The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Have you ever watched a movie and wondered where you saw that actor before? Have you ever lost track of who the characters were when you’re reading a book? Have you ever wished that you could have a personal guide to help you get more information about books and movies without interrupting your experience?
Kindle X-Ray is a guide for movies and books to give you more information without having to navigate away from what you’re watching or reading. This handy tool can help you satisfy your curiosity quickly so you can get back to enjoying your movie or book with minimal interruption.
X-Ray for Movies
If you’re a movie fan, you probably have IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, bookmarked on your computer and have the app on your mobile device. When you’re watching a movie, you may be curious about where you have seen the actors before. If you’re really curious, you may want to pause a movie and navigate to IMDb so you don’t spend the movie trying to remember why their faces seem familiar.
With X-Ray for Movies, you can find out this information without having to leave the movie screen. X-Ray for Movies is a feature that was introduced last fall for the latest generation Kindle Fires.
When you watch an Amazon Instant Video on your Kindle Fire you can tap on the screen and a window will appear with the names of the actors in the scene as well as a link to IMDb. For example, If you’re wondering where you’ve seen the actor who plays Jack O’Donnell in Argo, X-Ray for Movies will tell you that the actor, Bryan Cranston, stars as Walter White on Breaking Bad and played Hal on Malcolm in the Middle.
Using X-Ray for Movies
To use X-Ray for Movies, search for a video that has the X-Ray for Movies icon in the Videos section of your Kindle Fire:
As you’re watching the movie, tap the screen of your Kindle. The X-Ray window will appear on top of the movie, in the upper left corner of the screen. The X-Ray window will show a link to IMDb and the actors who are in the current scene.
If you tap on the actor’s name, the movie will pause and a window will open showing the actor’s biography and filmography. You can tap the Play button to return to watching the movie.
What You Need to Know about X-Ray for Movies
Only certain movies have X-Ray for Movies enabled. You can find a directory of movies with the X-Ray for Movies featured enabled at the IMDb website.
Only Amazon Instant Videos have the X-Ray for Movies feature. For example, if you watch a movie using Netflix on your Kindle Fire, you will not be able to use X-Ray for Movies.
It’s just for movies. Unlike IMDB, the Internet Movie Database that also covers TV shows, the word “movies” is not a misnomer. TV shows available on Amazon Instant Video do not have this feature.
X-Ray for Movies is only available on the latest generation Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ tablets.
X-Ray for Books
Have you ever read a few chapters into a book, encountered a character’s name, and just couldn’t remember who that character was? Or perhaps you need to analyze a character for a paper you’re writing in school. Or maybe you’re curious to discover more information about a place or a character mentioned in a book.
X-Ray for Books is like a turbo-charged appendix. This tool will show you chapters and locations in a Kindle book where ideas, characters, and important places are mentioned. X-Ray for Books will also show you background information, biographies, and other facts from websites such as Shelfari and Wikipedia.
How to Use X-Ray for Books
When you’re reading a book on your Kindle, tap the screen and a toolbar will appear. Tap on X-Ray and you will be shown additional information about the characters, places and ideas in the book, along with links to external websites.
What Else You Need to Know about X-Ray for Books
X-Ray for Books works on the Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire 2nd Generation, Kindle Fire HD 7″, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″. In December, the Kindle iOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch was updated to include the X-Ray feature. This feature is not available on other Kindles nor on other Kindle apps.
X-Ray is not available on all Kindle books. Look in the listing of the book to see if X-Ray is enabled.
X-Ray for Textbooks
If you’re a student and have a textbook on your Kindle you should check out X-Ray for textbooks. X-Ray can help you easily access information within the textbook as well as link you to additional information on the Internet from sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube.
X-Ray for Textbooks is similar to X-Ray for Books, but is only available on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ and the Kindle App for iPad.
Bottom Line
X-Ray for Kindle can help you find information quickly and efficiently with minimal disruption to your viewing or reading.
When you watch a movie, are you every curious where you have seen an actor before? Have you ever wondered about a character when you were reading a book but didn’t want to bother to go back and see where he was mentioned previously? Do you hate to be interrupted when you’re watching a movie or reading a book? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Temptation
If you’re looking for a scintillating Kindle book, check out Temptation by my dear friend, Kathryn Barrett. This debut novel combines the worlds of Hollywood stars with Amish folks in an engaging story of romance.
Although I haven’t had a chance yet to finish reading it yet, I can recommend it based upon my prior experience reading Kathryn’s excellent writings during a creative writing group we joined together in England. Not surprisingly, Temptation has received 5 star reviews since it was launched earlier this week.
Temptation is available as a Kindle book for $3.99 at Amazon.
Hey Carolyn – This sounds like an interesting feature for the kindle. I am always in a dilemma when the movie I am seeing seems so familiar or the book I am reading seems like I remember having read a while back, but really cannot connect with it.
The X-ray tool does seem to come in to help clear such thoughts. Also I always tend to forget hollywood actors and get stuck when I am trying to explain a well known movie to a friend, as to the actor and his name or some of his other movies. It is so frustrating at times 🙂
Thanks for the share.
Hi Praveen, Yes, that always happens to me! I will be watching a movie, wondering where I saw the actor before and then I get so distracted, I stop paying attention until I figure it out. Even when I figure it out, I’m often wrong. 😉
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us, Praveen. Have a great weekend!
