Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   Just this past Friday (from what I can tell), Amazon announced the end of the Underground or "Actually Free" program that started in 2015. There are over 3700 games alone in the program. Check https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/28/amazon-is-shutting-down-its-underground-actually-free-program-that-gives-away-free-android-apps/ for the best details that I was able to find.

   To summarize - no new apps will be accepted after the end of this month (May 31, 2017). The underground app will stop allowing access to the underground on Android phones and tablets this summer but will still allow access for Amazon/kindle fire tablets. The complete shutdown is due in 2019.

   I contacted Amazon on one question. What happens to apps/games that you have "purchased" but do not currently have downloaded? Normally, downloading isn't an issue. If you have purchased it (free or cost), it's yours and you can download, remove, download as often as you want on as many devices as you want. That's not true. Come summer or whenever they drop that kind of support for the Android devices, you will not be able to download any Underground app or game that may currently be in your library.

   That stinks! They have always pushed that once it's yours, it's yours and you will keep it. Now they're just telling us that we've wasted our time getting these apps.

   If you have it already downloaded, it will continue to work so long as you keep it on that device. New devices are in the same boat as removing and wanting to reinstall - tough luck!

   Why would anybody offer new apps now since it's been announced that new apps won't even be accepted after May 31?

   They've also said that new Amazon devices after those currently on the market won't have the underground built in as it is now.

   I am not a happy camper. I have 838 games and 1 app from the Underground! Most are series of games that play the same but have different images, such as DifferenceGames series of Hidden Differences or another of Hidden Scenes!

   Posted 7 years ago #
2. 

   QunMang
   Member

   I always missed the free app-of-the-day that Underground replaced, but have since come to accept the new strategy, and it did make more sense as apps increasingly embraced the free to start/play model with in-app purchases. Hopefully they will replace it soon after closing with something better, and still for all android devices and not just their tablets.

   Posted 7 years ago #
3. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   developer[.]amazon[.]com/blogs/appstore/post/cbadeae1-990d-4d52-bef5-ea61f6114b94/announcement-amazon-actually-free-program

   forums[.]developer[.]amazon[.]com/articles/69139/underground-actually-free-program-faq-2017-update.html

   Couple of Amazon links FWIW.

   Posted 7 years ago #
4. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   Your second link (the forums) is only accessible if you are registered to those forums. I did not register. The other link is one I had seen but didn't have any new information other than the statement of the appstore (didn't say Underground appstore) has over 800,000 apps.

   It still stinks that if you have an android tablet (not a fire), you will not be able to download any of the games you've "purchased" through the program after this summer.

   Normally, when you purchase an app, it's yours (at least the license to use it, anyway) forever! Even free, 3 years max is not nice when they promised to expand the program not shut it down in a few years.

   Those with fires will be especially unwilling to do the standard "fix" always recommended by customer service of deregister/reregister or Factory Reset after it shuts down. If you do either of those, all your books and apps are removed and you must re-download them. You can't with the underground after that "drop-dead" date! That will make users even more unhappy. Stuck with a problem or lose your best apps/games potentially!

   Posted 7 years ago #
5. 

   ChrisS
   Administrator

   Normally, when you purchase an app, it's yours (at least the license to use it, anyway) forever!

   
   It's stuff like this that keeps me from buying a Kindle and moving to ebooks. I could lose all of my books in a fire but I refuse to lose them by a licensing change to my Fire.

   I don't use Amazon Underground but, if you haven't, you might look at How can I sideload Amazon Underground Apps to Amazon Fire TV?, or similar topics for downloading the APK files to your PC for later reinstallation. I don't know if it would work as they'd still have to get registered when you reinstall them and it's not clear from the article if your device's registration is going to be "frozen" this summer.

   There are a lot of options for downloading the APKs from Google Play but very few options for Amazon.

   Posted 7 years ago #
6. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   The problem, from what they say, you can't even find the Underground games on Amazon from a non-Amazon device after this summer. I don't like the idea of side-loading onto devices. That can tend to void warranties. Since Google is a direct competitor to the Amazon appstore and Amazon refuses to pay the prices that Google requires, you have to root a fire to get anything google on it and that will void the warranty.

