Introduction On September 28, 2011 Amazon LLC introduced a new Kindle device. It was a departure from their current e-reader devices sporting an e-Ink display. The new device was launched on November 15 and opened a new world of media digesting possibilities beyond reading books and magazines. The $200.00 7" Kindle tablet sporting an IPS color multi-touch display poised the new unit to a place where people can read books, watch movies, listen to music, access the internet and add new apps via the Amazon App Store. Within a day of release, an XDA developer was able to root the device which opened up more possibilities. This article will review the underlying architecture on the Kindle Fire and go over how the device can be rooted and what this means to the users. Pic from Amazon.com Observations The Kindle Fire has been reported to be built by the same manufacturer of the Blackberry Playbook. iFixIt has done a tear-down of the Kindle Fire and revealed that it uses the Jorjin WG7310 WLAN/BT/FM Combo Module. Like the Nook Color, the Bluetooth wasn't enabled until the great XDA Developers came out with an update that activated it. If the WG7310 is not connected to the power and communication to the SoC, then the point is moot and we will need to hope the next iteration of the Kindle Fire will include a working Bluetooth. If it is connected to the SoC and can be activated, it would be great for use with BT headsets and keyboards. Specifications The Kindle Fire has some very strong specifications. It does lack a few features that would have been nice such as using micro-SD and GPS. The GPS may not be necessity in the device due to many people having smart-phones with GPS. Using an app such as TetherGPS could allow the Fire to use the Android Phones GPS via an ADB (Android Debug Bridge) protocol. Below is a comparison of the Kindle to the Nook Color which is its closest competitor. The iPad is in my opinion not currently a direct competitor, but put in for sake of argument. Category Kindle Fire Nook Color 2 iPad2 SoC Vendor / Part TI OMAP4430 TI OMAP4430 Apple A5 (manufactured by Samsung) MPCore ARM Cortex A9 (1 GHz dual core) ARM Cortex A9 (1 GHz dual core) ARM Cortex A9 (1 GHz dual core) Graphics POWERVR™ SGX540 POWERVR™ SGX540 POWERVR™ SGX543 Memory 512 MB 1 GB 512 MB Storage (on-board) 8 GB 16 GB 16/32/64 GB LCD Resolution 1024x600 1024x600 1024x768 Pixels Per Inch 169 PPI 169 PPI 132 PPI Network 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth On-Board (not supported out the box) On-Board (not supported out of the box) Yes The specifications for the Kindle Fire show it to be a fairly performance competitive device. The POWERVR SGX540 chip supports 1080p HD playback. The TI OMAP4430 SoC uses two ARM Cortex A9 cores running at 1 GHz. TI OMAP4430 SoC Image from TI Site Performance: The unit has very strong performance for running applications. Memory management applications may be in order to better handle the 512MB memory on-board. Using Advanced Task Killer App helps keep things clean and speedy. Touch is very responsive. When I first received the unit, the touch was too responsive, but after a couple of days of use it has settled down and is now very smooth and much easier to scroll without jumping past your selection. This is definitely not an issue with the device or a concern, but just notable.. The Silk Browser at times seemed to be slow and not loading pages as fast as I would have anticipated given the Amazon presentations on the technology. This may be due to the Silks back end logic needing to cache enough information on a users browsing habits that it can properly anticipate the next page. Using Opera or Dolphin HD Browsers had much better performance and closer to what I expected. The Kindle only has one button and it is used for turning the unit off via long-press or putting it to sleep via short press. Gone are the staple Home, Search, Menu and Back buttons. Instead there is pop-up bar at the bottom of the display that brings up the the Home, Back and Search functionality. When this bar appears, so does a top info bar menu that displays battery life and settings menu icon. The settings menu button will allow one to adjust brightness, volume, WiFi, etc. A 'More' button on the info bar settings menu provides deeper settings. One of the settings under the device menu item is the ability to load 3rd party applications (.APK). Applications can be installed on the device via the Amazon App Store right away. One can also get apps from alternative Android application sites on the internet such as m.getjar.com. Adding the ability to access the Android Market which has many more apps than the Amazon App Store can be done via some tweaking which will be