Kids Fire How to install reading tools

[Kylie Carlson]

Hi - I see that Bookshare works with Android.  My daughter has a Kids FIre.  Can someone tell me the best app to use with this and how to download it on to the Kids fire.  None of the apps coming Go Read, Dolphin, etc are coming up in the App Store so I am perplexed.

Thank you

[Nick Bowen]

Hi Kylie,

Unfortunately all of our apps are only available on the Google Play store, and Amazon does not give you access to this app store, instead you only have access to the Amazon app store.  For this reason we do not have an app that is available on this platform.  If you're interested we do have instructions for converting our books to a format that can be side loaded onto the devices at: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/can-i-read-your-books-using-kindle-or-nook

[david goldfield]

Hi, Kylie.

An app that I use for this purpose on iOS is Voice Dream Reader. While there is a version of this app available for Android devices, Nick Bowen is correct in that it's not available for the Fire tablets. There may be a way to work around this problem, however. While the Fire tablets don't ship with the Google Play store installed, it is possible to install the Play store on your Fire tablet, which means that you will, in theory, have access to more apps which are not otherwise available for your Fire tablet. Bear in mind that this is a bit of a hack and that Amazon does not support either installing the Google Play Store, nor will they assist you in its use. While I doubt that doing this will void your tablet's warranty, it is possible that it will and so, if you decide to attempt this, I would do some research and look into whether your warranty will be voided before you take the plunge. There's also no guarantee that all apps available from the Google Play Store will work on your tablet but most of them should. I also have not actually tried using VDR on my Fire and so I can offer no guarantees that this particular app will actually work. Having gotten all of these disclaimers out of the way, I will post a message I wrote to some mailing lists where I discuss how to do this. I wrote this for users who are visually impaired and who use the tablet's VoiceView screen reader. Therefore, if you're following these steps and are not using VoiceView, you'll need to take this into consideration, meaning that if I say double tap on something this means that you would just tap on it once.  Here is my message.

As my wife recently bought an Amazon HD 10, I have now acquired her sixth-generation HD 8. These are nice tablets, but Amazon does not, by default, have the Google Play store installed, instead preferring users to download apps directly from their own app store. This would be fine, except that Amazon's app store doesn't offer all of the apps available from the Google Play store, which I find annoying. There are a few methods for installing the Google Play store on a Fire tablet but I've found a rather simple method for doing this, which just involves a tiny bit of preparation beforehand on the tablet. What follows is a message I posted to the Visually Impaired Kindle discussion list about how to do this.

There are a few methods for installing the Google Play Store on a Fire tablet. The way that I've done this in the past was to run a file which, essentially, installs all 4 files at once, without the user needing to download and install each file one at a time. This tool has worked for me in the past but it did not work reliably on my HD 8 with Fire OS 5.6.0.0. However, after doing some searching I found a similar tool from the same source, which worked.
First, here's the instructions for how to do this.
https://fire.gadgethacks.com/how-to/install-google-play-store-your-kindle-fire-without-rooting-0177098/

Although the article advises that you extract the zip file into a specific folder, this is not necessary for just installing the Play Store.
The only preparation you need to do for your tablet is to enable a few settings in Developer Options within Settings/Device Options. However, if you go into Device Options you'll see that Developer Options is not shown, as it's hidden, by default.
To unhide Developer Options, go into Settings/Device Options.
Look for the serial number.
You're supposed to tap it 7 times, which means that VoiceView users need to double-tap it seven times.
Once you do this, you should see a new tenth option called Developer Options.
If this still isn't showing and if you only see nine options in Device Options, try double-tapping Serial Number 7 or more times again. Eventually, you'll see Developer Options.
Double-tap Developer Options and look for the option USB Computer Connection. Double-tap this and set this for Camera, ptp.
Go back to the previous screen.
Next, look for Enable ADB, which will be off, by default. Double-tap to turn it on.
Next, run the tool. Here's a direct link to it.
http://www.rootjunkysdl.com/files/SuperTool/AmazonFire5thGenSuperTool.zip

Extract the zip file to a place where you can easily find it. If you need help doing this, just ask and I'll be happy to assist, as time allows.
Open the folder containing the files and you will see two folders.
The first folder is for the Mac, which you can ignore if you're using Windows.
The second folder is the Supertool folder, which is what you want to open. Even though it has the phrase "fifth gen" in the title, I can tell you this worked on my sixth generation tablet.

Within this folder, look for the file called 1-Amazon-Fire-5th-gen.bat, which is what you want to run. Make sure the tablet is connected, ideally before you run this file.
Choose option 2 by pressing the number 2, followed by enter, which should, if all goes well, install the Google Play Store.

During the installation process, you may hear VoiceView say "Google Play Services error" several times but just ignore this.
Once the files are installed, it is recommended that you completely power off your tablet.
Once it's powered back on, Google Play Store should appear in what is called the app grid (the list of apps) on your home screen.
At some point while downloading your first app, you will likely be prompted to update your Google Play Services, which you can safely do.
At this point, I would go back to Settings/Device Options/Developer Options and turn off ADB Debugging.

I hope this method will be of some use. If anybody has further questions, I don't mind receiving them but I ask that you send them to the list and not to me privately. This is because I don't have a lot of time during the week to answer emails and sending them to the list gives more people a chance to respond, and those responses could benefit others who are interested in this topic.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com