From iPad to Amazon Fire HD 10 (for kids)?
Discussion
Anyone been down this path, any problems? Regrets?
We've always had iPads and planned to keep passing them down as we upgraded ours but we don't need new ones and the kids are sharing an iPad Air 2 that's on its last legs with a cracked screen and likely to lose software updates this year.
Kids are now 7 and 5, it's mostly for Netflix / BBC / Disney+ streaming, the odd CBeebies game, Fruit Ninja and the like, school apps like Numbots and Mathletics, but their use will clearly change in the coming years.
Would the current Fire HD 10 work well, and (other than iCloud photos and Facetime) would there be anything we'd really miss? Does Amazon keep pushing ads and services on them? The price now (£149 for the kids Pro version) would mean they could have one each and and avoid the squabbles on long car journeys and a flight to NZ later this year.
We've always had iPads and planned to keep passing them down as we upgraded ours but we don't need new ones and the kids are sharing an iPad Air 2 that's on its last legs with a cracked screen and likely to lose software updates this year.
Kids are now 7 and 5, it's mostly for Netflix / BBC / Disney+ streaming, the odd CBeebies game, Fruit Ninja and the like, school apps like Numbots and Mathletics, but their use will clearly change in the coming years.
Would the current Fire HD 10 work well, and (other than iCloud photos and Facetime) would there be anything we'd really miss? Does Amazon keep pushing ads and services on them? The price now (£149 for the kids Pro version) would mean they could have one each and and avoid the squabbles on long car journeys and a flight to NZ later this year.
My two kids have Fire HD10s and they are solid devlces, especially for the price (even moreso when they are on offer for £80 or so). However, I wish I had either stayed with iPads or gone for a true Andriod device so I could run Google apps, in particular Youtube Kids. There are easy ways around this on the Fire but (as far as I know) you can't run them in a kids profile and have access to the Play Store and Google apps. That means that controlling stuff like time limits is difficult - for example, I cannot find a way of locking the device after it has been used for 2hrs in any 24 hour period unless it is a kids profile and then there is no access to Youtube Kids. I'd love to know if there is a workaround.
Edited by anotherbigspender on Wednesday 4th May 11:06
sjg said:
Anyone been down this path, any problems? Regrets?
We've always had iPads and planned to keep passing them down as we upgraded ours but we don't need new ones and the kids are sharing an iPad Air 2 that's on its last legs with a cracked screen and likely to lose software updates this year.
Kids are now 7 and 5, it's mostly for Netflix / BBC / Disney+ streaming, the odd CBeebies game, Fruit Ninja and the like, school apps like Numbots and Mathletics, but their use will clearly change in the coming years.
Would the current Fire HD 10 work well, and (other than iCloud photos and Facetime) would there be anything we'd really miss? Does Amazon keep pushing ads and services on them? The price now (£149 for the kids Pro version) would mean they could have one each and and avoid the squabbles on long car journeys and a flight to NZ later this year.
They're decent devices when they heavily discount them on Amazon day/Black Friday, but the specs are pretty mediocre (although they're fine for basics like Netflix etc)We've always had iPads and planned to keep passing them down as we upgraded ours but we don't need new ones and the kids are sharing an iPad Air 2 that's on its last legs with a cracked screen and likely to lose software updates this year.
Kids are now 7 and 5, it's mostly for Netflix / BBC / Disney+ streaming, the odd CBeebies game, Fruit Ninja and the like, school apps like Numbots and Mathletics, but their use will clearly change in the coming years.
Would the current Fire HD 10 work well, and (other than iCloud photos and Facetime) would there be anything we'd really miss? Does Amazon keep pushing ads and services on them? The price now (£149 for the kids Pro version) would mean they could have one each and and avoid the squabbles on long car journeys and a flight to NZ later this year.
You're also restricted to the Amazon app store and using the kids version is an absolute PITA as you need to add the apps to the 'parents' side of the device then allow access to the kids side, about half a dozen inputs of the PIN to go back and forth - there's a bit of PC software called Fire Toolbox that removes the homescreen ads/adds the Google Play store and assistant/disable various other Amazon aspects, it works well enough and I've set a couple of HD8's up on it for my son/my brother that I've not had to mess around with since but they're not running the kids profile.
