I posted this on high school. I hope it's ok to post here too. My son thinks a Kindle would be too slow for these apps, so I'm researching just how strong those inexpensive little Kindles are. I would love to have a "school kindle" where my kids won't be distracted with social media, but I don't want it to be a frustration because it's always stalling. Any experiences? Thanks!

Will these sorts of things slow a Kindle down too much? My teen think a kindle is too slow, but I don't understand why they would have kindle apps for these services if they don't work. I'd be grateful for any experiences! Thanks in advance!

I am starting this thread now as a cautionary tale for those purchasing or thinking about purchasing Kindle Fires for Christmas. My daughter got a Kindle Fire HD for her birthday this summer (July). The first one she got went black after one month. It wouldn't charge. It wouldn't turn on. It wouldn't do anything. So Amazon sent us a replacement. After one week, the replacement (which was a refurbished one not a new one like we had bought) began to just randomly shut off in the middle of reading a book, playing a game, etc. It didn't time out since we were busy using it at the time. Now it will only work without shutting off if you keep it hooked up to the charger. I know that we could send it back to Amazon for another one since it's still within a year, but I am just DONE with Kindle Fires. I have a Kindle Touch that I adore and it has never given me a problem at all. I just hate to think of the money that went down the drain for this tablet. I wanted a portable device that the kids could take on car trips to watch movies, read, and play, but we have to keep it hooked up all the time for it not to shut down, so it's not really portable at all. So if you were planning on a Fire for Christmas I would highly think of getting a different tablet. BTW, once I started researching this I discovered that this is a common problem with the Fires. Very common..

Hi all, I have a Kindle Fire and I am trying to download public domain books, specifically A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court right now. So I found Project Gutenberg on my KIndle and saw a file that said Kindle and downloaded it. It won't open. My dd wants to read some of her English reading on the Kindle so she can read in the car even when it is dark. Any help?

We have downloaded some books successfully before on our Kindle Fire. This includes books from public libraries, Amazon, and I think University of VA collection. My dd was assigned A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court which is a book that is in public domain. She wants it on the KIndle Fire. I tried searching and came across Project Gutenberg which claims it has a Kindle download. Well we downloaded it and it cannot be opened. She can read the book on the kindle in the house since we have web access here but can't read it in the car. I posted this question on the general ed board but thought about the fact that I don't even go there much so maybe others don't either. Can anyone help?

Does anyone use a kindle fire in school? Are you able to find good readers on it? Is it worth joinging the Amazon Prime club? What else do you use it for in school? :bigear::lurk5::bigear:

Ok tell me why I want a KF. What do you use it for besides reading books?

best homeschool apps for Kindle Fire? Would like free if possible? Also what books would be worth downloading for Kindle Fire?

I thought it might make sense to have a thread where we could put all of the Kindle Fire reviews, including those from professionals and from WTM boardies. It seems that the professional reviewers received their Kindle Fires last week and the reviews are starting to happen. For reference, here is a link to the Kindle Fire Main Page. Also, here is Amazon's Getting Started with Kindle Fire page. If you want to see what apps are available for Kindle Fire, you can see them in the Amazon Appstore for Android. Amazon has even enabled it so that you can run many of the apps found there right on your PC! That way you can try them before you purchase them. You will find a different free app there each day. It looks like users are starting to write reviews on the Amazon review page for the Kindle Fire. Here are reviews by WTM members: Frontier Mom Munchkins_mama and 2 MaMa2005 Parker Martin reports that the Kindle Fire did not come in a plain, unmarked Amazon box! edelweiss BetterthanIdeserve Halcyon theAmbitiousHousewife Laurel RegGuheert and 2 NoNo Scrapmom3 ChristusG Here are some professional reviews: PC Magazine: The Best Kindle Fire Apps: A Starter Kit MSNBC: Kindle Fire review: Yes, it's that good PC Magazine: Kindle Fire Review & Ratings Gizmodo: Kindle Fire Review: The iPad Finally has Serious Competition Washington Post: Kindle Fire review: Changing the landscape of the tablet game Fox News: Kindle Fire Review: Good Tablet Despite Sacrifices Huffington Post: Amazon Kindle Fire Review: Not Identical to the Playbook, but Close Engadget: Amazon Kindle Fire review Best eReader Reviews: Amazon Kindle Fire Review PC World: Kindle Fire Has a Secret Ingredient: Amazon Prime CNET: Amazon Kindle Fire Review CNET: Help! Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? Wall Street Journal: Kindle Fire, a Grown-Up E-Reader With Tablet Spark Information Week: Kindle Fire: Early Reviews Roundup Mashable: Yes, You Can Install the Nook App on the Kindle Fire Wired: Is This Really the Tablet Everyone's Talking About? PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires Extreme Tech: Kindle Fire Silk web browser speed tested: It's slow ZDNet: 7 reasons the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad ZDNet: 12 things that kinda suck about the Kindle Fire written by the same guy as the one above! AppleInsider: Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet: an in-depth review

