"A dedicated tablet for every room and everyone" Gives me some ideas.

[ivan747]

A dedicated tablet for every room and everyone
That's the dream.

Amazon released a new Kinlde Fire for US $50. Now, that opens up a lot of possibilities for embedded applications, home automation and other things, even Amazon somewhat recognizes this:

The breakthrough price of Fire combined with Amazon’s durable engineering opens up many new ways for you to upgrade your rooms: in the kitchen as a digital cookbook or to watch your favorite cooking show, in the TV room as an entertainment controller, in the bedroom to watch a movie or check the weather before you get dressed, and in your car for backseat entertainment.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TSUGXKE/

Now, this thing has Raspberry Pi 2 performance, yet it is the whole package. If this is hackable, could it be a great platform for projects?
They are even offering a six pack for US$250. Crazy.

If you were to get a six pack of these things on christmas, what projects would you do with them?

[TheBay]

Love how we get ripped off in the UK, it's £49 here, about $77!

[ez24]

....

WAIT   I do not think this is an android device it is

Fire OS 5 designed for ... reading, surfing the web, watching videos, and listening to music

SO all you can do is read, surf (ie buy), watch videos, listen to music  and I assume you have to pay for all of this

Seems a fancy way to depart with your money.  I think this was designed to buy Amazon products.

 WHEW....  I almost ordered one   

[Monkeh]

It is an Android device. That doesn't mean it has Google services available.

[ez24]

I see that the Fires can be "hacked" to run android but really whats the point (other than the challenge) ?

I'd rather get this:

http://www.amazon.com/Android-Certified-Resolution-Cameras-Keyboard/dp/B014SPOS46/ref=sr_1_62?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1442617606&sr=1-62&keywords=7+inch+android+tablet&refinements=p_36%3A1253505011

so I put this in my cart (even though it is $2 more) and want to try out Android Arduino IDE on it

so thanks to OP because I found this one      I wanted a tablet with a keyboard.

[Monkeh]

They can't be hacked to run Android, they are Android..

[ez24]

They can't be hacked to run Android, they are Android..

OK I guess I should say "root"   For someone inexperienced like me "root" and "hack" mean the same even though they are not.

One of the main reasons to root your Kindle Fire is so you can install the Google Play Store and have access to apps that can't be found in the Amazon Appstore.

I want to try ArduinoDroid  and it is not in the Amazon app store.  I have no reason to "root" a Fire to use Google android apps.

But I did learn something from this topic.

BTW if someone would like to explain the difference between "hack" and "root", I would not mind reading it.

thanks

[ivan747]

I see that the Fires can be "hacked" to run android but really whats the point (other than the challenge) ?

I'd rather get this:

http://www.amazon.com/Android-Certified-Resolution-Cameras-Keyboard/dp/B014SPOS46/ref=sr_1_62?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1442617606&sr=1-62&keywords=7+inch+android+tablet&refinements=p_36%3A1253505011

so I put this in my cart (even though it is $2 more) and want to try out Android Arduino IDE on it

so thanks to OP because I found this one      I wanted a tablet with a keyboard.

I'd rather not get a generic tablet because then my project would be hard to replicate without finding that specific tablet. But if I hack a Kindle Fire, everyone should be able to get that precise model for at least 3 years (on the second hand market).