Kindle Fire Geekery: 50 Insanely Cool Projects for Your Amazon Tablet

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Kindle Fire Geekery: 50 Insanely Cool Projects for Your Amazon Tablet

Kindle Fire Geekery: 50 Insanely Cool Projects for Your Amazon Tablet

Authors: Guy Hart-Davis

Published: June 2012

eISBN: 9780071802741 0071802746 | ISBN: 9780071802734

Kindle Fire Geekery

About the Author

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Why Is This Book Better than Other Kindle Fire Books?

Chapter 1: Music Geekery

Project 1: Create Top-Quality Music Files for Your Kindle Fire from Your CDs

Install iTunes on Your PC

Run iTunes for the First Time on Your PC

Launch iTunes on Your Mac

Set Up iTunes for Ripping Your CDs

Rip a CD with iTunes

Convert a Song from One Format to Another Using iTunes

Find the Song Files You’ve Ripped

Put the Ripped Files on Your Kindle

Project 2: Transfer Your Tapes and Records to Your Kindle Fire

Connect Your Sound Source to Your Computer

Know Your Options for Recording Audio

Download and Install Audacity

Run Audacity and Choose Your Language

Install the LAME MP3 Encoder

Choose Audio Playback and Recording Settings

Choose Your Audio Source

Specify the Audio Source for Recording in Windows 7 or Windows Vista

Specify the Audio Source for Recording in Windows XP

Specify the Audio Source for Recording on the Mac

Record Audio with Audacity

Export the Recorded Files to MP3 and Put Them on Your Kindle Fire

Project 3: Put Your Music on Amazon’s Cloud Drive

Understand What Cloud Drive Is

Connect to Cloud Drive, Set It Up, and Get Amazon MP3 Uploader

Install Amazon MP3 Uploader on Windows

Install Amazon MP3 Uploader on the Mac

Upload MP3 and AAC Files with Amazon MP3 Uploader

Upload Other Files to Cloud Drive

Project 4: Convert Songs from Formats Your Kindle Fire Can’t Play

Convert Protected AAC Files

Convert Apple Lossless Encoding Files

Convert Free Lossless Audio Codec Files

Convert Audio Interchange File Format Files

Convert Monkey’s Audio Files

Convert Monkey’s Audio Files to MP3 or AAC on Windows

Convert Monkey’s Audio Files to MP3 or AAC on the Mac

Project 5: Listen to the Radio on Your Kindle Fire

Get a Radio App for the Kindle Fire

Listen to Your Radio App

Project 6: Enjoy Podcasts on Your Kindle Fire

Get an App That Can Play Podcasts

Run BeyondPod Podcast Manager

Add and Remove Feeds

View the Feed Content Available

Play a Podcast Episode

Project 7: Use Your Kindle Fire as Your Home Stereo

Use a Kindle Fire Speaker Dock or a Pair of Powered Speakers

Use a Wired Connection to Your Existing Speakers or Stereo

Use a Radio Transmitter Between Your Kindle Fire and a Stereo

Project 8: Use Your Kindle Fire as Your Car Stereo

Assess Your Options for Playing Music Through Your Car Stereo

Wire Your Kindle Fire Directly to a Car Stereo

Use a Radio Transmitter with Your Kindle Fire

Use a Cassette Adapter with Your Kindle Fire

Mount Your Kindle Fire in Your Car

Power Your Kindle Fire in Your Car

Chapter 2: Video Geekery

Project 9: Watch TV Shows on Your Kindle Fire

Watch TV Shows on Hulu Plus

Set Up a Hulu Plus Account

Install the Hulu Plus App on Your Kindle Fire

Find and Watch TV Shows on Hulu Plus

Watch TV Shows on Netflix

Set Up a Netflix Account

Install the Netflix App on Your Kindle Fire

Find and Watch TV Shows on Netflix

Project 10: Stream Movies from Your Computer to Your Kindle Fire

Install Splashtop Streamer on Your PC or Mac

Install the Splashtop App on Your Kindle Fire

Connect Splashtop on Your Kindle Fire to Your Computer and Play Video

Project 11: Put Your Videos on Your Kindle Fire

Create MP4 Files from Your Digital Video Camera

Create MP4 Files Using Windows Live Movie Maker or Windows Movie Maker

Create MP4 Files Using iMovie

Create MP4 Video Files from Your Existing Video Files

Download, Install, and Launch HandBrake

