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moving on from that ebay deal- I found and bought a cheap 3rd gen HDX 8.9 with 32Gb which will be an upgrade for the 2012 Kindle fire HD9 that our grandchild uses.
I used to have a 3rd gen HDX myself , and I still have a case for one, so I know a bit about it. It should update to OS4.5 which is better the OS4 on the older Kindle fire, and so it should run the kids apps that need android 4.1 or or better - like BBC iplayer for kids, Dr Seuss books.. Ceebies.... and it is a much more powerful tablet than the 2012 KF HD, so shoudl feel much snappier.
Ebay seller is music magpie who say "inspected, checked, restored to factory settings", so I may have to do the updates myself. but they do accept returns if it all goes belly up.
what I can't recall, & I'm hoping someone here can, is whether sideloading Google play stuff is doable without root for that model. I think I had it working, a couple of years back before i dropped & broke the 3rd gen HDX I used to own, and it is a case of finding a link to suitably aged apks. My saved links are for the later fire tablets with OS5.
I know that adding google play apps onto the 2012 KF was not possible, and that adding google apps onto 2017 Fire tablets is easy, and i think Google apps to the 2014 is somewhere in between...
it is not the end of the world if I can't do it, our kids apps & books are all from amazon anyway so they will work once i register it.
if all goes well I can then sell the 2012 kindle fire, by lowering the asking price until someone takes it... or keep it as a backup
I will also have another go with screen protectors, for the toddler, and probably make the usual mess and throw them away, but hey, I may get it right this time around, I read that the glass ones go on better than the plastic films and so are worth he extra £s
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