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Amazon Fire Tablet, Anyone? (1 Viewer)

Johnny Angell

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I've had one but have seldom used it. If find the OS is difficult to navigate and seems more interested in selling me stuff than it is in helping accomplish stuff.

Last night I was trying to figure out how to get it to work HEOS on my Denon X4300H receiver, my new toy. I got it to work with Amazon Prime Music, but couldn't get Spotify to work. It would only play on the tablet and not on the receiver.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to close apps. I went so far as to power off the tablet, at least I hope I did, and Amazon Music just kept on playing on the receiver. WTF?

If you know how to close apps, please let me know. Any tips and tricks you know about using it would be appreciated. My version is the 7".
 

David Norman

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I've had one but have seldom used it. If find the OS is difficult to navigate and seems more interested in selling me stuff than it is in helping accomplish stuff.

Last night I was trying to figure out how to get it to work HEOS on my Denon X4300H receiver, my new toy. I got it to work with Amazon Prime Music, but couldn't get Spotify to work. It would only play on the tablet and not on the receiver.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to close apps. I went so far as to power off the tablet, at least I hope I did, and Amazon Music just kept on playing on the receiver. WTF?

If you know how to close apps, please let me know. Any tips and tricks you know about using it would be appreciated. My version is the 7".

I'm not sure I can help you on the App closure, but turning off the FIRE is sort of like a phone/computer. If you push the power button briefly, the screen turns off, but I don't think it actually turns off. To actually power off the unit hold the power button down 10-15+ seconds

There is a menu/settings option where you can pull up the apps and manually turn them off, but surely there is an easier way.

Like a lot of things with Amazon for me, the Fire is a increasing disappointment. My wife had a 8.9 Fire HD from 2012-2013 which she used hours a day -- books, Soduku, various word games, but nothing real computerish. It died a couple weeks ago -- went into a boot loop and nothing I've done so far has been able to get it to re-boot or go to the safe/factory reset screen so I think it's toast. That happens, but I looked into getting a new unit and found that they've discontinued the HD and HDX spectacularly good screens and now the best unit over the last couple years has a 1200x800 screen and less powerful CPU/OS than the 5 year old model (1920x1080 or the HDX 2560x1600). The new 8 and 10in units are a substantial step backwards, I played a couple Amazon Prime videos on the old screen and it wasn't bad, the new unit is almost like going back to an SD screen.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Last night I was trying to figure out how to get it to work HEOS on my Denon X4300H receiver, my new toy. I got it to work with Amazon Prime Music, but couldn't get Spotify to work. It would only play on the tablet and not on the receiver.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to close apps. I went so far as to power off the tablet, at least I hope I did, and Amazon Music just kept on playing on the receiver. WTF?

IIRC, the device is merely a 'remote' and the player (your receiver, in this case) then runs the show once started. That allows you to control HEOS/Amazon Music from your device but doesn't require you to keep the device turned on to keep music playing on the receiver. That's how it works with my Denon HEOS speakers and the IOS HEOS app.

Is your Spotify a Premium account? HEOS only supports Premium and not the free Spotify.
 

Johnny Angell

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IIRC, the device is merely a 'remote' and the player (your receiver, in this case) then runs the show once started. That allows you to control HEOS/Amazon Music from your device but doesn't require you to keep the device turned on to keep music playing on the receiver. That's how it works with my Denon HEOS speakers and the IOS HEOS app.

Is your Spotify a Premium account? HEOS only supports Premium and not the free Spotify.
No, not premium, so that explains that problem. Thank you.

Are you saying that once I've started a music app from the Fire tablet, the Denon receiver is directly streaming the receiver via my wifi? It is not playing music that is streamed from the tablet?
 

Johnny Angell

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No, not premium, so that explains that problem. Thank you.

Are you saying that once I've started a music app from the Fire tablet, the Denon receiver is directly streaming the receiver via my wifi? It is not playing music that is streamed from the tablet?
I went back to my iPhone and fired up Amazon Music using HEOS, then I closed HEOS and the music played on. So the receiver must be doing the streaming itself.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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No, not premium, so that explains that problem. Thank you.

Are you saying that once I've started a music app from the Fire tablet, the Denon receiver is directly streaming the receiver via my wifi? It is not playing music that is streamed from the tablet?

Yes, I'm pretty certain anything that HEOS supports works that way.
 

BobO'Link

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If you know how to close apps, please let me know. Any tips and tricks you know about using it would be appreciated. My version is the 7".
Even if you do a true power off, all the apps you had open when you shut down will reopen.

To actually close apps on the Fire, touch the square icon on the bottom "menu" (the bar with the left facing triangle, circle, and square). That brings up all open apps/windows. Touch the one you want to close - *DO NOT REMOVE YOUR FINGER* and drag the app off the screen (either direction) *or* touch the "X" in the upper right corner of the app you wish to close.

Tips:

Set it so the OS will only update if it's plugged in and charging.

Disable all notifications, updates, etc.

Don't try to use it for anything other than Amazon video or streaming audio. For both of those it's not bad.

Set a lock screen - after all, it stays logged into your account and allows anyone with access to purchase anything without having to enter a password (but then they seem to think you need that on browsers lately and keep you logged in for purchases even if you say otherwise).

Put a local "parental control" password on the system so digital content can't be purchased without entering that password (you'd think they'd use the password you can set up via browser but nope... the tablet ignores that one so you have to set it separately). I go so far as to use a non-valid CC for the digital "one-click" requirement to prevent any digital purchase unless I manually select another payment method.

The Silk browser is worthless, the Amazon Store app is pretty bad too (they make it more and more consumer unfriendly with each update). Frankly, all of the apps are pretty bad. Don't use any of them.

Disable the "On Deck" feature (Settings, Apps and Games, Amazon Application Settings, Video, Stream and Download). This "feature" automatically downloads videos based on what you've watched. It tries to anticipate your next movie/tv show and makes sure you have something stored on the system to watch if you don't have a connection. It will constantly download stuff, removing things you've not watched, and keep "fresh" content always available. It's on by default and wastes bandwidth/storage.

After playing with one for a couple of months I've gotten to where all I use it for is to watch movies I've "purchased" using the digital credits for "slow shipping" and the occasional free streaming movie/tv show. It might be a good reader but I hate reading stuff on devices and prefer the actual printed page.

I purchased a used one for $25 to see if it'd be a good video streaming device. For what I purchased it for it's OK. My biggest gripe is how much it's linked to your account and how easy it is to purchase product accidentally with the device unless you take the extra steps to lock it down. If the automatic purchase options could easily be disabled, or better yet removed, it'd be a better product but still not good for much other than streaming. I was also pretty miffed that there's no Ultraviolet playback app available. That limits its usefulness considerably.
 
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