   I normally get my apps from Amazon. The only ones I have from elsewhere (like one GabySoft game) are those that for some reason or another do not show as compatible for my devices.

   With a standard Android, you cannot "send" the app to the device from Amazon as you can with a fire. You have to go to the device and "pull" it from the appstore. If it's not listed, you can't do it!

   I understand what you say about the kindle ebooks. I am going more and more to ebooks, even to some replacement of my print books for several reasons. One is the fact that I'm getting older. I like that I can adjust the font and font size with an ebook and I can't do that with a print book. My copy of "The Mists of Avalon" was wearing out but then I realized the the print was pretty small. I bought the ebook of it, increased the font size and - oh, so easy! I even bought an 11.5" tablet (RCA Galileo Pro) to have a BIG book to read. I didn't even need the lower part of my bifocals to read it!

   I don't think that Amazon is going to do with ebooks as they are doing with the Android apps and the Underground. It's too big a business for them. They've already forced Barnes & Nobles out of the business of a dedicated ereader. The Nook is being phased out! Nook tablets still exists so they're still trying to hang on.

   Other advantages of ebooks are:

   * No physical space needed so you can have thousands of books in the palm of your hand. I have almost 3800 books in a small 7" fire tablet with 8 GB memory and a 32 GB MicroSD card.

   * Ability to read across multiple devices. If you "own" a book and you have a device registered to you, even if it's not yet downloaded, you can download and pick up reading at exactly the spot you stopped on the first device. I've been known to use WhisperSync to read the same book on at least 3 different devices at the same time. I did have to wait a minute every time I switched to get it to sync.

   * Built-in dictionary. I just got two books yesterday by Stephen Donaldson. I've got the books in print and I KNOW that guy likes BIG words. I've had to pull out a dictionary and I don't have that bad a vocabulary. With kindle, you can pull up the definition right there.

   * Protection (supposedly). They are in the cloud and Amazon is in charge of keeping them backed up. Non-Amazon books, you do have to back up yourself (and I do). I have only once had a book I bought from Amazon disappear. Actually, it changed to another book. For some odd reason, the same code used for my book was re-used after the book had been removed in that form (name only). That switched my book. Amazon gave me a promo-code for the cost of the name-changed book to restore it to me.

   * Updates! The one thing you do not ever get automatically with print books is free updates. There are a few hiccups with it but it's not at all uncommon to suddenly see a book you bought years ago show up as "recent". It updated. It could be a re-edit, a new edition, or any other of changes. With a print book, you're stuck.

   There are probably more pros but these are what came to mind.

   The one con, as you pointed out is a chance that Amazon will pull a similar gotcha with the kindle. That's not really that likely and even if they do make a change, it will most likely be like this one -- with a long transition period.

   There are ways of "preserving" your books from Amazon even with DRM but they should not be needed. Many publishers insist the books be published without DRM so that isn't an issue. The two I think of right away are MacMillan and Baen Books.

   Posted 7 years ago #
7. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I've used AppWererabbit for a couple few years now with apps from the Play store...

   play[.]google[.]com/store/apps/details?id=com.aw.AppWererabbit&hl=en

   but if you search the Play store with "save APK" [w/out quotes] there are a bunch of apps out now that look like they do the same or similar, backing up installed apps &/or saving them to an APK. I don't know how well the backups work on Amazon apps/games, because till now never had reason to.

   Far as the Kindles go, purely FWIW, they're Tanks, which to me is a big selling point. I Really don't want to know how many times my wife's Kindle has been dropped or knocked off the table etc. and was no worse for it [knock wood].

   Another plus is that Amazon keeps updating them for quite a while, at least compared to the cell phone market. It's scary...

   blog[.]gdatasoftware[.]com/2017/04/29712-8-400-new-android-malware-samples-every-day

   "8,400 new Android malware samples every day"

   Posted 7 years ago #

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