Specifications
YOUR UNOFFICIAL KINDLE FIRE MANUAL
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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, ofce 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. Amazon Prime is designed to provide your Kindle Fire with a marketplace and digital distribution over Wi-Fi,
streaming content directly to your device for your enjoyment.
As a result, the Kindle Fire is equipped with a media player capable of playing back music and video stored on your
device and streamed to it from the web.
5.1 What Is Amazon Prime?
Let’s not forget that the Kindle Fire is a product that comes straight from Amazon. It is designed not only as an eBook
reader but also as a receiver for digital distribution. This means that several Amazon services are integrated, such as
Amazon Prime.
Initially launched as a subscription-based two-day free shipping service (also offering a one-day shipping discount),
Amazon Prime has been expanded by Amazon to include Amazon Instant Video, enabling instant streaming of movies
and TV shows to your computer – or your Kindle Fire!
In addition, Amazon Prime membership affords access to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, enabling popular books
to be “borrowed” for free, like a bricks-and-mortar lending library. There is no due date to these titles, although lending
is limited to one book per month.
If you don’t already have an Amazon Prime membership you can set one up by logging into the Amazon website,
opening My Account and following the instructions via the appropriate link.
5.2 Syncing Media to Your Kindle Fire
Most of us enjoy listening to some good tunes and using the USB
cable that shipped with your tablet you can sync tracks. Alternatively,
you can use the Amazon Cloud Drive to provide the music.
Syncing is easy. Once your device is connected you will see a new
screen reading “You can now transfer les form your computer to
your Kindle”, accompanied by a graphic of a USB cable. This feature
isn’t limited to music – videos and books can also be copied to your
device.
On your computer, open My Computer (or the le manager of your
non-Windows operating system) and nd the tablet listed as a new
drive. Typically it will appear as KINDLEFIRE followed by the next
available drive letter.
With the drive open you will see several folders. Key among these is
the Books, Documents, Music, Pictures and Video directories – these
are the locations where you will copy the appropriate media. The
best way of doing this is to open another My Computer window and
nd the folder where the data you wish to sync to your Kindle Fire
is stored, and right-click, selecting Copy. Switch back to the original
window, open the corresponding folder and then right-click in the
empty space, selecting Paste.
To enjoy your media, return to the Kindle Fire and tap the Discon-
nect button. You can then remove the USB cable and start enjoying
the synced content!