Also, the Grand Calif Hotel had what appeared to be multiple routers with several overlapping signals, and as a result it made it hard for me to get a good, solid WiFi connection with my Android Phone. My wife also has some similar issues with her iPad 2 and her iPhone 4S. I brought along my Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, but it was essentially useless in the hotel since whenever I tried to make a connection the the hotel’s WiFi it would immediately reboot! I figure the problem might be that once you make a connection to the WiFi you need to bring up a browser and select “Accept” on the page that pops up, and that seemed to cause the Kindle Fire to reboot. I tried numerous times, but just couldn’t get it to work.

My next option was to set my Nexus S into “Hotspot mode” and try to connect to it from my Kindle Fire, but that wasn’t a good alternative since the Sprint Cell service was so bad. So in the end, both my Nexus cell phone and Kindle Fire tablet were useless during my trip to Disneyland.

Some KF owners have rooted their tablets to gain access to the Android Market, but as you may have read in one of my previous postings I decide to not go down that route for a number of reasons (include voiding the warranty of your tablet). Instead, I’ve taken the “side loading” approach which allows me to install desired apps outside of the Amazon App Store.

If you do a Google search on “kindle fire side loading” you’ll come across many web sites and blogs that explain the process. Basically, you need to install a desired app on another Android device (like a different tablet or cell phone), then use a File Explorer app to make a “backup” of that app. Next, you copy the backup file of that app (which is a standard .apk Android installer file) over to your Kindle Fire and install it. It’s a multi-step process, but you don’t need root access to do this procedure.

In my case, I have an Acer Iconia 10″ Android Tablet that I use to install my desired apps. I then use the app called Astro which is a file explorer app on my Acer tablet to do a “backup” of selected installed apps to the internal SD Card. For convenience, I’ll then use the DropBox app on my Acer tablet to upload these apk files to my DropBox cloud account. Finally, I run the same DropBox app on my Kindle Fire to access my online account, and just tap on the apk files. They then automatically download and install themselves. Using Dropbox in the manner is convenient for me, but you can always transfer the apk files from your PC or Mac over to your Kindle Fire via a USB sync cable.

Note, that not all 3rd party apps will install on the Kindle Fire, as some required Google libraries are not present. For example, the Pageonce Travel app that runs fine on my Nexus S phone and Acer Tablet  won’t install on my KF (I think it’s because certain Google Location Libraries are not present on the KF). So be aware that not all apps can be loaded using this side-loading method.

It was a toss up between my Acer Android Tablet and the Kindle Fire. I like the larger 10″ screen of my Acer Tablet for web page browsing, but the smaller Kindle Fire was much more portable for this trip. As such, I’m going with the Kindle Fire to really see if it’s suitable for my week long trip.

I’ve loaded the following apps on my Kindle Fire (most of which were “side loaded”):

Kindle Fire

1. Email (built-in email client)
2. Web Browser (built-in browser)
3. Angry Birds
4. Dropbox
5. CNet News
6. Disneyland Wait Times
7. Engadget News
8. Evernote
9. Google Maps
10. Mocha VNC Lite
11. Netflix
12. Pandora
13. SpeedTest
14. The Weather Channel
15. Twitter
16. WiFi Analyzer
17. WiFi File Explorer Pro
18. Wunderlist
19. YouTube

I have similar apps loaded on my Nexus S 4G cell phone, such as:

Nexus S 4G

1. Adobe Reader (to read pdf files of my airline itinerary, hotel reservations, etc)
2. Android Lost (in case I misplace my Nexus S)
3. Weatherbug
4. Starbucks
5. FlightTracker
6. Pageonce Travel
7. SpeedTest
8. Twitter
9. TripAdvisor
10. USA Today
11. Yahoo Weather
12. WiFi Analyzer
13. WiFi File Explorer Pro
14. Wunderlist
15. YouTube
16. Disneyland Wait Times

Obviously, I plan to use some of these apps to check on my flight status, weather conditions, kill time in the airport, etc. My Kindle Fire will serve as my main “Internet device” back at the hotel for web page browsing and watching Netflix videos at night. I can also use either my Kindle Fire or Nexus S to connect to my iMac at home if needed (using a VNC Client app). The Disneyland Wait Times app will be invaluable on my Nexus S phone, as it will allow us to determine which rides to go for and when during the day.

