HDX Fire hdx, still shrink wrapped, battery condition ? - Page 2

Barbara1955 · 06-21-2018, 04:56 PM

Prices I am seeing on these HDXs on Ebay $50 make it Tempting

tomsem · 06-21-2018, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

My 2nd Gen got 2 updates when I 1st took it out of the box... depends. Also Older models you can Side load updates.

You get whatever updates are available. I meant that it is not getting the latest version of Fire OS, or those to come in the future. Possibly there are still ‘component’ updates (smaller updates that more or less happen silently) but I’m not sure they do that except for the current version of FireOS.

But if we are talking Fire HDX 8.9 (4th gen, but not 3rd gen) then everything is golden. $50 is suspiciously low for that, considering what they originally cost. I might think the 3rd gen 7” HDX might go for that.

Barbara1955 · 06-21-2018, 08:03 PM

I understand what you are saying Tomsen. About 5-6 months ago Amazon Stopped Supporting the Older Fires. My Fire 2012 & my Phone

1/2 the Apps that use to work Stopped & they don't work on the New Fire 10 either. So it Buyer Beware IMO

Since this Thread was about Battery Life That's ALL I can Say that even works any more. OP should Ask What Works on the HDX...

stumped · 06-22-2018, 05:51 AM

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

stumped · 06-22-2018, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

I understand what you are saying Tomsen. About 5-6 months ago Amazon Stopped Supporting the Older Fires. My Fire 2012 & my Phone

1/2 the Apps that use to work Stopped & they don't work on the New Fire 10 either. So it Buyer Beware IMO

Since this Thread was about Battery Life That's ALL I can Say that even works any more. OP should Ask What Works on the HDX...

I can confirm that my 4th GEN HDX is running fire OS 5 with alexa. I cannot see a specific version number in settings, and maybe it will not get future updates. there is no obvious check for updates option either.
It is also running google play stuff, sideloaded, and Netflix HD app, sideloaded, plus a couple more TV streaming apps, for the football. Redbox TV and Live Net TV.

I own the Amazon plex client from back when it was a free app of the day, and that is excellent for streaming my own media from my own servers.

I am not aware of any amazon app that works on HD 10, but does not work on 4th gen HDX, though I do tend to use Goggle app versions instead where possible for news, sport, ebay... as they are better supported

I am aware that amazon have pulled live video MAYDAY support for the HDX, that was good while it lasted, but I read it was badly abused by folks asking for help with game levels, candy crush.. and not actual amazon issues.
as for 3rd Gen HDX working / not working apps I will report back, having just bought one ( see previous post). That was bought solely as a cheap kids tablet, on the buy one you don't mind them being sick all over principle

Barbara1955 · 06-22-2018, 10:13 PM

Strange my Fire HD 2nd gen has OS 7.5.1.... my 10" 2017 has OS 7.0.0

stumped · 06-23-2018, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Strange my Fire HD 2nd gen has OS 7.5.1.... my 10" 2017 has OS 7.0.0

you are missing a leading digit ?
i think you are running the equivalent of android 4.0 with a version number of 7.5.1.

my compiled & saved notes from wikipedia & other sources for family owned tablets say this
notes on android & fire OS versions
HD 8.9 OS 4 = android 4.03 . 1920 x 1200 254 ppi

fire 7 OS 5 = android 5 1024 x 600 171 ppi

HD8 5th, 6th gen OS 5 5.3.2.1 1280 x 800 189 ppi
[ latest is now OS 5 5.6.1 as at June 2018]

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
7.5.1 – latest version for Kindle Fire HD 7" (2012)
8.5.1 – latest version for Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (2012)

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
3.2.8 – rollback point for Fire HDX (2013).

Android 4.4 KitKat
4.5.5.2 – latest version for tablets released in 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_O...re_OS_versions

5.6.1.0 – March 2018, latest version for all tablets released 2014 and later (Hands-Free Alexa For Fire 7 & HD 8 (2017) only)

the new fire TV Cube will have OS 6 based on android 7. Possibly my 3rd gen Fire TV dongles already have that also, articles are vague so I will have to peek into settings. Those are a real pain to access via easy fire tools apps, amazon have upped the security so most of those apps no longer work, but I can still sideload them from PC using ADBlink - to add redboxTV - there's no real benefit for adding google play services & play store to fire TV, which is good as I couldn't do it!

Barbara1955 · 06-23-2018, 12:33 AM

Nope that's the Whole thing Been like that for 6 months

BTW this OS in the 2nd Gen is ALL Amazon something they cam up with early on

stumped · 06-23-2018, 12:53 AM

i think you have to comine the info on the device with the widipedia etc stuff to make sense of it.
amazon "generations" is another thing entirely and another source of confusion. as is "years"
so for instance the HDX comes as 3rd gen and 4th gen but that does not imply OS3 and OS 4. every time they reworked a device the generation number went up by 1 ( so the basic kindle is now at gen 8 ? ) but then the device gets whatever version of Fire OS was current at that time.
I have gone back over this a few times, to sort out matching covers, or to plan purchases/sales. Another example: the Fire HD 8 is up to generation 7 at least, but only runs OS 5 at best.
& even the oldest amazon OS were "based on" android, says wikipedia

i don't know any single source for a table that has a full set of columns, which would have to include
MODEL NAME, GENERATION, YEAR, FIRE OS version, (based on) ANDROID Version.

