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KristineS
12-17-2012, 11:53 AM
I got a Kindle Fire as a totally unexpected Christmas gift and I'm really enjoying it, but I'm still learning how to use it to its best advantage. Obviously, books and games are no problem, but where I'm stuck is regarding apps to download. There are so many out there, both free and paid, and I'm not sure which ones are useful and worth downloading. If anyone who has a Kindle or other tablet has any recommendations I would love to hear them. I don't want to fill up the device with useless apps, but there are some things, like recipes, fitness, and time management, that I would love to find apps for.

Any suggestions?

vangogh
12-17-2012, 02:10 PM
I don't know apps for the Kindle or the Android market in general, but I can offer some thoughts about what I do on my iPad. It really depends on what you specifically want to use the Kindle for. I find that the blogs I read regularly will usually mention apps and based on their reviews I'll take a look. Free ones are easy enough to download, try, and then keep or delete. Paid ones you have to think about, but so many are less than $5 that even then you can still try some if you aren't sure. Of course having said that, I do have a lot of apps that I downloaded, rarely use and are not filling up my iPad. Every so often I delete some.

I assume the Android market has reviews of apps before you download them. I usually read some of the reviews, ignoring those that say the app is great of garbage without much in the way of reason. You can usually find more reviews with a web search or two.

Sorry I don't have specific apps to recommend, but I don't know what's available for Kindle. I'm sure others here will be able to recommend some.

Harold Mansfield
12-17-2012, 02:58 PM
I have an Android tablet and I use it mostly for reading websites and blogs via the Google Currents App, watching videos via Ustream, and playing poker and angry birds.
I'm not that versed on Kindle. I was always under the impression that you had to install apps from the kindle store, as opposed to the Google Play store. Is that true or does it take Play apps too?

Freelancier
12-17-2012, 03:20 PM
Look for apps when you feel you want to do something on it. Really, the books, games, videos and web surfing are likely the best uses for most people. Look for a way to print directly from your tablet, sometimes that's a challenge that will take a little work to figure out.

KristineS
12-18-2012, 12:18 PM
I have an Android tablet and I use it mostly for reading websites and blogs via the Google Currents App, watching videos via Ustream, and playing poker and angry birds.
I'm not that versed on Kindle. I was always under the impression that you had to install apps from the kindle store, as opposed to the Google Play store. Is that true or does it take Play apps too?

Not sure if the Kindle will download from the Google Play store, Harold. It always directs me to the Kindle store, and I'm guessing that's where they would prefer I get my apps from.

Harold Mansfield
12-18-2012, 07:59 PM
Not sure if the Kindle will download from the Google Play store, Harold. It always directs me to the Kindle store, and I'm guessing that's where they would prefer I get my apps from.

That's kind of what I thought. Kindle is a very nice unit, but it is created for use as an Amazon media tablet. You should have all of the basic apps and time wastes...Social Media apps, the popular games, video chat apps, document readers and so on...you just may be limited on the premium Android apps like Chameleon (http://chameleonlauncher.com/)( which is my favorite app). . Basically, what you have access to, is pretty much all I ever do with my tablet anyway. Reading is probably what I do most with it. I definitely read more now.

I never watch movies or anything like that on my tablet because I mostly use it at home anyway.

For things like fitness apps, you would probably be better served with your smart phone for things like that.
As far as time management, I'd imagine Amazon has some really nice apps for that, but to date I have never used my phone or any other device like a PDA. Not even when I had a PDA.