Luckily, my Kindle Fire has proven to have pretty good battery life, but I’m not so sure with my Nexus S!

The one bad thing about the Kindle Fire, is that Amazon has tied it down so you can’t access or install apps from the Android Market. The only place you can download apps is from Amazon’s App Store which at this moment, has some what limited number of apps compared to the general Android Market. There is a way to circumvent this by using a technique called “side loading”, where you install 3rd party applications from an apk file (standard Android installation file), but getting the apk file for a specific Android application is a manual process (Do a Google search on “android side load app”).

Using the side loading method, I was able to install other apps not available on the Amazon App Store like Dropbox, Engadget, Evernote, jVault, Netflix, Mocha vNC Lite, Wunderlist, Twitter, etc.

Now, I’ve been reading in different forum postings and tech blogs that it is possible to “root” your Kindle Fire which would allow you access to more capabilities (like installing Android Market). As such, this prompted me to look into rooting my Kindle Fire.

After reading directions and tips from several different web sites and forum postings, I was able to root my Kindle Fire. Rooting basically gives me permissions as a user to make system changes. It can be a bit dangerous, and definitely voids your warranty. As I jumped through all the hoops to getting Android Market installed, I could never get it to work. I would always get a “Forced Closed” error when I tried to access the Market. I suspect that when Amazon upgraded the Fire’s OS from 2.6 to 2.6.1, the apk files that I downloaded and installed on my Fire for Android Market access just didn’t work any more. So, instead of fussing with my Kindle Fire further, I decided it just wasn’t worth it.

Therefore, I began the process of uninstalling all the “extra” apps I installed pertaining to Android Market and then un-rooted my Kindle Fire. So, now I’m back to my original system (but, still with my side loaded apps intact).

I’ve concluded that it wasn’t worth it to root my Kindle Fire for my needs. I’m sure others really like the freedom of having a rooted Fire tablet and being able to install many more apps, but I just found it to be a pain in the neck. Also, I’d be worried that when future OS updates or app updates came out, my tinkering with the OS and privileges would cause problems down the road.

If you’re interested in rooting the Kindle Fire, just do a Google search for several different sites with directions. But be warned: It’s not for the faint hearted..

Since I have a Sprint Nexus S 4G, I don’t have the ability to officially upgrade to ICS. However, Google has released the ICS code to the general public, allowing people to compile and create their own custom ROMs. Fortunately for me, a person named Pete Alfonso has taken the time to create such a custom ROM for the Nexus S 4G using the released ICS code. I’ve been running his custom ROM for the previous “Gingerbread” Android OS (version 3.0) for the last few months with excellent performance, so I trust his ICS version will work equally as well. Thus, I’ve installed his 12-20-2011 nightly version on my Nexus S 4G and have been running ICS for the last 12 hours or so.

ICS seems to be running very well on my Nexus S. It definitely has a new look-and-feel compared to the Gingerbread OS, which I like. It actually reminded me slightly of the Windows Phone 7 OS, where some of the controls like the buttons had a more flat appearance. The colors, layout, etc. in ICS really makes it look polished (much better than the version 1.0 of Android!).

ICS also runs very smoothly, and I haven’t had any issues with this custom ROM. GPS, WiFi, and the Hotspot WiFi all worked fine. The only big issue I can find is with the high battery drain. After using my Nexus S for about a day, I noticed substantially decreased battery life over what I was experiencing with the previous Gingerbread OS. Apparently, this is a known issue and it seems that Google has suspended the release of the ICS upgrade to other phones until they get this resolved. Last night I went through the process of wiping my handset’s “Battery Status” which is suppose to help increase the top battery charge level, so I’ll see if that helps to extend my battery life.

