The company that started a new era of reading experience, has won the international design award in the category Apps for Excellent Communications Design.

Have you tried bionic reading already? 

Bionic reading is a free tool that brings an enhanced reading experience to your current e-reading device or app. How does it work?

Some parts of the words are displayed in bold text. As a result, you will be able to read faster and understand more.

The software is developed by the startup company Bionic Reading GmbH. The tool comes with an API, so that developers could create dedicated bionic apps and extensions.

The official Bionic Reading app is available for iPhone & iPad and Android. Currently, it’s free to use, but soon the company will offer a possibility to upgrade.

There are also dedicated apps for Mac and Windows. You can try bionic reading right in your browser, by going to the Bionic Reading web app. 

Most importantly, you can add bionic-formatted books to your reading app, for instance Amazon Kindle. All you have to do is open the Bionic Reading web app, add an ebook file (epub is now also accepted by Amazon), wait for a conversion, and add a converted file to the reading app of your choice.

The company that develops the Bionic Reading ecosystem has been awarded at the German Design Award 2023. It won in the category Apps for Excellent Communications Design.

Here is an excerpt from a jury announcement:

A fascinating tool that not only saves a lot of time, but also impressively shows what our brain is capable of.

⇢ Bionic Reading

Keep exploring. Here are other lists and tips for ebook lovers:

[ef-archive number=5 tag=”lists”]

If you read on your iPad for long hours, you know this pain. Holding the device all the time is not convenient at all. Especially, if you switch positions frequently.

Obviously, you can always use accessories for hands-free reading.

However, they don’t solve another problem – the need to touch the display again and again. Ebooks are designed to make reading easier than ever before, right?

Fortunately, the iPad comes with a feature that allows you to swipe left with just your voice. 

The feature is called Voice Control. It sits in the Settings app, in Accessibility section.

Voice Control allows you to control your device by speaking commands. With Voice Control, you can open apps, perform touch gestures, create reminders, or make text edits – all with your voice. It is available in over 20 languages and works with several languages at once.

I will guide you through the process using a Kindle app for iPad. This tip also works for other book-reading apps, such as Kobo, Apple Books, Nook, or Google Play Books. 

And, obviously, you can use the following guide to enable the voice-operated page turn on your iPhone as well.

Place your iPad on a stand, grab a coffee in one hand, a donut in the other, and enjoy the newest novel from your favorite author to the fullest.

How to turn pages in Kindle iPad app using just your voice

How to use Voice Control to swipe left

1. Go to the Settings app, find “Accessibility” on the list, and then tap “Voice Control” to turn it on.

2. If you haven’t used Voice Control before, tap “Set Up Voice Control” at the top. A pop-up window will appear. Follow the steps to enable the setting. 

If you set up Voice Control before, just turn it on.

3. With Voice Control enabled, we now turn on the swipe left function.

Tap “Customize Commands” and then find “Basic Gestures” on the list. Tap to open it.

4. Scroll down the list to find “Swipe left” feature. Tap to enable it. 

Here, you can also decide whether you want a confirmation every time you perform the gesture. I would leave the confirmation step unchecked.

Done! From now on, every time you say “Swipe left” your Kindle app (or any other book-reading app) will turn a page. The trick works both in a portrait and landscape mode.

How to quickly enable and disable Voice Control

When the Voice Control setting is enabled, your iPad is listening all the time for voice prompts. It may drain the battery fast.

That’s why, it makes sense to enable the voice-operated page turn only for reading sessions, and disable it when you finish.

There is an easy way to enable/disable Voice Control. You can do it using the Control Center.

1. Go to the Settings app, find “Accessibility” on the list and tap it.

2. Scroll down the list of available options to find “Accessibility Shortcut” at the bottom. Tap it.

3. Scroll down the list of available options to find “Voice Control”. Tap to enable it.

Done! From now on, you can enable or disable “Swipe left” voice command via the Control Center. Swipe down from the top-right corner of the display, and tap Accessibility Shortcut in the Control Center widget.

Tip: If you don’t see Accessibility in the Control Center, you may need to add it to the list of visible options. Go to Settings app, then “Control Center”. On the “More Controls” list, find “Accessibility Shortcut” and tap it. Done!

Keep exploring. Here are other tips and lists:

For a long time, if you wanted to read your Kindle books online (on your computer, in a web browser), you were using Kindle Cloud Reader – an old-looking web app that allowed you to download books for offline reading, and available at read.amazon.com.

When it comes to your Kindle notes and highlights, since 2019 they were available online at read.amazon.com/notebook.

The problem is that these two parts of your Kindle library were not linked to each other, and looked like belonging to different platforms.

