Fun things to do with your new Kindle HD
If you just got a Kindle, congratulations!
Once you’ve taken care of the most important thing (choosing which account you’ll use), and maybe set the parental controls so you don’t have any surprise charges, it’s time to have some fun!
While all Kindles are fun, they can’t all do the same things. Before you plunge into these quick suggestions, make sure you know which Kindle you have:
While just to keep things simple, I’m just listing items for a Kindle Fire HD, some of these will also work with other models.
Note: while most of these are free, some do require purchase of an app. Please check the price before clicking or tapping the Buy button. In many cases, they do require download of an app, even if it is free. Also, these are available to US customers, and may not be available elsewhere.
This is mostly just a listing. If you have questions about them, please free to ask by commenting on this post.
One last thing: I have used all of the apps listed here. There are certainly many other options, and I won’t guarantee that each is the best possible solution for you. 🙂
Fun things to do with your new Kindle Fire HD
- Take a picture (tap Photos: there is a camera icon)
- Send a text
- Make a phone call
- Make a videocall using Skype (Skype is installed; you may need to set up an account)
- Play Magic Piano
- Play Angry Birds Star Wars
- Get a free trial for a magazine
- Send an e-mail (E-mail is installed; you’ll need to configure your accounts, which is generally easy)
- Check the weather
- Watch webcams around the world
- Go retro and play Atari games
- Get a free e-book
- Get a free song
- Get the free app of the day
- Check out the Kindle Daily Deal
- Set up a free Flipboard account and get news and your Twitter feed
- Make plasma sounds
- Watch Netflix
- Listen to Songza
- Listen to local radio stations
- Turn the world into art with Paper Camera
- Enhance your TV experience with Zeebox
- Level a table
- Measure something
- Put a pricewatch on a Kindle book, so you know when it goes down in price
- Have your Kindle read a book out loud to you (tap towards the top middle of the page, tap Aa, tap More options, turn Text-to-Speech On)
- Chat with other people inside a book (long-press ((hold your finger or stylus on something for about a second)) something, choose Share)
- Find local movie showtimes with Fandango
- Make notes (including pictures) about who gave what with Evernote
- Play my favorite game on the Kindle Fire, the word game Dabble
- Light up the room (including flashing police lights)
- “X-Ray” a movie (Videos- Prime Videos…you can see if a movie has X-Ray or not before you start it running. Tap the screen while the movie is running, and you’ll see a choice for X-Ray: tap that, and get info about actors in that scene, including links to other movies in which they appear)
- X-Ray a book (open a book and tap towards the top middle of the screen…you’ll see the option)
- Have a Roku? “Throw” your pictures or personal videos on the screen with Juice for Roku
- Make a voice recording (perhaps have the group in the room say something appropriate for the event)
- Make a video recording
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
December 25, 2012 at 9:28 pm |
Merry Christmas, Bufo! Thanks for all you do!
December 25, 2012 at 11:52 pm |
Hello!
Maybe I miscounted but didn’t you say there is a hundred things to do with a Kindle Fire HD and you only listed 36 things to do? I am kidding you! 🙂
December 25, 2012 at 11:58 pm |
Thanks for writing, Joseph!
Thanks for catching that! I’ve corrected it.
I originally set out do do 100, but ran out of time (not things). I corrected it in a couple of places, but I didn’t realize I’d missed one.
Thanks again! I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to help make a post better and/or more accurate.
August 4, 2013 at 5:47 pm |
thx for putting this on here because i am having a yard sale and if i raise enough money im going 2 buy a blue kindle and a red kindle
August 4, 2013 at 6:13 pm
Thanks for writing, Mimi!
If you look at my post from today
https://ilmk.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/save-on-kindles-accessories/
you’ll see that the tablets are on sale right now.
Kindles don’t come in red and blue, but you can get “skins” that will apply to them and those do come in red and blue (and lots of other designs).
Good luck with the yard sale!
February 27, 2013 at 9:54 pm |
Number 3 on the list leading to Magic Jack app was astounding–you can make free calls, as advertised. I have one question that I haven’t been able to run down, however. Has anybody had the problem of not being to delete particular numbers? I’ve only found the option of deleting all your numbers. Not important, I guess, but it bugs me.
March 3, 2013 at 2:41 pm |
Thanks for writing, danny63!
What problem are you having? In Magic Jack, I tap the Contacts button. If I am on the Magic Jack list (as opposed to the Android list…I have both), I long press (hold my finger or stylus on it for about a second). When I do, I get a choice to “Edit”, and tapping that gives me a choice to “Delete”.
Hm…that’s deleting the contact. Are you trying to delete one number for a specific contact?
March 3, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Thanks for clearing this up. The list in question is called the calls list and it is accessed by pressing on the recent icon..I was trying to save numbers there instead of entering them in contacts. How stupid! Also have trouble with touch screens so I was calling people I didn’t mean to. Mr. Low Tech strikes again. But I love the app–thanks for writing about it.
March 25, 2013 at 1:27 pm |
Hi – a general app query : my daughter uses the maps app from Google on her iPhone – and it’s really good. Is it possible to download this app onto the Kindle Fire?
March 26, 2013 at 2:36 pm |
Thanks for writing, Janine!
Google Maps would generally be downloaded from Google Play. Google has chosen not to recognize the Kindle Fire as a device for download from Google Play. I put it that way because it appears not to be an actual question of whether or not apps from there would work on the device, since you can get some of them from other sources.
For example, there is
http://www.1mobile.com/
I checked that one for Google Maps, and it didn’t have it…which didn’t surprise me. My guess is that Google will keep close tabs on that one.
You can use the web-based version of Google Maps, which will give you directions (but not, I think, turn by turn). I get to it through the Maxthon browser on my Fire.
You can also get other map apps through the Amazon Appstore:
Kindle Fire compatible map apps at Amazon
Not every app is compatible with every Kindle Fire model…you do want to check that before you get the app.
March 26, 2013 at 9:29 pm
thanks for your comments – (you’re so speedy!) I thought this would be the answer… Why Google should single out the Kindle as not being worthy I can’t imagine – you can download this app to just about every other device known to man. I haven’t found a map app at Amazon that comes anywhere near Google maps. If you hear of any shift in this Google resistance, please post it big and bold!
Cheers.
March 27, 2013 at 12:01 am
Thanks for writing, Janine!
If the Play store ever recognizes the Kindle Fire, I’ll certainly trumpet it. 🙂
As to why…well, Google and Amazon are clearly competitors, and they’ve been on opposite sides of some things. Amazon has allowed competitors to have apps in its Appstore (Netflix, for example, which is a competitor to Amazon’s Instant Video), but not everybody does that. Maybe I’ll try some apps and let you know…
April 10, 2013 at 7:03 pm |
The main thing I want to do on an electronic reader is read blogs on wordpress.com and be able to write comments! What do you think is the best e reader for that specific purpose?
April 10, 2013 at 7:20 pm |
Thanks for writing, smoothreentry!
It’s easy enough to read blogs on, say, the Kindle Paperwhite. The Paperwhite is the most comfortable reading experience I’ve had, including reading on paper. You can read them on the “Mindle”, for that matter (that’s the least expensive Kindle).
Commenting, though, is going to be more difficult. Short comments are doable, but you don’t have a keyboard and can’t attach one. For that reason, the Kindle Keyboard might be a better bet (but even there, lengthy comments may be a challenge). Another important thing to note is that you’ll have to go from the Kindle-packaged blog to the website to actually make the comment.
A tablet with Bluetooth (like the Kindle Fire HD), lets you use a full-sized keyboard, if you think you want that.
If all I wanted to do is what you describe, I’d probably go with the
Kindle Keyboard wi-fi only
although Amazon appears to be out of the wi-fi only version right now. That moves you up to the 3G version at $139 in the USA at time of writing:
Kindle Keyboard with wi-fi and 3G
At that point, for $60 more you can get a Kindle Fire HD (but you would pay separately for a Bluetooth keyboard, if you wanted that). That might be worth it if you also visit other websites, watch movies, use apps (like Flipboard, which is how I get to the blogs I read, usually) and games, read magazines…and don’t already carry another tablet or other mobile device that can do that:
Kindle Fire HD 7″
I’m always reluctant to say that anything is the best, because people are so different, but I hope that helps.
April 10, 2013 at 7:23 pm |
I have a Kindle Keyboard LOL. I wonder what I am doing wrong that is making it hard to read wordpress.com blogs? I am going under “experimental” to get to the web browser.
I will check for firmware update when I get home…
Also, I just found out about the “Send to Kindle” plug-in for chrome. That is huge!
April 10, 2013 at 8:55 pm |
Thanks for writing, smoothreentry!
You can subscribe to many of the
WordPress blogs in the Kindle store
which is what I had thought you might be doing. 🙂
You do pay for those (this one is ninety-nine cents a month, for example), and it’s a way to support the author (I’m very grateful to my subscribers).
However, you aren’t able to comment directly from there.
Yes, Send to Kindle is great! 🙂
June 4, 2013 at 1:45 am |
[…] try not to write too much just about the Kindle Fire (although one of my purely Kindle Fire posts has become one of the most popular in the blog). I did write about a Kindle Fire sale earlier, but […]
July 9, 2013 at 1:04 am |
[…] mean I’m going to exclude the Fire. Interestingly to me, one of my most popular posts is Fun things to do with your new Kindle Fire HD. I’m going to add a couple of apps to it, and I thought I’d mention them here as […]
August 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm |
[…] Fun things to do with your new Kindle Fire HD […]
April 18, 2014 at 2:49 am |
Im tryin to purchase a kindle,im just wantin to know,will i be able to browse the web,do facebook,instragram,play candy crush,play music.watch movies,take pictures.and how much would my activation fee be monthly? Like to.get the kindle up and running
April 18, 2014 at 2:36 pm |
Thanks for writing, Angela!
In order to do those things, you would need a Kindle Fire (other Kindles can’t do several things on your list).
A Kindle HDX would do many of them well. The only issue would be taking pictures. Only the 8.9″ has a rear-facing camera. The 7″ has a front-facing camera, which is mainly for videocalls (although I have taken pictures with it).
There is no activation or monthly fee for a Kindle. To use it effectively, you need to connect it to the internet. If you have wi-fi at home, that can work well. If you want a model with 4G access (similar to a cellphone), you would need a data plan for it, and you would pay for that monthly…but not to Amazon.
While not required, the $99 annual Prime service really enhances the use of a Kindle Fire. It is primarily a shipping service (two-day shipping at no additional cost on many items), but also has lots of no additional cost video (which would match your desire to watch movies).