Tips & Tricks: Screen Locking, Closing All Tabs, and Clearing Browser History

Last week when we asked people what they used the Fire for and what they wanted from our site, we got some interesting results in the poll and suggestions from the comments. The clear favorite for what people wanted and what people got from the Kindle Fire Department was information about their device in the articles we present each day. As a result, we'll be looking for ways to bring you more of that.

We also got a very insightful comment about the technical level of our articles. It's obviously a little difficult to always avoid topics that will be too tough for some people, but as we do strive to reach the widest possible base of Fire users, there should definitely be plenty of material that's accessible to everyone.

In that spirit, our Tips & Tricks article today will be sort of a Back to Basics lesson for those familiar with the Fire. These functions may be ones you've overlooked, of if you're new to the Fire they may be perfect to help get you familiar with your device. All in all, we hope to offer something useful to everyone with a Fire in our articles.

Locking the Screen Orientation
Considering the Fire is such a portable device, it's easy to imagine yourself in a situation where you need to stop the screen from changing from portrait to landscape view or vice-versa because of where you are or what you're doing. Setting the device flat on a surface can cause it to shift too. But there's no need to worry about twisting your wrist a bit and making the screen change if you Lock it in the Quick Settings.

All you have to do is tap the gear in the top right corner to make the Quick Settings menu appear at the top of the screen. On the far left, you'll find where it says Unlocked with an arrow around it. Tap that to toggle back and forth. Illustrations:

Closing All Tabs on Silk Browser

We've been hearing lately about an unfortunate problem people have been having with too many tabs opening when you start-up the Silk Browser. Although there is not way yet to completely prevent this, there are some ways to manage it. An important thing to remember is that tabs aren't automatically closed when you exit the browser, so you should close them yourself before you exit. That may or may not solve the problem, but even if you do open the browser and see a bunch of tabs jump out at you, this little tip should help you close them all and save you the time of individually closing every single one.

Instead of just tapping the X to close a tab and letting go, tab and hold the X until a pop-up menu appears with the option to close all tabs.

Clearing Browser Cache and History
Another possible solution to the Surprise Tabs Problem is to clear the browser cache and history. And there are other practical reasons why you may want to do this from time to time as well, the same with the browser on your laptop or PC.

After opening up a new web browser, head down to the bottom and tap the menu button, which will bring up a bar with options. Tap settings, and you'll be brought to a screen where you can configure your preferences for Saved Data. Right in the middle are the options for Clear cache and Clear history. Tap them, confirm, and then they'll be gone.

Stay tuned for more great apps this afternoon!