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Okay, so it was only a few minutes ago that I told you guys the Kindle Fire source code had been made available by Amazon. Now, that’s all fine and dandy for creating custom ROMs but there’s only one small problem — you can’t install a custom ROM without first getting root onto your device.
Well, no sooner do I check our Phantips that I learn the rooting roadblock has been removed thanks to death2all11o from our very own Android Forums. Mr. Death created a very nice “how-to” guide in the Kindle Fire forums detailing the exact steps needed to root the Kindle Fire. And let me tell you, it’s pretty easy.
I think it’s time we start taking bets on how soon we’ll see Ice Cream Sandwich on this baby. It’s going to be really hard to resist buying this tablet for my stocking stuffer…
[Via AndroidForums]
Kindle Fire<Nook Tab
Stop your jibber jabberin’!
On the surface, The Nook would be the one to go for if you based a purchase on specs alone. However, after weighing the pros and cons of both, I’ve decided to go for the Fire, and this piece highlights yet another reason why.
First off, B&N isn’t exactly a thriving business. After they bought B Daltons and then closed all of the stores by 2009 (in addition to many brick and mortar B&N) they’re pinning their future on The Nook and online sales for ebooks. They have no digital music downloads, no streaming service of their own, higher prices (most of the time), and in my peer group (writers and publishers), no one markets their ebooks to them other than the big NY publishers. Oh, you may get a stray indie or small press publisher here and there, but if you want to get something hard to find, you’d have to d/l the kindle software and use that to get what you want. The physical products (books, dvd’s etc) are higher priced, their software selection is really a joke and they don’t offer anything other than better specs.
Yes, the new Nook will be rooted, and no doubt access to the market will be available that way, but most people buying ereaders (and that’s what these are-beefed up ereaders, but not a full blown tablet) have no interest in doing so. Hell, even I’m not interested in doing that, though I have the ability to do it if I wanted.
Amazon has its own music store, own streaming, cloud services, and now root. I’ve not always liked Amazon’s decisions, and not very fond of their payment methods for writers, but I know in five years or ten years, they’ll still be there.
BN, I’m afraid will end up being another Borders.
Well said sir, well said. I informed a buddy of mine who was considering buying the Nook for his woman, and I had to stray him away from that since the KF was clearly the winner between the two. The major difference between the two devices is lack of SD port on KF and lack of services on the Nook (which is a big deal, all things considering).
Very well put considerations. As much as I love my NC, I rooted it right away to be able to run Kindle Reader on it. Although I hate so much the Kindle’s reader app, it is the only way to buy e-books and magazines from outside of US. I have to admit though – B&N gives you much better choice of magazines between the two, but with Zinio you won’t need either of them. Bottom line, if you don’t want to root and get full featured Android on your device, stick with Amazon.
The 3 most important features are price, price, and price. So I think this baby will be very popular with all the custom ROMers. Myself included.