Then, in summer 2021, Amazon redesigned the Kindle Cloud Reader, which now resembles mobile Kindle apps for Android or iPad/iPhone, and belongs to the same interface as highlights.

Finally, just a few days ago, on September 15, 2022, the Kindle books and notes got a common landing page, which for unregistered users looks like the screenshot below and is available at read.amazon.com/landing.

The fact that the unification of the web-based Kindle services was finished at the time of announcing Kindle Scribe is not a coincidence. 

Amazon’s newest top-shelf e-paper device is intended for active reading. It comes with a battery-free stylus and handwriting support. Personal notes become an even more important part of the Kindle platform.

On the Kindle Scribe, you will be able not only to make handwritten annotations in the books you are reading. You will also have access to a number of templates that you would use for journaling, doodling, or to-do lists.

As the Kindle Scribe press release says: “All notebooks are automatically saved and backed up to the cloud for free, and, coming in early 2023, they will also be accessible via the Kindle app.”

It means that in a few months the personal notebooks from your Kindle Scribe will be at least available in the web-based Kindle app, as Amazon now calls the Kindle online access point. Will the notebooks come to mobile Kindle apps for Android and iPad as well? It’s possible, but it probably won’t happen together with the web.

Did you know you can use the Apple Pencil with your Kindle app on the iPad? You won’t be able to hand write the notes over the text, like you can do on the Kindle Scribe. However, once you open a Note, you can use Apple Pencil in the textarea.

So, from now on, you get a single, easy, unified online access to your Kindle content. All you need is a web browser. Go to read.amazon.com, sign in with your Amazon credentials, and you will see:

• Kindle books – they are available in the left sidebar, in the section called “Library.” Please keep in mind that only the books you downloaded from the Kindle Store will appear here. Your personal documents are available only in mobile Kindle apps. A dedicated url is read.amazon.com/kindle-library.
• Kindle notes – they are available in the “Notes & Highlights” section. A dedicated url is read.amazon.com/notebook. I believe Kindle Scribe originated notebooks will also land in this section.

It’s worth noting that, thanks to the web-app redesign, it’s now easier to read and manage Kindle books online. The reading interface is the same as in the Kindle app for iOS or Android.

⇢ More about Kindle Scribe

Keep reading. Here are more tips and lists to explore:

Bionic reading, a new tool that has just been launched by the Swiss startup company Bionic Reading GmbH, is going viral and everyone wants to try it. It lets you read faster, comprehend more, and be more focused.

What is bionic reading?

▸ The new method takes advantage of the fact that the brain reads faster than the eye.

▸ Bionic reading facilitates the reading process by guiding the eyes through text with artificial fixation points. To make it short: some parts of the words are displayed in bold text.

▸ As a result, you are focusing on the highlighted text (usually initial letters of the words) and your brain completes the rest.

▸ Bionic reading is not the same tool as speed reading technology developed a few years ago by Spritz. Both tools let you read faster, but work differently. Spritz is about reading one word at a time. Bionic reading displays the text on the page the “classic way,” but around 50% of the content is shown in bold.

▸ Bionic Reading company has already released an API, so you can expect multiple applications to appear in app stores for both Android and iPad/iPhone. Two iOS apps already use this technology: Reeder 5 and Lire. They are both RSS readers.

▸ So far, no book reading apps have embraced bionic reading. However, you can manually add bionic formatted books to your book reading app or e-reader. 

▸ In the short guide below, I will show you how to import bionic books to Kindle e-readers and apps.

Read also: Bionic reading – here is everything you need to know – Bionic reading is a free tool that brings an enhanced reading experience to your current e-reading device or app. It will help you read faster and comprehend more.

How to add bionic books to Kindle

This method applies to books that you add to your Kindle from third-party sources, such as sites with free public domain books or independent platforms that offer books without DRM protection.

1. Find the book you want to convert to bionic format and export to your Kindle. It should be in epub format, not mobi. Epub is already accepted by Amazon Kindle. You can also pick up txt or rtf file format.

2. Open Bionic Reading online tool. Click on the “Browse File” button and add the book. The tool will start converting the file. It may take a while.

3. To download the bionic formatted book, click on the arrow icon in the bottom right. Please note that, due to heavy formatting, the bionic books will take up to 50% more disc space.

4. In the dialog box, pick up “EPUB” on the right.

5. Send the file to Kindle using your Kindle email address. Processing the file may take more time than usual.

The bionic formatted book behaves just as any other book in your Android book reading app. You can highlight text and add notes, translate and share passages, or change the reading settings. The only difference is that the bionic book displays around 50% of the text in a bold font.

Tip: I recommend changing the font face to Helvetica to increase readability and comprehension.

