Kindle HD questions

Cafe Society
1

Amazon is having a Kindle sale this weekend and I’m considering buying one (most likely a Kindle Fire HD). The problem is this is an unexpected opportunity and I haven’t done any research. So I’m asking some questions here. Some of these are going to be pretty basic so bear with me.

I have some Kindle books I read on my laptop. I’m assuming I can transfer these to a Kindle. How does that work? Does a Kindle have a USB port?

I have digital movies on disc. Can these be loaded and watched on a Kindle?

I plan on going with an Amazon Prime subscription also. But what if I don’t? If I just buy a Kindle Fire and then decide I never want to put any more money into it, am I pretty much locked out of everything? Or are there free services I’d have access to? And what if I decided I’d rather have Hulu Plus or Netflix? Are they available through a Kindle or am I locking myself into Amazon Prime?

Does a Kindle give me some kind of internet access? Can I read my emails, post on SDMB, look up things on Wikipedia, and watch YouTube videos? How does the access work? Like WiFi? Or is there some other connection? Will I have to pay for internet access? How do you type on a Kindle?

If I just decide to go cheap and just buy a basic Kindle reader, what do I have then? Is it just for reading ebooks or can it do anything else? What’s this thing about “Special Offers”? I assume it’s advertising. How intrusive is it?

Is a Kindle pretty much a complete package or do I have to buy a bunch of accessories to really use it? For example, I see power adapters for charging the Kindle are sold separately. How does a Kindle even work if you don’t have a power adapter? Are screen protectors a necessary added expense or are they just a gimmick?

Any other advice or information would be welcome.

2

I have a Fire HD. It’s a fun little gadget. The new versions, the Fired HDX are tempting but I’m probably going to stick with the one I have.

All your Kindle books are stored on Amazon’s Cloud. When you look at the Music or Book categories, there’s buttons for Cloud or Device. You just tap the items in the Cloud category to get them on your Kindle. They should remember your place in the book, but that sometimes gets wonky.

I have never done this. I think it would depend on what format the movies are in. You can attach the Fire to your machine via USB cable and move things over. Here are the instructions for the 8.9" Fire HDX. If you get a different model, they have instructions for this at the link -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201346780

You’re not locked in at all. You can get the Hulu and Netflix apps if you prefer those services. Even if you don’t get Prime, you can still rent or buy movies and shows from Amazon (or not, if you’d rather.) You just wouldn’t get the free movies - well, you’d get the movies, they just wouldn’t be free. I don’t really know if there’s enough free movies to make it worth your while but it’s certainly worth a look.

You can do almost anything on the Fire that you would do with an iPad or Android tablet. It’s got a smaller, less business focused, appstore, but that’s a self correcting problem. I use Tapatalk for forum access, the built in email app is pretty good. The web browser works for YouTube and other things. It doesn’t sync with Google apps, unfortunately - but you can get gmail on the email app. And you can access the web versions in the browser.

You can get models that have 4g service + wifi or wifi only models. I have the wifi only. 4g wireless plans need an extra monthly fee. Unless you plan to travel with it to some place that doesn’t have wifi, I wouldn’t bother. YMMV, of course.

The special offers are not at all intrusive. I would suggest getting the version with special offers first, and then if you decide you hate them (but I doubt you’ll even really notice them) you can pay the extra amount to turn them off.

As the for the ereader - get a Kindle Paperwhite. I have one of these too and do all my reading on it. The screen is nicer on my eyes, it’s lighter and the touch controls are surprisingly better suited for moving back and forth in the text. Get one of each. I’m not even kidding. The Kindle Fire is not bad for reading - not at all. The Paperwhite is just that good - but it doesn’t do anything else, really. It’s got a black & white browser but it’s slow and clunky and you’ll hate yourself trying to use it for anything but emergencies.

It comes with a usb cord to connect to your computer and will charge over the cord. You can buy a separate cord if you want but you don’t need to. You don’t need anything else. Screen protectors - I hate them. Some people swear by them. Only you can say if you need them. You might want some earbuds for it. I have a little envelope type pouch for it. YMMV.

3

I should probably explain that the technology base I’m considering upgrading from is books. The stuff that Gutenberg made. On the subject of telecommunications, my current phone is thirty years old and plugs into a phone jack in the wall - I push little numbered buttons on it and I can have verbal conversations with people. It doesn’t do email, text, pictures, or apps.

4

You do need the charger adapter, if, as you say, this is your first chargable device. They stopped selling them as an included item, because most people have a hundred adapters at home already, from all their other devices. My local drug store sells the USB-Electrical outlet adapter at the register for about $2. I choose to use a leather cover, that makes it slightly more book-like to hold, and also protects it when I chuck it in my purse. I think it cost about $12 (NOT the official cover, which costs some outrageous amount of money).

