Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Has anyone ever tried to use Piano For All on Kindle Fire?

This topic isn't exactly in the right place, but I wouldn't know where else to put it and a lot of our adult beginners either are on Piano For All or have tried it. I sent a note to Robin about an hour ago, but it's after working hours in Great Britain and I am just in such a hurry to get started with my new Casio CGP-700 that just showed up. I am such a big kid. Besides that it is such a esoteric question I doubt Robin would know the answer to it.

To make matters clear we are talking about the cheap Fire tablet. I think they sell for $49.00 USD. I never use it so I really have no idea what it can do. I know that it uses the same programing language as whatever is used in the Google Play Store. Even though we are blocked from the Google Play Store there is some sort of hack we can use to get to it, but I don't want to do that because from what I have heard if you click the wrong link on the redirect page you get malware, so I am sticking with whatever is in the Amazon Fire Store.

Firstly, does anyone know if the Fire has the butt to run the videos and audio, and secondly what, if any, third party apps did you need to download from the Amazon store to get it to work?

What is special about kindle Fire that you would want to use IT instead of just using the software in Windows the normal way. It works fine that way.

Well, it is like this--my computer is a big mega-gaming computer and it's in the bedroom. The piano is in the living room and there is no place to put the computer. As I understand it, PFA is made to use while you're at the piano.

Well, I have no idea what a $49 fire tablet even is.

However, I would venture a guess that it is not going to produce very high quality video and or audio for your use.

I would get a tablet with windows installed so it will just work instead of fighting with some odd-ball tablet which you have no idea how to use.

Good Luck to you

I would reconsider your decision to stick to the Amazon store, because what you want is likely impossible then. You do not need a "hack" to install a 3rd party APK (that's what the program install bundles for Android are called). You simply need to enable the option to allow such APKs in your fire tablet settings (its an official option, not a hack). And you need to get the APK in the first place, of course. And yes, the websites where you can find those may be infected with malware. So don't visit them with your normal PC. Get a Linux Live CD (for example https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD ) then boot into that Linux directly from CD (no local installation necessary!), open the browser and look for the APK you need knowing that any website you visit cannot infect your system since you are not using your system but the live Linux.

JoBert:

Thanks for the information on Linux Live CD. From the way you're describing it I bet that would work great. Actually, Robin found a work-around for me. Since I took a chance and already ordered PFA because the Fire Store had an app called EZPDF Reader, which Robin's website says you need EZPDF Reader LITE, I thought for sure it would work but it didn't, Robin is sending me a code to use at Udemy to just use the Fire's browser.

I actually started playing with the Fire in the last couple of days and it isn't bad at all. Someone gave it to me as a gift and I just never fool with it since I have a nice smartphone. The smartphone would be a little small though for use with this on the music stand.

A completely free apk selection.

The problem is a little deeper than you describe. (I know you're working on a solution -- this information is for general background.)

Years ago, Amazon decided that it didn't want to give Google control of the Android operating system (that's the core software on all Android devices) that ran on Amazon's Fire tablets.

So Amazon "forked" the Android O/S, around version 4. Google continued to develop Android (it's now at version 10 or 11, I think), adding new features. But Amazon's Android was under Amazon's control, not Google's. They've continued to work on it (it's now Fire version 7).

In the past few years, Google has added some libraries to "Google Android" that are _required_ for a program to be in the Google PlayStore.

You can get a Fire tablet to access the Google PlayStore (using "F-Droid" and "Yalp" software), and download programs from it. But -- in my experience -- those programs probably won't run on the Fire, because the first thing they do is check for the existence of the new Google libraries, and terminate if they don't find them.

. . . Welcome to the Wild West !

I have a Fire tablet which I use a lot. It's fantastic value per $, but I've given up trying to use Google PlayStore software.

If you find a general-purpose way to beat this problem, please let us know. Meanwhile, good luck! --