My Amazon Kindle Fire

Check out this post on my publisher’s site that includes a video of me showing you how you can use LastPass, the excellent password manager for all of your devices, with your Kindle Fire.

http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1866837

- Jim

Check out my recent appearance on Len Edgerly’s excellent podcast all about the Kindle, The Kindle Chronicles. Len and I talk about my book, My Kindle Fire, and about the Kindle in general.

- Jim

I recently recorded three podcasts for Que about the Kindle Fire. You can find these podcasts here. (You can also subscribe using your favorite podcast app.) There’s an episode on my book, My Kindle Fire, an episode on using LastPass with the Kindle Fire, and an episode on using ES File Explorer to access files on other computers on your network.

I hope you enjoy these! Please let me know in the comments.

- Jim

If you’re one of those still on the fence about picking up a Kindle Fire, check out the review I’ve just posted. You’ll get the full scoop on what I like and don’t like about Amazon’s newest eBook reader.

http://www.findcoolgear.com/gear-reviews/2012/4/10/amazons-kindle-fire-a-no-brainer-through-the-right-lens.html

- Jim

Amazon has released details on an upcoming update for the Kindle Fire. The 6.3 update adds new features, fixes a common complaint about when the clock starts on movie rentals, and adds enhancements, including some performance enhancements. Here is the scoop directly from Amazon’s Help pages.

• Sharing: Customers will be able to easily share favorite passages and notes from their books directly from Kindle Fire, without even leaving the book. Customers simply highlight a passage and select “Share” or choose the “Share” option from the toolbar within a book, write a note if they choose, and select which social network to share with. Passages or notes a customer chooses to share will be displayed to other Kindle readers viewing the same book, and customers can also choose to share via Facebook and Twitter. Amazon already has a vibrant community of readers who choose to share favorite passages and notes from their reading through Kindle.amazon.com. This update brings these notes and highlights to Kindle Fire, so a reader can easily see what other readers are saying about their books.
• Book Extras: Powered by Shelfari, Amazon’s community of book lovers, Book Extras make it easy for customers to see supplemental material about the book they are reading, without even leaving the book. Customers can view descriptions of characters, a glossary of common terms used in the book, information on the authors and common locations referenced in the book, and more. To view Book Extras from within a book, customers simply tap the top of the screen to bring up the toolbar, tap the menu button and select “Book Extras.”
• Archive of Personal Documents: Customers’ personal documents will be stored in the Amazon Cloud and available for re-download at any time from the Documents tab on Kindle Fire. Just as with Kindle books, Whispersync will automatically sync notes, highlights and last page read for personal documents.
• Print Replica Textbooks: Students can buy thousands of print replica textbooks to read on their Kindle Fire and save up to 60% off the list price of the print textbook. Print replica textbooks maintain the rich formatting, color and layout of the print editions, with features including notes and highlights, zoom and pan, linked table of contents, real page numbers and whispersync of notes, highlights and last page read.
• Reading View for Amazon Silk: There is a seemingly endless array of interesting and engaging content available on the Internet. Sometimes, unfortunately, that business article, blog post, or sports recap you clicked on is surrounded by a host of competing material. With Reading View on Silk, the content that you’re interested in is elevated above the clutter. When invoked by the customer, Silk will load the body of the page in a reading-optimized, single screen view (even for multi-page articles). The full page is still available in the background, allowing the reader to easily toggle back to a traditional view to see other interesting features on the page.
• Movie Rentals: The rental period for movie rentals that are downloaded to Kindle Fire now starts when a customer starts watching the movie, rather than when a customer starts downloading the movie.
• Additional Enhancements: This update will also bring some of the features customers have requested, including faster re-connect of Wi-Fi after Kindle Fire has been asleep, and general performance enhancements.

These are great features, and this is arguably the best update so far for the Kindle Fire. Amazon should start pushing it out soon, but if you’re someone who just can’t wait, you can grab the update right now from Amazon. Once you download the update, copy it to the “kindleupdates” folder on your Kindle Fire. You can then update your Kindle Fire by tapping the Settings icon, tapping Device, and then tapping the Update Your Kindle button.

- Jim

Amazon is announcing the addition of 3,000 more videos to their Prime Instant Video collection, bringing the total number of videos available free to Prime members to over 17,000. The latest addition brings videos from such as Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters, Man vs. Wild, Dirty Jobs, Gold Rush: Alaska, Shark Week, How It’s Made, and The Jeff Corwin Experience.

All of these videos are available for free streaming from your Kindle Fire, assuming you are an Amazon Prime member.

- Jim

I recently heard about a problem that some Kindle Fire users are experiencing. It seems that some books have blank pages after being downloaded. If you are experiencing this problem, first and foremost, don’t post a bad review of the book! The problem isn’t with the eBook. It’s a problem with the Kindle Fire, and Amazon is aware of it. Here’s how you can fix it.

The first thing you should do is unregister your Kindle Fire. By doing that, it removes your Kindle Fire’s association with your Amazon account. To do that, follow these steps.

1. Tap the Settings icon. (It’s the little gear in the upper-right corner.)
2. Tap More.
3. Tap My Account.
4. Tap the Deregister button.

After you do this, your Kindle Fire will be unregistered and the button will change to a Register button. Click the Register button to register your Kindle Fire to your Amazon.com account. You’ll need to enter your Amazon credentials.

