If you’re an HBO subscriber and your cable provider supports it (most of the biggies do), you’ve got to get the HBO GO app for your Kindle Fire. This app allows you to watch streaming content from HBO on your Fire device. It’s going to make a wealth of great HBO programming available on your Kindle Fire, for FREE!
You’ll notice that this app has many 1-star reviews in the Amazon App Store, but most of those 1-star reviews are from people complaining that their cable provider doesn’t support the app. Most of the complaints are about Time Warner Cable, which doesn’t support the HBO GO app as of this writing. I’m a Verizon FiOS subscriber, and it’s supported for me.
I’ve had this app on my iPad for months and have enjoyed it a lot, so I was very happy to see it’s finally come to the Amazon App Store for my Kindle Fire. Having used it on both devices, it seems more or less identical in its presentation, use and operation. The browse by genre menu is presented as a drop-down list on the Kindle Fire version, whereas it’s presented as a button bar on the iPad version, but that’s pretty much it, in terms of noticeable differences.
One of the first and best things I noticed when I first got the app is that the content offered through HBO GO includes a lot of programming that’s not part of HBO’s On Demand offerings—you know, the programs you can access through your cable or satellite box on your cable provider’s On Demand menu.
I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedy for example, and one of my favorite things about this app is the large library of stand-up programs offered each month. When you’re in the mood to watch a certain movie and it’s not among the HBO On Demand listings, try checking the HBO GO listings in this app; you may be pleasantly surprised, because there’s a LOT more content here than what’s available On Demand. You should also get in the habit of browsing the content lists on this app at the start of each month, when the catalog changes to offer a new list of movies and comedy specials for the month.
Another fantastic feature of HBO GO is the inclusion of every episode of HBO’s great series, like Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Girls, and the upcoming Newsroom (not available through the app yet, but will be when the program starts running on HBO later this month). Even older series that have finished their run, like Deadwood, Rome, Oz, Six Feet Under and Extras are available through this app.
Some of the negative reviews have complained that the app crashes their Fire, that the video freezes up. I have not had this experience even once, and I suspect those who have are experiencing wifi signal strength problems. Because HBO GO content streams live, you must be within range of a strong wifi signal when using it. You can try a public wifi Hotspot, but wifi signal strength will degrade as more and more people log on to use connection, so your connection speed will get slower and slower as the surrounding crowd of users gets bigger and bigger.
All I can say is, I am LOVING the HBO GO app, and if you’re an HBO subscriber whose cable provider is a company other than Time Warner, I’m pretty confident you will, too!
Just found out, after downloading HBO GO, that it’s not available through Time Warner. They have no idea if and when it will be! I’m so disappointed! Please encourage Time Warner to get on board! Thanks
Yes, Time Warner was specifically named as one of the cable providers that doesn’t support HBO GO in this post because so many Amazon reviewers complained of this. Plenty of T-W customers are already complaining to them about the situation, so hopefully T-W will do whatever’s necessary to support this great app.