Posted inNews

Amazon Fire Max 11 is Amazon’s biggest, fastest, (and priciest) tablet

Amazon’s Fire tablets are known for offering excellent bang for the buck. They might not exactly be speed demons, and the Android-based Fire OS may not support quite as many apps as other mobile operating systems. but with prices starting as low as $60, Fire tablets offer decent screens, acceptable performance, and make decent budget […]

Posted inNews

Fire Toolbox now lets you hack Amazon tablets running Fire OS 8 (starting with the 2022 Fire 7)

Fire Toolbox is a free utility that makes it easy to hack Amazon Fire tablets by doing things like installing the Google Play Store, disabling pre-installed apps from Amazon, and loading third-party launchers, keyboards, and other apps, among other things. Developer Datastream33 continually pushes updates that add new functionality, bug fixes, and support for Amazon’s […]

Posted inNews

A new Amazon Fire tablet hits the FCC (could be a 2022 Fire 7 tablet, or a new Fire HD 10)

It’s been nearly three years since Amazon released a hardware update for the entry-level Amazon Fire tablet. But it looks like a new model could be coming soon. An unannounced device that sure looks like an Amazon Fire tablet showed up at the FCC website this week. The tablet that’s most overdue for a refresh […]

Posted inNews

Lilbits: Installing Google Play on Amazon Fire tablets, Linux on Chromebooks, and more

Find yourself with a new Amazon Fire tablet this holiday season? Amazon’s tablets offer pretty good bang for the buck if you’re looking for a device for reading eBooks, doing some web surfing, or streaming videos. But they also ship with Amazon’s Fire OS, which is a fork of Google Android that includes Amazon’s Appstore […]

Posted inNews

How to sideload apps on Amazon Fire tablets (install apps that aren’t in the Amazon Appstore)

Amazon’s Fire and Fire HD tablets ship with a fork of Google’s Android operating system called Fire OS. For the most part that means they have a custom user interface that’s designed to highlight Amazon apps and services. But it also means that instead of the Google Play Store, they ship with the Amazon Appstore […]

Posted inDeals

Most of Amazon tablets and smart speakers are on sale (plus some other stuff)

Amazon is running a sale on all of its Fire tablets, most of its Echo smart speakers and displays, and a grab bag of other items including the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and the Anker Nebula Fire TV Edition sound bar. You can save up to $60 off the list price of Amazon’s already-pretty-cheap […]

Posted inNews

Fire Toolbox v11 makes Amazon tablet hacking easier (and a little safer)

Fire Toolbox is a free utility for Windows computers that makes it relatively easy to hack Amazon Fire tablets by doing things like installing the Google Play Store, removing Amazon apps and services, and other tweaks that make Amazon’s Android-based Fire OS software look a little more like… well, Android. Version 11 of the Toolbox […]

Posted inNews

Amazon is bringing Fire OS 7 to some older tablets

Amazon’s Fire tablets run a modified version of Android called Fire OS. It has a custom user interface designed to emphasize Amazon’s apps and services. And it also tends to receive major operating system updates infrequently. Google is preparing to release Android 11 this fall, but Amazon’s latest Fire tablets ship with Fire OS 7, […]

Posted inNews

Amazon Fire OS 6 brings Android 7.1 Nougat to its 2017 Fire tablets (Update: maybe not)

Amazon’s Fire tablets run a custom version of Android called Fire OS… and while the company releases small software updates from time to time, it’s rare for one of Amazon’s budget tablets to get a major OS bump. But that’s just what happened recently. When the 7th-gen Amazon Fire, Fire HD 8 and Fire HD […]