After you do this, any apps you had installed will remain on your device, but you’ll need to re-download any books that were on the device before you unregistered it. (Don’t worry. Whispersync will restore your reading position in your books.)

I hope this resolves this problem for anyone experiencing it.

- Jim

For a limited time, we are offering the Kindle edition of My Kindle Fire free! While you’re enjoying your free copy, here are some things that I think distinguish my book from other Kindle Fire guides.

• My screen shots are the highest quality you’ll find in any Kindle Fire guide, and they’re all in full color. (Why have black and white screenshots of the first Kindle device to offer color?)
• I have the most comprehensive coverage of every feature of the Kindle Fire.
• Compare My Kindle Fire to other Kindle Fire guides, including others you might have purchased. Do other guides cover Manage Your Kindle in detail? Do other guides tell you how to use Calibre to manage your eBook library? How about a walkthrough of converting your own videos for use on your Kindle Fire?
• Check out the quality and clarity of all of the walkthroughs in My Kindle Fire. How do they compare to other guides?
• Choose your own comparison and rank my book against any of the other guides.

I’m confident that any comparison you make will end up with My Kindle Fire far ahead of the competition. That’s exactly why my publisher and I decided to make the book available to you free for a limited time.

I hope you enjoy My Kindle Fire. I’d appreciate a review on Amazon if you can spare the time. :)

- Jim

The Kindle Fire is the black sheep of the Kindle family. Unlike its brethren, the Kindle Fire is much more than an eBook reader. It’s actually a computer in every sense of the word, and as such, it has capabilities that a dedicated eBook reader simply can’t touch. Like any computer, much of the functionality of the Kindle Fire isn’t easily discoverable. That’s where a good user guide can really help, and when I say “good user guide”, I’m not talking about the user’s manual that comes preloaded on your Kindle Fire. I’m talking about a quality guide that shows you how to really discover the true power of the Kindle Fire.

That’s why I wrote My Kindle Fire. I love technology, and I love the Kindle. Writing a guide on the Kindle Fire was a perfect fit for me! Like everyone else, I waited on delivery of my Kindle Fire with great excitement. The day it arrived, I began planning the content of the book. I didn’t write the book before the device arrived (you might be surprised to learn that some authors do that) because I wanted to experience the Kindle Fire exactly as everyone else. I knew that the little things that I found confusing or non-intuitive would be the same little things that my readers would find confusing as well.

We finally released the book about a month ago, and my publisher and I are extremely proud of the product we produced. We purchased all of the competing guides out there so that we’d have a good idea of where we fit, and I was consistently pleased with our extensive coverage of the Kindle Fire and how we presented the content. On every measure, we were far better than the competition. But hey, I realize that as the author of My Kindle Fire, I’m slightly biased in favor of my book. That’s why I wanted to take a few minutes to share with you what others are saying about My Kindle Fire.

Here are some excerpts from reviews that people have written for My Kindle Fire on Amazon’s site.

“Other [Kindle Fire guides] were simply the basics on how to turn it on and what it covered… about the same as the intro doc that comes with it . . . so, I wasn’t too hopeful when I ordered this one… but I am now thrilled with it! THIS is the book I wanted! Written by someone who really understands the processes involved in using your Kindle Fire, it’s clear, extremely easy to follow, and has lots of images, sidebars, etc, to enhance the information. Truly, I couldn’t be happier with it.”

“I will definitely be recommending this book to those who demonstrate a need for a basic understanding of how their devices work. One only has to read the Fire questions posted on the Kindle forum to know there are many owners out there who need this book.”

“I checked out all the books on Amazon that had been written on the Kindle Fire. The color pictures are much better and clearer too, than other books out there that are only black and white. I really feel that after much comparison and [I'm] really glad I bought this one and I hope you will like it too!”

“I think this will be the greatest help I could ever get to help me with my new Kindle Fire.”

“Its great!!! Color [screenshots] make all the difference. Covers ALL those unanswered questions.Very very complete.”

“This book tells you everything! I love that it offers so many graphics and steps to follow.”

“There are so many things you can do with the Fire that are explained in the book I was not aware of until reading [My Kindle Fire] - a must have, highly recommended reference for Fire users at all levels.”

“This book quickly showed me the usefulness of the Fire, so much so I rarely use my laptop anymore. I love the way the book is well indexed so that I can quickly look up any subject. The text is written in a non-technical manner, and the many illustrations make it very easy to understand the subject. Mr Cheshire has made a big contribution to the Fire community.”

“Jim Cheshire’s new book “My Kindle Fire” is a great companion for learning how to use the Kindle Fire. Nicely [laid] out so that anyone can learn and personalize their new Fire. This book is full of great helpful hints.”

There are quite a few Kindle Fire guides to choose from, but they’re not all created equal. Check out My Kindle Fire and see for yourself what many other readers already know; there’s simply no better guide available for your Kindle Fire.

- Jim

My Kindle Fire is gaining a reputation from Kindle Fire users as the best guide you can get for your Kindle Fire. Just check out the reviews on the book, all of which are 5-star reviews!

Right now you can read Chapter 6, “Reading on the Kindle Fire”, in its entirety online at my publisher’s website. This chapter will give you a taste of what all of the excitement is about. I hope you enjoy it!

- Jim