Happy reading!

Here is how the book will look like on your Kindle

Here is how the book will look like in your Kindle iPhone app

Keep exploring. Here are other lists and tips:

Children’s books are all about drawing attention – and this is precisely why an iPad is the perfect medium to read them on.

Unlike traditional books, it offers way more than just colorful illustrations – it gives you the possibility to listen to a narrator read it out loud, to interact with animated characters, to look up difficult new words, and to test your knowledge in fun mini-games.

And the best part? There are plenty of free iPad books available as well.

In this list, we decided to include a variety of different apps for kids of all ages – classic fairytale collections (think: the Grimm Brothers), Dr. Seuss stories, but also some incredibly inventive choose-your-own adventure books.

Our personal favorite is Wonderscope – an app that lets your little one interact with AR characters to come up with a highly personalized, engaging story.

Read on to find out which apps made the cut.

If you to take reading experience on your iPad and iPhone to a whole new level, make sure to check out the best book apps, as well as top audiobook player apps.

The Best iPad book apps for kids

1. The Cat in the Hat

Delightfully interactive, with stunning animations and endless learning activities, “The Cat in the Hat” is not just a fun storybook app, but an educational one as well. Designed specifically for beginning readers, it has plenty of hidden features guaranteed to surprise your little one all the way through – animations, interactions, rhyming and spelling exercises, individual word pronunciation, trivia games, and many, many more.

“The Cat in the Hat” can be viewed in three different ways: “Read it Myself”, in which you can read the book in its traditional form; “Read to Me”, in which you can listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read; and “Auto Play”, which plays just like a movie – with automatic reading and turning pages.

And here comes the best part – once your kids have found all the hidden easter eggs in “The Cat in the Hat”, they can keep on reading “The Lorax”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, “Horton Hears a Who!” and many other Dr. Seuss classics, which can be purchased on Oceanhouse Media’s App Store page separately or in bundles.

Benefits: “The Cat in the Hat” is packed with easter eggs, making it an incredibly engaging and interactive reading experience.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: $0.99

2. Fairy Tales Bedtime Stories

Best for toddlers and pre-schoolers, “Fairy Tales – Bedtime Stories” is a marvelous collection of story books to read your kids to bed with. It offers plenty of all-time classics – “Puss in Boots”, “The Beauty and the Beast”, “Cinderella”, and many, many more – but also some less-known, but still incredibly engaging, stories, such as “The Enormous Turnip” or “Aesop’s Fables”.

What’s more, you can download every book to your device and read it anytime, anywhere, in offline mode – a perfect solution for long car rides, doctor’s appointments, and restaurants.

Every bedtime story contains exciting pop-up games – labyrinths, cards matching games, jigsaw puzzles, hidden easter eggs – that make reading even more entertaining and educative. You can also collect daily bonuses to unlock more interactive books for free.

Benefits: “Fairy Tales Bedtime Stories” is the perfect choice if you’re looking for an app with a vast selection of classic bedtime stories, all in one place.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: Free to download with one free book as a gift (“Puss in Boots”). Other books need to be purchased within the app (but worry not – it’s perfectly safe and kid-friendly, so your child will not make any unintentional in-app purchases without your knowledge).

3. Little Stories – Bedtime Books

“Little Stories” is a brilliant collection of fairy tales in which your kid plays the main role. All you have to do is enter their name and gender and you can enjoy reading personalized fairy tales with your son or daughter cast as the hero. What’s even more is that it includes a recording button – making it possible for the parents to become the narrators of the story and the children to play it back anytime.

The app offers 21 original fairy tales (and the collection is growing!), each accompanied by enchanting music and beautiful illustrations, with some extremely valuable life lessons.

Benefits: Incredibly personalized in many different ways, “Little Stories” is one of the best bedtime apps there is.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: Free to download with 3 free books as a gift (“A Monkey Manners Tale”, “The Brave Eaglet”, “The Magic Christmas Tree”). Other books need to be purchased within the app.

4. Bedtime Stories – Read & Tell

This app is a bit different because it engages the young and the old to spend some family time together – and it bursts with opportunities for both the children and the parents to learn new things.

While kids can delve into the exciting library of Storyworlds, parents can practice their storytelling skills for free with exciting exercises and courses about story building and different storytelling techniques. The interactive Storybuilder helps generate millions of exciting storylines, and lets your family become heroes of the narrative.

Intuitively designed, the app includes series of reads for different age groups, of different formats and different lengths, providing a plethora of options depending on how much time and energy the readers have at any particular time.

New Storyworlds are added every two weeks – making it impossible to run out of content to read.

Benefits: “Bedtime Stories – Read & Tell” will awake the inner storyteller in parents and kids alike.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: $2.99

5. The Little Red Riding Hood

Grimm Brothers’ iconic fairy tale comes to life in this uniquely interactive reading experience for children from 3 to 8 years old.

Beautifully illustrated and animated in 3D, “The Little Red Riding Hood” is packed with engaging games and activities – the kids can now become part of the plot, by cooking a cake for granny, helping the woodcutter pass through a labyrinth, and teaching the wolf a lesson.

Benefits: This free app is the perfect way to get you started with reading to your kids on an iPad.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: Free

6. Bubuk – Your Personalized Book

This watercolor-illustrated book lets you customize everything: you can choose the name of the protagonist (and of other characters in the story as well!), customize their appearance, choose their fates, and create books that are a new magical adventure every time.

“Bubuk” is available in 5 different languages – English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. But what makes the app stand out is the fact that if you create a story you really like, you can order the Bubuk and have a paper copy ($30) delivered directly at your doorstep with free shipping all over the world.

Benefits: You can purchase a paper copy of your custom book.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: Free (optional $30 to buy physical copy of book).

7. Nighty Night Forest

“Night Night Forest” is the perfect go-to-bed ritual for the little ones (especially for kids from 2 to 5 years old), packed with cute animals, sweet lullaby music, and great narration.

With illustrations by award-winning artist Jeremy Kool, the app combines 3D modeling and lighting with 2D textures, making it an incredible visual experience as well.

Set in a magical forest, the story features seven adorable animal protagonists – deer, skunk, woodpecker, chipmunk, mole, fox, and a bear – which the readers can bring to bed by switching off the lights.

The app offers autoplay-mode – perfect to slowly lull your child to sleep. It is also available in as many as 13 different languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Benefits: Created by parents for parents, “Nighty Night Forest” is the perfect way to slowly lull your child to sleep.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone
Price: $3.99

8. KidBook

“KidBook” offers plenty of stories for children from 2 to 10 years old all on one bookshelf – with the library constantly replenished with exciting new books and content.

Every story is completely different, beautifully illustrated by various professional graphic designers, voiced by actors, and packed with mini-games.

Benefits: “Kid Book” offers the most variety out of all bedtime apps – every story is illustrated and written by someone else.
Compatibility: iPad only
Price: Free to download, with 7-day free access to the entire library. Afterwards, you can choose either a monthly ($2) or weekly ($1) subscription.

9. Hippo Magic

Your kid’s beloved fairytale characters can now come to life with “Hippo Magic” – an app that reimagines traditional print books into interactive augmented reality experiences.

All you have to do is point your device at the pages of any Little Hippo Book marked with the Little Hippo logo at the bottom – and see the 4D Magic come to life.

Benefits: This app will leave the kids amazed and wishing every book had an AR version.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone (requires iOS 11.0 or later)
Price: The app is free to use with a paper copy of a Hippo Magic book.

10. Wonderscope

Similarly to “Hippo Magic”, “Wonderscope” is all about transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary stories through augmented reality. Read your lines aloud to engage with and talk to characters, and help them solve problems along the way.

The Wonderscope library is constantly growing with a variety of eight incredibly engaging stories: “Sinclair Snake: Museum Mischief” transforms your little one into a junior detective and helps learn about dinosaurs, Egypt, medieval times, and gems; “A Brief History of Amazing Stunts by Astounding People”, a BAFTA Award-winning non-fiction series, invites children to take party in three of history’s most impossible stunts; “Little Red the Inventor” takes a different, EQ focused spin on the classic Grimm Brothers tale.

Benefits: You haven’t seen anything like this before – and this might be the future of storytelling.
Compatibility: iPad (2017 and Pro), iPhone 6S and newer (requires iOS 11.0 or later)
Price: The app itself free to download, stories can be unlocked for around $5 each.

11. Rivet: Better Reading Practice

With a whopping 3,500+ free books across eight different reading levels (and available in English, Spanish, German and Polish), Rivet is an absolute must-have for both beginning and advanced young readers.

The users can choose from a wide variety of categories – adventure, animals, arts and crafts, learning, sports, and many, many more – but also access fun books from some of the most popular YouTube creators, such as Troom Troom or Oddbods.

The intuitive, kid-friendly interface makes it even easier for the little ones to fall in love with reading – readers can tap on tricky words for help, track their reading practice, receive personalized recommendations, set daily reading goals, and earn badges and rewards by achieving milestones.

Benefits: Rivet has one of the biggest available high-quality story collections – and it’s 100% free.
Compatibility: iPad, iPhone (requires iOS 11.0 or later)
Price: Free.

Keep reading. Here are other lists and tips:

The new feature may confuse users, as now the Reading and Library view are controlled differently.

