Saturday, July 6, 2013

Kindle and Kindle Fire Tips from the forums. How to get Time to Read feature back if missing. Playing personal camera videos. App and Web settings. Simple Restart for tablets AND e-readers if needed.


FORUM TIPS FOR TODAY

Although today's are mainly for the Kindle Fire line (the 7" still on $30 off sale), I'll include some Paperwhite tips later.
  The Restart reminder works for all Kindle e-readers and tablets.

Just a couple of tips for today, one that was written from a conversation by a forum member with Kindle support yesterday (My additions are in brackets] and one I wrote about how to play personal videos from your camera (and these come in many formats).
1. Getting the Time to Read function back if it disappears
This one is from J.Jay
' I contacted support as Pineapple suggested.
After a few tries, we were able to fix the problem on my Kindle Fire HD 7".
We had to deregister my device from my account and then re-register it.
It worked! The steps are below:
- From the Kindle home screen, pull down [Swipe down] the [top] status bar and tap "More"
- Tap "My Account" and tap "Deregister"

- Hold the power button for 20 seconds.
- [After releasing the button, wait 5 seconds, press and this time quickly release the Power button, to]
   turn the Kindle back on [and wait while it reconfigures memory.]
- Close out the Getting Started screens and return to the home screen

- From the Kindle home screen, pull down the top status bar again and tap "More"
- Tap "My Account" and tap "Register"

- Tap "Books" and then "Cloud" [to get a new copy of the book from your Cloud storage area]
- Tap the book [title] to re-download it.  
   It should load up where you left off

- Tap the lower left corner until the "time to read" comes up.
  It will probably say "Learning reading speed..."

Worked like a charm. '

Unfortunately, some have found this works only for a few days for them, though they don't report whether or not they're on the latest software update version x.4.3...(7.4.3 in the case of the 7" tablet).  If this still happens for those with the latest software version, Amazon will need to fix the glitch.


2. If Netflix and Amazon Instant Video both work well but camera videos don't, although personal videos had before
I especially recommmend getting the BSPlayer app at the appstore.  There's a free version that's fine.  It's the most reliable I've found and fixes even audio problems I've had on my several camera video formats that other good players were not able to play correctly.


3. Sudden malfuctioning app or Web connection problem
  For apps that may not be functioning well, although they had before... plus the Simple Restart when needed
  Swipe down the top status bar and tap on "More"
  Tap "Applications" and then "Installed Applications"
  Scroll down to the misbehaving app and tap that
  Go down a bit to where you see the option to Clear Cache
   (That's temporary data kept from the recent session.)
  Tap on the Clear Cache to clear it
  If there's an option at top left to Force stop the app, tap it to stop the app.
  Press the back arrow at the far-right a few times or just tap the HOME icon at right-bottom.


  If using the built in 'Silk' Web browser and experiencing any problems
  Exit Web or Power Off if necessary.
  After powering back up, I'd go through the steps for number 3 above, for the 'Silk' Web app.

  Re the Silk Web app settings in general while Web'g
  Press the || on the right side to expose the Menu-rectangle...
  Tap on that Menu to get Web 'Settings' and make sure that near the bottom of the Settings page under 'Advanced' section, you've checked the box to enable 'javascript' ...

  I'd also definitely choose the Clear the Cache option there, if any web problems are recent and sudden.

There's no need to reset factory defaults, which should only be a last-option choice done along with a Kindle Support rep for guidance.

  Simple restart to clear up any unusual problems
To do the simple restart that is like a computer soft-reboot,
  Press the tablet's power button, holding it in for 20 seconds, then release.
  After a couple of seconds, press the power button again and quickly release it.
  Go away and after some minutes it should have reset the system memory, which normally will fix recently-appearing probs.


Let me know if you have any question on these.




Current Kindle Models for reference.  Note the current KindleFire HD 7" sale.
US:
Updated Kindle Fire 2 Basic  7" tablet - $159
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$229 *
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $269/$299
Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $399/$499
Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89
Kindle Touch WiFi - $99
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi+3G - $179/$199
Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free slow web
Kindle DX - $379 $299 (Yes)
UK:
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69
Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - ~£89 Refurb'd
Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi
£109
Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK
£169
Kindle Fire 2, UK
 £129
Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK
£159/199
Canada - Kindlestore, CDN-$
Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $79
Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $129
Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $199
Kindle Fire HD 7" - 214.00
KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284


*OTHER Int'l pages*
Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89
Kindle Keybd 3G - $189
  Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB
Paperwhite WiFi $139, 3G/Wifi $199
KFire HD 7" $214,  8.9" $284


France Boutique Kindle
Deutschland - Kindle Store
Italia - Kindle Store
Spain - Tienda Kindle
Brazil - Amazon Brazil
China - Amazon China [?]
Japan - Amazon Japan
* $30 off, 6/30/13, for a limited time.

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