Android Almost Comes To Kindle Fire

If you thought that this was it about that nifty, cute, affordable device known as Kindle Fire, you are quite wrong. While Apple’s Siri might do wonders for iPad in the coming days, Kindle Fire is all set to gear up the heat as developers continue experimenting with it. In a recent tweak, a developer has successfully run a custom build of build on Kindle Fire.

It’s a matter of general knowledge that the three major contenders in the tablet market right now are – iPad, Android tablets, mainly Samsung’s and Kindle Fire. A recent move, however, has suddenly surfaced the possibility of Android running on the $199 Kindle Fire.

Custom build of Android on Kindle Fire:
JackpotClaving is a member of XDA-Dev developer forum. He was able to run a custom build of Android, CM7, on Kindle Fire using ClockwokMod. Although the build doesn’t run very smoothly and there a lot of glitches to be sorted yet, the fact that the build at least runs on the tablet is a major revelation. The glitches a problem with the touchscreen – it’s nearly 90 degrees off. Plus, you may be bereaved of some apps such as Kindle’s Silk Browser. However, you can still run a number of Kindle Fire-specific apps such as Kindle App, Amazon appstore etc can still be installed on the Android build and used.

Even more interesting is the fact that according to the developers at XDA-Dev, the tablet can be unrooted to return it to it’s default Kindle interface without any issues.

The crudeness of the outcome of this experiment is by no means discouraging. This is because it was just an attempt, and that too not a sophisticated one. It merely serves as a proof that Android can be used across the Kindle Fire platform, something which may spell hope for both Amazon and Android community.

Image courtesy Diarmuid Miklos.
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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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