Nexus 7 - For people that like to customize their tablet, have access to every app available, receive timely software updates direct from Google, and definitely the go-to tablet for beginner and advanced developers. If you don’t have an an Amazon Prime account though it’s not really worth it to pick up the Fire. Kindle Fire HD - For people with an Amazon Prime account who primarily use their tablet for reading, streaming movies, and playing music (great speakers). My advice to anyone looking at buying these tablets would be: Nearly all of the developers I know purchased that device instead since it is easier to work with and doesn’t have anything locked down by Amazon. I think this is largely in part due to the Nexus 7 being available. I have noticed a lack of interest in original development for the Kindle Fire HD. I haven’t played around with the Nexus 7 to compare, but I imagine the two tablets are very similar hardware-wise. But after tweaking it out, like I said, it’s great. Amazon’s app store is incredibly insufficient, and Amazon censors a lot of competing apps from showing up in it (something Google rarely does). To be honest though, I hated this thing until I rooted it and installed the Google Play store.

However, there is always the competition to think about, the Nexus 7. It has very nice speakers, a great GPU and CPU, and awesome battery life.

I didn’t notice any issues from either except that the bottom-row from the overlapping Kindle launcher skin pops up even when it isn’t needed, sometimes moving the screen slightly. I’ve tested out both Nova Launcher and Go Launcher on the Kindle Fire HD. Play around with the different launchers until you find one that you like, and after you do set it to the default by checking the box at the bottom of the action prompt. Once it’s restarted, tap the Home button to bring up the launcher action chooser. Now reboot the Kindle Fire HD by shutting it down and turning it back on.

Within the properties set the permissions to: Now track down the apk file that you just moved, and long-press on it to open up its Properties. Once you find the correct apk(s), move (cut/paste) it into this folder: It may prove somewhat tricky because the file name may not match up with the launcher name, so look for the matching icon instead. Don’t worry, you’ll fix that in just a second.Īfter you have the launcher installed, open up ES File Explorer and browse to the following location:įrom this folder, you’ll need to track down the launcher. You may notice that after installing a launcher that there won’t be any way to open it.

If you’re looking for a good launcher, I recommend either Nova Launcher or Go Launcher. Alternatively, you could grab the APK files, but I prefer to just pull them from Play. The easiest way to get the new launchers on your device is to grab them directly from the Google Play market.

Nova launcher kindle fire hd 8