After receiving a Kindle Fire a month ago, I managed to successfully install those games my children has been yapping about– Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio and others.  So its not Words for Friends anymore– there’s more.

Thanks to numerous dissatisfied Kindle Fire users, and numerous hours of reading android forums including that of Amazon, I managed to stumble on this article.  Installing getjar was not hard.  It does not require alot of ninja moves (side loading).  All you have to do is navigate to: http://m.getjar.com/ and download the application itself.   You will find the application by checking the download area of your Kindle Fire’s Silk browser.  Install this– oh, you will need to allow 3rd party installations first.  Navigate through the settings of your Kindle and allow.

Once you have installed GetJar, you can install whatever application is available on GetJar.

Here’s a list of my favorite apps via GetJar:

1- Angry Birds Seasons

2- Angry Birds Rio

3- Angry Birds

4- Classic Notes

5- Spring Pad

6- Fruit Ninja

Although my BlackBerry Torch is still dead, I did manage to reinstall my OS but it died after a day.  No idea why my BB kept on slipping to its near demise, but needless to say, the a tutorial that I found here was very helpful.

After days of reviving a bricked BlackBerry, I am on the verge of tossing this expensive smartphone in the bin… what’s stopping me then?  Well, if this bricked phone works again, I can pass this to my daughter and BBM with her instead of SMS.  That would be ideal.  Needless to say, my damn BB has just become an expensive paperweight.

Several days ago, my BlackBerry became so slow after I have installed a new theme.  It became so slow that even several resets failed to fix whatever the problem was that I was forced to perform a full security wipe.  I initially tried a partial security wipe which involves deleting only the applications while retaining my contacts and email as well as my files saved in my media card.

If for some reason your BlackBerry is lagging too slow or loads too slow after you have installed several applications, and deletion of that application did not fix the problem, I usually would just go and reset my BlackBerry to factory default.  This is not really hard and RIM makes it easier for you to reset and reinstall your desired applications easily.  To do a reset, simply go to Options> Security> Security Wipe.  You will be asked to type blackberry to confirm.  No sweat.

I have just received for my birthday the newest addition to Amazon’s array of e-readers–  The Kindle Fire.  Sent to me via Fedex, I patiently waited for my second Kindle.  Compared to my old Kindle 2, the Kindle Fire has far more features than my handout from my sister.  The Kindle 2 is powered by Whispernet, which contrary to Amazon’s claim is available in the Philippines.  This has caused a wee bit of inconvenience to people who has just bought any new ebook from Amazon.  Instead of your ebook being “pushed” to your Kindle, you’ll have to manually download your ebook file to your PC or Mac and connect your Kindle via micro USB and transfer that file to your Kindle 2 .  For more detailed instruction on how to do this, click here.

Unboxing. The Amazon Kindle Fire comes in a nice looking easy to open box.  It did not come with any manual apart from a small cardboard that tells you how to turn on your Kindle Fire.  Once turned on, it walks you through the settings etc.  Nothing complicated.

Weight and Size.  The Kindle Fire is a 7 incher tablet.  It is considerably smaller than my Kindle 2, however it is heavier.  The back is rubberized which makes holding your Kindle Fire easier grip-wise.  The screen rotates as well, which is pretty cool.  The screen is responsive to touch and scrolling is fast.  Not bad.

Wifi and Syncing.  The Kindle Fire comes with 8GB internal storage, of which 2GB is allocated to the OS and 6GB is usable. However, if you run of out of local space then no worries. Amazon offers you free cloud storage for all Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. This allows you store Apps, books, movies, and music which will be available instantly to stream or download for free, at a touch of a finger.  Once you have set up your wifi connection, you will be asked to register your Kindle Fire.  Syncing is swift and I was happy to see all my ebooks purchased months ago.

Browser.  The browser is fast although I have read about some people complaining that their Silk Browser is slow, mine was fast and navigation is pretty easy to follow.

The Downside

My only complaint about the Kindle is its inability to connect to the Amazon App Store.  Why the heck not when I have an active account in Amazon?  I asked.  Well, apparently, the Amazon App Store in not available in my region.  There were some applications pre-installed in my Kindle Fire like, Amazon’s Email App, Pulse, The Weather Channel and Audible.  It sucks not being able to download even premium applications.  I have scoured the Amazon Forum and found people from Canada, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia even Ireland, complaining about the Amazon App Store restrictions.

I have read about other Kindle Fire owners “jailbreaking” their Kindle Fires and by installing the Android sdk and rooting their Kindle Fire. The process is not easy and alot of modifications have to be made.  I am still trying to find out more information about this, but so far, I have read that the most recent Amazon update has removed the rooting functionality although the applications downloaded were said to continue to work.

It looked like we just have to wait until the Philippines is fully supported by Amazon.  Might take a year or another– who knows?  But so far, as e-reading goes, the Kindle Fire is a winner.  I am still able to connect to Twitter, Facebook and all websites using the browser anyway.

Me with my Kindle Fire

Kindle 2 vs Kindle Fire

Since I did a major factory reset on my work PC, I lost my Tweetdeck and Seesmic.  I have been switching back and forth between these two fantastic Twitter desktop applications for Windows.  Since I tweet mainly using my Blackberry, I only use my desktop Twitter application when my mobile is dead and charging, but I truly steer clear from Twitter desktop applications because I find it obtrusive. 

Eversince I got the BlackBerry Torch from my employer, I have been busy learning how to work around RIM’s technology. So far, one of the best feature of the BlackBerry is its push email whether you have gmail, or yahoo or your corporate email– setting up is a breeze.  Since the BlackBerry Torch is the bearer of RIM’s latest OS 6.0,

I have been admiring the smartphones by Research in Motion (RIM). Research In Motion (RIM) is the company behind the innovative and award-winning BlackBerry product line. The BlackBerry family includes best-in-class smartphones and software offerings, as well as the all new BlackBerry PlayBook, the world’s first professional tablet.

My work station runs on Windows 7.  Its high on RAM and I even bought a separate HP Pocket Media Drive– something I bought from Amazon months ago for storage.  After my old PC crashed and died on me, I got myself this baby and has been working well until now.

If you are familiar with Twitter and Facebook, then PicLyf is nothing new to you.  Think photo stream on real-time. Like Twitter, you could follow friends and even earn badges like that of Foursquare.  Since joining PicLyf, I have earned 7 badges.  One of them was for uploading and sharing my Wordcamp Philippines 2010 picture with WordPress Founder, Matt Mullenweg as well as the thumbs up badge for sending a webcam image of myself givingPicLyf my approval.  :)  Nothing beats acknowledgement through badges.

October 2 will remain etched in my memory.  Twas the day I met Matt Mullenweg, the Founder of Automattic and Developer of WordPress, the CMS that powers all my websites.  I have been a WordPress user for more than 7 years.  I started blogging with Typepad then I wanted more control over my site and moved to Moveable Type.  That was the time when blogging meant posting family pictures and writing about my trip here and abroad.  After the birth of lifediscourse.com, I decided that I needed to compartmentalize my website and decided on a niche and since I am very interested on personal finance, Pinoy Frugal Living was born.