Profiles are here for the KFHDX

Profiles are here for the KFHDX

This morning, my Significant Other brought me their

Kindle Fire HDX 7″ (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

unable to get into it.

It had updated the system software, with what turned out to be a significant update…and wanted a password to get into the device, which hadn’t been true before for my SO.

I think, from looking at it, that occurred because I have set up Kindle FreeTime profiles on the account…it appeared to be intended to keep children out of the device. I actually set them up for our dogs, just testing it out for my readers. 🙂

Fortunately, I knew that password…and it worked.

The look of the interface is different (I’d say it is…crisper, easier to read. That also goes for the icons: the e-mail icon no longer has that gray background, for example), and there are some feature changes.

They list:

• A personalized experience with profiles (for the US, UK, and Germany): it allows for individual e-mail, game levels, movie locations, pages in books, Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is clearly the big change, and I’ll have to explore it more. I don’t know yet if this has anything to do with the Family Library, which will allow (some) sharing of e-books between accounts
• Office Document: I already have a Microsoft Office app on my Fire I like (OfficeSuite Professional 7 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*), but this apparently also backs up Office files automatically to your Amazon Cloud Drive…allowing access on other devices
• Longer battery life: this uses Smart Suspend to prolong battery life while it sleeps
• New weather app
• Full screen immersive mode: apps and games will now fill the entire screen (you’ll swipe for controls)
• Backup and restore: this sounds nice! You have to turn it on, but it will store your configuration (bookmarks, even wi-fi configurations) to the Cloud for free making it easier to set up a new device

Since mine hasn’t updated yet (I’ll see if I can update it manually…these updates can roll out over weeks), I’ll do a quick comparison of the two devices:

• When you are unlocking them, the lockscreen has just a chevron (an arrow without a stick) on the new one…the old one had a padlock
• The lockscreen entry has a more transparent background
• The lockscreen entry says “Go” rather than “OK”
• On the homescreen, the clock is on your right, rather than in the middle
• As mentioned, there are some icon changes
• On the new one, it appears I needed to reenter the password for the AOL account…I’m guessing we’ll need to do that on mine as well when it updates, since we can now have separately protected e-mails
• Swiping down from the top has the same choices…although weirdly, autorotate now looks like it goes anticlockwise, rather than clockwise…what was the point of that change? Feels like it is just change for change’s sake
• Settings has some significant differences. There is a new category for “Household Profiles”. You can add a new adult or child (you have up to four child accounts, and two adult accounts, which will be, I believe, the same thing for the Family Library). When you go to add an adult, it sys, “Pass the device to new user: We’ll need  the preson you are adding to this household to login using their Amazon account. Please make sure they are available to take the tablet for the next step”. So, this is for the Family Library! Let me jump out of the bullet points for this

When you add the Adult Profile, it says, “If you share an account, you must set up a new Amazon account to share the customized experience”. Interesting…does it benefit Amazon for you to have multiple accounts? Sure! Some things are only good per account, and it looks good when they are selling services to other businesses, which I think is increasingly becoming their main business. I’ve commented on that in regards to the Amazon Echo
: I think what people aren’t getting about it is that Amazon never needs to make money by selling things to people if they can make money by charging other companies to use Amazon to sell things to people.

I know this is a sidestep here, but I think it’s important. Amazon is becoming our retail infrastructure. Let’s say I want to buy something from, oh, Target (from their website). If I can just ask my hypothetical Amazon Echo to do that for me, I would. If Amazon then charges Target for me having done it, they can make money with very little cost to them. If they actually do the fulfillment for Target (the shipping…via drone, or as recently was announced as a trial, taxi…and maybe the same day) they can charge Target and make more money.

This doesn’t need to be just physical products: it can be digital content as well…even, possibly, your internet.

The Amazon Echo isn’t a store…it’s the road that takes you to the store (and everywhere else).

Imagine if you owned the roads fifty years ago…and could charge every store (and doctor’s office and movie theatre and…) when people used them.

Of course, they won’t monopolize the internet…it will simply be a choice consumers make, for the convenience…no monopoly there, right?

Okay, back to the update…

• The new one says “Wireless & VPN”, rather than just “Wireless”: the old one does have VPN options
• “Device” has been relabeled “Device Options”: those have more choices…including the ability to change the name of the device from the device itself. That’s also where you’ll find “Backup & Restore”. It will backup automatically once a day
• Enable ADB is no longer available…that was something that could “Enable Kindle developers to debug over USB”…not something people used much, if at all
• I was guessing that the Shopping might have changed, and there is a new category for “Fire Accessories”, but otherwise, it looks pretty similar. Looking at the Bookstore, it also looks similar

I’m guessing mine will update soon, but I think that’s enough of a comparison for right now. If you have specific things for me to check on the new on this morning, let me know…I might get to check a few yet this morning.

Oh, one more big thing! They’ve really changed the system software numbering system! My old one is 13.3.2.6…the new one says “Fire OS 4.1.1”.

If you want to update it manually, here’s the page:

Kindle Fire HDX update page (at AmazonSmile*)

 

Join hundreds of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.