Last week, Amazon unveiled its new line of Kindle Fire tablets, starting with the low-end Kindle Fire for $159 and moving up to its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 with LTE at $400.
Unfortunately, the 8.9 will not be available until late November, so Amazon has teased us with the 7-inch $200 version of the tablet which does not include a mobile data radio.
Unlike the first generation Kindle Fire, ... [ read the full article ]
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At that price point ($400), the loss of the Android ecosystem (and the Play Store) is a serious negative, imo. I think heavy Amazon consumers are the *only* market for this device.
Yet it has NO access to much of the Android ecosystem. Furthermore sideloading apps (unless you root the device) isn't going to happen, as far as I can tell.
Also, how many of those Amazon apps are free? I imagine a much lower ratio than for Android...
Originally posted by Bozobub: Yet it has NO access to much of the Android ecosystem. Furthermore sideloading apps (unless you root the device) isn't going to happen, as far as I can tell.
Also, how many of those Amazon apps are free? I imagine a much lower ratio than for Android...
From day 1, the original Kindle Fire had, enabled, the setting that has the user decide whether or not to install apps from "unknown sources" and we do. B&N does not allow this on the Nook tablet.
I use Dolphin browser most of the time. You can straight-download apk files to the Kindle Fire and have them installed. No rooting is involved or needed. I can install Mantano and Aldiko, both of which read DRM'd ePub books. And of course the Nook app since I have a NookColor.
As for free apps, Amazon has a paid one for free app of the day, and they have many free apps.
1mobile.com is a favorite, as is getjar and more than a few other places.
Amazon allows discussions of other sites with apps for download and users on their forums exchange tips on which are up to date and trustworthy, more or less...
There are a lot of myths out there about how closed the Amazon system is.
Looks good overall and with a better screen then the Nexus 7 for a decent price at $200 for the 7" and $400 for the 10" which is the going price for those formats. Good job this time around I'd say and I probably will buy one for a x-mas gift for a family member.
