I am a big fan of Jeff Bezos since day 1, because of his entrepreneurial and fun spirit. Back in September 2011, Amazon announced it is entering the tablet business unveiling the Kindle Fire for US$199-.
Everybody was wondering what they will get for that cheap price, but Bezos was on the right track, again. Goldman Sachs released an analysis mid-December 2011, stating that it expects Amazon to sell 6 million Kindle Fires by the end of 2011.
Unfortunately the Kindle Fire and the Amazon android market were dedicated only to US customers, and Amazon clearly announced that the Kindle Fire will not have access to Google’s Android Market. Knowing that fact, I was so excited to put my hands on a Kindle Fire, considering it, in worst case scenario a simple ebook reader. So I had to wait till Christmas to open my valuable gift.
After few days, I started discovering many ways to enjoy the Kindle Fire if you live outside the US and I will be sharing them in this blog post.
1- If you cannot ship the Kindle Fire to a US address or have any friend coming overseas, you can use to buy and ship it using Aramex Shop&Ship service.
2- You can easily root your brand new Kindle Fire and lose its warranty, there are many online guide to do it, one of them is here, you can also watch this video.
3- You can access the Amazon Market by having a US address and credit card, you can buy these services from www.usunlocked.com. You have to wait 2-4 business days to have your US virtual credit card issued (I got mine in 2 days). Once you card is ready, go to Amazon website and create a new account from scratch using the US address and add your new card as payment and 1-Click options.
4- Download tons of apps by simply pointing your Kindle Fire browser to GetJar.com, you will be asked to download the GetJar app, once on your tablet, you will have access to almost everything on the site. I have tried lots of other alternatives, but GetJar beats them all.
5- You can also have any Android Market apps on your Kindle Fire without rooting it, but you would need an Android based phone with Astro File Manager installed on it. Browse the market from your phone and install any application you like. Then go to Astro and back your apps, this action will create a folder with .apk files for the apps you selected. Copy/Paste those .apk files into your Kindle Fire then install them directly from the tablet using Easy Installer.
It worked so perfectly for me using points 3, 4 & 5, I even had my 1st 2012 ebook for free.
My 3 negative points to Jeff Bezos and the Kindle Fire team:
1) The Kindle Fire should have a front branding, so the user can know the direction, even that most of the apps and books rotate with you. I already wrote about this here.
2) The power bottom should be moved to the top, I accidentally switched it off many times when posing it on a surface or my knees while reading in bed.
3) Yesterday my Kindle Fire went dead, not turning on for like 1 hour, then after searching the web for a solution, it turned out that this is happening to lots of other people, I am sure Amazon is working on an update to solve this problem. I had to hold the power switch for more than 30 seconds to bring back the Kindle Fire to life.
Jeff Bezos You Rock!
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