The Complete 2012 User's Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle: Covers All Current Kindles Including the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle (24 page)

When you turn on a new E Ink Kindle for the first time, it opens the Kindle User's Guide which is included on each Kindle. After you look at the basic tips, press Home to go to the Home screen.

The Kindle Fire may load a software update the first time you turn it on. If that is the case, plug in the included AC charger to make sure the Fire has enough power to complete the update. After the update completes, the Fire opens to a locked screen. Swipe left on the yellow bar to start the Fire and see the first-time Welcome screen. Tap Next to view the Welcome screens. Tap Exit at the last Welcome screen to go to the Home screen. Later power ups take you to the Home screen.

Press Menu (on the Touch, tap the center of the screen, on the Fire, tap the top or bottom edge of the screen) if necessary to see the top status line; the battery icon on the right shows the charge level.

To check whether your Kindle is connected and connect it if is not:

Press Menu to bring up the pop-up menu and the top status line. At the right side of the top status line, just left of the battery icon, the signal strength icon will show black bars and the icon to the left will show either “Wi-Fi”, “3G”, or “Edge” if your Kindle is connected to Whispernet.

If it is not connected and you have a 3G Kindle, select “Turn Wireless On” from the pop-up menu. As long as you are in range of the 3G network, the Kindle will connect automatically.

Press Home then Menu and select “Settings”. On the “Wi-Fi Settings” line, select “view”. A pop-up appears listing the available networks. On the Fire, touch the Quick Settings icon at the top of the main screen, then select “Wi-Fi.”

After a few seconds, the screen will show a list of available Wi-Fi networks; select the desired network. If the Wi-Fi network is encrypted, you'll have to enter the Wi-Fi password. Many public networks are open and do not require a password. Places such as hotels often require that you get the password at the hotel desk.

Use the Kindle's physical or virtual keyboard to type the password and then click on “Submit”.

After you successfully connect to a Wi-Fi network, your Kindle will remember that network and connect automatically whenever you are in range. The connection status icon will show “Wi-Fi."

Press Home followed by Menu. Select “Settings” from the menu. If you bought a used Kindle or if it’s registered to another user, the Registration menu item will say "deregister" on the right. Select and click on "deregister" to deregister the Kindle.

When the Registration menu item shows "register," click on "register." Enter the e-mail and password of your Amazon account, and then click on "Submit." When registration is complete, your name will appear as the registered user.

If you don't have an Amazon account, click on "create account," then follow the instructions on the screen. After your account is created, your Kindle will be registered automatically.

Press Home then Menu, tap Settings then Registration.

Tap the Quick Settings icon at the top of the main screen, then tap More and select “My Account.”

You can also register your new Kindle on your computer. Go to Amazon.com, and click on “Your Account” at the upper-right corner of the Amazon home page. Log in, and scroll down to "Digital Content." Under "Digital Management," click "Manage your Kindle."

From the "Manage your Kindle" screen, click on "Register a Kindle" under "Your Kindle Account." Follow the instructions on the pop-up box to enter your Kindle's serial number.

To deregister your Kindle on Amazon.com, go to "Manage Your Kindle," look at the list of Registered Kindles, and click on "Deregister."

In order to buy books and other documents from the Kindle Store using the Kindle, you'll have to set up One-Click Ordering on Amazon using your computer.

In your computer's web browser, go to amazon.com. Click on "Your Account" at the upper-right corner of the Amazon home page. Under "Settings," "Account Settings," click on "One-Click Settings." If you are asked, log into your Amazon account. A list of your shipping addresses appears. Select the address that you want to use, then click on "Click Here to make this your 1-Click default address." Next, edit the payment method by clicking on Edit in the "Payment Method" box at left.

While it is true that you will need to enter credit or debit card information to set up your 1-Click payments, you could avoid credit card charges by funding your Kindle-associated account with Amazon gift cards that you have purchased, or with a gift card purchased by another person.

You can manage your Kindle library on Amazon.com as well as your Kindle account. You can also get help and support for the Kindle.

From Amazon.com, click "Your Account" near the upper right corner of the screen, log in if necessary, and then scroll down to "Digital Content," and click "Manage Your Kindle" under "Digital Management."

The first screen lets you manage all of the books and other documents you've bought through the Kindle Store.

Click on the sidebar at left or the dropdown at the top of the item list to view just books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, Audible audiobooks, active content (tools and games), and also look at pending deliveries.

Click on the "+" to the left of the title to open a detail window for that item. You can look at the product detail page, and also look at your order details. This is especially useful to check the monthly charge for subscriptions.

