6 ms·

Amazon Fire 7 $49 – Is this worth hacking?

tshtf 10y ago
People hack whatever interests them: * iPhones * Bikes they buy at Walmart * Raspberry Pis * Dodge Neons * $5 Amazon Dash buttons If it interests you, please hack it and let the world know what you did!
jastanton 10y ago
I've been wanting to build a home automation dashboard display built into a wall in my house. This would be a good way to start.
schappim 10y ago
In terms of price: - You can buy an IPS display for roughly $42. - The lithium polymer battery is also worth a few dollars.
- VoidWhisperer 10y ago
  Buying the device itself instead of building one yourself is still probably cheaper once all of the hardware is said and done, unless this isn't what you were going after.
TD-Linux 10y ago
If you have to ask...
- mcphage 10y ago
  ...? I have no idea how you think that sentence finishes.
Jedd 10y ago
http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-tablet.html http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-tablet.ht...
K-Wall 10y ago
I picked up this little device for $39 when they ran that sale a couple weeks ago. I ended up downgrading to Fire OS 5.1.2 and then rooted and flashed on ASOP. Basically have a Nexus-eque device on the cheap and have been enjoying it thus far. All in all it took me 45 mins to complete the root / install but this was mostly just going slow and reading up on the process. The actual flashing and rooting portion of the job only took 15 mins. For those interested I have bookmarked a few links that guided me through the process (this was my first Android device. Yes I am late to the party). XDA Index Page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/index-amazon-fire-2015-t3210485 http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/index-am... ASOP Guide for Fire 7: http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-development/rom-fire-nexus-rom-lmy49f-t3300714/ http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-development... Firmware Download Page (Used for Downgrade): http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-amazon-fire-7in-2015-5th-gen-t3285294 http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-... Handy Video Tutorial from Root Junky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI
- creativeboulder 10y ago
  Thanks for your account with this device. Makes a possible bardon with a friend this evening go smoother. At least I know I can get AOSP on it. I do appreciate the links as well.
prewett 10y ago
Probably depends on what you want to accomplish. I bought a Kindle Fire HD several years ago and installed Cyanogenmod on it. Turned out to be a terrible decision. After days of fiddling and things not working and many hours of web searching, I began to suspect that I needed a "factory cable" and that the only way I was going to get one was to make one myself. (Which I did, wasn't too difficult, but information was sparse.) Then I discovered that I pretty much hated everything about Android, or at least Cyanogenmod 7. The aesthetics were bad (although Material probably helps a lot now), the icons were universally ugly (seriously, Google can't even hire a artist for its own app icons?), the apps were ugly, the scrolling was lame (I get that Apple has a patent on bounce, but the light blue highlight was both ugly and uninformative), the app store was filled with apps that had ads for 8 hours of developer work, basic things like calculators and notes apps were seriously ugly (and also were not included with the OS). I bought it partly to learn Android development, but I hated programming on Android because the API seemed to have taken the worst features of Java and the Linux UI, and was so full of inconsistencies that it made Microsoft's APIs look thoughtfully designed. Life is too short to use crappy Java APIs, so I ended up using it to read Kindle books for a year or so until the iPad mini got retina displays. Since then I haven't used it once. If none of the above bothers you, well, the price sure is good. Just be sure to check how hackable it is, and how well your target OS runs on it.
- cthulberg 10y ago
  Wow you should give Android another chance! Material is everywhere and feels so good on mobile. The UI is miles away from Holo, and the apps ecosystem bloomed as well. About the APIs... Well, Java is still Java, Kotlin looks ok but is not there (yet).
anqurvanillapy 10y ago
BTW, cheaper than a paperback copy of SICP on Amazon. Yep, hack whatever interests you.
payne92 10y ago
I was hoping to use a few for kiosk-type info displays "out of the box" with minimal hacking, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to disable the sleep timeout. See: http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxN235LA0R7H2H http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx...

tshtf 10y ago

People hack whatever interests them: * iPhones * Bikes they buy at Walmart * Raspberry Pis * Dodge Neons * $5 Amazon Dash buttons If it interests you, please hack it and let the world know what you did!

jastanton 10y ago

I've been wanting to build a home automation dashboard display built into a wall in my house. This would be a good way to start.

schappim 10y ago

In terms of price: - You can buy an IPS display for roughly $42. - The lithium polymer battery is also worth a few dollars.

VoidWhisperer 10y ago
Buying the device itself instead of building one yourself is still probably cheaper once all of the hardware is said and done, unless this isn't what you were going after.

TD-Linux 10y ago

If you have to ask...

mcphage 10y ago
...? I have no idea how you think that sentence finishes.

Jedd 10y ago

http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-tablet.html http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-tablet.ht...

K-Wall 10y ago

I picked up this little device for $39 when they ran that sale a couple weeks ago. I ended up downgrading to Fire OS 5.1.2 and then rooted and flashed on ASOP. Basically have a Nexus-eque device on the cheap and have been enjoying it thus far. All in all it took me 45 mins to complete the root / install but this was mostly just going slow and reading up on the process. The actual flashing and rooting portion of the job only took 15 mins. For those interested I have bookmarked a few links that guided me through the process (this was my first Android device. Yes I am late to the party). XDA Index Page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/index-amazon-fire-2015-t3210485 http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/index-am... ASOP Guide for Fire 7: http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-development/rom-fire-nexus-rom-lmy49f-t3300714/ http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-development... Firmware Download Page (Used for Downgrade): http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-amazon-fire-7in-2015-5th-gen-t3285294 http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-... Handy Video Tutorial from Root Junky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI

creativeboulder 10y ago
Thanks for your account with this device. Makes a possible bardon with a friend this evening go smoother. At least I know I can get AOSP on it. I do appreciate the links as well.

prewett 10y ago

Probably depends on what you want to accomplish. I bought a Kindle Fire HD several years ago and installed Cyanogenmod on it. Turned out to be a terrible decision. After days of fiddling and things not working and many hours of web searching, I began to suspect that I needed a "factory cable" and that the only way I was going to get one was to make one myself. (Which I did, wasn't too difficult, but information was sparse.) Then I discovered that I pretty much hated everything about Android, or at least Cyanogenmod 7. The aesthetics were bad (although Material probably helps a lot now), the icons were universally ugly (seriously, Google can't even hire a artist for its own app icons?), the apps were ugly, the scrolling was lame (I get that Apple has a patent on bounce, but the light blue highlight was both ugly and uninformative), the app store was filled with apps that had ads for 8 hours of developer work, basic things like calculators and notes apps were seriously ugly (and also were not included with the OS). I bought it partly to learn Android development, but I hated programming on Android because the API seemed to have taken the worst features of Java and the Linux UI, and was so full of inconsistencies that it made Microsoft's APIs look thoughtfully designed. Life is too short to use crappy Java APIs, so I ended up using it to read Kindle books for a year or so until the iPad mini got retina displays. Since then I haven't used it once. If none of the above bothers you, well, the price sure is good. Just be sure to check how hackable it is, and how well your target OS runs on it.

cthulberg 10y ago
Wow you should give Android another chance! Material is everywhere and feels so good on mobile. The UI is miles away from Holo, and the apps ecosystem bloomed as well. About the APIs... Well, Java is still Java, Kotlin looks ok but is not there (yet).

anqurvanillapy 10y ago

BTW, cheaper than a paperback copy of SICP on Amazon. Yep, hack whatever interests you.

payne92 10y ago

I was hoping to use a few for kiosk-type info displays "out of the box" with minimal hacking, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to disable the sleep timeout. See: http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxN235LA0R7H2H http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx...