It’s time again to clean out the mailbox for some of the questions I’ve received several times and to give you an update on what’s happening over at the Gallagher homestead. If you would like to write to me, my email address is Michael at fkbooksandtips dot com (I type it out that way in a small effort to try and thwart the email spammers).
Vacation Time
By the time this post hits the wires sending it throughout the world to your Kindles, computers, smartphones, and who knows where else, I will officially be on vacation. While I will be lugging around a laptop with me for work purposes, I’m not planning on getting in more trouble than necessary with my family by sitting in front of it unless I have to. Don’t worry, as I have already pre-posted several things to keep you busy and tide you over until I get back home a little over a week from now on the 16th.
My parents will be celebrating their 50th anniversary soon, and they are taking my family and my sister’s family on a really neat trip that’s going to be a lot of fun. My kids and my sister’s kids are the same age, and we don’t get everyone together as much as we would like so I’m looking forward to sitting back, relaxing a bit, and making some memories!
Giveaways
Lots of folks have emailed me asking when the next giveaway for a Kindle Fire or Keyboard will be. Hmmm….the short answer is “real soon.” The longer answer is I highly recommend you watch the posts to the blog over the next few days because you certainly don’t want to miss anything special!
Commenting on Blog Posts
After a lot of thought and input from many of you, I changed the comment features on the blog’s website (go to www.fkbooksandtips.com) and eliminated the basic WordPress comment features and incorporated a Facebook comment tool. If you click on the individual title of a post, even this one, at the bottom you will see a revised area for you to add comments to a post as well as icons you can click with your mouse to share the post via email, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, or Pinterest.
There is also a “Send” and “Like” button at the top of each post so you can easily share a post with your Kindle-owning friends who don’t follow this blog (and you need to tell them they should!).
I realize some of you don’t “do” Facebook and that’s okay – unfortunately, right or wrong, the non-Facebook users are in the minority and the blog needed a more-robust commenting and sharing tool as the standard one with WordPress had some limitations.
I encourage you to interact with your fellow blog readers – for example, if you see a book or tip posted and really like it, share that with your fellow blog readers! On the other hand, if there is a book you thought was awful or there is a Kindle tip posted you think could be improved upon, let us know by adding a comment!
While the section above talked about incorporating the Facebook commenting plugin, the blog’s Facebook page is still very active! You can check it out by clicking here or typing in www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your web browser.
One thing you may want to check out every couple of days or each day (I do) is the section on the right-hand side of the blog’s Facebook page titled “Recent Posts by Others on Free Kindle Books and Tips.” Many independent authors and publishers stop by and post about their books being free – I can’t post each and every title to the blog, and there are many gems – and a few stinkers – authors are posting about I have picked up and enjoyed.
If you haven’t given the blog’s Facebook page a “Like,” I’d appreciate your taking ten seconds to stop by and click the “Like” button! You can check it out by clicking here or typing in www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your web browser.
The Blog’s Free App for the Kindle Fire and Android-Smartphones
I’ve been overwhelmed and a little humbled at the number of people who have downloaded the blog’s free app from the Amazon App Store and the Google Play Store. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is a free app you can install on your Fire or Android-enabled smartphone or tablet computer that delivers the blog to one of those devices. A little over 250,000 people have downloaded and installed this app to their devices!
Here is where you can download and install the blog’s app for free:
Amazon App Store: click here or type in http://amzn.to/freefireapp into your web browser.
Google Play Store: click here or type in http://bit.ly/fkbtgoogle into your web browser.
I am having the app developer make some enhancements to the app, and a new version should be out in about two weeks or so – once I get back from vacation. If you have previously installed the app, don’t worry about any updates: you’ll receive a notification from either Amazon or Google letting you know an update is available if you don’t have “allow automatic updating” turned on.
Checking the Time on Your Kindle
Many people have emailed me asking how do you check the time on your Kindle?
While I am sure there are numerous ways to check the time on your Kindle, here is how I do it:
For my e-Ink Kindles, I press the “Menu” button one time. Look at the top line of the Kindle’s display in the middle to see the current time.
For my Kindle Fire, the time is displayed on the home screen and the individual tabs – look at the top line of the Fire’s display in the middle to see the current time. When you are reading a book or playing a game, for example, the time is not displayed. When you are reading a book and want to know the current time, just tap the middle of the screen: you’ll still be in your book, but the time will pop up at the top portion and middle of your screen.
Changing the Time on Your Kindle
In addition to wanting to know the time, several folks want to know how you change the time.
That question is a little strange as, theoretically, your Kindle should adjust the time automatically. I stress the “theoretically” part as it doesn’t work all of the time and I have experienced it, also, despite synching the Kindle with a cell tower or the Amazon server. Similar to checking the time, there are several ways to change the time but the following shows how I do it:
For an e-Ink Kindle:
- Press the “Home” button to go to the home screen.
- Press the “Menu” button.
- Select the “Settings” option.
- Press the next page button until you see the “Device Time” option; scroll down to highlight and select the “Device Time” option.
- A new pop-up screen will appear – set the time, then scroll down and either “Save” or “Cancel’ this change.
For a Kindle Fire:
- Press the “Home” icon to go to the home screen.
- You need to activate the main menu screen (or whatever it is called, I’m blanking right now as I am typing although I have a Fire right in front of me) – the way I do it is to tap the battery indicator in the top right-hand corner.
- A new menu with icons will pop-up on your Fire: choose the “More” icon on the right-hand side (looks like a plus symbol inside a circle).
- Scroll down and tap the “Date & Time” line which will open up a new menu option.
- I have my Fire setup to automatically adjust the time when it syncs with a Wi-Fi network. To manually adjust the time, for the “Automatic” menu option (the first line of this new menu option), tap the “Off” icon.
- Tap the arrow to the right of the “Set Time” line.
- Adjust the time. Once you have completed this, you can either “Save” or “Cancel” your change. Tap the “Save” icon.
- You should now be at the previous menu item. If you are happy with what you changed, you can exit back to the home screen by tapping the “Home” icon. If you want to change the date, you can tap that menu item on this screen and use the same steps as you did to change the time.
Hmmm…maybe I should write a Fire Tips & Tricks book?
Anyway, I hope each of you have a great weekend!
Michael
Posted in: Giveaways, Kindle Fire, Kindle Tips, Misc. and Random Stuff
