[Amazon.ca] All-new Fire HD 8 tablet, 8" HD display, 32 GB, designed for portable entertainment, Black $84.99

Are there tablets that are not "designed for portable entertainment"?

(Amazon's wording, not the OP's!)

Good little performer once you mod it to remove the Amazon stuff with Fire Toolbox

Great product.

(seconding @stephroll on the Fire Toolbox)

I hope we see the HD Plus sometime - having wireless charging would be great to just dock it at the bedside.

My oldest has this tablet. It works well after installing the play store. I am interested if this Fire Toolbox is worth playing with though. Since I have already installed Google Play ( via the 4x apk method ) what more value can I get from the toolbox?

Gutty96 wrote: ↑ My oldest has this tablet. It works well after installing the play store. I am interested if this Fire Toolbox is worth playing with though. Since I have already installed Google Play ( via the 4x apk method ) what more value can I get from the toolbox?

It removes everything Amazon on it , you can choose from a few launchers . You do need a PC to use the Toolbox but it’s a very easy automated process .

This is not the best price. You can usually get it for 79.99$ during a sale.

FYI, great tablet, just a nuance for me that I can't seem to download Netflix from the playstore, therefore had to use Amazon's version of Netflix, which you cant cast onto Chromecast (if anyone got Netflix chromecast working or screen mirroring in general, greatly appreciated).

All other apps seem to work fine casting onto TV with chromecast (YouTube, NBA) just NetFlix.

Also, it seems they've disabled screen-mirroring and there is no HDMI out port.

sYc1234 wrote: ↑ FYI, great tablet, just a nuance for me that I can't seem to download Netflix from the playstore, and therefore have issues casting the Amazon's version of Netflix onto Chromecast (if anyone knows how to fix this, greatly appreciated).

All other apps seem to work fine casting onto TV with chromecast (YouTube, NBA) just NetFlix.

Also, it seems they've disabled screen-mirroring and there is no HDMI out port.

Can you side load the APK manually?

engineered wrote: ↑ Can you side load the APK manually?

Unfortunately, I tried few versions off the net but they wouldn't run, so I was stuck with Amazon's version of Netflix

not a great tablet since you will be stuck with Amazon only apps
No youtube either....

sYc1234 wrote: ↑ Unfortunately, I tried few versions off the net but they wouldn't run, so I was stuck with Amazon's version of Netflix

I'm looking to get this just for Netflix while I do some cardio - is Amazon's version of Netflix lacking functions? ex. download and watch offline?

romsan04 wrote: ↑ not a great tablet since you will be stuck with Amazon only apps
No youtube either....

Not 100% true, you can sideload playstore and download most of the apps on there, which is what I did.
Also, not a hard process to get playstore up and running.
For me, it was Netflix only.

awongz08 wrote: ↑ I'm looking to get this just for Netflix while I do some cardio - is Amazon's version of Netflix lacking functions? ex. download and watch offline?

As far as I know, it is only lacking the Chromecast feature, eg. I can still download and watch offline, bookmark movies, etc.

sYc1234 wrote: ↑ Not 100% true, you can sideload playstore and download most of the apps on there, which is what I did.
Also, not a hard process to get playstore up and running.
For me, it was Netflix only.

This is from the Q&A for this tablet

Got it on sale; plugged it in and whammo! It connected to my Amazon Prime account and zoom! everything was connected and ready to go. Fabulous feature!
It can't play YouTube videos for some weird reason, (because I'm in Canada???) but a friend said they could fix that for me.

stephroll wrote: ↑ It removes everything Amazon on it , you can choose from a few launchers . You do need a PC to use the Toolbox but it’s a very easy automated process .

Just to clarify though, you can't actually remove the Amazon bloatware with Fire Toolbox unless you root the tablet. Without rooting, you can only disable and hide the bloatware, so you gain a bit of performance, but you don't get back any memory.

Rooting isn't always easy - the capability comes and goes with each release of FireOS and Fire Toolbox - and you're probably aware it has other implications for the use of your tablet with DRM-restricted apps that check for rooting.

awongz08 wrote: ↑ I'm looking to get this just for Netflix while I do some cardio - is Amazon's version of Netflix lacking functions? ex. download and watch offline?

Amazon's version of Netflix is identical, but no version of Netflix on FireOS supports Google Cast (Chromecast) because Amazon deliberately cripples it.

When I first got my FIre HD 8 I tried installing Netflix from the Google Play Store, and sideloaded from an apk from pure Android to see if it made any difference. It does not, as others have also verified.

i have an LG one and its still going strong. When it does die Ill get one of these.

sYc1234 wrote: ↑ As far as I know, it is only lacking the Chromecast feature, eg. I can still download and watch offline, bookmark movies, etc.

That's weird. On my Fire 10 Tablet, Chromecast works fine on Netflix (and everything else)

Two major features of the Fire tablets are disabled if you register to an amazon.ca account instead of an amazon.com account:

1. Hand-free Alexa
2. Show Mode (like Echo Show unit with a screen)

There is no known reason for these restrictions. Amazon usually gets around to removing restrictions to Canada a couple of years after features are introduced in the U.S., but there's no announced schedule.