The new feature started rolling out to customers since the latest update of the Kindle for iOS and iPad OS, released on April 13, 2021 – version 6.41.

As usual, Amazon is very enigmatic when it comes to app update descriptions. New features are being announced in the app itself.

When I opened a book in the Kindle app today, the message appeared saying that now the color interface is matching the system settings.

In other words, the automatic theme switching is the default feature. If you don’t like it, you will have to disable it. Read about it at the end of the post.

I was waiting for this feature for a long time. Apple introduced Dark Mode (and an option to automatically turn it on and off with sunset and sunrise) in September 2019.

However, the introduction of an automatic theme switcher in the Amazon Kindle app for iPad and iPhone will certainly make many readers confused. Here is why:

• The Kindle app had an option to switch the Library view colors (Light or Dark) since October 2017 – two years before the iOS Dark Mode.
• The theme color was controlled from the app’s Settings ⇢ Menu – and it only applied to the Library view.
• Both color management settings – for Library and Reading view – were to be enabled or disabled manually.
• To change the color of the Reading view, you had to use the Reading view controls, not general settings. You could choose from four colors: White, Sepia, Green, and Black.
• Switching the color of the Reading view was a multi-step process, and I found a way to make it quicker – via setting up custom Dark and Light themes.
• From now on, the option to switch the Library theme (Light or Dark) is gone from the app’s general settings.

Tip: to make the Kindle app work properly after the update, close and reset it. If you don’t do it, the app may switch colors incorrectly, behaving like the Library and Reading colors were tied together – they are not.

In fact, the Library view is separate from the Reading view. You can control the Library view via the iOS settings. You can keep the Reading view tied to the iOS, but you can turn it off in the Reading controls – see below.

How to disable automatic theme switcher in Kindle for iOS

1. In the home view, tap any book cover to open a book in a Reading view.

2. Tap once anywhere on the screen to reveal Reading view controls.

3. In the top bar, tap the “Aa” icon.

4. In the widget that comes from the bottom, select “Layout.”

5. Right under “Page Color” – four color options you can choose for your reading interface – you will see a small checkbox saying “Update Page Using System Theme.” Uncheck this box.

6. Alternatively, you can tap any other color of the Reading view, and the automatic theme switcher will immediately get unchecked.

How to change the Library view color in Kindle for iOS

From now on, the Library view colors are matching the colors of your iPhone or iPad. If your device is in a Dark Mode, the Library view of the Kindle app is also in the Dark view.

In other words, to change the Library view color, you have to change your device’s color mode.

Can I use Green and Sepia mode with automatic theme switcher?

No, these two colors can’t be matched with automatic theme switcher. If you enable one of them, the Reading view goes manual as the automatic theme switcher is being unchecked.

However, when you re-enable automatic theme switcher, the Reading view color goes back to the last used. So, if you used Sepia in the manual mode, you will see Sepia again.

Keep reading. Here are more tips and lists for iPad and iPhone users:

[ef-archive number=5 tag=”ipad”]

It’s amazing how many people still want to manage content on their tablets or smartphones using file managers. In the end, they will have to pick up the right app to open the file.

Several users, who were planning to buy an iPad, asked us for tips to export ebooks from the Kindle. They imagined they would need to back up their books, imports them, and maybe – somewhere in the meantime – convert them to a different format.

There is no need to export or back up the files. There is no need to use file converters. The only thing to do to get Kindle books to your new device is download the free Kindle app.

What if most of your ebooks were downloaded for free from the sites that offer free public domain ebooks? You don’t need the Kindle app to be able to read them. You can pick up any other app that supports the same file formats as the Kindle – mobi or prc.

The problem begins the moment you want to read books you’ve bought in the Kindle Store. You will need to remove DRM. For most users, it’s a painful and frustrating process. Why do that, if you can manage all the books you’ve previously used on the Kindle, with the dedicated, feature-rich Kindle app?

Benefits of using Kindle apps

• All your books are synced. No matter which device you open the book in, you will land exactly at the place where you have finished reading it.
• There is no need to transfer files every time you change the device. All you have to do is download the Kindle app and sign in using the same Amazon credentials.
• You can access your Kindle books even if you don’t have access to your own device. Thanks to a web app, you can login to your Kindle library using the web browser. Try read.amazon.com.
• You have easy access to all your notes and bookmarks. You can do it from any computer by visiting read.amazon.com/notebook.

If you would like to back up all your Kindle books to your computer, that’s a different story. You can do that, and here is the guide.

Free Kindle apps to download

1. Kindle for Android

The default book-reading app of the Android system is Google Play Books. Why should you download another app? It’s because Google’s book app can’t read your Kindle books. Well, it may – after you go through the painful process of stripping DRM and converting the Kindle file to the format supported by Google app.

