back to article Amazon preps major update for Kindle Fire UI

Amazon will roll out a major update for its Kindle Fire firmware before Christmas, the online retail giant has promised. A company spokesman said the over-the-air update will improve the 7in tablet's performance, enhance navigation and provide owners with the option to adjust what appears in the UI's central 'recently accessed …

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  1. jayp

    fyi - for any prospective buyers...

    hopefully they'll allow purchasing to be password protected.

    worth a read if you're interested in buying one...

    http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Amazon-Kindle-Fire-lets-kids-rsg-3752604696.html

  2. Patrick O'Reilly

    Opera Mobile

    I downloaded Opera Mobile from Opera's FTP server and found it way faster than the native browser.

  3. Levente Szileszky
    Alert

    It's one thing the browser is pretty slow when...

    ...their server-side caching/proxy is enabled because once you disable it and set all plugins to on-demand loading it's pretty swell. OTOH I have installed the latest Opera Mobile on my Fire and it's a LOT faster than anything I've seen before (using Opera's server-side caching.)

    But I have bigger issues, all without workaround so far:

    - WiFi is still a weird thing: every time when we pick up the tablet after some time sitting there unused, when we turn back the LCD there's no wifi connection. Maybe it is by design - saving power - but I tried to find an option to disable this but so far nothing works.

    - The home page recent list is a graphical mess as far as icon size etc go; I don't often say this but aside of the many negative, awful approach they made this is where Apple always excel, the consistent visuals of the UI which makes powerful impression.

    - Sound is very puny and needs to be louder; other than my quiet living room it's useless eg I couldn't hear a thing from any dialog in a movie when tried in a regular, chatty office environment.

    - TASK MANAGER! WHen enabled and unlocked press-and-hold on the button should give us a menu (a' la Gingerbread), one menu option launching a list of running apps/tasks so we can SWITCH between tasks/apps!

    - The apparent locking Fire to Amazon's App Store does not bother me but I don't want to see it happening the other way around, Mr Bezos: don't even think about my Amazon App Store apps disappearing from my Arc... such a move would immediately prompt me to abandon your ship. Just sayin'.

  4. Stephen 2

    Hardware = Good. Software = Bad

    When I first got my Kindle Fire, I was worried that I'd bought a pile of junk. It was so unresponsive to prods.

    Then I swapped out some of the stock software for alternatives. E.g. I loaded up Dolphin HD web browser. I couldn't believe the difference! Nearly every click worked perfectly in Dolphin! In the Amazon Silk browser I'd have to click several times before it finally registered it.

    The same thing goes for most of the other Amazon apps. I dunno what they've done wrong but it's a big cock. I'm glad they're going to fix it.

    Aside from that, I've really got no other major gripes with the Kindle Fire. You can use a microphone with some apps (inline headphone type). I got it working with an audio recorder but most apps can't use the mic. I'd like to see them add proper support for it so we can use Skype. It's half way there so it shouldn't be hard for them to do it!

    Also the onboard chip that handles Wifi also appears to have bluetooth and FM built in. Wouldn't Not overly bothered about them getting enabled but it wouldn't hurt. May allow us to hook up a bluetooth GPS and run TomTom or something.

    TBH I'm looking forward to those geniuses over at cyanogenmod and xda-developers releasing the ICS rom for Kindle Fire so I can just run regular Android 4.0 without any of the Amazon stuff. I'm not in the US so there's no benefit for me anyway. They're nuts if they think their UI changes make android look better than other third party apps like Go Launcher.

  5. Stephen 2

    Hardware = Good. Software = Bad

    When I first got my Kindle Fire, I was worried that I'd bought a pile of junk. It was so unresponsive to prods.

    Then I swapped out some of the stock software for alternatives. E.g. I loaded up Dolphin HD web browser. I couldn't believe the difference! Nearly every click worked perfectly in Dolphin! In the Amazon Silk browser I'd have to click several times before it finally registered it.

    The same thing goes for most of the other Amazon apps. I dunno what they've done wrong but it's a big cock up. I'm glad they're going to fix it.

    Aside from that, I've really got no other major gripes with the Kindle Fire. You can use a microphone with some apps (inline headphone type). I got it working with an audio recorder but most apps can't use the mic. I'd like to see them add proper support for it so we can use Skype. It's half way there so it shouldn't be hard for them to do it!

    Also the onboard chip that handles Wifi also appears to have bluetooth and FM built in. Not overly bothered about them getting enabled but it wouldn't hurt. May allow us to hook up a bluetooth GPS and run TomTom or something.

    TBH I'm looking forward to those geniuses over at cyanogenmod and xda-developers releasing the ICS rom for Kindle Fire so I can just run regular Android 4.0 without any of the Amazon stuff. I'm not in the US so there's no benefit for me anyway. They're nuts if they think their UI changes make android look better than other third party apps like Go Launcher.

    1. miknik
      Trollface

      Your post was so good

      That I read it twice

    2. DanM
      Happy

      LOL @ Stephen

      I did wonder about the description "it's a big cock"..

      1. Levente Szileszky
        Devil

        RE: LOL

        Yeah, I just spit my coffee all over my desk, thanks! :D

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