them? And I assume when you say you side load them, you copy the APK to the tablet and install it with the APK, correct?
How about books? Can I side load epubs and use Aldiko or something like that? And can you side load launchers? As you can see, I have never had one of these tablets from amazon, but love the hardware specs..
There is the LG Pad 8.3" sitting in the play store as a Google play edition device now for $350. Can not remember if it has similar specs or not figure kindle fire hdx.
Well i have the HDX 7" and it's a really nice tablet so far. I'm assuming the 8.9" is as well.
acdcking12345 said:
So if I left it stock, I could still side load them? And I assume when you say you side load them, you copy the APK to the tablet and install it with the APK, correct?
How about books? Can I side load epubs and use Aldiko or something like that? And can you side load launchers? As you can see, I have never had one of these tablets from amazon, but love the hardware specs..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without rooting many apps will side load and work but you can't sign into them with Google. I rooted and installed play and service's which you can not download from but it does allow you to sign into your already purchased or favorite side loaded apps. Right now I am using nook on kindle fire and various epubs from WV Deli and others. There is NO 8.9 inch alternative currently on any android tablet with this sort of hardware or screen or I would have bought it lol. If this is the form factor that turns you on I wouldn't be so hesitant to use it as it's one of the best tablets I have ever owned and I have had almost all of them. If however you want full and easy access to Google play with no hitches or bugs there is the LG G Pad 8.3 with a 1600 by 1200 res 8.3 inch screen, decent ppi, a nifty IR blaster and you can buy it with android 4.2 or even pure Google play edition 4.3 and and a SD 600 processor. It is not as sweet as this machine in many ways but it is very nice. Life is compromise my friend, at least until some young genius cooks a Rom for this machine, then I would unequivocally recommend that everyone buy and custom this tablet.
Good luck and happiness in your decisions.
I've got the nexus 7 the hdx 8.9 and the note 10.1 2014. I Use the HDX the least Just because Amazon is horrible, side loading apps you Usually end up with errors. Doesn't work with Chrome cast and really none of the google apps Work reliably . My go to Tablet Out of 3 is the Note 10.1 2014. Multitasking is just Awesome plus SD slot Comes in handy. The nexus 7 is really a good bang for buck, easily one handed and kitkat is blazing fast. The note has a slight couple of software stutters but I believe those issues will get worked out Soon.
Odd chromecast casting works fine for me, even from Netflix.

[Q] Will the Kindle HDX eventually get a stable custom ROM?

I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
henrypootel said:
I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I believed that it is only a matter of time (at most 2 months, but don't hold me on this) we already have a semi stable Asop ROM, and multiple people have commented in that thread talking about releasing their ROMs in the rear furture. I am using the gapps update 1 ROM and it is practically stock, even with stock settings, keyboard, launcher ect. The only thing in don't like is kindle navbar, and status bar. But people are already talking about bringing this to the stock rom, also there is a xposed framework module for our device which will bring a lot of options In the future (Google exposed framework and what is for more info on that). So yes I would recomend this device also, if you care about amazon services there is a flashable zip that allows you to have google apps(gapps) and amazon services(I have not tested this, but I'm sure it works)
It also seems that the 7 inch has some more development at the moment but I think the 8.9 will have more in the future
Hope this helps, like if it did!
Thanks! that's very helpful.
I just found out one thing that makes me lean much more over to the G Pad side of the decision - it has an SD card slot! That trumps the snapdragon 800 for me...
henrypootel said:
Thanks! that's very helpful.
I just found out one thing that makes me lean much more over to the G Pad side of the decision - it has an SD card slot! That trumps the snapdragon 800 for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want to still have storage
get the the kindle for its price and then go to hypershop.com and spend $100 and get a iusbport it allows you to use any storage (thumb drives hard drive sdcards old ipods ect.) as a usb storage that you can access by wifi
then you are not stuck with sd only u will have more options
I myself use them with the thor os as a secondary operating system and besides the system settings being kindle I don't notice a difference I can access all my google play with out any problems
p.s the iusbport can be accessed with just about any device via the web
I use es file explorer with it set as a ftp server on all my androids and Iusbport has a app on apple for theres that I use
best video players ive found for them bsplayer (android) goodplayer (ipad) moliplay (both) based on video formate experences my vary but other apps tend to pick up the format slack
henrypootel said:
I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go with the GPad, A stable rom may come, but kernels won't be for some time. Actually, I would wait to see what March & the MWC brings. The HDX is nice & does everything I want, but the Nexus 7 (2013) is my mod/dev toy. A few custom roms may even come, but development in a device like the HDX, which is based on an inferior fork of Android, will never garner as much community support as a developer device, regardless of how wonderful the hardware may be. So, the HDX a a choice of 2 to a half dozen, the GPad & the choice of maybe a dozen or two, or the Nexus 7 (2013) & hundreds of choices. Personally, I considered adding the GPad, but I really am impressed with the SD800/Adreno 330 & have also played with a SD805/Adreno 420 dev board & it is the beast. So, I am waiting to seee what March/April brings before deciding what toy to add to the collection. If you must have something NOW, well the 7" HDX is cheap, but the newest Nexus 7 has a ton more possibilities for little more, especially if you watch for deals or turn to Swappa.
Thanks for all the help eveyone!
I've gone with the gpad and, after using it for a few hours now, i love it! seems so much faster than my Note2, and blows the old nexus 7 out of the water!

Help me make a decision. Re: keep or sell my unused Galaxy Tab 10.1

I have a new, still in sealed box, Galaxy Tab 10.1 P7510 that I bought 3 years ago. Can't decide whether
to open the box and use it or try to sell it on eBay and use the money to buy a newer version.
This one is 16gb with a Nvidia Tegra 250 processor and Android 3.1 Honeycomb.
I use my tabs just for slow games, like Minecraft or logic puzzles. I would also use it as a e-reader.
Keep or sell? Any advice would be appreciated.
David
Its not really worth much. I've seen some NIB ones listed for 100 bucks and they weren't selling. You can get a cheap tablet with better specs that the P7510 for that price already.
If you want to use it for games, as an e reader, etc.... You could try using it stock out of the box (without doing the Touchwiz update, as it originally came as stock honeycomb, more like Google intended than Samsung) and see how it runs. You might prefer it that way. Once it got ICS, it really got laggy IMO. Still usable, but not anywhere near a modern tablet.
If you root it and install anything more recent than ICS, you'll run into glitchy things, etc. due to drivers not being updated, etc. I only use mine for browsing the net and an occasion e book and it's fine. I run the Lollipop ROM in the development section and it's alright. The dev did a good job with what he had to work with...... but if you want to watch video or anything more intensive, you may not want to go that root.

FIre tablet 7 gen. Android?

Hello,
first i have to say.. I ordered it and i really dont like this amazon-related tablet.
Is there a Option to get Android in this fire 7 7gen?
I was browsing but i cant find anything about it.
I would need a guide too, because i dont know much about Roms.. I just rooted a Samsung and a oneplus, so basics are existent.
Would be great.
For info: i would try everything, even experimental roms.its not worth to handle it like a expensive one.
Would be great, if i get Android without amazon branding **** .
Gesetz, soubi

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