CIO — In 2013, Amazon was the third largest global manufacturer of Android tablets (9,401,846 total tablets sold to end users), behind Samsung (37,411,921) and ASUS (11,039,156), according to research firm Gartner. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX tablets may not be the best-selling Android tablets today, but they are unique and particularly well-suited for certain kinds of users — including BYOD enterprise tablet owners. (Check out my quick comparison of the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 to Apple’s iPad Air.)
Amazon’s “flavor” of the Android OS, the Fire OS 3.2, is based on Android 4.2.2 “Jelly Bean,” but in many ways it feels very different than the OS Google geeks have come to know. As such the Kindle Fire OS and Kindle Fire HDX tablets have their own sets of unique tips and tricks.
After spending time with both the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablets during the past months, I rounded up the following 10 simple tips and tricks, which every Amazon tablet owner should know.
Kindle Fire HDX “Hard Reset”
Sometimes tablets, like all electronics, misbehave. If your Kindle Fire HDX tablet ever freezes up or just starts acting funny, your first course of action should be a “hard reset,” which basically forces the device to shut down and reset itself.
To hard reset your Kindle Fire HDX, simply hold down the power button on its rear side for 20 seconds until the device shuts down. Wait a few more seconds, then turn the device back on by holding the power button until you see screen animation, and you’re good to go.
Kindle Fire OS and App ‘Collections’
You can create “Collections” of Kindle Fire apps, or folders, on your tablet’s home screen to organize your software and streamline navigation. Simply tap and hold an app you wish to add to a Collection and then drag it onto another app. A new Collection, or folder, will be automatically created, and you can add a custom name by opening the Collection and tapping on the text of the name.
You can also quickly add apps from your home-screen “carousel” to a Collection by tapping and holding the app and then choosing “Add to Collection” from the on-screen options.
I use Collections for Social Networking, Photography, and Music and Sports apps, among other things. Organizing my software into the appropriate Collections helps reduce clutter on my home screen and makes it simple to find the apps I want when I want them.
Removing Items from the Home Screen Carousel
Whenever you open a new app, service or file, the corresponding app shows up in your home screen Carousel. But I like to keep only the apps I use frequently in my Carousel, to reduce the need to scroll to access my most commonly used apps. To remove an app from your Carousel, simply hold a finger on the app you wish to remove until you see a list of options. Choose “Remove from Carousel” to delete the item from your Carousel.
Ditch the Recommendations in Your Carousel
The Kindle Fire OS, by default, shows you apps and other content related to items in your Carousel, by displaying a set of small icons beneath each item in the Carousel. The icons can be helpful for finding interesting content, but they also add clutter to your already-busy home screen. Sometimes they feel like ads, which can get tedious quickly.
Luckily, it’s easy to disable the icons. Open your Kindle Fire HDX Settings by dragging down from the top of your display and tapping the Settings option. Scroll down and tap the Home Screen option, and then disable the Show/Hide Recommendations option by tapping the button into the Hide position.
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