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YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Table Of Contents 1. Introduction: What Is the Kindle Fire? 5 1.1 Combining Android and Kindle 5 1.2 Differences Between the Kindle Fire and Kindle 6 1.3 LCD vs E Ink 6 2. Setting Up the Kindle Fire 7 2.1 Managing Your Kindle Account 7 2.2 Buying Books with the Kindle Fire 8 2.4 Finding Free Titles to Read 8 3. The Kindle Fire User Interface 9 3.1 Menus, Icons and Gestures 9 3.2 Browsing the Newsstand 9 3.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 6.2 Configuring the Silk Browser 22 7. Sending Email on the Kindle Fire 24 7.1 Setting up, collecting and sending 24 7.2 Further Email Settings 25 8. Kindle Fire Settings & Connectivity 27 8.1 The Kindle Fire Menu Bar 27 8.2 Battery Management 27 8.3 Configuring Wireless Networking on the Kindle Fire 27 8.4 Display Settings 28 9. Kindle Fire Security 29 9.1 The Lock Screen Password 29 9.2 Credential Storage 29 9.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 1. Introduction: What Is the Kindle Fire? The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s centrepiece consumer hardware, a quality tablet that can be used to read emails, browse the web and of course read books using the Kindle software. At just 7.5 by 4.7 inches, the Kindle Fire is of a similar size to the standard Kindle devices, but has high specifications that make it ideal for a range of tasks and activities beyond reading.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL excited by its Internet access, provision of emails and apps and games. Of course, this is nothing new – a Kindle application is available on Android phones and tablets that does essentially the same thing – but with the Kindle Fire, you get the focus on the library, rather than the apps, and this makes a considerable difference. And of course, the relatively low price point of the Kindle Fire helps as well! 1.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 2. Setting Up the Kindle Fire When you first receive your Kindle Fire from Amazon, you should find that your details are already present, courtesy of the online retailer. They really want you to use the device to access their services, after all! If, however, you have bought the device as a gift you can easily remove the already-present details. Do this via Settings > More > More > My Account and tap the Deregister button.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 2.2 Buying Books with the Kindle Fire The real reason for owning any Kindle device is to read books, and the Kindle Fire is no different. So just how do you get started? By this point, you should have three things: 1. A wireless network connection 2. An Amazon account 3. A credit or debit card associated with that account Within seconds you can be reading a new book on your Kindle Fire.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 3. The Kindle Fire User Interface While based on Android 2.3, the default user interface on the Kindle Fire is very different than most Android systems. Gone is the desktop-like styling of the Android Gingerbread UI, replaced by an interface known as the Newsstand.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Swiping left and right through the shelves will offer a carousel-like browsing experience, enabling you to (hopefully) find the item you’re looking for. Failing this, there are other shelves below as well as the search tool at the top of the screen. Across the stop of the Newsstand view you will find a menu offering alternative views. These are split into Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps and Web, each grouping the content appropriate to those headings.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL in the book. In addition to all of this, a progress bar displaying which page you’re currently reading is provided. This features a slider that can be used to wind back and forth through the current book. Finally, in the top-right corner of the page you will see a greyed-out bookmark. If you wish to return to this page at a later time, tap this to activate the bookmark (it will be coloured blue).
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL of finding books by file format, title and topic. This is done by tapping into the Search box, which will open the Search page. Results will be displayed here when the search term is entered. In addition, the tool can be used to search the web, by tapping the Web button in the top right corner and entering a search term.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Don’t look confused; the Kindle Fire comes with a software keyboard that appears on the device display at the appropriate time rather than the physical hardware keyboard built into the casing of older Kindles. By default, the keyboard is switched off, and this remains the case until you are required to enter information.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 4. Installing and Launching Apps With your high speed, full colour 7 inch eBook reader and tablet all set up, you can spend all of your free time enjoying books, magazines and occasionally browsing the web at your leisure. Additionally, you can also install and launch apps courtesy of the Amazon App Store, an online marketplace providing apps for your Kindle Fire.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Not everyone who owns a Kindle Fire is situated in the US. As a result there are other services that you can call upon to enable you to install apps and games. Before doing this, however, you will need to ensure that your Kindle Fire is setup for installing apps from third party locations. Open Settings > More > Device and switch Allow Installation of Applications from the default setting OFF to ON.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL The second way of launching apps is via the main Newsstand screen; this displays all of your most recently-accessed books, documents, games, apps and media files, making it pretty easy to track down commonly used items. From time to time you will probably decide that you no longer wish to keep an app on your Kindle Fire. If this is the case, you can uninstall it easily by opening the Apps screen, long-tapping the app icon and selecting Remove from Device.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 5. Music, Video and Amazon Prime With your Kindle Fire in your hand you can read books, browse the web, even access email (see 7 Sending Email on the Kindle Fire) and enjoy apps and games from the comfort of your living room, office or on the train. But did you know that this device is also a portable multimedia device? While 8 GB might not seem like a lot of space (the typical size of a Blu-ray Disc is 25 GB!) you don’t need to worry too much.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 5.3 Playing Music on Your Kindle Fire Once music has been copied to your device from your PC, you will be able to play it back in the Music section of the Newsstand. Music is sorted by Playlists, Artists, Albums and Songs, while a Search tool is also provided. To play a song, tap the title or album art.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL When converting and syncing, be wary of the comparatively small 8 GB of storage on your Kindle Fire – don’t copy too many videos! The Kindle Fire will play MP4 and VP8 format videos. Using Amazon Prime, meanwhile, you can stream movies and TV shows with the Prime Instant Video service, choosing from thousands of videos. Unlimited streaming is offered, while choices can be made based on what people nearby are watching. The typical Amazon recommendations are also provided.