It’s much easier to download the Kindle app from Google Play Store and sign in with your Amazon credentials. Once you do it, you will find your Kindle books under “All” tab – simple as that.

Amazon Kindle is one of the most advanced book-reading apps in the Google Play Store. It offers features you may have known from Amazon Fire or Kindle: built-in dictionary, Google search, Wikipedia, or instant translations. You will make use of X-Ray, Page Flip, or advanced library management.

The app seamlessly connects with the Kindle Store. You can download free samples or buy books right within the app. You can also download and manage free ebooks. They come from three sources:

• Kindle Store – thousands of classic books from the public domain – however, the selection is not that large as on Project Gutenberg.
• Library books – borrow ebooks from your local library and they will be delivered wirelessly to your Kindle account.
• Free ebooks via your Amazon membership – if you are subscribed to Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime, you can access and download eligible books for free.

The Kindle app lets you read Print Replica textbooks. These special Kindle books offer rich formatting and layout similar to their related print editions. They also provide features to help you study smarter and quicker – you can highlight passages, add margin notes, search for keywords, etc.

One of the best features the Android Kindle app offers is Whispersync for Voice. This advanced technology lets you seamlessly switch between reading a Kindle ebook and listening to its audiobook companion.

2. Kindle for iPad and iPhone

Do you ask yourself a question “Can I read my Kindle books on the iPad or iPhone?”

The answer is, certainly, “yes.” Download the free Kindle app from the App Store and sign in with the credentials you use for your Kindle e-reader or Amazon Fire tablet.

Congratulations! You’ve just brought all your Kindle books to the iPad! The books are available in the Kindle app home view, under “All” tab. Tap the book you want to read, and the download will start automatically.

Since late 2017, Kindle apps for Android and iOS offer unified interface and features. You will appreciate it when you decide to switch from Android-powered device to iOS – or the other way round. When you start using the new device, you will be happy to see the familiar Kindle environment and the similar bunch of benefits.

However, compared to the Android app, Kindle for iOS lacks one major feature: you can’t buy books inside the app. It’s due to Apple’s restrictive policy, which made Amazon delete an in-app purchase option long time ago. Within the app, you will be only able to download free samples or access free books from Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime Reading.

What if you want to buy the Kindle book? You can still do it on your iPad or iPhone, but you have to use Safari browser for it. When you complete the order and switch back to the Kindle app, the book should have been already downloaded.

3. Kindle for Samsung

The app was introduced in 2014 as a replacement for Samsung’s own reading solution called “Reader’s Hub.”

It’s one of the apps that are “made for Samsung” and is available on a number of Galaxy devices. You will find the updated list here: Kindle for Samsung – compatible tablets and smartphones.

Kindle for Samsung is in fact Kindle for Android stripped from a few advanced features. However, it offers one big benefit – a monthly deal. Each month, four new books are offered. You can download one of them free of charge. In other words, using Kindle for Samsung will help you get 12 free Kindle books every year.

What you have to keep in mind is that Kindle for Samsung is different from Kindle for Android. The latter one is available in the Google Play Store on your Samsung device – but it doesn’t offer one free book per month.

You have to download Kindle for Samsung separately and use your Samsung login to activate it. The app, just like others made for Samsung, can be installed via Galaxy Apps widget that you have to download and install on your Samsung Galaxy’s home screen.

4. Kindle for Mac

It’s hard to imagine reading novels on a computer – unless you have to write an essay about them.

Kindle for Mac is a logical and helpful extension of the Kindle ecosystem. It’s a great solution for students, library patrons, or anyone who needs to learn using Kindle books.

The app offers most benefits of the mobile apps: X-Ray, Whispersync, Print Replica, or flashcards. You can highlight passages of text, and comfortably write down the notes.

Most importantly, you can access the notes instantly in the notebook on the right side, and download these notes to the computer. They will be saved as an html document from which you can paste the text to your note taking app or text editor.

5. Kindle for PC

Kindle for PC is a helpful solution for anyone who needs to access Kindle books to study.

You can make highlights in multiple colors, write down notes, or bookmark pages, and everything will be synced across all devices that are linked to your Amazon account.

Just like Kindle for Mac, the app features two-column mode, and you can personalize its look to match your reading preferences. You can select font face, background color, margins, or line height, among other settings.

Currently, the app is available only to customers located in the United States. Supported operating systems are: Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

6. Kindle for Web

Better known as “Kindle Cloud Reader,” it’s a web-based application you can use to access your Kindle from any computer. All you need is a browser, such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.

Open the browser, type read.amazon.com in the address bar, and sign in with your Amazon credentials. If you do not use your own computer (for instance, if you are in a library), make sure not to save your login credentials and log out after you finish.

The app will ask you to enable offline reading – you don’t have to accept it to access your Kindle library.

Kindle for Web is a simple and straightforward app but has everything you need to study: you can highlight the text, write down a note, or use a dictionary.

Can you copy the text from Kindle for Web and paste it in another tab of the web browser or a note taking app? It seems like a doable thing – but it’s not. The common copy-paste feature is disabled in the Kindle Cloud Reader. Once you select the text, you can either highlight it or make a note.

The good news is that all your notes are immediately added to your Kindle history, and you can access them immediately, also in the browser, by opening read.amazon.com/notebook in another tab. From here, you can copy the text wherever you want.

Kindle apps – useful links

Do you want to learn more about Kindle apps and how you can use them on your tablet, phone, or in a browser? Take a look at a few helpful articles and lists:

• Free Kindle apps – help pages – a part of Amazon’s help & customer service that’s devoted to Kindle apps, not only the mobile ones, but also the web-based Kindle Cloud Reader.
• The guide to using Kindle app on the iPad and iPhone – tips and tricks to make the most of the Kindle app on your iOS device.
• Best audiobook apps to use on your Android phone or tablet – an overview of the most popular and advanced Google Play Store apps that are designed to play audiobooks.
• Kindle or iPad? Which device is better for reading? – compare tech specs of these two devices with your reading preferences.
• How to add large files to Kindle and Kindle apps – a handy guide that will help you addenda read Kindle ebooks that are larger than 50 MB.
• Amazon: Free Kindle apps to download – an official Amazon directory of the Kindle apps. Main benefits and features, plus links to major parts of the Kindle Store.

Keep reading. Here are other posts and lists to explore:

Amazon’s official Kindle Challenge is invitation only and available only for US residents. Set up your own reading challenge system to read more books and save more money.

At the beginning of 2021, Amazon launched Kindle Challenge – an interesting reward system that encourages Kindle users to read more books.

The system lets you earn badges for completing available quests. Among the quests, you will find reading a certain number of books, following an author, or starting a book series.

Users who collect at least four diamond badges get $5 in ebook credit, which will be applied to their Amazon accounts the next month.

The biggest problem with the official Kindle Challenge is that it’s available to select users – those who are US residents and receive and an invitation email.

If you follow this link and see the “Sorry…” message, find easy ideas of how to create your own incentive system.

Set your own Kindle reading challenge

Find and create reading goals

Here are a few ideas:

Make the most use of Reading Insights

Reading Insights is an existing feature of the Kindle platform. The challenge is to make it work even better for you.

In a Kindle app, you can find it by tapping: More » Reading Insights. The highlights are also shown in the home screen of the app.

In the Reading Insights section, you will see:

• How many books you have read in the current year.
• How many weeks and days you have read in a row.
• What your reading records are in total.

You can easily set a reading goal. Tap the link under the main headline, and type how many books you plan to read till the end of the current year.

Join one of existing reading challenges

There are many reading challenges available on the web. All you need is start the one that suits your needs the most.

You can find this reading challenge list on Book Riot extremely helpful, if you are looking for a motivational boost! Pop Sugar’s challenge is the most popular one, but I also recommend 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Don’t hesitate to explore and join the Reading Challenge group on Goodreads.

Use Bookly reading assistant

Bookly is one of the most exciting reading assistants you can get. It’s an app that you can get for your iPad/iPhone or Android smartphone or tablet.

With Bookly, you’ll be able to keep track of all your books, rate them, see achievements, collect thoughts and quotes, and – most importantly – set reading goals.

The app is a clever combination of a workout-tracking app and Goodreads book companion.

Save money on Kindle books

Here are a few ideas:

Bookmark Kindle Deals page in your browser

Thousands of Kindle books are being discounted every day. In fact, most of the Kindle books I have I get by exploring the titles that are currently on sale. And I save more than $5 every month.

You can add Kindle deals & offers as a bookmark in your internet browser by going to Kindle Deals home page and clicking the following keyboard shortcut:

• PC computer – Ctrl+D
• Mac computer – Command+D

Sign-up for Kindle Daily Deals email newsletter

You don’t have to visit Amazon website every day to see the current deals. You can get them in your email inbox instead.

Go to Amazon Email Subscription service. You will see an alphabetical list of all available subscriptions.

Scroll down the page to reveal “Amazon Devices” section. At the end of it, you will see “Kindle Daily Deals.”

When you check the box on the right, you will receive emails every day with the highlights of the current Kindle book deals.

