Kindle Fire update 6.2.2 is out there
It hasn’t been announced by Amazon yet, but people are reporting it in the Kindle community…and I do have it.
“It” is a new update for Kindle Fire, and it does make some changes. The convention seems to be that a change to the second digit in the software version indicates real feature changes, and a change in the third digit indicates more of a bug fix sort of thing.
One key thing here: after the update, your Flash player is off by default. I’ll show you how to change that, but if your Flash has stopped working, that’s probably why.
First, how to tell if you have it:
Settings Gear – More – Device, System Version
If you don’t have it, you should just get it if your wi-fi is on…eventually.
Amazon will also presumably make it available at the
Kindle Fire software update page
but they haven’t at the time of writing.
Update: it is available now. On the update page, Amazon now says:
“This update enhances fluidity and performance, improves support for manually set up e-mail providers in the Email app, and offers a new full screen mode for viewing web pages.”
That said, I loaded mine from
https://s3.amazonaws.com/kindle-fire-updates/update-kindle-6.2.2_D01E_3205220.bin
That is not official, but it fits the location I would expect. I downloaded it to my computer, and then used
to wirelessly put it in the
kindleupdates
folder. Note that is different from updating an RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle…anything but a Kindle Fire).
Then, it is
Settings Gear – More – Device
and your Update Your Kindle button should be active.
Clicking that, the Kindle Fire restarts and that’s it.
What does it do?
It seems to be primarily directed at the web.
Go to the Web tab, and tab the menu (the button with horizontal lines in a box at the bottom of the screen).
Tap Settings
Instead of saying Enable Plug-ins, it now says
Enable Flash
It defaults to Off. I would change this to On Demand.
I did that and (finally) my Netflix app has the audio/video in sync! I’ve been testing the same movie with that, and it now works…whew!
There is also a choice a bit farther down in Advanced to use
Optional Encryption
That will encrypt information using the Cloud accelerator. It says that will slow things down a bit, which makes sense, but there are people who really want this.
The other big change I’ve noticed is that there is now a “full screen” button on web pages. It removes the tabs at the top of the screen. To get out of full screen, tap at the bottom where you would pull up the menu button.
I’m not seeing anything new in Books…no Collections, no text-to-speech.
I got important information on this from this
Amazon Kindle community thread
Special thanks to Q, who posted the update link and shared experiences.
If you are finding anything else, or have any comments, feel free to let me know.
Update: I’ve corrected a couple of things here, thanks to my readers (see comments).
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
January 18, 2012 at 7:08 pm |
Thanks for the alert Bufo. I did the download and used a USB cable to move the update to the Kindle Fire and the did as you did . It looks good and seems either way will work well.
Malcolm
January 18, 2012 at 9:19 pm |
Thanks for writing, Malcolm!
Absolutely, you can use a USB cable as well, although one doesn’t come with the Fire, unlike the other Kindles. You can use the cable from another Kindle …they work.
January 18, 2012 at 8:57 pm |
Just a heads-up to anyone updating with this. Hopefully this is uncommon, but after the update, my fire didn’t come up cleanly. after letting it spin for about 5 minutes, I held the power button for 20 slow seconds (make sure to count slowly, or if you’re impatient, count to 30), and then turned it on again, and it came up fine after that.
January 18, 2012 at 10:51 pm |
Thanks for writing, tuxgirl!
Good advice! I didn’t have any problem, but those kinds of things happen sometimes.
January 18, 2012 at 8:57 pm |
After transferring the .bin file to the Fire, my update button was NOT available, so I had to shut down and restart, then the button was available. but not orange. However, the end result was good — I now have 6.2.2 installed.
Thanks for all you do for all us Kindleers –
Ginny
January 18, 2012 at 10:50 pm |
Thanks for writing, Ginny!
I’ll just take the “orange” reference out, then. I have trouble with colors, and I did write the description afterwards, so I just sort of assumed it had turned orange.
Shouldn’t do that, and I’m usually pretty careful about assumptions…I appreciate the catch!
January 18, 2012 at 9:00 pm |
After transferring the .bin file to my Fire, the Update button was NOT accessible — however, after shutting down and restarting the Fire, it was, but was not orange. But, the end result is that I now have 6.2.2 installed.
Thanks, Bufo for all you do for us Kindleers –
Ginny
January 18, 2012 at 9:47 pm |
The refresh Cloud already existed in Music. I don’t have the update yet, so just checked it for you.
January 18, 2012 at 10:47 pm |
Thanks for writing, Pineapple!