detailed in the Tweaking section below. Tweaking: Within a day of release of the Kindle Fire, developers were able to find out that the unit is easily rootable. Rooting is the process that allows the user to have permissions to access the 'Root" OS files and folders. Some applications require that they be run out of the System/App folder or Data/App folder. When a application is installed normally, it will usually go to the Data/App folder. One cannot move it to the System/App directory or change file permissions without Root access. This is what rooting is all about... getting the permissions to be able to modify or add files to the Root directories or Partitions of the device. Root Explorer App Rooting the Kindle Fire requires install of Java JDK and Android SDK. After that it is a matter of modifying an .ini and .inf file to allow the USB drivers to load properly in order for SuperOneClick to communicate to the attached Kindle via USB. Clicking the ROOT button will then root the device. One can go back to stock permissions by clicking UNROOT. It is that easy. Note 12/26/2011: , Rooting and flsashing to CM7 (or CM9 when available) is the only way totaly prevent future updates from disabling root. Please research the XDA dev site before attempting to flash to CM7/9 to see if is right for you. Install the Google applications or other application apk files you have by simply placing on your internal storage folder after connecting the device to your computer. The device as stock will come up as a USB drive so that you can copy over music, videos, etc. I used the Downloads folder to place my apk. Using ES File Explorer or any other file explorer which you can get for free off the Amazon App Store will allow you to find the file via a graphical environment and double tap to install. Getting Android Market installed and working is a bit more work since it requires you to have a rooted device. The Market APK has to be copied to the System/App directory, permissions changed to match the other apps in the folder and then installed from there. Using the application Root Explorer which you can find on the Amazon app Store (small cost but a huge time saver) can make this much simpler without having to use a terminal application apk or ADB shell. You can also use ES File Explorer app using the make R/W option for System/App. Rooting and Tweaking Guides Instructions Details How to Root and Install Google Apps (Firmware 6.1 and 6.2 only) Provides details on how to use SuperOneClick to Root your device and add Google apps to your Fire. Please note that SuperOneClick rooting currently doesn't work on KF firmware 6.2.1. Rooting for Firmware 6.2.1 and above. SuperOneClick is no longer able to root Fire with firmware version 6.2.1 or greater. The SOC app is now replaced with BurritoRoot. This app was integrated into aanother app called Kindle Fire Utility which also allows one to add recovery to allow fairly easy backup and flashing of new ROMS such as CM7/9. How to install and get Android Market working Provides steps to install Android Market and update permissions to get it working. (Requires Root) Using an External Microphone A headset that has a 4 conductor headset plug (TRRS) has been confirmed to work with the Kindle Fire. This would include the iPhone wired headset or any headset/mic combo that has 4 conductor 3.5 plug. This enables the headset to do 2 channel stereo, Mic and ground. The headset/mic may need to be plugged into the Kindle Fire prior to starting the application. It appears not all apps are compatible. Using your phone GPS with Kindle Fire Use TetherGPS-lite after setting the ‘Mock Locations’ value to 1 in the settings database on the Fire.. The files in the zip provided in the link to the left has to be placed in the android-sdk\platform-tools folder before executing the batch file. This requires an ADB connection to the Fire from the computer. It will not affect root if already rooted. I did get an error that it couldn't make a backup copy of the settings DB, but I went into Root Explorer and made a copy prior to executing the batch file. Set the TetherGPS IP to 192.168.1.255 and turn on broadcast IP. Start TetherGPS-lite as a server on your Android phone and wait a few seconds. Start TetherGPS-lite as client on the Fire. Startup Google Maps and enjoy your GPS enabled Fire. Android Market enabled on Kindle Fire Precautions: Rooting and changing files on you Kindle can cause issues if you accidentally change a required system file. This would lead you to a possibly bricked unit. Tread carefully and follow the directions to the letter. A rooted device will disable Amazon Video on Demand. This is the only stock app I found that will not work after rooting the