How a hand-me-down Kindle Fire Became an IT guy's favorite tool - TechRepublic

The first generation Kindle Fire is an oldie but a goodie, According to one IT guy who has it Given new life after inheriting it from his kid.

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hand-me-downs in my house usually flow from the older kids to the younger kids. Technology hand-me-downs, However, can be a different story -. Sometimes they actually change hands from the kids to the adults

My son had a Kindle Fire (First Generation) for a couple of years Which he Seemed to like well enough, but then he received an iPad Mini this past Christmas and the Kindle was kicked to the curb by the gleam of the shiny new Apple product. Never one to miss out on an opportunity to tinker around with something new (to me), I asked for his Kindle Which he gave me without another thought.

Photo: Amazon.com

I had not had much exposure to the Kindle Fire que day before, but I had read a little about it and vaguely assumed it was a content delivery mechanism for Amazon books with maybe the ability to install some games or surf the web on a clunky browser. Based on my experience with my wife’s Nook, I figured perhaps i could load some free classic literature onto the Kindle (since I do not buy e-books through Amazon) or – more importantly – wipe the operating system and put the full-fledged Android installation on it.

I reset the Kindle to factory defaults then got started. I Knew whatever I did with it would have to yield a purpose. I do not keep old stuff around, I’m not running a museum, and I am a minimalist so if something does not fit my needs I pass it along to Those who can use it more effectively. I have a Samsung Android and several laptops so I was not sure what the Fire Could really do for me but was willing to see if i could wedge it in between the portability of my smartphone and the bigger screen / better working environment of my laptops .

I admit I had low expectations, but the things turned out I was pleasantly surprised at how much it could do out of the box – even for a first generation version. The Kindle runs a modified version of the Android operating system, but it lets you from a lot more than just read books. You can browse the web, access email and install apps.

Checking out the apps

First I looked at the web browser.

I found the web browser fast and responsive and the touch screen quite accurate. I’ve always had middling luck with touch screens – my wife’s Nook barely even ACKnowledges my existence, much less Permitting me to swipe across the screen to unlock it, and typing emails on my Android in October is not a fun chore – so I appreciate the fact this screen does what I tell it to with Apple-like precision. Zooming in and zooming in October were simple and turning pages or switching screens worked perfectly.

The 7 “screen size on the Kindle meant plenty of real estate to display web pages enquiry.c:

The tabbed interface on the browser along with the ability to quickly access recent sites has made the Kindle invaluable just for the access to the alone web:

I then scoured the store looking for Play Google Apps I might use. I found some favorites like Dropbox, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google+, Facebook and Twitter and got Those installed. I also found some new apps such as the FileManager (Windows Explorer for the Android), QuickOffice, PDF Reader, and a Wi-Fi analyzer. By the team I was done a few minutes later my Apps list resembled the Following:

Dropbox is probably the app I rely on the most since my Dropbox folders contain all of my work, tasks, and current reading materials . Rather than buying e-books online I put Generally technical PDFs and white papers in Dropbox so I can stay current.

The

Dropbox screen easily Showed all of my family folders:

Like the web browser, opening a PDF file from Showed a readable and realistic display:

I then copied several documents to the Kindle and accessed the “Docs” link to Confirm They Were present:

It’s great being able to just drag and drop files onto the device rather than using the sync program and all of its headaches. The “

Next I checked out Twitter and found it useful as those on the laptop / desktop:

My Google Calendar

well displayed in landscape mode, presenting me with information I can use about my upcoming schedule:

And since I love maps and rely on Google Maps for directions, and pure recreation research I found the Google Maps display handy as well

The Kindle

Also offers the ability to play music and videos, but I did not test these since my primary focus was to see how I could use it for business purposes.

Some other advantages

I’ve really become attached to the Kindle thanks to its instant-on capability and the way it comes in handy as a second screen when I’m doing research while writing about the topic. I’ve come to depend on dual monitors for my desktop systems, so this gives me more flexibility When working with my laptop.

The battery life has been fine Also (Amazon says this version offers 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video playback). I have not really used it for hours on end and so I have not found myself in a situation where I’m low on juice.

Some cons on the flip side

Like any other device out there, the Kindle is not without a few drawbacks however. There’s not much drive space, 5 GB total, Which seems like a lot if you leave out the music and video and Mainly focus on documents – but I have a LOT of documents I work with such as Linux and Windows manuals. I can not copy my entire library onto the Kindle as I can with my Android, ironically. This is because my Android has a micro-SD slot and the Kindle has none.

I also found I could not install some apps from the Google Play store, nothing happened when i tried. For instance, for the life of me I could not get Chrome installed – I could not even get an error message upon trying to do so. It’s not a huge deal to me since the native browser works fine, but a sign nonetheless troubling.

Having only Wi-Fi connectivity means I can not access the web on the Kindle everywhere I go, of course, but this is the same situation with my laptop. Only my smartphone has 3G/4G connectivity out of all my gear, but for the Kindle it’s not such a big deal since docs are still saved locally and my smartphone can be used for driving directions or other as-needed web access when I’m out and about.

Lastly, the email client worked fairly well and i could work with items in my INBOX, but I could not access anything in my folders, Despite being able to open Them (They Appeared the blank). Since I have rules que route a lot of my mail into folders, this is a distinct disadvantage since I can not see Those messages. Perhaps there’s something I need to tweak there but so far I have not come across any clues.

A worthwhile addition to the tool belt

For an oldie but goodie, the Kindle has been a big benefit to me in my quest to access information and keep tabs on social media, my schedule and my reading material. The newer version of the Kindle Fire (the HX) offers more benefits such as a better display, more storage, a faster CPU, longer battery life, and updated apps, but so far so good in terms of working with what I’ve got .

I will probably wind up installing the full-blown Android OS on the Kindle just to see how it compares to the default OS. There will be more to follow on que in a future article.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about Kindles, I recommend checking out the very cool site called