How does Kindle Fire work outside US!

I have tested Norway, and I guess my results reflects pretty much the rest of Europe too. This is what you should be aware of if you decide to buy a Kindle Fire while in US or from other internet sites:

FYI - My Kindle Fire was bought in BestBuy in Houston while my boyfriend was working there last week.

Step 1 - Out of the box experience

Just as you know, I have a normal Norwegian user login with amazon.com and I have a normal Norwegian Visa card attached to my Amazon account. No more!

The content of the Kindle Fire box was simple

• 1 Kindle Fire
• 1 US charger
• That's it

I turned the gadget ON

No pain! The Kindle Fire is half way charged and all I had to do was to wait 30 seconds. My wi-fi network was automatically added. The only thing I had to do was type in my wi-fi password. Easy peasy! GREAT!

Connection with Amazon

After my successful wi-fi connect a pop-up window appears which asks me to fill in my Amazon user-id and password. And wooops, I am logged in and all my e-books that I have previously bought for my Kindle Keyboard is updated and put on my Kindle Fire's front page without me doing anything. GREAT!

Time & Date

I am then automatically prompted for time zone and if I want metric measures or not. No searching for "Settings" menu. GREAT!

Kindle Fire Silk browser

The first that hits me is that the browser is fast! I go to my own photo website which I know is a bit heavy to load, but this is a piece of cake. I am impressed! Ok, we have a pretty decent wi-fi connection, but still. GREAT! When it comes to zoom and scroll the pages, I am not that impressed. Some of my normal websites, as my own book blog, I cannot zoom or scroll down. Not even if I switch between landscape and portrait mode. NOT GREAT!

Next on my list is to test all the available choices from the main menu. Here are the Norwegian results ;-)

Newsstand

When I go to the newsstand it is empty. Understandable. I don't have any Norwegian newspapers or magazines available so I hit the Amazon "Store" button to see what they can offer. Here are a lot of newspapers and magazines, but NONE are avaible for me because I do not have an american credit card! NOT GREAT!

E-books

This works! I can log on to my normal amazon.com account and buy my e-books directly to my Kindle Fire with my Norwegian Visa credit card. The e-books get stored in the Cloud and I can access my books both from my Kindle Fire and my Kindle Keyboard. GREAT!

Music, Video, Apps

To buy and/or download any of these three is NOT available. Both music, video and apps - even the free ones - need me to have an American credit card attached to my account. I can do the film trailers, but no more. NOT GREAT! :-(

Docs

This works both on my Kindle Keyboard and my Kindle Fire. No problems with sending my own Word or PDF's to my Kindle. GREAT!

The virtual keyboard

Some of the reviews I have read says that the Kindle Fire virtual keyboard isn't good at all. A lot of people have severe problems with getting it to register when they "push" a letter. I don't find this a problem at all. It works perfectly! GREAT!

Screen quality

Superb! Nothing more to say about that! And I am very picky when it comes to screens being a hobby photographer. The pictures are sharp with very good color saturation and contrast. You can adjust the screen to your liking, but the standard setup was perfect for me. GREAT! I will not, however, use my Kindle Fire for reading books. I so much prefer the e-inc on my Kindle Keyboard. No one above, no one even close...!!! 

Amazon Prime

When you buy a Kindle Fire you get a free Amazon Prime membership. The membership gives you the possibility to stream over 10.000 commercial free movies and tv shows from the video library. Well, no use for me - I don't get any access to the video library from Norway! If you want to stream you need both an American credit card AND an American IP address. NOT GREAT.

Step 2 - My experience with an American credit card from Norway

As it comes, we actually have an American credit card because we do a lot of business in the USA. I put my American credit card onto my amazon.com account, and wooops -

• I can buy and subscribe to News and Magazines. GREAT!
• I can buy and download both Music and Apps. GREAT!
• I can't, however, stream video and tv shows. I still need an American IP address to do that. NOT GREAT!

It is not easy to get an American credit card. You cannot just apply for one and get it. There should be a solution to this problem - somewhere. I haven't given up :-)

Step 3 - Extended testing and experience

NEWS - 29.01.2012: It is possible to stream both tv and video from amazon.com! 

• Log on to: www.unblock-us.com
• Follow the "how to" for Android
• And there you go!!

This software fakes a US IP address! It was so easy when I just found the correct SW! Now I stream tv and video and can take advantage of the full Prime membership too.

Any problems? Contact:  mykindlejoy@gmail.com

Good luck! :-)

Updated: 31.01.2012

Cover for my Kindle Fire

Am i lucky? I realized the moment I got my Kindle Fire that I needed a cover for it. The screen gets very quickly dirty (touch screen, what did I expect..), but I am also afraid of getting scratched glass. So, what to use until I get my Kindle Fire cover?