I have the Touch (replaced by the Paperwhite). It pretty much just does books. There are some little games you can download, and there are things like newspaper subscriptions you can get delivered to your kindle, but pretty much, books.

5

Those adapters come in different power levels (as measured in volts or amperes), and the one you bought for $2 may not have as much power as one designed to be used with a Kindle Fire—which means that it would still work, but would charge a lot more slowly than you’d like.

6

Any Kindle books you bought from Amazon should already be available to you once you register your new Kindle device to your Amazon account. You can then download them from the Cloud, as Merneith describes.

There is also a mini-USB port that is used both for charging and for connecting to a computer, whereby you can transfer files from your computer to your device. Any ebooks you got from non-Amazon sources (e.g. Project Gutenberg) can be transferred that way; or you can e-mail them to the Kindle.

That depends on what format the digital files are in. They may need to be converted.

I use the program DVD Catalyst 4 to rip standard DVDs into a format that can be watched on my Kindle Fire HD. It also converts video files to the appropriate type, IIRC.

Netflix and Hulu+ both have free apps for the Kindle Fires, so I assume if you had a subscription to one of these services it would integrate smoothly with your Kindle Fire HD.

By the way, do some browsing in Amazon’s App store and see what else the Kindle Fires can do.

Yes, it has internet access via WiFi.

The basic Kindle readers are pretty much just for reading text.

Yes, it’s advertising, and no, it’s not particularly intrusive—you don’t see it while you’re actually reading a book, watching a movie, etc. You used to be able to, and maybe still can, opt out by paying an additional fee.

As others have noted, you’ll almost certainly want to buy a power adapter, unless you already have one from some other device. You can charge it by connecting it to your computer, but only very slowly.

You’ll probably also want some kind of cover for it, to protect it and make it easier to carry around with you. You can buy them from Amazon or more cheaply from other sites such as ebay.

7

Re power adapters, check the reviews first. One offered by Amazon is so bad, they don’t even want you to return it – they just give your money back.

8

Sorry, I was speaking of the eInk readers. I don’t have any experience with the Fire. eInk readers use very, very little power – I only charge about once a month so if it takes overnight to charge, no big whoop. I’m told the Paperwhite is actually more efficient than the Touch… remarkable.

9

If you just want to use it to read ebooks, I’d get a Kindle Paperwhite. I have one, and it’s wonderful. Much better than reading on a computer, tablet or phone. The Kindle Fire is a tablet, not an ebook reader, although it will function as well as any other tablet for doing that.

I’ve never used a Fire, but from what I’ve read about them, the new HDX model is a good all round entertainment tablet, but the older ones are slow and clunky.

10

No, if I was only going to use it for reading, I’d definitely go with the basic Kindle reader. The reason I was considering the Fire was for watching movies and TV shows.

And just so I’m clear, a Kindle Fire would have Wifi internet access as part of the basic package?

11

It’ll be able to connect to WiFi. Finding or providing the WiFi for it to connect to is up to you, the same as with any other device.

12

I just came in to say that I love my Kindle Fire. I upgraded from the Kindle reader a bit over a year ago and never looked back. I use the Kindle Fire for everything–reading (I have tons of free books I’ve downloaded from Amazon), watch movies (Amazon Prime and Netflix), surf the
'net, play games, browse Craigslist, etc. Love it so much, I bought one for each of the Hallgirls, who use it probably as much as I do.

The ads aren’t intrusive at all. The only time I see them is before I swipe to wake up the Kindle Fire.

I’m really trying to talk myself out of buying the new Kindle Fire…

13

When you go to the Kindle shopping page, at the top, you’ll see the options for how big a hard drive, the Offer Type, then Connectivity:
http://www.amazon.com/kindle-fire-hdx-student-gaming-tablet/dp/B00BWYQ9YE/ref=sr_tr_sr_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384133285&sr=8-1&keywords=kindle+fire

Under Connectivity, there are three choices:

  1. Wifi
  2. Wifi + ATT 4g
  3. Wifi + Verizon 4g

The Wifi option doesn’t include the monthly price of your home internet connection, just the hardware built into the tablet.

So in order to use it from your home, you’ll need a wireless router on your internet connection. You might already have one, if you have a laptop or game console, for example. If you don’t have one, your ISP can rent you a router and set it up for you or you can buy a router and set it up yourself. It’s just a little hardware unit, about the size of your computer modem. It plugs in between your computer and the modem and then wireless devices can connect to it. With the Wifi connectivity, you can also take it to place with public wifi spots, such as coffee shops or libraries, and connect to their free wifi systems.