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL To access the advanced settings, tap the menu button at the foot of the player window and open Settings. For video, you will see the option to Disable HD purchase warning; when high definition videos are purchased on the Kindle Fire by default a pop-up window is displayed, intended to prevent accidental purchases of videos that are more expensive than their standard definition alternatives. Place a check in the box and click Back to disable this warning.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 6. Accessing the Web on Your Kindle Fire We’ve already mentioned that the Kindle Fire is part-eBook reader, part-media player and part-tablet, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the device’s Internet connectivity. While previous Kindle models omitted browsing (at least by default) the Kindle Fire positively embraces it, providing a native browser so users can enjoy the basic portable computing experience that has become synonymous with tablets. 6.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Finally, the menu button found in the center of the toolbar on the lower edge of your Kindle Fire screen offers various additional features. First of all there is the Add bookmark button, a faster way of setting the currently-viewed webpage as one of your favourites. Share page, meanwhile, enables sharing of the URL with others via email, chat, Facebook – whatever suitable apps you have installed.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL erything from how a webpage looks to streaming video. However they are also used by advertising networks, so you can opt to disable either. Another key option in this section is Block pop-up windows, which has three options (Ask, Never, Always). The Advanced section, finally, offers options to Accelerate page loading, although this can be countered by using the Optional encryption.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 7. Sending Email on the Kindle Fire Have you ever wanted to own a portable emailing device capable of sending and receiving messages, adding attachments, forwarding amusing photos to friends and generally staying in touch? Like smartphones and other tablets, the Kindle Fire provides email functionality.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL message. Sending messages is just as easy. Begin by tapping the Compose button on the email app menu and entering the email address of your intended recipient. Multiple recipients can be added using the Cc/Bcc button. When writing an email on your Kindle Fire, remember to enter a Subject and also be aware that you can Save Draft as you write the message, useful when writing longer emails. Note also that the Attach button enables the sending of files with your message.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL take advantage of synchronization to delete messages from the tablet when they are deleted on the server. Similarly, the When I delete a message option has two choices – specifically concerned with deleting messages on your Kindle Fire, you can choose between Do not delete on server and Delete from server. Additionally, settings for your Incoming mail server can be configured here, useful for switching from standard to encrypted email collection.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 8. Kindle Fire Settings & Connectivity As you become more familiar with your Amazon Kindle Fire tablet you may decide that you want to make some changes to the way the device behaves. Although quite “locked-down” when compared to other Android tablets, the Kindle Fire has plenty of options for the average user, accessed via the hidden settings menu.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL work name to begin, using the keyboard to enter the password. Note that the Show password checkbox will help you check that the passphrase has been entered correctly. Once done, tap Connect and wait for confirmation. After connecting to a network you can check some further details about it, if required.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 9. Kindle Fire Security With a portable Internet-connected device that contains access to some personal data and potentially credit card and other payment details, keeping your Kindle Fire safe and secure is paramount. Fortunately there are various options. The lock screen can have a password assigned, while usernames and passwords can be encrypted, although this makes for slower use in some cases.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Kindle Fire to a Microsoft Exchange-based account. While this won’t apply to many users it is nevertheless a useful feature, but you will require the assistance of your network administrator to assist in the correct configuration of Install Secure Credentials, Set Credential Storage Password and Use Secure Credentials. Note that you can reset these options with Clear Credential Storage. 9.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL However, when changing device owners you should be aware that any data you have downloaded or synced to the device from your computer or the web (but not Amazon) should be removed. Opening Settings > More > My Account > Device displays your Application Storage and Internal Storage levels, the first limited to 1.17 GB, the second to 5.36 GB (due to the way in which storage is partitioned).
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 10. Troubleshooting the Kindle Fire From time to time you might run into a few problems running your Amazon Kindle Fire. You might experience slow transition between screens, perhaps, or have problems running particular apps, games or even videos.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL tions you think could be causing the problem, disable them. Should this result in no change, open Settings > More > Applications where you will be able to find the app in question (using the Filter by drop down menu) and check how much Storage it is using, the size of the app’s Cache, and any Defaults and Permissions. To check for an immediate improvement in performance, use the Force Stop button.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Conclusion: Get Reading! The Kindle Fire is a great alternative to the basic E-Ink Kindle e-readers, while offering compelling new features more akin to a tablet. It’s small size and flexibility makes it the top choice in a market where competitor devices such as the Nook and Kobo are also available.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL Appendix 1. Accessing Amazon Prime from Overseas There is one drawback when using the Amazon Kindle Fire – head overseas and you could find yourself having difficulty accessing Amazon Prime and the streamed video service.
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL 2. What You Should Know About Rooting the Kindle Fire Although there are steps listed in this guide explaining how to add software from alternative locations to the Amazon App Store, you will have noticed that the Google Play store is not among the options. This is because of the security that Amazon imposes on Kindle Fire tablets. Fortunately, this can be undone using a process known as rooting.
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