Convert Video Files to MP4 Files Using HandBrake

Project 12: Put Your DVDs on Your Kindle Fire

Rip DVDs with DVDFab HD Decrypter on Your PC

Install DVDFab HD Decrypter on Your PC

Rip a DVD with DVDFab HD Decrypter

Rip DVDs with HandBrake on Your Mac

Project 13: Use Your Kindle Fire for In-Car Entertainment

Chapter 3: Books Geekery

Project 14: Understand Which E-book Formats Your Kindle Fire Can Use

Project 15: Get Free E-books Instead of Buying E-books

Free Books on Amazon.com

Visit the Top 100 Free List on Your Kindle Fire

Visit the Kindle Popular Classics Section on Your Computer

Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

Open Library

Project Gutenberg

Google Books

ManyBooks.net

Project 16: Add Your Existing E-book Collection to the Kindle Fire

Add Kindle Books You’ve Bought from Amazon

Add E-books Stored in Folders

Add E-books from Your iTunes Library

Project 17: Download and Install calibre and Meet Its Interface

Download and Install calibre

Download, Install, and Launch calibre on Windows

Download, Install, and Launch calibre on the Mac

Set Up calibre

Meet the calibre Interface

Add Your Existing E-books to Your calibre Library

Browse the E-books in Your calibre Library

Tell calibre Not to Include the [PDOC] Tag When Creating MOBI Files

Connect Your Kindle Fire and Make Sure calibre Recognizes It

Transfer E-books to Your Kindle Fire from calibre

Project 18: Convert ePub E-books to the Kindle-Friendly MOBI Format

Convert ePub E-books to MOBI Format Using calibre

Convert ePub E-books and Transfer the MOBI Files to Your Kindle Fire

Convert ePub E-books to Kindle-Friendly Formats Using an Online Converter

Project 19: Make Your E-books Appear in the Books App Rather Than the Docs App

Project 20: Convert E-books, PDFs, Documents, and Webpages to Kindle Fire Format

Project 21: Read Your E-books in the Bath—Safely

Project 22: Read Your Kindle Books on Your Computer—or Someone Else’s

Read Books on Your PC or Mac with the Kindle Application

Read Books in Any Web Browser with Kindle Cloud Reader

Chapter 4: System and Apps Geekery

Project 23: Lock Your Kindle Fire for Privacy

Turn On Locking

Lock Your Kindle Fire

Unlock Your Kindle Fire

Project 24: Update Your Kindle Fire with the Latest Fixes

Project 25: Keep Your Apps Updated

Project 26: Troubleshoot Lockups and Crashes

Force an App to Close

Deal with System Lockups by Performing a Hard Reset

Troubleshoot Startup Problems

Project 27: Make Your Kindle Fire Run Faster

Restart Your Kindle Fire

Close Apps You’re No Longer Using

Install Software Updates When They Become Available

Project 28: Make the Silk Browser Load Pages More Quickly

Project 29: Squeeze the Battery Life to the Limit

See Exactly How Much Battery Life There Is

Reduce Your Power Consumption

Reduce the Display Brightness

Turn Off Wi-Fi Unless You’re Using It

Set Your Kindle Fire to Go to Sleep After a Short Delay

Avoid Extremes of Heat and Cold

See Which App Is Chewing Through the Battery

Charge Your Kindle Fire While You’re Out and About

Project 30: Prevent Your Children from Going Online with the Kindle Fire

Protect Your Kindle Fire’s Wi-Fi with a Restrictions Password

Turn Wi-Fi Back On

Project 31: Turn Off One-Click Buy on Your Kindle Fire

Project 32: Protect Your Kindle Fire Against Malware

Download and Install Dr. Web Anti-Virus Light

Meet the Dr. Web User Interface

Run a Scan

Update the Dr. Web Database of Threats

View Statistics on Threats Detected and Actions Performed

View the Files Dr. Web Has Quarantined

Project 33: Get Apps from Other Sources than Amazon’s Appstore

Get Package Files from Android Market Using an Android Device

Get an App from Android Market

Extract the APK File from Your Android Device

Download Package Files from a Website

Download Package Files from Other Sources

Project 34: Side-Load Apps on Your Kindle Fire

