Well, folks, I have my Kindle Fire in hand. So far, I think it is more than worth its $200 price tag. I’ll be posting more about it later tonight after I’ve had more time to take it for a spin.

One of the first things I wanted to know was could I load my upcoming web app on it to test (which I have discovered is called “side loading”). I tried connecting the Fire via USB to my computer and copying the APK that way, but that doesn’t work.

Not to be deterred, I did the following:

1. I went into the Kindle settings by tapping the cog in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then tapped More > Device > and turned “on” the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources”
2. I uploaded the APK to an accessible folder on my website.
3. Then, I went to that folder in the Silk Browser.
4. Once the download was complete, I went to the download manager by clicking on the orange Kindle label in the top left hand corner of the screen.
5. I then tapped on the name of the APK and it asked me if I wanted to install the app.
6. I told it yes, at which point the app was installed (and is working quite nicely).

That was easy and now I can test my own app on my own device. I’m a happy early adopter!