Fire OS 5 Preview Opens Up New Options for .NET Developers -- Visual Studio Magazine

Fire OS 5 Preview Opens Up New Options for .NET Developers

Amazon opening up its Android-based tablet app platform means developers can target their apps for yet another revenue opportunity.

By Michael Domingo
06/25/2015

Microsoft developers have yet another target device for which to develop apps: Amazon's Fire OS 5, which will run on upcoming Amazon Fire tablets. The development capability comes in the form of a Fire OS 5 Preview that Amazon recently launched to help developers port their apps to the Android-based platform.

"[Because] Fire OS 5 is based on Android Lollipop, we can make this update while preserving even more compatibility with existing Android apps than ever before," blogs Mike Hines, Amazon's Appstore Evangelist. "This means that even more of your apps should work on Fire devices with no additional engineering effort."

The fact that the Amazon tablet OS is based on Android Lollipop means it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for developers who are already familiar with Android. Still Amazon's version has some peculiarities that make it different enough, such as Fire pointing to the Amazon AppStore for app installation, and use of Amazon's proprietary Silk browser for Web links, as starters.

Amazon makes it easy to test app cross-compatibility, through an App Testing Service available on its portal page. It's just a matter of dragging an app onto the drop spot, where the app gets churned and results are spit out after a little more than a minute.

Developers can start participating in the preview by going to Hines' blog and clicking on the provided link. (The blog also has links for setting up an Amazon AppStore account, which is also required.)

About the Author

You Tell 'Em, Readers: If you've read this far, know that Michael Domingo, Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief, is here to serve you, dear readers, and wants to get you the information you so richly deserve. What news, content, topics, issues do you want to see covered in Visual Studio Magazine? He's listening at [email protected].

Printable Format

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

Mastering Blazor Authentication and Authorization

At the Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ developer conference set for August, Rockford Lhotka will explain the ins and outs of authentication across Blazor Server, WebAssembly, and .NET MAUI Hybrid apps, and show how to use identity and claims to customize application behavior through fine-grained authorization.
Linear Support Vector Regression from Scratch Using C# with Evolutionary Training

Dr. James McCaffrey from Microsoft Research presents a complete end-to-end demonstration of the linear support vector regression (linear SVR) technique, where the goal is to predict a single numeric value. A linear SVR model uses an unusual error/loss function and cannot be trained using standard simple techniques, and so evolutionary optimization training is used.
Low-Code Report Says AI Will Enhance, Not Replace DIY Dev Tools

Along with replacing software developers and possibly killing humanity, advanced AI is seen by many as a death knell for the do-it-yourself, low-code/no-code tooling industry, but a new report belies that notion.
Vibe Coding with Latest Visual Studio Preview

Microsoft's latest Visual Studio preview facilitates "vibe coding," where developers mainly use GitHub Copilot AI to do all the programming in accordance with spoken or typed instructions.
Steve Sanderson Previews AI App Dev: Small Models, Agents and a Blazor Voice Assistant

Blazor creator Steve Sanderson presented a keynote at the recent NDC London 2025 conference where he previewed the future of .NET application development with smaller AI models and autonomous agents, along with showcasing a new Blazor voice assistant project demonstrating cutting-edge functionality.