I appreciate that, I’ll update it. I’m getting better, I think, but I didn’t want to check my notes on that.
January 18, 2012 at 9:55 pm |
My name doesn’t begin with the letters GIN but I had the same problem noted above: uploaded but the button never activated. Now I’m sort of feeling kinda chicken to go any further. Maybe just wait…
cheers … jack
January 18, 2012 at 10:48 pm |
Thanks for writing, AugustFalcon!
There are two easy things to try/check:
Restart the Fire…unplug it, hold the power button in until it asks if you want to shut it down (that happens quickly), and do that. Wait a minute, start it again.
The other thing is that maybe you didn’t put it in the kindleupdates folder…you may want to check that. If you need help with that, let me know.
January 19, 2012 at 4:02 am |
I tried it but I got as far as downloading the update on my Mac. I don’t understand how to transfer to the Fire…. I also put WIFI Explorer Pro on the Fire. Now what??? help.
Linda
January 19, 2012 at 4:28 am |
Thanks for writing, Linda!
When you open Wi-Fi Explorer Pro on your Fire, it will give you a little box with an address to use…something like
http://192.111.1.11:1111
It will have different numbers.
Then you go to your Mac, and put that into your web browser’s searchbox, like you would put in any web address, such as http://www.amazon.com .
Once you do that, you’ll see the folders on your Fire. Click on the kindleupdates folder.
Then, in your bottom right (at least, that’s how it is on my PC), you’ll see Upload Files to this Directory.
Click the Select Files link, and find that .bin file you downloaded. After you’ve located it and done that, then you click Upload Files.
I’d say it took a minute or so, but you’ll see the progress.
This will only work, of course, of both of your devices are connected to the same wi-fi network.
January 19, 2012 at 4:00 pm |
Bufo,
I downloaded the update yesterday, and copied it to the top directory of my Fire. Once I disconnected my USB cable, the Update button was activated. My Fire rebooted cleanly with no problems at all.
Just a note about the cloud accelerator – In her KindleWorld blog, Andrys Bastien noted that the update has disabled SSL encryption for content coming from the cloud acceleration servers. Apparently this encryption was the default delivery method before, and hence the occasional lag we saw in page updates. My inference from this is Amazon originally was looking out for our interests by making content targeted to us more difficult to intercept and interpret. This is a good thing!
However, as those of us in the IT world know, you can get your data safely or fast, but not always both. I’m glad Amazon gave us the choice.
I’ve spent some time browsing to see if the enhancements worked, and they appear to be doing the job. Even complicated pages load within 2-3 seconds on my Fire, which suits me just fine.
I’ve also noticed that my ‘hit rate’ for clicking links (especially on google search pages) has increased. Before the update, I would have to tap a link several times before the page in question would start to load. I still get no response on the first tap, but not as much as before. Perhaps this was one of those under the covers fixes?
Scott
January 19, 2012 at 7:13 pm |
B, I did what you said and I’m not getting what you said….when I type in the numbers I get a page of different sites to choose…none of them say Kindleupdate. Remember, I have a Mac and I did download Kindle for Mac. Please advise.
Linda
January 19, 2012 at 7:57 pm |
Thanks for writing, Linda!
Well, I haven’t used Wi-Fi File Explorer on a Mac, but I would have thought it would work in a similar fashion. I”m not sure what you mean by getting a list of sites (I just see the folders on my Kindle), and having Kindle for Mac or not would have not impact on this. That’s to enable you to read Kindle books on your Mac, and we are just trying to transfer a file.
Let’s try another tactic.
Do you have an RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle…anything but a Kindle Fire)?
If so, you have a USB cable. You may need to slide the end off that would plug into the wall.
Connect the normal-sized USB to your Mac, and the little other end to your Fire.
You should then (it may take a few seconds) be able to see the folders on your Fire when looking on your Mac.
Transfer the .bin file you downloaded into the KindleUpdates folder on your Kindle Fire.
If you don’t have that option, here is the website for the people who make the app:
http://dooblou.blogspot.com/2011/01/help-for-wifi-file-explorer-and-securet.html
January 20, 2012 at 12:29 am |
I did it. I don’t. Know how but I now have 6.2.2. Thanks so much. Hey, Bufo…do you know anything about Audible? My 91 y/o husband was given the Fire for his birthday. He learner how to work it but now can’t locate where he left off. Linda
January 20, 2012 at 1:24 am |
Thanks for writing, Linda!
Yay!
Your husband should be using the Audible app on the Fire. It should remember where he was in the book automatically…
January 20, 2012 at 10:38 pm |
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