Kindle Fire HD For Dummies

Nancy C. Muir

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118422151
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Hardware
• Index: Computer Science

Movies, apps, games, e-books, and more - enjoy them all on the hottest devicein town- the Kindle Fire HD!

From its stunning color touchscreen to its ultrafast speed, the Kindle Fire HD is sparking everyone's interest. This full-color guide will have you blazing through the web, staying entertained with the latest apps and games, watching your favorite TV shows and movies, and, of course, reading magazines, newspapers, and books to indulge all your interests. Whether this is your first tablet or you're upgrading from another device, you'll get to know your Kindle Fire HD and rekindle your love ofreading with Kindle Fire HD For Dummies!

• Covers the Kindle Fire HD and original Kindle Fire
• Helps you navigate the interface, customize your settings, get connected, and take advantage of Amazon Cloud
• Shows you how to work with the built-in apps and find new ones to to try outfrom the Amazon Appstore
• Explains how to fill your Kindle Fire with cool stuff - from movies and music to videos, photos, apps, e-books, and more
• Walks you through using Amazon's incredibly smooth Amazon Silk web browser to find anything you need online andkeep in touchwith e-mail, Skype, Facebook, and Twitter

Light 'er up and unleash the fun with Kindle Fire HD For Dummies!

Part I

Making the Kindle Fire HD Yours

In this part . . .

This part provides information about what’s new in Kindle Fire HD and how to set up your Kindle Fire HD out of the box. You begin to understand how to navigate your way around the device and get things done using its simple interface. You also discover how to make some of the most useful Kindle Fire HD settings, such as adjusting volume and screen brightness and managing Parental Controls.

Chapter 1: Overview of the Kindle Fire HD

In This Chapter

Comparing Kindle Fire HD to the competition

Surveying all of the Kindle Fire HD’s features

Amazon, the giant online retailer, just happens to have access to more content (music, movies, audio books, and so on) than just about anybody on the planet. So, when an Amazon tablet was rumored to be in the works, and as Amazon stacked up media partnerships with the likes of Fox and PBS, the mystery tablet was seen as the first real challenge to Apple’s iPad.

Now, a year after the release of the first Kindle Fire, the Kindle Fire HD is available, and it turns out to offer several very nice improvements at the right price and feature mix for many people, while offering the key to that treasure chest of content Amazon has been wise enough to amass.

In this chapter, you get an overview of the Kindle Fire HD: how it compares to competing devices and its key features. Subsequent chapters delve into how to use all those features.

A Quick Rundown of Kindle Fire HD Hardware Features

Let’s start at the beginning. A tablet is a handheld computer with a touchscreen and an onscreen keyboard for providing input, and apps that allow you to play games, read e-books, check e-mail, browse the web, watch movies and buy music, and more.

In the world of tablets, the first device to hit big was iPad, and then subsequent tablets, such as Samsung Galaxy and HP TouchPad, appeared. No tablet since iPad seemed to have gained a foothold in the market until Kindle Fire showed up.

Kindle Fire HD, the second generation of Kindle Fire, is lighter and smaller than iPad, at 7.6 × 5.4 × 0.4 inches (see Figure 1-1) and weighing only 13.9 ounces, versus iPad’s 9.7-inch display and 1.3-pound frame. For some, that smaller, lighter form factor makes the Kindle Fire HD easier to hold with one hand than the iPad. In addition, the rubberized back helps you keep a tight grip on the device, in most circumstances.

Kindle Fire HD has a projected battery life of 11 hours. The screen resolution on the Kindle Fire HD’s bright color screen is just about on a par with the best tablets out there, and it brings the addition of gorilla glass, which means the screen is tough and probably doesn’t require an additional screen protector.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Figure 1-1: The neat size and weight of Kindle Fire HD make it easy to hold.

In its first generation model, Kindle Fire had no camera or microphone, which meant you couldn’t use it to take pictures or make phone calls. With the arrival of Kindle Fire HD, you have a camera and microphone that allow you to make video calls with the built-in Skype app. However, there still isn’t what you’d think of a traditional camera, one that allows you to take still photos or videos, as you can with some other popular tablets.

Finally, though a Micro USB cable (one end is a standard USB connector that fits in your computer and the other end is a micro USB connector that fits into Kindle Fire HD) is included with the Kindle Fire HD, there’s no power adapter for plugging it into an outlet and charging it. You can buy an adapter from Amazon for about $10 when you buy your device or $20 if you buy it separately. Alternately, you can root around in your kitchen drawer to see if you have ever owned a smartphone that came with such an adapter. The adapter simply plugs into the USB end of the Micro USB cable.

Table 1-1 provides an at-a-glance view of Kindle Fire HD features.

Table 1-1 Kindle Fire HD Specifications

Feature	Kindle Fire HD Specs
Display size	7 inches or 8.9 inches
Processor	Dual Core Omap 4470 processor
Screen resolution	1900 × 1200
Internal storage	16GB or 32GB
Battery life	11 hours
Price	7-inch model is $199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB; 8.9-inch model is $299 for 16GB and $369 for 32GB
Content	Amazon Appstore
Connectivity	Wi-Fi
Ports	Micro USB to connect to your computer, HDMI port for high definition video output
Browser	Silk
Camera	For video calls only
Sound	Dual stereo speakers, Dolby Digital Plus sound
Volume control	Physical volume rocker switch
Antenna	Dual band, dual antenna for Wi-Fi

Key Features of Kindle Fire HD

Kindle Fire HD is a tablet device with all the things most people want from a tablet packed into an easy-to-hold package: e-mail, web browsing, players for video and music content, built-in calendar and contacts apps, an e-reader, a great online content store, access to tens of th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Making the Kindle Fire HD Yours
• Part II: Taking the Leap Online
• Part III: Having Fun and Getting Productive
• Part IV: The Part of Tens
• Cheat Sheet