Credit: Amazon.com
Since I purchased my Kindle Fire, I had a problem viewing my blog, Lingua Franca. The text and the images were too small. I had to use my fingers (pinch gesture) to enlarge the content of the screen so I could read the text and enjoy the pictures. This was cumbersome and time consuming. I contacted Amazon’s Customer Online Chat Service and they came up with a complex solution to the problem. I want to share this useful tip today. Maybe somebody out there is having the same problems and gritting their teeth and pulling their hair in desperation.
This is what the geeks at Amazon told me to do and fix the quirk.
Select the web site you’re having problems with. Then tap the bottom of the screen to open up a menu with several options. From left to right, tap the fourth icon which looks like a tiny book. This will open up several more options. Tap the tools icon which reads “Settings“, represented by a wrench and a screwdriver.
Next you will find a long list of options. Scroll down until you find the option, “Desktop or mobile view”. Tap this option. A small window will pop up with the following options:
- Automatic: Optimize for each website.
- Desktop: Optimize for desktop view.
- Mobile: Optimize for mobile.
Select the Mobile view. This option will compress the Web site to the size of your Kindle Fire’s screen, bypassing the need to resize the screen to enlarge the text and pictures. Then go ahead and refresh your Web site. You’re done! Now you’ll able to view your screen exactly the way it was designed to be—dazzling pictures and readable text. Mission Accomplished!
This is exactly why I wanted. I wonder why Amazon decided to hide this option deep down in an obscure corner of their software. They forgot what intuitiveness and simplicity really mean. Remember: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Walter Isaacson in his book about Steve Jobs, hits the nail right on the head, regarding the issue of minimalism and simplicity. This is what he wrote that resonated in my head when I encountered this pesky software inconvenience:
“When our tools don’t work, we tend to blame ourselves, for being too stupid or not reading the manual or having too-fat fingers…When our tools are broken, we feel broken. And when somebody fixes one, we feel a tiny bit more whole.”
And now you know the rest of the story. Good Day.
