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iOS 17 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: Install the Google Play Store on Your Kindle Fire Without Rooting

Deep down inside, Kindle Fires are actually Android tablets — the only trouble is, Amazon has layered so much of a skin on top of it all that you can't normally use Android's main app store, the Google Play Store. The Amazon Appstore, which comes bundled with Kindle Fire devices, only has about 600,000 apps, so it would be great if you could access Google Play's library, which boasts 2.8 million.

Urgent: If You Own an Older Kindle, You Must Do This Immediately

If you want your Kindle to connect to the internet, you have to install the latest update for Kindle devices (not the Kindle Fire) by today. Amazon released a statement urging Kindle users to install a "critical software update" by March 22nd to maintain the Kindle's internet capability, which includes accessing and downloading Kindle books from the online store or any other internet-required service.

News: Drop That Kindle—Amazon Removes Encryption Support for Fire Tablets (Update: It's Coming Back)

If you have personal information stored on a Kindle Fire tablet, be warned that Amazon has removed encryption support for Fire OS 5. So if you have stuff on these devices...maybe a risque book, or private notes, or pictures you'd rather not let out to the world, now would be the time to remove them. And unless Amazon changes its mind and re-enables encryption, don't use your device for anything personal, as anyone who gets a hold of it will be able to gain access to everything on it.

News: Amazon Echo Is Google for Your Living Room

You have to give Amazon credit where it's due. Aside from being a retail powerhouse, they're not averse to dipping their feet in new and sometimes strange areas. Take Fresh, the first major effort at bringing your local goods directly to you in same-day fashion. Or Amazon Dash, which aimed to make adding items to your cart a breeze by allowing for scanning goods or speaking them into a small, hand-held device. Along these lines, the company has now introduced an invite-only product, the Amazo...

How To: Install Flash on Any Kindle Fire

With so much Flash content still available on the web, it's unfortunate that Google no longer supports mobile Flash Player on Android. Loading a webpage only to be met with a "Plug-in Error" is never fun, and it can inhibit your mobile browsing experience as you attempt to watch a video or play an addicting Flash game.

How To: Quickly Close & Switch Apps on the Fire Phone

Aside from a collection of new features, like Carousel Pinning, the latest update to the Amazon Fire Phone also ushered in Quick Switch functionality, allowing for quickly switching between or closing recent apps. Like the majority of mobile devices, this is our primary tool in multitasking as it allows us to easily jump from app to app, or close them with a flick.

How To: Create App Folders on the Amazon Fire Phone

The first thing we usually do with a new smartphone is download apps, and lots of them. There are your must-have games, utility apps, and of course—the free daily "app of the day" from Amazon. If you're like me, you'll install every single one of these free apps, and whether they get used or not, they'll be waiting in the app drawer.

How To: Replace Your Kindle's Broken E Ink Display Yourself

The reason Amazon's Kindle has become so popular over the past several years is due to the amount of digital books one can fit inside—over 1,000 for the smallest Kindle. Gone are the days of lugging around heavy books to school and the airport. Instead we can fit our e-readers snugly inside our bags and never worry about forgetting a book.

How To: Root the New Kindle Fire HD

Yesterday, the entire Internet was talking about how the new Kindle Fire HD was supposed to be incredibly difficult to hack. Turns out, the folks over at XDA Developers are smarter than they thought—one day later, the mystery has already been solved. The exploit is the same one found by sparkym3 in Ice Cream Sandwich, but Amazon must have forgotten to patch it. As with any root, you can cause some serious damage, or brick your device completely if it's not done properly, so proceed at your ow...

How To: Add Your Own Custom Screensaver Images to Your Kindle Lock Screen

Don't be too disappointed if you don't have the spiffy new Kindle Touch, there is an up side. The benefit to owning the older (duller) models is that the firmware remains the same throughought generations, so the hacks retain their usefulness. This has given the modding community for Kindle a bunch of time to flourish, with tons of great code, hacks and homebrew. Today's Null Byte is going to show you how you can root, and then remove the crappy original screensavers that come installed on th...

How To: Remove Amazon's DRM from Any Kindle eBook

Want to drop Amazon's DRM from a Kindle eBook you've purchased? As the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way. And, in this case, there are actually a couple of ways: One method uses Calibre and works for both Windows and Mac users, the other uses an AppleScript and is Mac exclusive. To maximize the usefulness of this guide, we've chosen to excerpt a tutorial that uses the OS-agnostic method. Mac users looking to find a writeup of the latter method, however, should look here.

How To: Buy a new eBook on an Amazon Kindle 2 eReader

Interested in adding a new book to your digital collection? It's easy! And this brief video tutorial from the folks at Butterscotch will teach you everything you need to know. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started buying and downloading eBooks from the Amazon bookstore to your own Kindle 2 or Kindle 3 eReader, take a look.

How To: Remove DRM on your Kindle

You've got a Kindle, and you've bought your first ebooks! Did you know that you don't have complete control over those books you bought? Amazon restricts your use of ebooks with DRM, or Digital Rights Management, that prevents you from transferring your purchases to other devices, or copying them. Watch this video to learn how to strip your Kindle ebooks of the DRM, and really own your content!

How To: Put music and text files onto an Amazon Kindle

See how easy it is to install media on your Amazon Kindle! CNET Quick Tips shows you how to use the USB cable to put your own documents on the Kindle to read later. You can add music and text files by simply dragging and dropping the files onto the Kindle from your computer. This video makes it all look so easy.

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