Also, I found that a few apps I was using with Gingerbread needed updating to work with ICS. For example, I needed to update my Netflix app to run under ICS (the Android Market had an update for Netflix specifically for the ICS version 4.0 OS). But for the most part, all of my other apps ran just fine under ICS.

So it looks like Google has taken another step forward in the evolution of the Android OS. I’m anxious to see how well ICS runs on my Acer Iconia A500 tablet (whenever that update or custom ROM becomes available).

PS: If you’re interested in installing this Custom ROM, go to www.androidcentral.com and visit their Forums under “Sprint Nexus S 4G” and the “Custom ROMS, Hacks” section. There’s a posting for ICS using Pete Alfonso’s custom ROM.

As time goes on, I think the stagnant WebOS will become more and more behind the times and will never catch up to the other mobile OSes. That is quite a shame, as I’ve always like Palm as a company and wished they could have continued on (outside of HP) with their hardware and OS development work.

TripAdvisor.com is a web site that basically has reviews posted by users who have logged into their site. Reviews can be quite extensive, or just a sentence or two. Also, users can upload photos along with their reviews to give some evidence backing up their review claims. I’ve found this site very useful, as there are hundreds of postings for most hotels. In fact, I also am a contributor to this site posting my reviews of various hotels I’ve stayed at over the last few years.

But like anything, you need to take what you read with a grain of salt. You have some people who post great reviews for a particular hotel, and a few that post really negative reviews. The difference can be so great at times, it makes you wonder, “are these reviews all for the same hotel”? For example, my family stayed at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel last year during summer break and we found it to be a great hotel. As such, I wrote a lengthy review expressing my opinions of our stay at that hotel. But if you read some of the hundreds of reviews, you will come across some that are really negative. Of course, you’ll find some people are pretty nit-picky and complain about the smallest thing and will give a negative review, but I did read some recent reviews that just seemed incredible to believe. For example, one person reviewing the GCH complained they had to wait 10 minutes in line to get checked into their room (what, you can’t wait 10 minutes?). Another person complained the valet didn’t bring up their luggage to their room after being asked three times, and another person complained their room was run down with damaged furniture, dented trash cans, and missing TV remote. I find all of this unbelievable, as I stayed at this hotel last year and found the rooms wonderfully decorated and very comfortable. So either Disney has some really bad and really good hotel rooms and we just got lucky, or some people are just big time complainers.

TripAdvisor.com is also good for finding reviews of restaurants and amusement parks in certain cities. Posters will give great tips in their reviews, so it’s definitely worth checking out for your next trip. And best of all, it’s all free!

My big justification for getting a Kindle Fire was to test Android apps which I current develop for the Android smartphones and tablets. However, my plan would be to use the Kindle Fire as a personal tablet, as my larger Acer A500 tablet is a bit too bulky to tote around with me on trips to Starbucks or Panera Bread. So here’s my personal review after owning the Kindle Fire for about three weeks.

First, the Fire is well built and constructed of good components. The unit looks like a generic black-slab tablet with a very nice 1024×600 color screen. The device uses a variation of the Android OS, and runs very smoothly. As an average consumer, you’d never know it was running Android under the hood as Amazon has placed a nice, easy-to-use layer between the user and the OS. It can be limiting for advanced Android users, but works great for the general population to make the Fire much easier to use. As an advanced user, I have no complaints, as you can easily “side load” Android apps on the Fire with very little difficulty (and no need to root it).

If you want to load apps on your Fire, the only official source is the Amazon App Store. You can’t load apps from the Google Android Market, period. The only way is to “side load” them, which means you need to find a backdoor way of loading the apk install file for a desired app. This really isn’t difficult, if you have another Android device that you can backup a loaded app and then copy the generated apk file to your Kindle Fire to install it. If you want to try this, just to a Google search for “kindle fire side load app” for more details.

Of all the Android apps that I’ve loaded, only a few didn’t work on the Kindle Fire. For example, I wasn’t able to install the USA Today app for reading news, which was disappointing (however, I can always view USA Today from their web page directly without an app).