For that kind of money, Amazon have the latest Samsung Tab A8 for £159 currently, better specs, it'll get supported longer, and you'll be able to control it more efficiently using Google Family Link - www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Screen-Android-Ver...
anotherbigspender said:
My two kids have Fire HD10s and they are solid devlces, especially for the price (even moreso when they are on offer for £80 or so). However, I wish I had either stayed with iPads or gone for a true Andriod device so I could run Google apps, in particular Youtube Kids. There are easy ways around this on the Fire but (as far as I know) you can't run them in a kids profile and have access to the Play Store and Google apps. That means that controlling stuff like time limits is difficult - for example, I cannot find a way of locking the device after it has been used for 2hrs in any 24 hour period unless it is a kids profile and then there is no access to Youtube Kids. I'd love to know if there is a workaround.
Would Google's Family Link work? Or a parental control app?Edited by anotherbigspender on Wednesday 4th May 11:06
We've got both Kindle and iPads in the household. Despite my generally dim view of Apple, the iPads have proven far, far better in every way.
Admittedly the Kindle is a few years old now (2018 10" Fire HD), but it has never been any more than adequate. It's good enough for my daughter to watch downloaded Netflix/Disney/Prime content in the car, but for everything else we use the iPad. Even my much older (2014), battered, positively antiquated iPad Air 2 made the Kindle feel sluggish. It's also a ballache having to either tolerate Amazon's limited app selection or go through the rigmarole of sideloading the Play store onto the thing.
If it's of any interest, that knackered old iPad was replaced by a refurbished 7th generation iPad a couple of months ago. For £209 from Apple it was something of a bargain, and they appear to have them on offer at that price once again:
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/ipad
There's a thread on here somewhere discussing cheap tablets and quite a few people recommended a Lenovo tablet running Android. That might also be worth a look.
Admittedly the Kindle is a few years old now (2018 10" Fire HD), but it has never been any more than adequate. It's good enough for my daughter to watch downloaded Netflix/Disney/Prime content in the car, but for everything else we use the iPad. Even my much older (2014), battered, positively antiquated iPad Air 2 made the Kindle feel sluggish. It's also a ballache having to either tolerate Amazon's limited app selection or go through the rigmarole of sideloading the Play store onto the thing.
If it's of any interest, that knackered old iPad was replaced by a refurbished 7th generation iPad a couple of months ago. For £209 from Apple it was something of a bargain, and they appear to have them on offer at that price once again:
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/ipad
There's a thread on here somewhere discussing cheap tablets and quite a few people recommended a Lenovo tablet running Android. That might also be worth a look.
Edited by Jonny_ on Wednesday 4th May 20:54
I looked at this option when my daughters (now nearly 8) handmedown iPad mini 2 slowed right down and decided that a base model ipad would be easier for all involved and I can control the whole screen time usage across all her devices (iPod and Apple TV) from my phone or mac too.
Easyology won me over and it’s worked perfect and not missed a beat in coming up 2-3yrs I think now.
I’ll certainly buy another base model ipad when this one slows up / becomes unstable
Easyology won me over and it’s worked perfect and not missed a beat in coming up 2-3yrs I think now.
I’ll certainly buy another base model ipad when this one slows up / becomes unstable
We've had a kids kindle HD (a few years ago now) it was a good device for when they were very young, the curated apps were fine but as soon as they got a bit older they wanted all the other apps people were using, youtube, netflix, music things, roblox etc.
Early lockdown 2020 we got them both ipads, mostly to stop arguments when all of us wanted a device at the same time.
Frankly, they just work like they should. If you are apple'd up in other areas then its the best choice.
Early lockdown 2020 we got them both ipads, mostly to stop arguments when all of us wanted a device at the same time.
Frankly, they just work like they should. If you are apple'd up in other areas then its the best choice.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff