USB hosting? Side loading?

[darkmatter]

Does the fire hd 8.9 support usb hosting? Keyboard/mouse would be fine, usb storage would be amazing, though not expected.

I'm heavily debating between the nexus10 and fire hd 8.9. If I didn't have amazon prime this decision would be easier. I find being able to use the lending library and prime videos on the fire hd to be quite a good selling point for me...yet the nexus10 seems to be a bit more future proof.

Also, are you able to side load apps without rooting?

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[Ravynmagi]

Seems the micro USB port has no hosting abilities at all.

I'm rooted. I installed Stick Mount. But it could never detect my micro SD card attached to an OTG cable (this cable already confirmed working on my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus).
I tried a USB keyboard with the OTG cable, and it didn't work either.

Sideloading apps works just fine, don't even need to be rooted.


I'm also torn between this and the Nexus 10.

I also am an Amazon Prime subscriber, read ebooks daily, occasionally watch Amazon Prime videos (cancelled my Netflix subscription in favor of this), and do a lot of other shopping with Amazon. I'm really impressed with the Fire HD as a person that likes shopping for Amazon content, the OS really brings it all together quite nicely and helps a look browsing for new books and videos (much more so than Amazon's website). The display is really nice, great looking colors and really great sounding speakers (Nexus 7 failed on both counts in comparison). Also the wi-fi is overkill on this and that's a good thing in my book.

The Nexus 10 might be an easier choice if Google didn't put the stupid phone UI on it. I love how much screen space the Kindle OS UI leaves available. The soft keys hide away of the time leaving just a tiny tab on the side I can swipe up to bring the buttons back. Unlike the Nexus 10 that has giant soft buttons that are almost always on screen and wasting lots of space. Also find the look of the Nexus 10 to be quite ugly.

But the Nexus 10 has a killer powerful soc and I'm curious how well those front facing speakers sound. Hopefully the Nexus 10 shows up at Walmart or something in the next couple weeks. Don't want to buy it from the fiasco that is Google Play and the potentially have to pay a restocking fee if I'm not satisfied.

 

[darkmatter]

Took my wife to play with the fire hd 7 and 8.9. Turns out she much preferred the 7 inch version.

I'm liking it so far. Since she liked the cheaper kindle, I might be able to swing the nexus10 later. Or the wii u. The tvii is looking very interesting, and apparently you can watch netflix/hulu/amazon on the controller, which does have a headphone port.

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