The biggest downfall for the Kindle Fire is the amount of storage space, which is limited to just 5 GB. Obviously, Amazon was trying to keep the price of the Fire low, which explains the small amount of storage. Amazon’s official response is that users can store their data in their Amazon Cloud online system, and access it via an online Internet connection. This is actually partially true. Amazon gives you  5GB of cloud storage for free to store videos, music, pictures, and documents, however you can only use this storage for accessing Amazon purchased items on your Kindle Fire. You can upload music mp4 files and access them on your Kindle Fire, but you can not upload personal videos or movies to the Amazon Cloud storage and expect to stream them to your Fire. Same for documents– they cannot be streamed or accessed on your Kindle Fire from Amazon Cloud storage.

This totally blows Amazon’s reason for limiting the 5GB local storage out of the water. Why can’t you stream your uploaded videos or documents to your Kindle Fire from Amazon Cloud storage? That just doesn’t make sense. So for now you must download your personal videos and documents to local storage on your Kindle Fire (which again you are limited to 5GB of internal storage).

An alternative is to use the Dropbox online storage for storing and accessing files. I’ve used this option on my Nexus S Android smartphone and Acer Android tablet quite effectively, and it also works with the Kindle Fire. All files uploaded to Dropbox can be access on the Kindle Fire using a Dropbox app. So for now, there is a way to overcome the Amazon Cloud deficiency, but hopefully Amazon will correct this issue soon.

Battery life for my Kindle Fire is actually pretty good, especially if you turn down the screen brightness. Yesterday I played several games and streamed videos from Netflix for several hours before exhausting the battery levels. Fortunately, the Fire charges up very, very quickly using the supplied wall charger and I was at nearly 80% charge in under 1 hour.

I was a bit worried that the 7-inch screen size would be too small, but it seems to work just fine for me. Web sites can be viewed quite sufficiently, and Android apps run at full screen with no issues. Games actually look nicer on the 7-inch screen than my 3.5-inch Android smartphone. Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and my Pool Parlor game work great.

Note, that I don’t plan to do any heavy reading on my Kindle Fire, which is ironic since most Kindle users typically use their devices for reading e-books. My plan is to use the Fire as a portable tablet, allowing me to access the Internet for online stored files, travel information, and email. Although the Kindle Fire has WiFi, it doesn’t have cellular radio for an instant Internet connection. So what I do, is use my Nexus S Android Smartphone (on the Sprint network) to act as a “hotspot” which I connect my Kindle Fire to via WiFi. So far, it works great and I have Internet access for my Kindle Fire at any time.

So in all, I’m glad I purchased the Kindle Fire and plan to use it as my daily tablet device. At a price of $199 (which I’ve read Amazon is losing $20 per unit), it’s a great deal.  I’ll be reading news, playing games, and watching videos with it. While on travel, I’ll use it to check the local weather, look for restaurant reviews, and check-in to my air travel flights. It will be a very handy, portable device that I can use for extended Internet access.

As a WebOS apps developer, I’m very sad to see this happen. I’ve been to two Palm Developers Day events in the Sunnyvale office, and I have to say that the Palm employees are great to work with. Palm really treated their developers well with support and hardware, so it’s a shame to see all of that disappear. HP is backpedaling a bit now, saying that WebOS will live on, but I highly doubt that. With no existing hardware, app developers jumping ship to Android, iOS, or Windows Phone 7 development, and Palm employees leaving for greener pastures, how will WebOS survive? It might go into hibernation, but over time that will most likely make it an extinct product.

This is unfortunate, as I believe that WebOS is the best smartphone OS currently available. It does do true multitasking, and their card concept works very well. Personally, I stopped my WebOS App development when Palm switched to the new Enyo SDK which required a fundamental shift in programming methodology from the previous Mojo SDK. In hindsight, it was a good move as it gave me time to spin up on Android OS development and get a head start in porting some of my existing apps to the Android platform.

Sorry to see you go, WebOS. RIP.