If you’re a new user of Amazon’s latest tablet, the Kindle Fire HD, or have upgraded from the first gen device, we have you covered. Whether it has a 7 or 9-inch display, here’s a round up of some of our best tips and tricks for getting the most out of your tablet.
The Fire HD has a front facing camera that’s meant to be used for video calls using Skype. But there’s not an obvious way to use it to take pictures or record personal videos. Here’s how to access the hidden Camera App and shoot video, pictures up to 1080p. You can even take panoramic photos.
The omission of a YouTube app on a media consumption tablet doesn’t make much sense. With a couple of tweaks in Settings, you can install YouTube on your Kindle Fire. You can sideload other popular apps on it that aren’t in Amazon’s app store like Dropbox.
The Fire HD runs a heavily customized version of Android 4.0 ICS. But you don’t have to limit yourself to just using it as an entertainment device. If you like to tinker with your devices, check out our guide on how to root the Kindle Fire HD the easy way. If you do root the tablet, one of the steps you’ll need to do is enable USB debugging.
Your Fire HD is tied to your Amazon account (with credit card) so you can easily purchase content from the service. To make sure your device is protected, make sure to enable a Lock Screen Password.
While the Fire HD is meant to be used as a media consumption device, you can still be productive on it. To keep track of what’s going on, set up your email account on it.
Amazon is able to subsidize the cost of the Fire by displaying full ads on the Lock Screen and text ads inside the device’s UI. You can disable those ads on the Kindle Fire HD, but it will cost you a one time fee of $15.
The Fire makes it easy to stream and download videos, music and other media, but sometimes you want to listen to what you already own. Here’s how to add music files from your PC to Fire HD. You can also add your own videos to the Kindle Fire.
If you want to be more productive, and the onscreen keyboard isn’t enough, connect a Bluetooth keyboard for faster typing.
Amazon struck a deal with Microsoft and made the default search engine Bing. Check out how to get your Google back in the Silk browser.
If you want to sell or regift your Fire HD, make sure to erase everything and restore it to back to factory settings.
For more on the Fire HD or the original Kindle Fire, check out our archive of Kindle Fire articles.
No comments yet.