[Electronics-Talk] FW: [nfbcs] Kindle Fire tablet

[Tracy Carcione]

I thought people might find this discussion interesting, so I'm forwarding
it, with the writer's permission.
The short version is that the Kindle Fire is accessible, and has a nice
voice, though managing some aspects takes a bit of a work-around.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong
via nfbcs
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2016 11:32 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Cc: Deborah Armstrong
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Kindle Fire tablet

I got my Kindle Fire for the same reason. Also, I work with LD students
mostly and after using the Fire for some time now believe it's the best
platform for LD students and anyone mostly sighted with memory or learning
challenges. It's true there are more apps for the iDEVICES, but the Fire is
cheaper -- less of an issue if you loos it or it gets stolen. It also keeps
all your "stuff" on Amazon and if you run out of room you can quickly make a
menu choice that moves it all back to the Amazon cloud so you free up room
for more data. This is only for stuff purchased from Amazon, but it's much
easier to move your purchases back and forth than it is on an iDEVICE. Also
in demoing it to people with learning challenges, I notice they grasp the
interface more quickly than when I teach them the iPAD. The voice is super
high quality, and you simply tap on a book to start reading. This works even
if you don't use VoiceView, and like I said I mostly help sighted people, so
I wanted to d  emo something to them that was easy for them and easy for me
to support!

The iDEVICES are still more accessible for the blind, but I'm beginning to
push most of my sighted students to consider the Fire over the iPAD
especially if their income isn't high. Kindle textbooks are cheaper than
print, and for those who need the voice to read to them, the Kindle instead
of an iPAD will  Save them enough money for perhaps ten more books. 

Anyway, one thing to know is that there are several different methods for
accessing the google play store, and most are documented online or in Kindle
books you can cheaply purchase. The drawback is that you need the google
play store framework on the Fire which means that you can't update the OS
easily. I've read but haven't tried it because I want to keep getting
regular updates which presumably improve the accessibility. All the
different sets of instructions I've read or gone through on YouTube have you
turning off the updates toFire OS so they won't wipe out the google play
store. For me that's not a good solution.

Instead, I tried something else which is more manual but is working out
well. Unlike iOS, Android apps are packaged as apk files -- probably just
zip files with a different packaging scheme. Anyway, Android knows if it
encounters an apk it should install it. So just like in Windows if you
select a text file, notepad opens -- in Android if you select an apk file in
a file explorer, the operating system installs the app.

There are several apk repositories online for all the free apps you can find
in the google play store, and I researched to figure out which ones seemed
the most trustworthy. I settled on apkfree but do your own research, because
some of these are filled with malware.

Anyway, I found the apk files for the Bookshare GoRead and the Learning Ally
apps. The Amazon app store doesn't have Bookshare or Learning Ally -- only
BARD.

In the Amazon app store I found an app called Easy Installer, which does
some integrity checking before allowing Android to install an apk file. I
now use Easy Installer. I simply put all the apk files I want to install in
to a folder, then run Easy Installer and it gives me a choice of which I
want to install.

The fire also has a built-in app for app management, so it's easy to see how
much storage each app consumes, whether it's installed on the main memory or
SD card and in some cases I can move apps to the SD card. The app management
in Android also lets you uninstall an app or just zap all its data --
Android app management is much more flexible, and open than on iOS.

The other thing about the Fire is that you can plug it in to your computer
and copy stuff to it like a flash drive. You can also delete stuff. This
thing cost $50 and I can move content on and off it far more easily than I
can on a $500 iPAD, making it way more easy to support when I'm working with
techno-phobic sighted people!
 I've really enjoyed exploring Android using this device.

--Debee


 -----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth
Campbell via nfbcs
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2016 6:14 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
Cc: Elizabeth Campbell
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Kindle Fire tablet

Hi Debra,

Thanks for your note.

I purchased a Bluetooth keyboard which helps  a great deal in using the
Kindle Fire tablet. However, getting a notepad app in order to practice
using the on screen keyboard is a great idea.  I believe that there is a way
to access the Google Play store using the Kindle fire, but haven't figured
that out yet.
I've used it some to browse the Internet, read and compose emails and shop
on Amazon.

As I said earlier, for me, the Kindle Fire tablet is not a replacement for
my iPhone with VoiceOver, but I like to keep tabs on what is out there and
on how we can use other platforms.

Best

Liz Campbell