Did you jump on the bandwagon when the tablet craze hit by getting an original Galaxy Tab, but now you feel a tinge of jealousy seeing the more modern UIs on newer slates? Well, you can rid yourself of that envious feeling by loading the Kindle Fire's software onto that old Tab of yours. Giga OM did the deed, giving us an overview of the process -- it's mainly a matter of extracting the code from Amazon's slate and installing it on Sammy's -- along with its results. Turns out, the Tab doesn't have all of the Fire's functionality, though the basic bookshelf interface (which is akin to an app launcher), video app, books, and magazines are all available along with the Fire's custom Amazon Store.
It seems like ages since Amazon introduced us to the $199 Fire at a hectic New York City event, but in truth that was only about six weeks ago. Maybe our perception of time is warped because we've been hearing talk about this 7-inch Android tablet for months now. Maybe it's because Amazon launching a tablet seemed like such a natural thing to do after Barnes & Noble paved the way with its Nook Color. Or, maybe it's just because the gadget Amazon shipped looks nigh-identical to the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook that we've had for, well, ages.