Install ES File Explorer

Allow the Installation of Apps from Other Sources

Copy the Package Files to Your Kindle Fire

Install the Apps on the Kindle Fire

Project 35: Make the Most of Your Kindle Fire’s Wi-Fi Capabilities

Transfer Files Wirelessly Using Wi-Fi File Explorer

Launch WiFi File Explorer on Your Kindle Fire and Connect with Your Computer

Meet the WiFi File Explorer User Interface

Find Your Files and Take Actions with Them

Close WiFi File Explorer

Find Wi-Fi Networks Using Wi-Fi Analyzer

Add Further Storage Using a Wi-Fi Drive

Project 36: Enter Text More Quickly in Documents and E-mail Messages

Project 37: Customize the Carousel—Or Replace It with a Better Launcher

Remove Unwanted Items from the Carousel

Replace the Carousel with a Better Launcher

Project 38: Recover Space from Your Kindle Fire’s Storage

Delete Unnecessary Videos, Pictures, Songs, E-books, and Documents

Clear Out Your Download Folder

Delete the Package Files for Apps You’ve Side-Loaded

Uninstall Any Apps You Don’t Need

Remove an App the Quick Way

Remove an App the Slow Way

Project 39: Put Your Photos on Your Kindle Fire

Project 40: Keep Up with Your Social Networks

Use Facebook on Your Kindle Fire

Understand Your Choices for Accessing Facebook on Your Kindle Fire

Access the Mobile Version of Facebook Using Silk

Install and Use the Facebook for Android App

Use LinkedIn on Your Kindle Fire

Install the LinkedIn App on Your Kindle Fire

Log In and Start Using LinkedIn on Your Kindle Fire

Use Twitter on Your Kindle Fire

Install the Twitter App on Your Kindle Fire

Log In and Start Using Twitter on Your Kindle Fire

Chapter 5: Kindle Fire at Work Geekery

Project 41: Connect Your Kindle Fire to the Wireless Network at Your Workplace

Install a Digital Certificate on Your Kindle Fire

Connect to the Wireless Network

Project 42: Connect Your Kindle Fire to Exchange Server

Download, Install, and Set Up TouchDown

Connect TouchDown to Your Exchange Server

Project 43: Manage Your E-mail Like a Pro

Set Up Your Kindle Fire with the E-mail Accounts You Need

Set Up an E-mail Account on Your Kindle Fire

Remove an E-mail Account from Your Kindle Fire

Configure Your E-mail Accounts to Work the Way You Prefer

Manage Your E-mail Messages

Switch Among the Folders in Your Account

Manage Messages from the Inbox

Batch-Edit Your E-mail Messages

Mark a Message as Unread

Flag Each Message That Has Long-Term Importance

Empty the Trash for an E-mail Account

Change the Account You’re Sending a Message From

Save a Message as a Draft So You Can Finish It Later

Send a Message to a Group Without Revealing the E-mail Addresses

Project 44: Load All Your Contacts on Your Kindle Fire

Understand the Difference Between Loading and Syncing Contacts

Create vCards and Put Them on Your Kindle Fire

Create vCard Files on Your Computer

Put the Contacts on Your Kindle Fire

Delete a Contact

Control How Your Kindle Fire Displays Contacts

Keep Your Contacts Synced Between Your Computer and Your Kindle Fire

Project 45: Get Your Calendars on Your Kindle Fire

Project 46: Keep Track of Your Tasks

Download, Install, and Set Up Remember The Milk

Track Your Tasks with Remember The Milk

Project 47: Sync Your Notes Between Your Computer and Your Kindle

Download and Install Evernote on Your Kindle Fire

Download and Install Evernote on Your Computer

Create and Sync Notes

Project 48: Send Text Messages from Your Kindle Fire

Download, Install, and Set Up textPlus

Send and Receive Texts with textPlus

Project 49: Create Office Documents on the Kindle Fire

Project 50: Carry Your Essential Files on Your Kindle Fire

Get and Install Dropbox, Set Up Your Account, and Log In

Use Dropbox on Your Kindle Fire

Browse the Files and Folders You’ve Stored in Dropbox

Save Favorite Files for Offline Access

Upload a File to Dropbox

Index