Incompatibility with Kindle Fire soft keys or hibernation feature

Shengxin · April 6th, 2012, 05:28 PM

I've submitted my software to Amazon App Store. The test results are OK for all Android features, however, I got a notice saying it is incompatible with Amazon's Kindle Fire due to issues with the app’s interaction with the Kindle Fire soft keys or hibernation feature.

It is said "Such issues may include force closes, crashes, loss of user progress or state, an unrecoverable black screen, and problems with audio.".

Does anyone know how to resolve this issue? Can the emulator from Google emulate Kindle Fire so that I can do a test without purchasing a Kindle Fire? Thanks in advance.

HemiMG · April 7th, 2012, 05:32 PM

I just received the exact same, very vague, email Thursday. I sent them an email asking for clarification and will let you know if they respond. Although that single sentence, as worded, could mean vastly different problems for different apps.

The Kindle Fire does have a 20px bar that is always at the bottom of the screen. Is it possible that your app has something at the bottom that is getting blocked by that?

In my case, I actually have tested it on a Kindle Fire and did not find any issues. Although, with such a vague bug report it is very hard to determine what exactly I am supposed to be looking for.

Shengxin · April 7th, 2012, 06:27 PM

Thanks a lot for the response. My app doesn't have a button at the bottom that is getting blocked by that 20px bar.

Please keep me posted when you get an update from Amazon. Thanks a lot.

Shengxin · April 13th, 2012, 08:34 PM

I googled a little bit and found the Amazon developer site https://developer.amazon.com/help/faq.html#KindleFire says the following:
Unfortunately we are not able to provide test devices for developers at this time. We recommend that you review the device technical specifications posted in this FAQ. You can also configure a standard Android emulator to simulate the Kindle Fire device platform.

To keep the menu bar present at all times, remove any code in the activities that enables full screen mode. The soft key bar at the bottom will then be visible at all times.

I haven't found any information related to compatibility with the Hibernate feature of Kindle Fire.

Hope this helps someone that has the same problem as mine.

Shengxin · April 21st, 2012, 08:32 PM

After communicating with Amazon, they kindly provided me the error log. Then I found out the problem was caused by a configuration error with my menu items - there is nothing wrong specific to Kindle Fire.

Thanks for the inputs and hope this will help others with similar problems.