Fire. If you use SuperOneClick to UnRoot, then you will be able to play the Amazon streaming videos. UnRooting will not affect your current applications added post rooting. You can also use the application OTA Root Keeper which can be found on the Android Market to Temporarily UnRoot the device. One click you can then re-apply rooting. This app doesn't Root for you, it just saves and restores an already existing Root access (SuperUser). How Amazon Kindle Fire OTA Updates Affect Root and Side-Loaded Apps: Amazon will push updates to the Kindle Fire via over-the air updates. These updates will unroot your Kindle Fire. If this happens, just use Super1Click and click Root again. You will be back in action. In most cases the Market apk will disappear and will have to be copied back to System/App using Root Explorer. All other Google apps are not affected. It appears that any apps sideloaded in System/App may be affected, but ones in Data/App are not. I would highly recommend the apps called Titanium Backup and OTA Rootkeeper. Titanium Backup works with the Rooted Fire to allow you to backup your sideloaded and other applications from data/app and system/app. You'll need to manually backup each application that you want to keep safe. In the event that a KF update comes through and deletes your side-loaded apps (including Market), you can easily restore the applications without having to use Root Explorer. OTA Rootkeeper as mentioned earlier will allow you to root and unroot as your needs arise without having to use Super1Click. OTA Rootkeeper will not restore root if an OTA update removes root from your Kindle Fire. You will need to use Super1Click to get rooted again.. Other Cools apps. I am not too fond of the Amazon GUI on the device, but have gotten used to it. There are some really cool launchers you can use instead of or alongside the stock Kindle launcher. One of my Favorites is the 'Ice Cream Sandwich' 4.0 Launcher. This launcher provides an interface similar to what you will see on the new Android 4.0 OS. It does lack features such as creating folders and such. Hopefully the developers can update this app to add this feature. It doesn't require Root to install (01/27/12 Note: ICS Launcher was only tested with KF ROM 6.2.1. It has been reported that ICS Launcher may not work on newer KF ROM updates). Fire Launcher ICS Launcher ICS Launcher App Switcher More Tweaks - Please note that most of these tweaks require Root access. If you attempt these tweaks it is at your own risk and Terracode assumes no liability if you brick or destabilize your Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire Tweaks & Workaround A site that provides information on how to use some hidden features of the Kindle Fire. How to 'unbrick' your Kindle Fire This article provides details on how to restore your non-functioning Kindle after a failed rooting or other issue. Using a Microphone with the Kindle Fire Using a Microphone with the Kindle Fire: The Fire is compatible with headphone/mic combos which have a 4-conductor plug (a TRRS), These headsets have two stereo channels and the mic (audio lef/right, mic, and ground). A mic which has a plug with 4 metal sections like a Android phone or iPhone will work. You can also use a TRSS splitter to use a headset that has separate plugs for headset and mic so you can use a variety of headsets. Not all applications will work with the mic. This is being investigated to see how to get it to work properly with Skype and Google Voice Chat. Currently the apps force close. Some sound recorder apps work fine Tweaking the Build.prop file to increase performance XDA dev 'atoz350' has created a tweaked version of the \System\Build.prop file. This tweak not only provides a little more zippy performance but it also modifies the device footprint setting. This apparently allows more apps to be available for the device in the market. This doesn't guarantee that the app will work with the Fire, though. This tweak has been confirmed to work with KF update 6.2. Future KF updates may implement these tweaks, so it is best to verify the file contents before replacing the build.prop on future KF updates. A misnamed or corrupt buld.prop file will prevent your Kindle Fire from booting, so tread carefully and double check the file and filename before copying it to /system. Cloud Drive How to upload files from your computer and download to Kindle Fire:



