If you got yourself a Kindle and you are located outside of the United States, you will find that you are not able to download the Kindle app or to purchase some of the ebooks from the Kindle store. Learn how to unlock the Kindle app.

How to unlock the Kindle app

Here’s what you need to do to unlock the Kindle app from outside the US.

1. Go to Amazon.com and create an account (if you do not have an Amazon account yet).

2. Go to Manage your Kindle page and click the Country Settings at the left bottom corner.

3. Change the country selected to the United States.

4. Change the address to a US-based address. If you need the Amazon account only for purchasing and downloading ebooks (and not buying physical products), it is better to make this change. Just Google for “USA address” and you will find plenty of online services that can provide you with a free US-based address.

5. Next, register your credit card details. It doesn’t have to be a US-based credit card, as long as it is valid.

6. You should now be able to purchase and download ebooks from Kindle store.

There is more: use a US VPN service

Important! When you are purchasing ebooks, make sure you connect to the Kindle app store using a US VPN service, as Amazon checks the location of the IP address. We highly recommend two quality services: HideMyAss and ibVPN. If you know or use other providers please let us know in the comments below.

Enjoy your Kindle!

Update: One of the blog readers suggested the following: if you are not tied to USA products you can access the amazon.co.uk Kindle store, that does not require UK physical address or IP. I have not tested myself, but it may work. Thank you, Paul, for the tip!

What is a Kindle Fire?

Kindle Fire is Amazon’s tablets who has an aggressive lower price (around $199) compared to an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy Tab. It is running Android Gingerbread-based Honeycomb variant of 2.3.

Although people tend to compare the Kindle Fire to iPad, it definitely can’t be compared head-to-head. Amazon’s vice-president clearly stated that the Kindle Fire is mainly for media consumption. By the way, he estimates that if you’re planning to watch a movie on it while you are on a plane (though no Wi-Fi yet), the Kindle Fire will last 7 hours.

Despite this initial warning about comparing, the Kindle actually has the nice features of tablets: it comes with two-finger multitouch, has a “desktop-class” PDF reader.

On the “lighter” options (they had to accept some tradeoffs so as to get into that $199 price: the Kindle Fire has no camera, only comes with USB connection and its browser comes without plugins.

While the Kindle Fire has mail applications and even its applications like Twitter, Facebook or Netflix are expected to land on this device, the Kindle is mainly geared for media consumption.

Why would you need a Kindle VPN?

This is a legitimate question since media consumption can be done with files stored on the Kindle Fire. But in fact, that device has been conceived to tap into Amazon’s large database of media and publications. Moreover, it is a common trend nowadays to host his media on the cloud so as to be able to stream them from multiple devices. Well, this sounds like a gadget technology rather than a must-have device, you may think.

Well, not necessarily. Think about the following scenario: if you are a US customer and you plan to travel outside the US – unless you have loaded your Kindle Fire with all the media and books you want to read BEFORE leaving the country, you’d be in trouble. Chances are that you just can’t connect to your Kindle Fire and download the latest fiction that is available on Amazon Store once you’re away: geolocation limitation, are you there?

No built-in VPN client for Kindle Fire

If you are a regular reader of How-To-Hide-Ip, you know that under such a challenge, the usual solution is to fire a VPN to override the geolocation limitation, then you’re set. But the truth is: a Kindle Fire doesn’t come with a VPN client – or at least, it takes some headaches before setting this up.

Use a US-based router

The good thing, though, is that a full-color 7″ tablet comes with a Wi-Fi connection. And this means that, if you don’t want to worry about how to root your Android-based Kindle Fire, then you can always configure an internet router to do the Kindle VPN setting for you: get it connecting to a US-based VPN router, then have.

Once that internet router is setup (make sure it can act as a Wi-Fi access point), then all you have to do is connect via Wi-Fi to that internet gateway, then it works as a Wi-Fi AP.

Kindle VPN providers

As explained above, all you need to do in order to use VPN on your Kindle is to set the VPN on your router. Most of the VPN providers can be set up on DD-WRT or other popular types of routers. The VPN providers that I recommend are ibVPN, HideMyAss, NordVPN, IPVanish.

Conclusion

Now, all you have to do is connect to that Wi-Fi zone from your Kindle Fire. It will inherit from the internet router’s IP address (US-based), so you should be able to download your favorite book from Amazon via your Kindle Fire.