When I originally bought my Kindle Fire HD 7”, I was madly in love with it. However, after the initial euphoria was over, I got very annoyed with the dumbed down user interface and the limited availability of apps in Amazon’s app store.
So yesterday morning I finally set aside around 2 hours to do the following:
- Root the device (How To: Root the Kindle Fire 7” HD or 2 with Linux/MAC)
- Install Google Play (Install Google Play Store Noob (Simple) Version)
- Install Nova Launcher (Nova Launcher on the KFHD7!)
- Disable OTA updates (How to Disable Amazon OTA Updates)
All in all the process went pretty smoothly and I now I have a mostly uncrippled Android tablet. There are some small glitches, but they are certainly less annoying than having a very limited device. At first I couldn’t get the Kindle app to run (it’s a modified version that’s pretty tied to the Fire’s native launcher), but after a bit of fiddling around it’s now working. Some people also opt for not selecting any launcher as default action for the home button, so they can easily switch between the Kindle experience and a more tablet like launcher.
If you own a Kindle Fire that you don’t use much maybe you should give rooting a try, it may re-kindle your interest in the device.