Goto https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive#path=/ on your computer and log into your amazon account. Click on the "Upload Files" button on the top left corner of the page. Click on "Your Cloud Drive" to select a destination folder for your files. If you do not select a folder at this time, your files will be uploaded into the "Your Cloud Drive" root folder. You will be able to move or copy your files into a different folder once your upload is complete. Next, click on "Select files to upload." Select one or more files from your computer to upload. Confirm your selection to begin uploading your files. You can now access your files from any computer or Kindle Fire. You can also use Cloud MP3 player to play music from your cloud dive music folder on your computer. Download From Cloud Drive to Kindle Fire: If you go to the Amazon Cloud Drive location via Silk Browser you can download the document you placed on the Cloud Drive. You'll need to tap the name of the document to initiate the download to the Kindle. Selecting the checkbox for your doc and clicking the download button will not work with the Fire(hopefully Amazon will fix). You'll need to tap the name of the file directly to initiate download.. The file will appear in your Downloads folder. I was able to upload a Word doc via my PC and download that file via Silk Browser to my Fire. Unfortunately 'Quick Word' was unable to open the file, but I was able to open the document using 'Documents To Go'. You can move this file into the Documents folder or any folder of your choosing using ES File Explorer, Root Explore, Etc. without hooking up to your computer. How to prevent Kindle Fire from defaulting to Amazon App Store You will need be rooted for this tweak. Using Root Explorer, navigate to /System/App and toggle mount permissions to R/W by tapping R/O at the top of the interface. Rename the file MarketIntentProxy.apk to MarketIntentProxy.apk.bak. Shutdown and restart the Fire. How to Install Google Currents Google Currents is Google news aggregator application. It provides news and stories from various websites in a magazine like layout. It is very easy to use and visually pleasing format. It is a direct competitor to apps like Pulse. The link provides instructions on how to install it. You must be rooted since it requires files to be placed in the System directory and permissions modified. Using Swiftkey Keyboard with the Fire Install Swiftkey: After installing Swiftkey, navigate to Data/App and long press the Swiftkey Apk using Root Explorer and select 'Move'. Navigate to System/App and toggle mount to R/W by tapping the R/O button. Paste the Swiftkey apk to this folder. Long press the apk and change permissions to Read/Write for owner (use same permissions settings as Market). Navigate to Data/Data and 'move' the Swiftkey data folder by long pressing the folder. Paste the Swftkey data folder to System/Lib. Reboot Fire. Go to a data entry field such as in the Mail app and long press the entry field. A selection-box will appear that will allow you to select the Swiftkey keyboard. It will now be your default keyboard. To change back to default keyboard, repeat step 8 and select the kindle keyboard. How to Prvent OTA updates OTA firrmware updates will remove root and in the case of KF update 6.2.1 will prevent rooting. To prevent OTA updates, rename system/app/OTAsilentInstall.apk to OTAsilentInstall.apk.bak. This has worked to prevent silent install of 6.2 to 6.2.1. Root Explorer (or similar) is required since the folder will need to be changed to R/W prior to renaming the apk. NOTE: This tweak worked for some people and not others. If you want to permanently disable updates you will need to flash the CM7 (available now on XDA) or CM9 (when available) ROM . Kindle Fire with CM7 Tweaks Add Silk Browser and Amazon VOD to CM7 This tweak adds the Silk Browser and Amazon VOD to the Kindle Fire. I found the tweak to work, but I didn't update the AccountAndSyncSettings.apk. This Apk may be needed in order to get Prime membership to be recognized with VOD. Flashing Kindle Fire with Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) ROM Upgrade your Kindle Fire with Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) I've been running Androind 4.1.1 (Jelly BEan) on the Kindle Fire for a litttle over a week. It is very fast and smooth and makes the most out of the hardware. This requires rooting and TWRP recovery installed. This is highly recommended to get the most from your Kindle Fire. Conclusion: Looking at the specs and performance at a great price, the Kindle Fire is poised to be a best seller at Amazon. I feel calling the Kindle Fire a e-Reader is a disservice to a very solid TABLET. Whether you just want to keep it stock or modify to your liking, I would highly recommend this device. Go to Kindle Fire with Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) vs. Nexus 7 article. Please e-mail info@terracode.com with any comments or questions. Twitter Terracode Terracode LLC, copyright 2011