My Kindle Fire Read online

Page 5


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  Shuffle and Repeat Songs

  You can shuffle or repeat the songs you are playing by clicking the Repeat or Random button under the large Play button in the lower-left corner of Cloud Player.

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  Creating Playlists

  You can create playlists of songs in order to play only the songs you want to hear. Playlists are a great way to make a song list for a party or special event. Playlists you create in Cloud Player are also available on your Kindle Fire.

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  Refreshing Cloud Drive

  Your Cloud Drive on your Kindle Fire refreshes every 10 minutes. Songs or playlists that you add will appear once a refresh occurs.

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  1. Select the songs you want to add to your playlist.

  2. Click the Add to Playlist button.

  3. If you haven’t created a playlist yet, enter a name for a new playlist. Otherwise, choose New Playlist or an existing playlist for the selected songs.

  4. Browse to other songs and add them to your playlist as desired.

  Downloading Songs to a Computer

  If you plan on being away from an Internet connection, you can still play your music by first downloading it to your computer.

  1. Select the songs you want to download.

  2. Click the Download button. If you don’t already have the Amazon MP3 Downloader, you are asked to download and install it.

  3. Your browser prompts you to open or save a file with an .amz file extension. Select the option to open the file.

  4. The MP3 Downloader launches, downloads your files, and imports them into iTunes or Windows Media Player on your computer.

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  Go Further: Changing MP3 Downloader Options

  The MP3 Downloader will detect if you have iTunes installed. If you do, after it downloads a song, it automatically imports that song into iTunes. You can change this behavior, and you can also change the folder where MP3 Downloader saves the songs you download.

  To change MP3 Downloader options, click File, Preferences. You can click the Change button to choose to save your songs to a different folder. You can also select what the MP3 Downloader should do with a song after you download it.

  It’s best to change these settings before you start downloading songs. You can find the MP3 Downloader on your PC in the Amazon folder on your Start menu. On the Mac, you can locate it using the Finder.

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  Changing How Amazon Handles Purchased Music

  You can choose whether Amazon automatically adds music that you buy from Amazon’s MP3 Music Store to your Cloud Drive. You can also choose whether or not music added to your Cloud Drive automatically is downloaded to your computer.

  1. Click Settings from the Amazon Cloud Player.

  2. Select Your Amazon MP3 Settings.

  3. Select whether songs are saved to your Amazon Cloud Drive or saved to a device. If you choose Save to Device, purchases download to your computer and are not saved to your Cloud Drive.

  4. If you choose to save music to your Cloud Drive automatically, you can also choose whether or not music added to your Cloud Drive is downloaded to your computer.

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  Settings Are Instant and Per Computer

  Changes you make to your Amazon MP3 options take effect immediately and are unique to the computer you are using when you set them. If you want your options to take effect on all computers, you need to change them explicitly on each computer you use.

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  Amazon Instant Video

  Amazon has a huge selection of videos, including both movies and television programs, that you can watch on your Kindle Fire, but you can also watch those videos on your computer. You can also purchase or rent videos on your computer and watch them on your Kindle Fire or vice versa.

  Getting Videos from Amazon Instant Video

  You can use your computer to buy, rent, or stream Amazon Instant Video. Videos that you buy or rent are available on your computer, on your Kindle Fire, or on any other device that supports Amazon Instant Video.

  If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you have access to more than 10,000 videos that you can stream instantly at no additional charge to your computer, TV, or Kindle Fire.

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  Free Prime for Caregivers

  If you’re a primary caregiver (mom, dad, grandparent, and so forth) for a young child, you can get Prime free by joining Amazon Mom. Browse to www.amazon.com/prime for details.

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  1. Open your web browser and browse to www.amazon.com/instantvideo.

  2. Select the movie or TV show that you want to watch.

  3. Choose to purchase, rent, or watch your video. Not all options are available for all titles.

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  Why Rent or Buy Instead of Stream Free Prime Video?

  If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you may be able to watch a title free, but you still may want to rent it instead. Why? If you want to watch on your Kindle Fire and you don’t have Wi-Fi access, you need to first download the movie or TV show. You can only download videos that you’ve either purchased or rented.

  If you rent a video, you have 30 days to begin watching it before it expires. After you begin watching it, you have 48 hours to complete it before the rental expires.

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  Kindle Cloud Reader

  The Kindle Cloud Reader makes it possible to read your Kindle books in your web browser from any location with Internet access. Kindle Cloud Reader requires either Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome), Apple Safari (www.apple.com/safari), or Firefox version 6 or higher (www.getfirefox.com).

  Accessing Kindle Cloud Reader

  1. Browse to read.amazon.com using the Chrome, Safari, or Firefox web browsers.

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  iSafari

  If you have an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch, you can use Safari on that device to use Kindle Cloud Reader. By using Cloud Reader on your device, you can shop for Kindle books from within the integrated store, something that’s not possible with the Kindle app for iOS.

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  2. Click the Sign In to Get Started button.

  3. Enter your email address and your Amazon password.

  4. If you want to be able to continue reading in Kindle Cloud Reader without an Internet connection, click Enable Offline to enable offline reading.

  5. Click Continue to install Cloud Reader.

  6. Click the Cloud Reader app in your browser.

  7. Click the Get Started Now button to start using Kindle Cloud Reader.

  Opening and Downloading Books

  You can read books that are in the cloud (stored on Amazon’s computers) or that are downloaded to your own computer. Only books that you’ve downloaded to your own computer can be read without an Internet connection.

  1. Locate the book you’d like to read. You can click the magnifying glass at the top of the screen to search for books if necessary.

  2. Click on a book to start reading it. If you want to download a book for offline reading right-click the book and click Download & Pin Book.

