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I’ve struggled to find a scratch even on “acceptable” condition Kindles. These are devices that were returned to Amazon, and regardless of what it says about condition, they’re often pristine, aside from not having the original packaging. Shop for returned Kindle Fires with “Special Offers” sold by Amazon Warehouse. The WeDo app has the same functionality on Kindles as on iOS or a computer. The EV3 app is fine for outreach or for first year teams who are novice programmers, but you’ll eventually want a computer. I believe using the app running on a Kindle to program the EV3 to be FLL legal (so long as you turn the Bluetooth off before competing), but you won’t have access to MyBlocks, or data wires, which is an absolute deal-breaker for advanced programmers. You can use these directions to install the EV3 education app on your Kindle, identical to the iOS app, but much less functional than the PC or Mac program. These directions require no other device and you can still factory reset your kindle if something goes wrong. It was a pain, required special software on the PC, and it was irreversible. Early editions needed to be rooted and have a separate bootloader. Very old Kindles do not work with these directions. (On the other hand, a Kindle is basically an Android tablet, and so trouble-shooting will mostly be similar to any other Android tablet.) (Please let me know if you confirm.) While I have used these directions for multiple Kindles, I can’t guarantee that they’ll work for you, and it’s possible that you’d have trouble getting help from LEGO because you’re installing their app on a device they don’t officially support. I’ve used them with HD7 and HD8, and believe them to work for HD10 too.
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These directions were written for 2017 Kindle Fire HDs, which are 7th generation, and current generation (2018) Kindle Fire HDs. These directions will tell you how to install the LEGO apps (and anything else) you need to make your Kindle a great asset for FLL Jr teams, basic EV3 programming, and more. The only problem is that they only have the Amazon App store available, and the selection doesn’t include Lego robot apps, except for BOOST. Why would you want to do this? Because Kindle Fires are incredibly cheap, for a good quality tablet backed by a major manufacturer.
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