Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual

The Missing Credits

About the Author

Peter Meyers designs, speaks, and writes about digital books. For more than two decades, he’s worked at the intersection of writing and technology. He cofounded Digital Learning Interactive, a pioneering multimedia textbook publisher (sold in 2004 to Thomson Learning). Peter has also written about the strange and wonderful effects of computers on mainstream culture for many publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Salon, and the Village Voice. During a five-year tour of duty at O’Reilly Media he worked in the Missing Manual group, serving as managing editor and associate publisher. He’s also the author of Best iPad Apps and Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience. Peter’s undergraduate degree is from Harvard, where he studied American history and literature, and he has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives with his wife and two daughters in “upstate Manhattan” (aka Washington Heights). Online, you can find his blog at http://newkindofbook.com and his tweets at http://twitter.com/petermeyers.

About the Creative Team

Nan Barber (editor) has been working with the Missing Manual series since its inception. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, a variety of electronic gadgets, and a stack of dictionaries. Email: [e-mail].

Holly Bauer (production editor) resides in Ye Olde Cambridge, MA. She’s a production editor by day and an avid home cook, prolific DIYer, and mid-century modern furniture enthusiast by night/weekend. Email: [e-mail].

Carla Spoon (proofreader) is a freelance writer and copy editor. An avid runner, she works and feeds her tech gadget addiction from her home office in the shadow of Mount Rainier. Email: [e-mail].

Ron Strauss (indexer) specializes in the indexing of information technology publications of all kinds. Ron is also an accomplished classical violist and lives in northern California with his wife and fellow indexer, Annie, and his miniature pinscher, Kanga. Email: [e-mail].

Rachel Roumeliotis (technical reviewer) is an editor at O’Reilly Media, Inc. She has been a bibliophile for as long as she can remember and is very interested in seeing where the book business is going and how she can be a part of it. She has too many books both on her shelves and in her Kindles. Email: [e-mail].

Acknowledgments

The Missing Manual series doesn’t accept ads, but I can’t resist kicking these thanks off with an uncompensated word of gratitude to the makers of Cafe du Monde. Friends, this is some writing-friendly coffee! In the department of humans that helped, Brian Sawyer gave me the green light on this project and to him I am grateful. At Amazon, both Kevin Molloy and Leslie Letts were patient, valuable guides to the Fire. They answered many questions that I would have had to spend hours hunting down on my own. On a related note, technical reviewer Rachel Roumeliotis did a thorough job of spotting missing or confusing explanations. Indexer Ron Strauss put together the subject finder at the back of this book; as a huge fan of that overlooked art, I wanted to say thanks for doing such a great job on that front. What this book contains, of course, is more than just words, and for the finely polished images and labels I wanted to tip my hat to an old pal, Rob Romano. Equally important is Holly Bauer’s work; each page layout is a beautifully crafted combo of words and pictures thanks to her fine interior design skills. Speaking of prose: My editor Nan Barber has demonstrated why she belongs in the Missing Manual Hall of Fame; thanks to her, with ample help from proofreader Carla Spoon, lots o’ flab and fuzzy verbiage got trimmed and clarified.

On the home front, this writing project couldn’t have happened if not for the help of various NYC-based SilverMeyers who pitched in on the babysitting front. My Mom and Dad, my sister Jen, Aunt Madge, and Grandma and Grandpa Silverman: Thanks to you all for freeing me up to stay in my writing cave. To my girls Willa and Esme: Thank you for giving me the incentive every day to write faster. You wee tots will always be more entertaining than any gadget. And, Ms. Esme, I hope I have succeeded in eliminating enough “boring” words to make this book interesting—that’s a tough one! Finally, to Lisa, for giving up almost a full season’s worth of weekends, for supporting her guy’s gadget jones, and for making it possible for me to do what I love: Thank you; you are the real fire in my life.

—Peter Meyers

The Missing Manual Series

Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don’t come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index and cross-references to specific pages (not just chapters). Recent and upcoming titles include:

Access 2010: The Missing Manualby Matthew MacDonald

Buying a Home: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner

CSS: The Missing Manual, Second Edition, by David Sawyer McFarland

Creating a Website: The Missing Manual, Third Edition, by Matthew MacDonald

David Pogue’s Digital Photography: The Missing Manual by David Pogue

Dreamweaver CS5.5: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland

Droid 2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Droid X2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Excel 2010: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald

Facebook: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by E.A. Vander Veer

FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual by Susan Prosser and Stuart Gripman

Flash CS5.5: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover

Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Galaxy Tab: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Google+: The Missing Manual by Kevin Purdy

Google Apps: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner

Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover

HTML5: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald

iMovie ’11 & iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and Aaron Miller

iPad 2: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer

iPhone: The Missing Manual, Fifth Edition by David Pogue

iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual by Craig Hockenberry

iPhoto ’11: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and Lesa Snider

iPod: The Missing Manual, Tenth Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer and David Pogue

JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by David Sawyer McFarland

Living Green: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner

Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual by David Pogue

Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual by David Pogue

Microsoft Project 2010: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore

Motorola Xoom: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Netbooks: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer

NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla

Office 2010: The Missing Manual by Nancy Connor, Chris Grover, and Matthew MacDonald

Office 2011 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover

Palm Pre: The Missing Manual by Ed Baig

Personal Investing: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore

Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual by Lesa Snider

Photoshop Elements 10: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage

PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual by Brett McLaughlin

PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander Veer

Premiere Elements 8: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover

QuickBase: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner

QuickBooks 2012: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore

Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition by David Pogue

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual by John Broughton

Windows Vista: The Missing Manual by David Pogue

Windows 7: The Missing Manual by David Pogue

Word 2007: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover

Your Body: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald

Your Brain: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald

Your Money: The Missing Manual by J.D. Roth

For a full list of all Missing Manuals in print, go to www.missingmanuals.com/library.html.