Dust off your old Kindle Fire with a new launch screen

Has your Kindle Fire lost its initial appeal to you? Are you left unimpressed with the stock launch screen, and menus? Would you prefer a more Android feel to your Fire?

Fear not! It is possible to breath new life into your Kindle Fire, with out the need to root it. You get to keep all of the functionality that you have grown accustom to with your kindle fire, just with a new look and new feel to it.

Head over to the forums at Android Central http://forums.androidcentral.com/amazon-kindle-fire/223701-how-get-go-launcher-ex-work-kindle-fire.html and follow the simple steps to sideload the go launcher onto your device now.

New devices

So lots has happened in the world of the Kindle Fire since I last posted to this site. They introduced the Fire HD in different sizes and price points. A lower price if you are willing to allow them to subsidize the cost of the device by shoving ads down your throat, or a higher price to have the ads removed. The good thing is that they decided to allow you to buy the subsidized device then if you feel the ads are too intrusive for a fee you can have them removed later. I will post a side by side comparison of the different devices in the coming days.

Sorry for the lack of updates.

While I am in love with my Kindle Fire and never leave the house without it, especially if I am going to be stuck on a bus or train somewhere, I have not had the time to sit down and update reviews of different apps that I have installed and tested on the device. That will hopefully change in the coming months, as I plan to review several different software applications that I loaded onto my Kindle Fire.

Amazon to push update to Fire software soon.

While I have not really experienced any of the issues that people have been complaining about, other than having to reboot the device because of WiFi problems on a single occasion, which was probably caused by one of the apps that I had installed on the device anyhow, it is nice to see that there is going to be a software update to the firmware of the fire.

The only thing I am looking forward to seeing if they fixed is the ability to choose your own input device, so that we can install Swype on our devices with out needing to root them.

The update should be automatic, and is scheduled to go out over the next 2 weeks or so. I would advise you to keep your WiFi on when you are within range at home so that you can get the new update.

WiFi Analyzer

WiFi Analyzer is a free program for Android devices. This is one of the first programs that I installed on my Fire when I got it. It is an extremely impressive little program. It will show you all of the near by wireless access points, their signal strength, and channel that they operate on. This is extremely useful if you are trying to set up a wireless network for the first time, or attempting to optimize or troubleshoot WiFi connectivity.

I would say that this is a must have app for just about everyone.

Send documents (PDF files) to your Fire.

One of the more practical uses that I have for my Kindle Fire is that I store all of the user manuals for the various hardware that I install and troubleshoot on the device. I had them all stored on my nettop, but it can be a hassle to lug around my netbook all of the time. The Fire fits nicely in the back pocket of my jeans, or the inside pocket of my jacket.

To add PDF files, or other documents to your Kindle Fire, all you need to do is find out what your @kindle.com email address is. You can easily find this out by going to the home screen, then clicking DOCS. At the top of the screen it will say "send documents to xxxxxxx@kindle.com (the xxxxxx being whatever username that is set up for your Kindle)

Now all you have to do is open up your email client on your PC, and send the PDF file(s) or other documents as an attachment and they will appear in the DOCS folder of your Fire. Your Fire will need to be connected to the internet in order to download these documents onto the device.

Pulse not updating? (how to force an app closed)

Sometimes the Pulse RSS feed reader that was included with the Fire gets stuck and will not update.

Currently the only option to get this to fix itself is to force the app to close. The way that we do this is that we swipe the gear at the top right corner, then click the more link, then click on the applications link.
From there we can see a list of all of the running applications , third party applications, or all applications. The best thing to do is just to leave it at running applications, and scroll down to Pulse - or whatever app you want to force closed. At the top of the page, right underneath the name of the app there will be a button that says "Force Stop" click this button and the program should shut down.

Now go back to the home screen, and choose the app again, and it should refresh like normal.

Don't forget, you are not limited to the suggested sites that Pulse provides to you. You can search for your favorite sites RSS feed and add it to your Pulse feed. *Not all Pulse features will work with out an internet connection (such as images or videos), so if you use your Pulse feed for reading material on the subway, as I do, sites like The Art of Trolling, which is mostly a photo blog will not display the images while you are not connected to the internet. Also, not all sites syndicate their entire content on their RSS feed, many will only provide just a portion of the articles or posts that are on their website. While you have internet connectivity this is not a problem, you can just click through to view the entire post/article, however reading in an area where you do not have an internet connection will not allow you the ability to view the entire post/article for all RSS feeds (just something to keep in mind)