Kindle Fire. Now what?

Mongo

Mongo

Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Messages
8,969
Howdy all,
Missus Mongo got one of these for Christmas. Neither one of us knows anything about this kind of gadget. I assume that we have to sign up for some kind of account through Amazon? What the heck do you use this thing for? How do you surf the web with this thing? Do you have to order all your stuff through Amazon?

About the only thing I was capable of doing was ordering a wicked cool protector sleeve for it... got the medium gadget sleeve in Chestnut from Saddleback Leather. At least it looks good... now just gotta figure out how to use it.

So, as you can surmise... I need Kindle Fire for absolute morons. Who here can simplify this for even ME to figure out?

Thank you in advance,
Mongo
 
It's an e-book reader. I'm pretty sure it only has wifi, so to get online you have to connect to a network. The device is mainly used to read e-books which you can buy through the Amazon app store. The Fire also lets you view streaming movies. And yea, I'm pretty sure you have to order all your stuff through the Amazon app store. The thing runs of Android software, so maybe you can also buy books/movies through the Android app store.
 
If its anything like the kindle e reader on the iPad, the basic approach is to go to log into the kindle app on the device with your amazon.com user credentials when the device is connected to the Internet, then go to amazon.com on your pc and search for a book you like the look of on the kindle store and buy it, refresh the kindle app on the device and the book should be there. Try one of the free kindle books to get it working without paying for anything. As a rule a lot of classic books are free , such as Oliver Twist.

I believe the kindle fire has other tablet pc functionality too but I haven't used one unfortunately.
 
I recently got one and pretty much am in love with it! Yes, it only works on wifi. No 3G. Some stuff you download will live on the device itself so can be used away from wifi as well.

Yes, get yourself an Amazon account and from there you can can click the tabs at the top to download free or paid stuff. I downloaded a book (AWOL on the AT), apps (lots of games and crap), bought tv show episodes (American Horror Story). It's not in front of me so I can't be more specific right now... Amazon built this device so that we would consume their offerings and keep paying them money. However, I am finding lots of ways to find lots of free stuff (apps, books, etc.) Keep reading...

Click the WEB tab and you can go to any website and surf around. Watch YouTube.

Can't remember but I think Facebook does not have an app. Maybe I get there via web. I have a big blue icon with the F on it in my Favorites and I'm in Facebook in a second.

Mail is awesome. Set up your Gmail or any account.

My most fav app that I discovered this week is Tapatalk. I can readily access all of my forums and not have to booger around with going to a web browser and finding bookmarks. Tapatalk keeps a front page of all my forums and present them in a very nice readable form. Some of my forums: BladeForums(!), Multitool, EDCForums, CPF, HammockForums, White Blaze, etc. SO worth the 3 bucks.

Of note, I have an Amazon Prime account and it comes with some perks for the Fire for me. You get a free app of the day that is not usually free and one free book a month. And maybe some other stuff.

Also, your library likely has eBooks that you can "loan" out. I am able to download 4 books at a time and can keep them for up to 14 days til they expire and go away. Very cool and very cost effective.

This Kindle model is not just for reading books. Playing games, using utility and productivity apps, watching movies and tv shows, surfing the web is 90% of the stuff I do on it. It ain't an iPad but I like the price and am having a good time with it.

Good luck to The Mongos! Enjoy!
Roz
 
Another note... Know how the iPhone and iPad utilize swiping as a means to get menus, delete and archive stuff, etc? The Kindle Fire relies on holding a finger down on the item and then a menu pops up. Took me a long time to grasp this. It may get you out of some binds when you want to 'Remove from Carousel" "Remove from Device" "Add to Favorites" etc.
 
ebook readers are great, but they do have a bit of a learning curve to them. as was stated above, get an amazon account to tie the reader to for downloads & buying ebooks from amazon (which they make very easy to do, by design, since they make their money off of the ebooks not the readers). However, your next step before you download any ebooks from amazon, if you are at all interested in classic literature, is to check out the gutenberg project (www.gutenberg.org). They have a huge collection of classics in ebook form, absolutely free. you just need to make sure that you download them in the right format for the kindle, which i believe is the .mobi format. Also, once you do that I would suggest downloading Calibre or a similar ebook library software (amazon does have their own version of library software, but I don't think I like it quite as well) to organize your ebooks. This isn't really needed if you only get your ebooks from amazon, but once you get them from other sources it greatly simplifies the process of sorting them, editing any file data (such as adding a summary or selecting a book cover image to display on the kindle) & uploading them to your ereader. enjoy your new portable library. :-)
 
It's more than a eReader, it is a Tablet device that allows you to surf internet, check emails and stream videos. For price v. value, it is a good piece of gear. It is NOT a replacement for your computer/Laptop/smart phone.

Don't worry that you need to figure out what to do with it, Tablets are a device that was invented without a real need, so it is up to you to figure out what you want to use it for.

You will need to set-up a wifi connection in your home if you don't have one. You can buy a new Lynksis router for about $50 nowadays if you don't already have one. After that, just mess with it until you find a use for it.
 
I use mine for everything, including Bladeforums. I set mine up on an Amazon Prime account, already had one anyway. To search, go to the web tab, and type in the search term in the box that says "type URL or search term here" or similar.
Good luck!
 
harkamus said:
It's an e-book reader.
Click to expand...

The Fire is hardly an "e-book reader". Now sure the other Kindles are e-readers, but the Fire is just another tablet device.
While I don't have a Fire I know Kindles come with a "Learn your Kindle" type of thing to where it will help you learn the device and some of the things you can do with it.


I have a Kindle Keyboard, and love it. I own three computers so I have not bothered with the whole tablet craze.
 
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