A Kindle Fire Review For Those Who Plan To Void the Warranty

The mixed reviews so far available for the new Amazon Fire tablet mostly address the Fire in its intended role as a locked-down portal through which to buy and consume ready-made content from Amazon. New submitter terracode writes with a different kind of review, which "goes into depth on the Kindle Fire's hardware, and provides details on how to root and tweak the tablet." The article also provides a friendly chart comparing the hardware in the Fire to that of the Nook Color and the iPad 2.

Nook Color

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't the Nook Tablet be a more appropriate competitor?

Re:Kindle Fire is one device I see no reason to ro

[Kenja]

Well, the Nook has technical hurdles to overcome. That may just be a matter of waiting till someone cracks it. The Fire is easy to root, but I see no reason to do so. Look at it this way, what do you gain by rooting a Kindle Fire? You can already install third party APKs by checking the option in the system preferences and you can use the Android developer tools to side-load apps if you add the devices ID number to your INI file. Once rooted however you lose access to the Amazon cloud and video streaming services. So overall, it seems like it cripples the device more then it elevates it.

Re:Nice, but...

[Jethro]

You don't need an electronic device to hit yourself over the head with a hammer.

Re:It's kinda scary

[ColdWetDog]

Pardon me if I consider a site selling

Teclast P76Ti 7 Inch Android 2.3 Tablet PC Capacitive TFT Touch Screen Allwinner Many Core A10 1.5GHz 512MB 2160P Decoding MVC-3D Video Playing Flash10.3 Wifi

As not quite being competitive with iPads. Even if it is only $115 dollars. "Allwinner Many Core"? Please.

Re:Kindle Fire is one device I see no reason to ro

[93 Escort Wagon]

You can already install third party APKs by checking the option in the system preferences and you can use the Android developer tools to side-load apps if you add the devices ID number to your INI file.

It's so easy! I'm sure everyone will be doing it!

Re:Kindle Fire is one device I see no reason to ro

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn shame, but that's how dickish companies are these days.

Complete shame, we expect them to subsidize a product and then allow us to root the devices to break the subsidy model. Taking it to the man, no one should be allow to make a cent in profit off of me!

Nook Color? Why?

[Hallow]

I wonder why the comparison was made against the nook color, and not the nook tablet? The tablet is more of a direct competitor. $50 more for the nook tablet gets you the same cpu as the fire, 2x the ram (1GB), 2x the internal storage (16GB), support for up to an additional 32GB via external storage, a less reflective display, and a microphone.

You can even run the amazon app store, kindle app, and amazon instant video player app on the nook tablet. Both the Nook Tablet and the Fire have been rooted, and both have been reported to be able to access the Android Market.