Fire Software Update 6.2.2, Kindle Lending Library, and Send to Kindle

I had some other things planned for today, but last night we were surprised by the release of a new software update for the Kindle Fire, version 6.2.2! It doesn't seem to have so many drastic changes as 6.2.1, but there are a few nice changes that are worth getting into. Note that there isn't an Amazon page for this update, but you can direct download the file by clicking HERE, downloading it to your computer, and then copy it to the kindleupdate folder on your Fire. Hitting the update button in in your device settings after that is necessary. Otherwise, it'll get pushed onto your Fire sometime in the near future. To check what version you have, go to Quick Settings > More > Device, and then check your System Version.

One nice new feature is the ability to go full-screen by tapping a cluster of arrows on the far right of the action bar. Credit goes to Ken Geraths for supplying this image of the new feature, which allows us to hide the status bars to make better use of the entire screen. Much needed, in my opinion.

With the new update, some people are reporting issues with flash videos playing, or to be more specific, with them not playing. The way to correct this is to access your browser settings, go to flash support, and turn it to On or On Demand. Otherwise, there don't seem to be too many more noticeable changes. We'll let you know if we find anything new.

Borrowing Kindle Books from the Prime Lending Library

Yesterday someone wanted to use the borrow option to get The Kindle Fire Department Compendium, and it seemed to me that there might be more people out there who aren't sure how to do this. If you have a new Kindle Fire, you get a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, which includes 1 free book borrow per month. So don't let it go to waste! Fun fact: borrowing a book like this puts $1.70 into the pocket of the author, and costs you nothing! So let's do a walkthrough of how to do this.

All this needs to be done on your Fire, so pick up the device, tap books, then store, and check out the menu and its option for Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

You can then search through for the book you want. Keep an eye out for a little Prime symbol with a checkmark, letting you know that any particular book is part of the Lending Library. When you find a book you'd like to borrow, you'll see an option called Borrow for Free right next to the Buy button.

And then you'll have access to the book you selected. If you'd like more information on this, check out Amazon's instructions HERE.

Amazon's New Send to Kindle App

We got another great surprise last night as well, a great new way to send documents to our Kindles from Windows PC's. It's called Send to Kindle, and it allows you to store documents in your archive and access them from your devices. Note that this service functions for free over WiFi, or you can do it over whispersync for a small fee.

Some nice features of this are that you'll have an option to use Send to Kindle whenever you right click on a file, and of course you can access these files right on your Kindle devices. Here are some Help Page Instructions. And again, you can get the Send to Kindle program HERE. A screenshot:

So there are lots of new things to play with today. Stay tuned for some free and bargain apps later this afternoon!