Last year I bought no less than two handmade Oberon leather covers for my Kindle Keyboard. Just for fun I tried to attach my Kindle Fire to one of them. And it works! Pretty well, actually! :-) The Kindle Fire is a bit thicker than the Kindle Keyboard, but the leather straps which the Oberon covers are delivered with are strong and juuust about big enough to hold the Fire in place! A little bit tight fit allright, but the Fire will definately not drop out of the cover by itself!

So - now my Fire has the red hummingbird cover (red = fire..) and my Kindle Keyboard stays in its  purple paisley cover for now. I have actually ordered a new cover for my Kindle Fire, a neoprene sleeve, but it is not in stock until February 15. And then it's going to be shipped to Norway... I think it will be smarter to use a sleeve for my Fire, because a normal cover gets more in the way during use...

This cover can of course also be used with the Kindle Keyboard since the only difference in the size is the thickness. The carrying handle can be removed, and that's how I'm going to use it I think.

Amazon calls this lovely sleeve: "Blue Swirl Flower Design Neoprene Padded Bubble Sleeve Case Cover with Accessory Pocket Removable Carrying Handle"   *Breeeeaattthh...* and it can be bought HERE.

And that concluded my Friday marketing ;-)

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Listen to audio books/.mp3 from your Kindle e-reader!

Today I have tested audio books from my Kindle Keyboard, and it was a great experience!

For those of you enjoying listening to books, here is the recipe of how to use your Kindle e-reader as an .mp3 audio book player.

PS! The new Kindle Mini can not handle audio books. Just as you know... And, my recipe below contains link to free audiobooks you can test on :-)


You need

• Your Kindle and a set of headphones which are compatible with the jack just beside the charger.

How to put the .mp3 audio book onto your Kindle

• Click HERE to download a free audio book in .mp3 format
• Click on line 1 "Aesop's Fables"
• Click again on "Aesop's Fables Volume 1"
• Scroll down till you find the headline ".mp3 and ogg files"
• Click the link "mp3@64kbps - 5.3MB"
• Choose "Save File"
• Attach your Kindle to your PC
• Open your FileManager and go to: c:\users\"your_user"\downloads
• Copy the file "fables_01_00_aesop_64kb" to your Kindle's Kindle\music directory

Play your .mp3 audio book

• Unplug your Kindle from the PC
• Plug in your headset
• Go to your HOME page on the Kindle
• Click the MENU button
• Go down to "Experimental" and choose this
• Under "Play MP3" you get explained how to play and pause your file
• Choose "play music"
• If you don't hear anything, remember you have a volume control button to the left of your headset jack
• Click + ;-)
• To pause your book, just choose "pause music" from the "Experimental" tab

You can of course also use the same recipe to play music files (.mp3) from your Kindle.

Audio books from Amazon

Amazon has their own website where you can buy and subscribe to audio books. Check out www.audible.com.

Good luck :-)

Updated: 26.1.2012

Read Word-documents on your Kindle!

I have now written a recipe of how to send your own Word-documents, PDF's and other text documents directly from the PC to your Kindle.

The quality of the documents you receive is great, and the only thing you have to do is to install a simple and free program from Amazon first.

The recipe you'll find HERE

Have fun :-)

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How to read EPUB files on your Kindle!

Or - how to convert .epub files to .mobi

A good thing cannot be mentioned too often! Here you'll find a simple recipe of how to convert any .EPUB e-book files, with or without DRM, to Kindle's .MOBI format. You only need a little bit of patience and install two freeware programs and off you go.

The recipe you'll find HERE

It is newly updated to match changes in one of the external links.

The software I use

This freeware removes the DRM lock which many publishers put on their e-book files.

Calibre does the actual job of converting the clean, unlocked e-book file from the .EPUB format to Kindle's .MOBI format.

If you have any questions or problems concerning this, please do no hesitate to contact me on my e-mail: 

mykindlejoy@gmail.com

This said - It is up to all of you to take the moral responsibility for this solution not to be abused! The e-book files are to be treated as any other printed books with Copyright! This is a way for you as a Kindle user to be able to read whatever e-books you find on your preferred e-book reader!

Today I have bought the hideously expensive Norwegian e-book "Vinterstengt" av Jørn Lier Horst, removed the DRM and put it on my Kindle. And just as you know - Don't you EVER complain about Amazon's prices. In Norway I paid $41.50 for my new e-book crime novel...!!!  (no wonder i just loooove Amazon!)

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