I thought perhaps we could maintain a thread to keep track of free apps for the Kindle Fire as they become available. That way we will be less likely to miss good deals on apps. I would say there is no need to post here every day, since most of the apps are not great, but if you grab something then please assume that others here may be interested in the same thing. I have tagged this thread with 'kindle fire' and 'android apps' so you should be able to find it easily in the future by doing a tag search for either one of those terms. Also, this would be a good place to put other freebies or good deals on apps as they become available. For reference, here is the link to the Amazon Appstore for Android that includes the Free App of the Day. For reference, once you purchase an app from Amazon's website, you need to go through the following touches to install it on your Kindle Fire: Home->Apps->Store->Menu->My Apps->Refresh->Install. So I'll start: Today's Free App of the Day is List Master Pro. It normally sells for $1.99 and it has four stars and decent reviews. We have been trying to find a device and an app that would allow MomsintheGarden to transition from her old Palm device which she loves for lists. Let's see how this one fares.

This is from The Digital Reader, one of my favorite tech blogs. http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/01/11/kindle-fire-now-supports-external-flash-drives-kingston-wi-drive/#more-28845

We had some unexpected money for Christmas gifts this year and I would really love to get both my kids Kindle Fires. However, although I am good with them doing some education games, other stuff on there, when they are supposed to be reading I want them reading, this is mostly a factor for my younger. Maybe a regular Kindle would be better but it doesn't have the same wow factor. I know the Kindle has seemed not to have much parental controls. Can the games/Internet be locked somehow? Of course they haven't been out long but I was hoping someone had some insight, maybe if your kids have a Nook Color or something how has that gone? I am hoping to get myself an iPad but I don't want them to be using it all the time! They do play some good games on dh's iPhone but since he has it most of they day they beg for it when he is around. I do allow some electronics and they have a Wii, but I don't want video games to be an obsession.

Dh bought me a kindle fire for Christmas. I opened it this morning and have used it off and on all day mostly to see what it could do. This morning it was perfect. This afternoon it had two thin lines on the screen. One is yellow and the other is blue. The lines stay in the same place however the kindle is oriented. It looks like something is wrong. I am not technological. Could I have done something to it? Can I fix it? If I can't fix it, should we send it back? It is completely usable - just annoying.

We got our kids each a Kindle Fire for Christmas. It is pretty much their only present for Christmas morning, other than some small stocking presents and a few other presents from relatives. I have read some things online about the Fire being nitpicky to set up, ie, wifi not working right, etc. I would hate for something to go wrong and one (or all) of them not be able to use their one and only present on Christmas day. I am leaning toward setting each one up before wrapping them. My hesitation with this is that I know my 12yo would love to do the unboxing himself and set it up. He is very techie-minded and enjoys that sort of thing. The other conundrum is that he has the Kindle app on his iPod Touch and could see the Fires on the account (if I understand how it all works correctly). So, what would you do? And if you have the Fire, did you have any problems with set-up?

Yikes! I'm going batty with all of the options!!! Which one should I think about?! What do you have, do you love it? What makes it so great?! Here is the thing. I have an iPad, which is great, but reading on it in the dark while I put the baby to sleep is hard on the eyes. I know the regular nook and kindle are not backlit, which means I'd need a book light. Buuuuuut, I'm thinking since they are so small and light, a little book light would be ok...however, I just saw the nook tablet and wow! Is it neat! Plus i could get flash content on it which I can't with the iPad.:glare:(it's my only beef with iPads) While at B and N, I talked with a sales rep for the nook, and she really had me sold (of course she was biased!) I love that I can walk into the store and read ANY book for free for an hour, everyday. Ummm, tha is cool!!! I could arrange to do that twice a week I think, which would give me enough time to finish short books weekly.she also said I could read the Gutenburg books on the nook, which is awesome. On the other hand, I do love amazon...but I can access any kindle book on my iPad already through the app, so I am leaning toward the nook... What says the Hive?!?!:tongue_smilie:Thanks for your input!!!:bigear:

Dear Hive Tech Gurus, I have sent ebooks in Kindle and pdf format to my Kindle Fire, but they aren't showing up. I followed the directions on Amazon's "Manage My Kindle" page, and emailed them as attachments (converted the pdf). They're in my Amazon Personal Documents on the web, and I told Amazon to deliver them to my Kindle. It's been half an hour. They still aren't there. Does it take more time? Thanks! GardenMom

Hi, I am wondering if anyone here is a techie and can give some advice. I want a tablet to do web browsing, games and apps, and stream movies. Basically, a toy for myself and my kids. I know a regular Nook Color can do the email and web browsing, but I can't get good apps and can't view movies on netflix. I see you can buy micro SD cards on ebay that basically enable the NC to do all this, but I wonder if it really works, and what the complaints might be. Does it make is essentially like the new Nook Tablet? Or do I need to actually purchase a Nook Tablet? Thanks for any help you can give me! By the way, I do not yet have a NC but can get one used for $100. If I can get it to do videos and games, it would be a good deal for me. Trying to decide if I shoiuld do that, or save up for the Nook Tablet.

I have them both coming. We're now planning to only keep one and get my husband a full tablet (probably an Asus Prime unless he decides on the iPad, but he can use it for stuff) . But which one should I keep? I'm leaning towards the Touch. The reasons have to do with ease of reading, I don't know if I would like reading on a computer screen all the time, plus being able to read outside. And I don't know what I would do with the Fire. I sort of don't get it. I mean, I understand it can stream from the cloud. I even have stuff on the cloud.:001_smile: But why do that on that device? What else does a tablet like that do? What would apps do for me? :tongue_smilie:I really am clueless on all this. My sister's vote is for the plain reader. She likes her Nook and says she would not like reading books on the computer screen. But what says the Hive?

The Notability thread got me jealous, so I started researching options for marking up PDFs (particularly MM, in our case) on my son's Kindle Fire. THe ones which seem the best are the following. Has anyone used them and have reviews? Repligo Reader EZPDF Reader I am leaning towards the EZPdf Reader.....:bigear:

Do you find that the Fire gets heavy in your hands when you're trying to read--particularly if you're trying to read laying down? I'm trying to help someone out with a gift purchase decision, and he's worried about the extra weight of the Kindle Fire over the smaller versions. We have iPad 2's, and the Fire weighs significantly less, so I'm thinking it should be fine, but he's concerned. Can anyone weigh in (ha!) on the issue? TIA!

We downloaded this when it was free, but I would have gladly paid for it now that I've used it. It's called Study Droid and it's a very simple, flashcard system. You can enter information on the site studydroid.com, make different "packs" of cards (we have done Mythology, Latin Grammar and Latin Vocab, and I plan to add Spanish Vocab and math facts) or download packs made by other people. You can then wirelessly download the packs to your Fire and your child can study them. What's cool is you can also include images in the flashcards, so it would be great for Artist Study.

Can we discuss this? Which would you go for and why?

For my 3 boys. (ages 12, 10, 9) My parents bought them each a kindle fire for Christmas. They will not read books about sorcery, vampires, werewolves, etc... Middle son has a HUGE sensitivity to any injuries/deaths/suffering of people or animals, so I have to be careful for him. Their favorite books don't seem to be available in electronic format (Adventures of Tin Tin, etc...) I plan on putting alot of the classics (free) on them, but what new books that are out there might they like? I'm really looking for recommendations on some newer books. Oh, That are clean, good books? (and apps!) Thanks!

Amazon has released Software Update Version 6.2 for the Kindle Fire. Apparently you will get the update automatically without doing anything, whether you want it or not. Amazon gives instructions on how to download and install the update using USB if you want it now. I thought I could possibly grab it by going to Gear->More...->Device->Update on the Kindle Fire. But that option is greyed on MomsintheGarden's unit even though it is still reporting that it is currently on version 6.1_user_2017120. They don't have any release notes on their page to tell what they have changed/fixed, so it's anyone's guess what's in there. Some rags are reporting that if you have rooted your devices it will unroot it automatically. But it doesn't prevent you from rooting the Kindle Fire again, so I guess that is not a big deal.

I'm contemplating getting a Fire, but have a few questions. Does anyone on here who lives outside the US own one yet? I spoke with someone at Amazon, and she said that it's not being sold outside the US, and you have to have a US bank account and an account at Amazon.com to purchase things. This is no problem as we have both, but I just wanted to verify that people outside the US have been able to download apps, etc from overseas. Also, is the instant streaming through Amazon Prime available overseas? My main purpose for owning one would be reading and internet browsing, but I was also wondering if you can load your photos on the Kindle the same way you can on an iPad. Thanks.