Your ISP might charge you an extra ten bucks or so a month if they set it up for you. If you do it yourself, the modem will probably cost about $50. It’s not hard to set up (unless of course, something goes wrong in which case you’ll want to call your ISP. Keep the receipt, is what I’m saying.)

If you want, you could pay extra for 4g connectivity from ATT or Verizon. If you already have a mobile data plan, which it sounds like you don’t, you can simply add the Kindle to it. If you need a new data plan, you’ll need to set that up with ATT or Verizon and they’ll help you get squared away.

Here are Kindle support pages about the process:

Connecting to a Mobile Network:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201346400
Set up your Data Plan:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201346450

Pricing for this, if you don’t otherwise have a data plan will vary by how much you want to use it. It can run anywhere from $10-$100 a month. Plus the tablet itself is an extra hundred dollars.

Here are the pages at Verizon and ATT where their plans are offered. If you stopped by their stores, they’d help you get set up too.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=Q4Ul2Ba5EzN

The advantage of the 4g connectivity is that it works anywhere a cellphone would work, even if there’s not a wifi network available. It’s probably not as fast as your home broadband connection but it’s always there. OTOH, it’s expensive and if you plan to use your tablet mostly when you’re at home, you’ll be connecting over a wifi most of the time anyway. So whether the 4g option is right for you comes down to how you plan to use it.

Hope that helps.

14

Can I upgrade a Kindle Fire? If I order one now with just the intention of using WiFi but I decide to get a 4G connection next year, do I have to buy a new Kindle?

15

My current laptop computer has a WiFi of course. But I generally use it with a broadband cable connection (a legacy of my previous computer which was a PC). But I’ve been considering getting a wireless router anyway so I can carry the computer around the house more.

16

HD or HDX. My experience is with HD (the penultimate model currently).

For each paragraph in the OP:

n/a

Yes, micro USB. It should come with a cord for micro>USB-A, but either way they’re everywhere and cheap

Yes, USB is probably the easiest way

You don’t need any of those. IIRC Netflix and such are already installed, and if not you can find them on the app store.

Wifi or 4G if you pay extra. You’ll have to pay for regular internet access, and yes, buy a router.

The reader is meant for reading. It can do other things but it really sounds like that that’s NOT the model you want. I’ll address special offers below.

It doesn’t come with an AC adaptor, just USB-USB. I recommend you buy one as charging through your computer is slow. Amazon PowerFast is their official one, grab it if it’s on sale for $10 or so. I have this one which I can recommend. You want one with high amperage, so it charges faster. I believe if you plug into computer, it does not charge while in use! I did not buy a screen protector, but I did buy this case, I recommend that or something similar so it has some protecton.

End responses.

About your options:
HD space - get the maximum! You can’t change it once you get it.

4G or no - up to you. I didn’t as it would cost a bit more, but then I don’t have another data plan. With wifi you’re tethered to using it at your home or places where you can get access (friend’s houses, hotels, Starbuck’s, many places around).

7" or 8.9" - owners choice. The latter is better for movies obviously, but it pricier and less portable.

Special offers - they are not annoying at all. Just appear on the unlock screen. At best, you might find something you want to buy, at worst you can ignore them. But: if you find them annoying, you can pay the $15 later. As far as I know you cannot get refunded the $15 if you already paid, so try it first.

Locked in - probably the biggest complaint people have. The big one is that you can’t get anything off of Google Play store. You have two options to fix that:

Jailbreaking - this voids your warranty and can potentially screw things up. I didn’t try it.

Sideloading - basically find the file online, .apk usually, copy it to your Kindle, and use a program like ES File Explorer (free in the store) to open it. This can bypass a lot of hassle, and is not forbidden by the ToS as far as I know.

ETA: eh? I have a Kindle HD 7" 32Gb, but they don’t sell those anymore? And I don’t remember 8Gb when I bought it… IMHO 16Gb is too small and 8 is tiny for what you’ll be using it for.

17

Oh probably can’t edit so: aside from USB file transfer, they have a document delivery thing where you can email to [Your Kindle Account Name]@free.kindle.com. Nevertheless, I’ve had more luck with USB.

You can convert ebook formats bought from other sources using calibre. Especially handy with .pdfs if you don’t like that view mode.

18

No, they’re not upgradable.

You can use Amazon’s trade in program to sell one back if you decide to get a different model. You won’t get the full price but you’ll get something, if you keep it pristine and save everything that comes in the box with it.

19

It’s probably obvious, but just in case clarification is needed: By “using it” thelurkinghorror means connecting to the internet. There are still things you can do with the device without an internet connection (e.g. read books that are already stored on the device).

20

Yeah sorry. And with all devices, I usually put it in “Airplane Mode” (wifi off) if I know I won’t have a connection, so it doesn’t drain battery by searching for a connection.