i only collated stuff for devices i own/used to own/ plan to own

if the device says 7.5.1 or 8.5.1 the full story is that has an amazon OS with that version number which is based on Android 4.03. it's the 4.03 number that matters which looking at whether some sideloaded google app is going to work or not. anything that needs Kitkat or later, for example, will not work
e.g. BBC iplayer for kids needs android 4.1 or later, so will not run on Kindle Fire HD8.9
There was a recent discussion re getting Hulu to work on that model, and that does not work for the same reason

stumped · 06-26-2018, 10:21 AM

update
well my 3rd gen HDX arrived and I faffed about for an hour or more with google apps and with hacked netflix ( for full HD ) apps. No joy. Then the amazon store version of netflix started complaining about Google play services even though I'd removed all the other versions, so I gave up and factory reset it all over again to clean it.
So its going to be a pure amazon store only set up for grandchild, unless anyone has a working guide for total dummies for getting play store to work on that
FYI what I tired was trawling back the rough apk mirror versions looking for google apps for android 4, as the OS on that HDX is like android 4.1 but nothing worked. you can't install older over newer, e.g GST, Google account manager, google services... to undo mistakes, you can' easily remove the invisible "framework" apps that have no icons, and the versions that are too new fail on parse errors and do not install.
I don't want to root it. I bought it knowing this might be the case, and don't need latest news and shopping apps installed. just kids books, shows, games...

next update will probably be that the screen protectors arrived and ended up in the bin after another wasted hour.... we'll see

06-21-2018, 08:03 PM	#18
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	I understand what you are saying Tomsen. About 5-6 months ago Amazon Stopped Supporting the Older Fires. My Fire 2012 & my Phone 1/2 the Apps that use to work Stopped & they don't work on the New Fire 10 either. So it Buyer Beware IMO Since this Thread was about Battery Life That's ALL I can Say that even works any more. OP should Ask What Works on the HDX... Last edited by Barbara1955; 06-21-2018 at 08:12 PM.

06-23-2018, 12:53 AM	#24
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	i think you have to comine the info on the device with the widipedia etc stuff to make sense of it. amazon "generations" is another thing entirely and another source of confusion. as is "years" so for instance the HDX comes as 3rd gen and 4th gen but that does not imply OS3 and OS 4. every time they reworked a device the generation number went up by 1 ( so the basic kindle is now at gen 8 ? ) but then the device gets whatever version of Fire OS was current at that time. I have gone back over this a few times, to sort out matching covers, or to plan purchases/sales. Another example: the Fire HD 8 is up to generation 7 at least, but only runs OS 5 at best. & even the oldest amazon OS were "based on" android, says wikipedia i don't know any single source for a table that has a full set of columns, which would have to include MODEL NAME, GENERATION, YEAR, FIRE OS version, (based on) ANDROID Version. i only collated stuff for devices i own/used to own/ plan to own if the device says 7.5.1 or 8.5.1 the full story is that has an amazon OS with that version number which is based on Android 4.03. it's the 4.03 number that matters which looking at whether some sideloaded google app is going to work or not. anything that needs Kitkat or later, for example, will not work e.g. BBC iplayer for kids needs android 4.1 or later, so will not run on Kindle Fire HD8.9 There was a recent discussion re getting Hulu to work on that model, and that does not work for the same reason Last edited by stumped; 06-23-2018 at 12:57 AM.

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06-21-2018, 04:56 PM	#16
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Prices I am seeing on these HDXs on Ebay $50 make it Tempting

06-22-2018, 05:51 AM	#19
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	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

06-22-2018, 10:13 PM	#21
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Strange my Fire HD 2nd gen has OS 7.5.1.... my 10" 2017 has OS 7.0.0

06-23-2018, 12:33 AM	#23
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Nope that's the Whole thing Been like that for 6 months BTW this OS in the 2nd Gen is ALL Amazon something they cam up with early on

06-26-2018, 10:21 AM	#25
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	update well my 3rd gen HDX arrived and I faffed about for an hour or more with google apps and with hacked netflix ( for full HD ) apps. No joy. Then the amazon store version of netflix started complaining about Google play services even though I'd removed all the other versions, so I gave up and factory reset it all over again to clean it. So its going to be a pure amazon store only set up for grandchild, unless anyone has a working guide for total dummies for getting play store to work on that FYI what I tired was trawling back the rough apk mirror versions looking for google apps for android 4, as the OS on that HDX is like android 4.1 but nothing worked. you can't install older over newer, e.g GST, Google account manager, google services... to undo mistakes, you can' easily remove the invisible "framework" apps that have no icons, and the versions that are too new fail on parse errors and do not install. I don't want to root it. I bought it knowing this might be the case, and don't need latest news and shopping apps installed. just kids books, shows, games... next update will probably be that the screen protectors arrived and ended up in the bin after another wasted hour.... we'll see