
Amazon Fire 7 $49 – Is this worth hacking? - stevenhubertron
http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-7-Inch-Tablet-8GB/dp/B00TSUGXKE?ie=UTF8&ref_=ods_gw_d_h1_tab_fd_c3
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K-Wall
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-
am...](http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/index-amazon-
fire-2015-t3210485)

ASOP Guide for Fire 7: [http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-
development...](http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/orig-
development/rom-fire-nexus-rom-lmy49f-t3300714/)

Firmware Download Page (Used for Downgrade): [http://forum.xda-
developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-...](http://forum.xda-
developers.com/amazon-fire/general/unbrick-amazon-fire-7in-2015-5th-
gen-t3285294)

Handy Video Tutorial from Root Junky:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZjD4ME4wlI)

~~~
creativeboulder
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.

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tshtf
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!

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Jedd
[http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-
tablet.ht...](http://liliputing.com/2015/11/hacking-amazons-fire-tablet.html)

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payne92
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=Fx...](http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxN235LA0R7H2H)

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prewett
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
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).

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

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schappim
In terms of price:

\- You can buy an IPS display for roughly $42.

\- The lithium polymer battery is also worth a few dollars.

~~~
VoidWhisperer
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.

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jastanton
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.

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TD-Linux
If you have to ask...

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