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  Downloaded Books

  Downloaded books are accessible by clicking the Downloaded button at the top of the screen, but they’re also visible when Kindle Cloud Reader’s Cloud button is pressed. Downloaded books display a green pin under the book’s cover.

  After you download your first book, Cloud Reader downloads other books that you read automatically. These books are automatically deleted periodically. If you want to ensure that a downloaded book isn’t automatically deleted, right-click it and choose Download & Pin Book.

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  Reading Books

  Cloud Reader has many of the same reading features you find in the Kindle Fire.

  1. Open a book as described in the previous section. If the book has been opened previously on any Kindle device, it automatically opens at the furthest point read.

  2. To turn pages, use the arr
ow keys on your keyboard or click the arrows on the left and right sides of the page.

  3. Quickly access a part of the book using the Go To menu.

  4. Change font size, margins, and color settings using the View Settings button.

  5. Bookmark a page using the Bookmark button.

  6. Synchronize with your other Kindle devices using the Synchronize button.

  7. View notes and highlights using the Toggle Notes and Marks button.

  8. Click the Library button to return to your library.

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  Notes and Marks

  You cannot create notes and highlights in Cloud Reader, but you can view notes and marks created on your Kindle Fire or other Kindle device or app.

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  3. Reading on the Kindle Fire

  In this chapter, you learn about ways that you can find content for your Kindle Fire and how to read and interact with that content. You also find out how you can search your Kindle Fire libraries.

  • Finding Content

  • Reading Books

  • Using Notes

  • Working with Highlights

  • Working with Bookmarks

  • Reading Magazines and Newspapers

  • Managing Personal Documents

  • Searching Your Content Libraries

  Your Kindle Fire is a great tablet computer, but it’s still a Kindle eBook reader at heart. Its smaller size makes it convenient to carry with you so that you can read your books, magazines, newspapers, and other content no matter where you are.

  Finding Content

  Amazon’s Kindle Store provides access to a huge assortment of reading content for your Kindle Fire. You can find just about any book you want to read for the Kindle, many at deeply discounted prices. In addition to books, Amazon offers a wide array of newspapers and magazines as well, and because your Kindle Fire’s screen is full-color, reading periodicals on a Kindle is a pleasurable experience.

  Your source of great content doesn’t stop with Amazon. You can also check out books from your local library, borrow books from friends and family, and even download books from other online eBook stores and websites and then transfer them to your Kindle Fire.

  Subscribing to Periodicals

  The Kindle Store offers a wide array of newspapers and magazines, including some that are optimized with multimedia content specifically for the Kindle Fire.

  1. From the Home screen, tap Newsstand to open the Newsstand.

  2. Tap Store to open the Kindle Newsstand.

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  Easy Return to the Storefront

  While you’re browsing in the Newsstand, you can easily return to the storefront by tapping Newsstand to the left of the search box.

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  3. Choose a magazine or newspaper you’d like to read.

  4. Tap Subscribe Now to download the latest edition to your Kindle Fire or Buy Current Issue to buy and download the current issue.

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  Trial Subscriptions

  Most periodicals provide a 14-day trial subscription during which time you are not charged. Unless you cancel your subscription within the 14-days, you are charged beginning on the 15th day.

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  Canceling Subscriptions

  If you want to cancel a subscription, you need to use Amazon’s Manage Your Kindle page. Read about the Manage Your Kindle page in Chapter 4, “Using Amazon’s Manage Your Kindle Page.”

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  Sampling and Buying Books

  Amazon’s Kindle Store has more than 1 million books, and they’re all available to you with your Kindle Fire.

  1. From the Home screen, tap Books.

  2. Tap Store.

  3. Tap a book that you’d like to read on your Kindle Fire.

  4. Tap Try a Sample to download a sample of the book. Sample lengths vary based on the book.

  5. Tap Buy to purchase the book and add it to your Kindle library.

  6. Tap Borrow for Free to borrow the book if you are an Amazon Prime member.

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  Can’t Borrow

  If a book is not available for borrowing, the Borrow for Free button won’t be visible. If you’ve already borrowed a book during the last month, the Borrow for Free button is grayed out like the one shown here.

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  Finding My Books

  After you buy a book or download a sample from the Kindle Store, it appears on the Books screen and in the Carousel on the Home screen.

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  Borrowing Books from Amazon

  You can borrow one book per month from Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. You can keep borrowed books as long as you’d like, but you can only borrow one book at a time.

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  Check Out Your Local Library

  You can also check out Kindle books from thousands of local libraries across the United States. To find out if your local library offers this service, go to www.overdrive.com and enter your ZIP code.

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  The Amazon Kindle Owners’ Lending Library contains approximately 5,000 books and is available only to Amazon Prime members.

  1. From the Home screen, tap Books.

  2. Tap Store to open the Kindle Store.

  3. If a book is available for borrowing for Prime members, tap Borrow for Free to borrow the book and add it to your library.

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  Finding Prime Books

  To find books that are available in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, tap Kindle Owners’ Lending Library on the home page of the Kindle store.

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  Only on Kindle Devices

  Books borrowed from the Kindle Lending Library can only be read on a Kindle device. You cannot read them on the Kindle app on any other device.

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  Lending Books to Friends and Family

  Some books can be lent to friends or family. Your friend or family member isn’t required to have a Kindle device to read the book you lend to them. Loaned books can be read on a computer or other device with the free Kindle application.

  1. Open your web browser and browse to www.amazon.com/managey-ourkindle.

  2. Hover your mouse pointer over the Actions drop-down next to the title you would like to lend.

  3. Click Loan This Title.

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  Why Can’t I Lend My Book?

  It’s up to the publisher of a book to decide whether or not the book can be loaned to others. If a publisher hasn’t granted that right for a particular book, the option to lend the book is not available.