Updates available for Kindle Fire HD (7.2.1) and Kindle Fire 2nd Generation (10.2.1)

Updates available for Kindle Fire HD (7.2.1) and Kindle Fire 2nd Generation (10.2.1)

Amazon Kindle community thread

for the heads-up!

The updates for the Kindle Fire HD 7″, Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 16 GB and the Kindle Fire 7″ SD have been posted!

You can always go to:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates

to check for software updates for any of your devices.

Here are the specific ones:

Kindle Fire HD 7″ Software Update Version 7.2.1

Kindle Fire (2nd Generation) Software Update Version 10.2.1

These updates bring three main changes:

• Kindle FreeTime
• Default device languages (German, English UK, English USA, Spanish, French, Italian)
• The ability to turn off the recommendations

I’ve downloaded it and installed it, and will start experimenting with it, then write more.

I downloaded it using my Fire itself, then using ES File Explorer to more the file from my Download folder to my Kindleupdates folder.

I’m seeing a few things already, but I better get this out so you can do the update.

If you want to wait, you can…it will update automatically if you do that.

Update: here are the basics on these three features:

Kindle FreeTime:

This is an app, and you’ll actually find it on the Apps tab. It is not under Parental Controls in the settings.

First, it does exactly what people have wanted for a long time for the Kindle! You can “whitelist” what specific files you want available on the device to profiles you create. You can choose exactly what e-books, videos, and apps you want available to each child. These come from the ones you have already purchased and are already in the Cloud.

You can not set controls based on ratings (you can’t say no R rated movies, for example).

It requires you to enter a birthdate and gender to set up a profile for someone…some people aren’t going to like that. Could that be used for marketing purposes by Amazon? Sure, that’s possible.

It appears that the parent has to be the one to switch the profiles. That will irritate some folks. You can’t let the children pass the device back and forth, picking their own profiles: the parent has to be involved in-between.

The biggest negative is that you have to put in your password…a lot. Once you get to Parent Settings (which you do by swiping down from the top when you are in a “child’s profile”, it should probably accept that you’ve entered the password until you leave that part. As it is, every time you want to do anything, you have to enter it again.

You can choose an avatar for a child: it says “photos” which will probably make people think they can use their own photos.

You can set daily time limits for each child. How much time each day they can read books, watch videos, use apps, and total screen time. People will like that.

There are some things you can download (like free e-books) within the child’s profile. Some people will like it, some won’t like that books and apps are being offered to their children without their intervention.

Overall, FreeTime has some great basic functionality, and could use tweaks to the UI (User Interface).

Languages

Swipe down to get to settings – More – Language & Keyboard – Language

Once you choose the language, the switch happens right away.

When you use look up for a word, you can easily switch between dictionaries to change the default.

The dictionary did take a minute to load, though.

Show/Hide recommendations

Maybe it’s somewhere else, but I found it this way:

Swipe down to get to Settings – More – Applications  - Amazon Home Recommendations, then you can choose to Show or Hide

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One other note I’ve mentioned before about Updates: they are huge files. This one is 535.96 MB. I’ll use that ES File Explorer I mentioned above (which is free) to remove it.

Update: wooooo-hooooo! The problem with the Bluetooth keyboard repeating letters appears to be fixed! That’s marvelous, and it will likely mean that I generally retire the netbook from my use. I can blog on my Kindle, I can blog on my Kindle!

Update: This just occurred to me this morning. Although the set-up would be clunky, you could use FreeTime to create “Collections” on your Fire! You would create a profile for a “child” named “Mystery”, one named “Romance”, and so on. It wouldn’t be smooth to use, since you have to enter your password so often switching between, but it would certainly work. That would also mean that you could have related e-books, movies, and apps all in the same Collection.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

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