Carolyn,
I have a kindle fire. I had one the very day they were released well over a year ago. I love my kindle fire and can not say enough good things about it. Amazon excels at media content and it doesn’t surprise the new kindles have this capability. I wish the first generation had that feature. I would love it for books! Who knows maybe they will do an update and let the rest of us try it out too.
Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders
Hi Aaron, Yes, I wish that Amazon would update the firmware of the first generation Fire to give it this capability. But I do respect that they have it for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch which shows that they’re not forcing you to buy a new Kindle to get this feature.
Hello Carolyn, indeed is a great tool. I plan to buy a kindle tablet in the near future as i travel a lot and i believe it will be of great use to kill time in airports. I have an iPhone but it doesn’t satisfy me completely when it comes to stay longer and wait.
The x-ray is great to get the reviews and actors’ bio.
Hi Radu, Yes, I am very impressed with the Kindle Fire tablets. They offer a lot for the money. The screen quality is outstanding and the price is much lower than you would expect. All of these great features are handy too!
Carolyn,
Looks another interesting app from Amazon. In recent times Amazon doing great job and always coming up with very intuitive ideas and worth technically.
About X-Ray, absolutely a nice and simple tool and would help a lot. Because, it’s quite obvious often we happened to stuck those situations when we watch interesting movie with the character’s we engage.
Some time it would not so easy to get a right name from our memory though you aware the actors before. 🙂 . This tool looks nice.
Thanks for the info Carolyn.
Hi Vijay, Yes, this is a great tool from Amazon. Like you, I struggle to remember where I saw an actor before. Sometimes they look incredibly different in their roles. Even if you know where you’ve seen them before, it’s fun to look up the filmography, if it’s not too disruptive.
You’re right, Amazon is doing a great job with innovating both their hardware and their software.
Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts with us!
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but X-Ray is for most Kindles, right? And then it works only for X-Ray enabled movies and books? If so, this is definitely interesting to me because I can be pretty forgetful when it comes to remembering people’s names! Thanks for letting me know.
Hi Mike, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m like you, I can forget minor characters’ names in books. I get so caught up in the plot and in following the main characters that if secondary characters appear only sporadically in a book, I may have difficulty in keeping them straight.
No such thing as a stupid question here at The Wonder of Tech! X-Ray only works on certain Kindles. I’m not sure whether you’re asking about X-Ray for Movies, Books or Textbooks, but in each section of the article I say which Kindles and/or apps the X-Ray feature is enabled on. I hope this helps! 🙂
Great website you have, Mike!
Hmmm….I’ll need to see if I can win the updated version from Adam now.
We’re old school and still use redbox. We watched The Words last night and I was trying to figure out where I had seen the one actress before and then it came to me she was one of the characters on House. If I’d had this I could have picked it right up, huh?
Hi Bill, Yes, I’m hoping Adam does sponsor another Fire contest and that you’ll be the winner. X-Ray would help you figure out where you’ve seen actors before.
I’m rooting for you!
I I don’t own a kindle fire, but after reading this I really want one. How many times have you been watching a movies and thought “who is that actor?” Tons. This would make answering the question so much easier.
Hi Michelle, This happens to me all the time! Even if I think I have it figured out, often I’m wrong. I give a lot of credit to actors, as well as hair and makeup crew. Sometimes actors look completely different playing their different roles. Instead of spending the movie trying to figure this out, you can get the information quickly with X-Ray and you don’t even have to pause the movie.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us, Michelle.
My family wanted to get me an iPad for the holidays. I said Kindle. Love the X-ray feature for books and films! Don’t know if Apple has a similar product, but I am pretty happy with what I have.
Hi Susan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you’re pleased with both your Kindle Fire and X-Ray. The iPad doesn’t have X-Ray for movies, but X-Ray for Books is available through the Kindle iOS app.
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your comment. It’s great to hear from another fan of Kindle Fire and X-Ray! :-bd
I think that virtually every time I watch a movie, I end up searching IMDB to find out something about it. So I can see how this would be a really useful feature for a lot people.
I just think it’s crazy how information is much more readily available than the days when we had to physically go to a library! Especially now that we have things like the Kindle and of course other mobile cloud computing devices!
Hi Luc, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m just like you. I always check with IMDb, even when I recognize all of the actors and aren’t wondering where I’ve seen them before. You’re exactly right, we are very spoiled by not having to go to the library to retrieve this information.
Thanks for your visit and comment here, Luc. 🙂
This looks exciting. I get more inclined to watch if I know the character better rather than watching someone I don’t have an idea who he is.
Hi Sarah, Yes, if there is a familiar actor, we can become more engaged in a movie quickly. It’s great to figure out quickly and easily where you’ve seen that actor before.
Another wonderful gift from Kindle. It is so common to forget about a particular movie’s credit list. And the worst part, it will keep you bugging the whole day, “who was that actor ?”. Thanks to this feature, we can finally stop tapping our head and tap on the kindle screen instead.
Thanks for this great share.
Hi Rashmi, Lol, great point! Yes, I have had that where I was bugged the rest of the day trying to figure out where I knew an actor from. One simple tap on the Kindle screen and that question is answered!