In its short time on the market, Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet has made quite a splash. Its affordable $199 price tag is probably its most appealing characteristic, but the Fire has plenty more to offer as well. If you just took the plunge into the tablet world by purchasing a Kindle Fire of your own, you are probably chomping at the bit to load it up with apps. In fact, the Kindle Fire’s wider app selection may have been what pushed you to choose it over the competing Nook Tablet in the first place. To help you get started, here are some of the best apps for beginners to help you get the most out of the Fire.

Imo Instant Messenger

Imo Instant Messenger is a necessity for anyone who enjoys chatting with friends.  It combines pretty much all of the top instant messaging platforms into a single app, including AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Facebook, Google Talk, Skype, and more.  Initiating the chat is as easy as logging into your pre-existing accounts.  The app boasts the capability to send multimedia attachments, as well as to save chat files and run multiple messengers simultaneously.  You could consider it a vital download for the Kindle Fire due to the amount of messaging services it supports.  In essence, it’s an all-in-one chatting solution that comes free of charge.

Pulse News

The Pulse News app is a great way to use your Kindle Fire to stay on top of news stories across various industries.  It’s free and allows you to add as many as 60 news sources to give you a true overview of current events going on in the world.  The app’s dashboard layout makes it easy to use, as you can tap on an article’s preview to begin reading it in its full, clean form.  To help save battery life and keep you up to date while on the go, Pulse News loads articles when you’re online and stores them for offline reading.  If you find an article that’s particularly interesting, you can easily share it with others through the app using email, Facebook, Twitter, and other avenues.

Angry Birds HD



Satisfy your gaming fix on the Kindle Fire with this extremely addictive title.  Angry Birds should be the first game to make its way onto your to-download list, as it’s fun and easy to play.  Once you get the hang of it, you will likely spend plenty of downtime slinging birds through the air with the goal of being precise as possible.  It’s one of the most popular apps around, and for good reason, so don’t miss out on all the action.  The Kindle Fire edition is available for $4.99.

Netflix

Netflix is a great companion for any frequent traveler, as it gives you an immense catalog of movies on the go.  You may be accustomed to watching streaming television shows and movies from your Netflix account on your computer or HDTV, but you can do the same with the Kindle Fire as well.  All you need is a Netflix account and the Netflix app and you are good to go.  Since everything is tied to your actual Netflix account, you will even get to start movies on the Kindle Fire wherever you left off on your other devices.  The app itself is free, but you will obviously need to pay for a streaming Netflix subscription to view the content.

Fandango



If the streaming selection on Netflix doesn’t tickle your fancy on a particular night and leaves you with the urge to go to the movies, you’ll want to check out the Fandango app first.  The free app gives you access to show times for movies as well as details in the form of reviews, trailers, and more to let you choose what you want to see.  Are you in a rush to see something right now?  Use the Go Now feature to find out which movies are playing in your area within the next hour.  In a nutshell, Fandango takes all the guesswork out of going to the movies, so add this app to ensure you have a headache-free movie-going experience.

AK Notepad

This free app for the Kindle Fire won’t wow you with its feature set, but it does provide a nice platform for taking simple notes and jotting down important reminders.  Unlike a simple Post-it note, AK Notepad gives you the ability to customize your notes with five different themes to give your notepad a more personal look.  Text size and font can be adjusted as well.  If a particular note is important, you can set a reminder to it that will notify you with settings you select for the LED color and ringtone.  You can implement #hashtags to keep organized, and to ensure that nobody else sees your notes, you can protect them using a four digit passcode.  Note sharing is a possibility too via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Mighty Grocery Shopping List



There is no shortage of shopping apps that will help keep you organized on your trips to the grocery store, but there are few as good as the Mighty Grocery Shopping List app.  Sure, it will keep a simple shopping list of the things you mean to buy, but it offers so much more that makes it a must-have.  You can create multiple shopping lists, choose favorites, and peruse a catalog of over 350 records for quick adding.  There’s a barcode scan feature, and the app will even group the items in your lists into aisles to help you get in and out of the store quicker.  The app even responds to voice commands to allow you to add or edit items in terms of name, price, or quantity.  Another highlight worth mentioning is the recipe ingredients lists that offer guidance to prevent you from forgetting any vital items.  The full version of the app costs $3.99, but if you think of how much time it could save you, it’s well worth it.

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