At the right end of the entry line, an "Actions" dropdown button lets you take various actions depending on the item. (Audiobooks have no action button.)

Since you can have more than one registered Kindle as well as several of the free Kindle Reading Apps, this action lets you choose which device or app to use to send the item via wireless. Books can be sent as well as past issues of periodical subscriptions.

Another action lets you download an item to your computer for transfer to your Kindle via USB. This feature is useful if you don't have wireless 3G or Wi-Fi at your present location, or if you are traveling outside the U.S., where wireless transfers via 3G may incur charges

Personal documents transferred directly to your Kindle via USB are not archived in the Amazon Cloud. If you delete them, they are gone completely.

When you remove an item from your Kindle that you purchased from Amazon.com or a personal document that you sent to your Kindle via your @kindle.com address, it is archived for you in the Amazon Cloud. See Archiving and Restoring Items. You can restore the item at any time. If you want to permanently delete an item from your Kindle library, select “Delete from Library” from the Action button dropdown.

Once deleted from your Kindle library, items are gone forever and you will have to buy them if you wish to read them again.

Authors and publishers may release updated or revised versions of Kindle books. Non-fiction books are revised to make certain the content is up-to-date. Any book may be revised to correct formatting or other errors.

If major changes are made to a Kindle book, Amazon emails every purchaser to advise that a new version is available. You can click on a link in the email to have the revised version sent to your Kindle automatically. You can also lick on the “Actions” button on any title in “Your Kindle Library” on Amazon’s “Manage Your Kindle page” to have the updated copy sent to your Kindle.

If changes are minor, Amazon won’t email every customer, but still makes the option to download an updated copy available for the book on “Your Kindle Library” page o Amazon.

It’s worth checking your purchased books occasionally on “Manage Your Kindle” to see if a revision is available, especially for non-fiction titles.

Amazon lets you lend Kindle e-books (but not periodicals or Audible audiobooks) if lending is enabled by the publisher. The loan is for a period of 14 days, and books may be loaned only one time. While the title is on loan, it disappears from your Kindle.

To lend a book, select “Loan This Title” from the Action button dropdown. If “Loan This Title” is not in the list, lending is not available for this title, either because you've already lent it to someone, or the publisher has disabled lending for the book.

If the book can be lent, a "Loan this book" page appears. Fill in the lending details and click "Send now" to lend the book. You must supply the e-mail address of the recipient,but the other details are optional, although they can help the recipient identify the e-mail as legitimate.

Amazon then sends an e-mail to the recipient with instructions for borrowing the book. If the book is not borrowed within 7 days, it automatically will be returned to your Kindle.

Books on loan are flagged on your Kindle's Home page, and you're also notified when a book is returned after the 14-day loan.

Under Your Kindle Account, you can register or deregister your Kindle(s) and free Kindle Reading Apps, turn device synchronization on or off, manage subscriptions, Kindle payment options, personal document settings, and country settings.

Since you can have several Kindles and Free Kindle Reading Apps and be reading the same book on two or more of them, Amazon keeps all the copies of a book synchronized so that no matter which Kindle or Free Kindle Reading App you open a book on, it always opens to the last page read.

However, you may want to turn synchronization off, especially if different people are reading the same book on Kindles or apps registered to the same Amazon account, so that each reader can keep their own place in the book.

On the subscription settings page, you can deliver past issues to a Kindle or a free Kindle Reading App, download them to your computer for transfer to the Kindle via USB, or cancel a subscription. You can also view and edit billing details.

On this screen you can change your default 1-click payment method, which is used for all Kindle Store purchases by default. You can also edit the payment method for your subscriptions.

Documents to be converted are only accepted from approved e-mail addresses to prevent spam from being sent to your Kindle. You can add as many e-mail addresses as you like, and delete any of them as you wish.

For Kindle Keyboard 3G users only, Amazon charges a fee to convert personal documents and transfer them to your Kindle Keyboard 3G via 3G. To avoid this fee, make sure your Kindle is connected via Wi-Fi. You can also disable delivery via 3G in the next section on the page, “Whispernet Delivery Options”.

If you have 3G delivery enabled, you can avoid surprise fees by setting the maximum personal document charge.

The next section of the page lists the personal document service charges that you have paid.

Kindle Touch 3G owners cannot transfer personal documents via 3G, only via Wi-Fi.

Your Kindle is registered initially in your home country. If you move to another country, change the country setting on this page.