Nancy Muir
Fire Tablets For Dummies
Fire™ Tablets For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951012
ISBN 978-1-119-00825-5 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-00827-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-00826-2 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Introduction
Amazon’s Fire tablets provide a very affordable way to get at all kinds of media, from music and videos to books and colorful magazines. Any of the four tablet models also allow you to browse the Internet, connect to your Facebook account, make video calls via Skype, take photos, check your email, and read documents. The portability of both the 6- and 7-inch models makes them incredibly useful for people on the go. The 8.9-inch model is still pretty darn portable, and adds several features that are useful to those who want the most feature-rich tablet experience from Amazon.
In this book, I introduce you to all the cool Fire tablet features, providing tips and advice for getting the most out of these ingenious little devices. I help you find your way around the attractive and easy-to-use interface, provide advice about getting the most out of the Amazon Cloud Drive for storing and managing content, and even recommend some neat apps that make your Fire tablet more functional and fun. Finally, a complete chapter on using a Fire tablet to connect with and protect your family shows you features that integrate into your household.
About This Book
“If Fire tablets are so easy to use, why do I need a book?” you may be asking yourself. When I first sat down with the latest Fire tablets, it took about two weeks of poking around to find settings, features, and ways to buy and locate my content and apps. When was the last time you had two weeks to spare? I've spent the time so that you can quickly and easily get the hang of all the Fire tablet features and discover a few tricks I bet your friends won't uncover for quite a while.
This book uses certain conventions that are helpful to understand, including
✔ Text that you're meant to type just as it appears in the book is bold. The exception is when you're working through a step list: Because each step is bold, the text to type is not bold.
✔ Web addresses appear in monofont. If you're reading a digital version of this book on a device connected to the Internet, note that you can click or tap the web address to visit that website, like this: www.dummies.com.
This book covers many of the features in the original Kindle Fire, released in 2011, as well as Kindle Fire HD, released in 2012, and Kindle Fire HDX, which appeared in 2013. Though this book is focused on the latest Fire tablet models released in 2014, whichever Fire model you own, you should find lots of advice and answers in this book.
Foolish Assumptions
You may have opted for a tablet to watch movies and read books on the run. You might think it's a good way to browse business documents and check email on your next plane trip. You might have one or more computers and be very computer savvy, or you might hate computers and figure that a Fire tablet gives you all the computing power you need to browse the Internet and read ebooks. Perhaps you see the Fire HD Kids Edition tablet as a great way to direct and monitor your child’s computer learning experience.
Fire users come in all types. I don't assume in this book that you're a computer whiz, but I do assume that you have a passing understanding of how to copy a file and plug in a USB cable. I'm guessing you've browsed the Internet at least a few times and heard of Wi-Fi, which is what you use to go online with a Fire tablet (unless you purchased the LTE version, which uses a cellular connection just like your phone). Other than that, you don't need a lot of technical background to get the most out of this book.
Icons Used in This Book
Icons are little pictures in the margin of this book that alert you to special types of advice or information, including
There aren't too many ways you can get in trouble with the Fire tablets, but in those few situations where some action might be irreversible, I include warnings so you can avoid any pitfalls.
When you see this icon, you'll know that I'm emphasizing important information for you to keep in mind as you use a feature.
These short words of advice draw your attention to faster, easier, or alternative ways of getting things done with Fire tablets.
Beyond the Book
There