Visit your account page on Amazon

You have probably noticed that Amazon displays personalized Kindle deals on your account page.

There is no need to find a Kindle Store home page or explore the current Gold Box deals. All the most attractive deals are shown in the “Content and Devices” section of your Amazon account.

These offers include current Kindle book deals, special, personalized Kindle Unlimited deals, and deals on Kindle devices.

Keep exploring. Here are more posts for Kindle users:

[ef-archive number=5 tag=”kindle”]

So, you’ve just unpacked your beautiful shiny new iPad. You have downloaded your Facebook, Netflix, and Instagram apps, and wonder how difficult it would it be to get the books from your Kindle.

If you are going to use Amazon and Kindle ecosystem, it’s not difficult at all. The entire process should take no more than 10 minutes. In many cases, it’s even less.

The traditional method of moving stuff from one device to another is long gone. You don’t have to get a pen drive to back up your Kindle via the computer. You don’t need to learn how to connect that pen drive to your iPad in order to import the files.

These days, everything is miraculously happening via the cloud. The content of your Kindle account is being stored and synced on Amazon servers. It’s the “cloud” – a remote server you can access from any place in the world the moment you log in with your credentials.

Keep reading if you want to learn in detail about how to transfer your Kindle books to your new iPad.

How to transfer Kindle books to iPad – a step by step guide

1. Open the Kindle and sync your books with Amazon account

Most probably, you have connected the Kindle to your home Wi-Fi network. The moment you open the e-reader, its content will automatically start syncing with your Kindle cloud library.

If you have not connected your Kindle to Wi-Fi network and/or have not registered it with your Amazon account yet (or disconnected it, for some reason), follow these steps.

How to connect Kindle to Wi-Fi network

Step 1: Go to the home screen on your Kindle, tap the tree-dot icon on the right side of the top navigation bar, then tap “Settings” on the drop-down list.

Step 2: Tap “Wi-Fi & Bluetooth,” and then “Wi-Fi Networks.” Choose your home’s network, and fill in the password.

How to register your Kindle

To sync all the content of your Kindle (including the books and files you have downloaded directly to your e-reader) and make them ready to import to your new iPad, follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Go to the home screen, tap the tree-dot icon, and then tap “Settings.”

Step 2: On the top of the list, you will find “Your Account” with a text “unregistered” underneath. Tap it.

Step 3: You have two options:

• Choose “Use an existing Amazon account” if you are an Amazon customer already. Use your login and password to sign in.
• Choose “Create a new account” to resister as a new customer. Remember your email and password you have used to register the Kindle – you will need these credentials to transfer books to the Kindle app on your iPad.

2. Download a Kindle app from the App Store

Step 1: On your iPad or iPhone, go to the App Store app.

Step 2: Use the search bar to find the Kindle app. Tap “Get” button, and wait until the download is complete (see screenshot below, on the left).

3. Register the Kindle app with the same account

Step 1: Open the Kindle app and fill in your Amazon credentials: login and password (see the screenshot above, on the right).

The credentials must be the same as the ones you were using with your Kindle. Otherwise, you won’t see the books you’ve just synced from your Kindle.

When your Kindle e-reader and Kindle app for iPad and iPhone are connected to the same Amazon account, all your Kindle books are synced via your Kindle cloud library on Amazon servers, just like your Gmail messages are synced via Google servers, no matter which computer you choose to connect to it.

4. Download the books you want to read

In the Library view in your Kindle iPad/iPhone app, you’ll see two tabs at the top:

• All – the lists shows all the books you’ve ever added to your Kindle cloud library, including the ones you have just synced from your Kindle e-reader.
• Downloaded – you will see here all the books you have downloaded to the iPad or iPhone. These books are available for you even if you are offline, for instance when the Airplane Mode is turned on.

How to download a book to the Kindle app

Step 1: In the Kindle app’s Library view, go to “All” tab and find the book you want to download. On the top of a list, you should see the books you’ve been recently reading on your Kindle.

Step 2: Tap the cover of the book you want to have on your iPad. The download should start immediately. Once the download is complete, you will see a check mark in the bottom right corner of the book cover.

From now on, the book is available in “Downloaded” tab of your Kindle app.

How to remove a book from the Kindle app

If you’ve read a book, you can easily remove it from the device. Don’t worry, it will stay in your Kindle cloud library, and you will be able to download it again any time you want.

Step 1: In the Kindle app’s Library view, go to “Downloaded” tab and find the book you want to remove.

Step 2: Long-press the book cover until you see a menu with available options. It’s important that you press the screen for a little longer because a short tap will open a book.

Step 3: In the drop-down menu, select “Remove from Device.”

One of the biggest benefits of keeping and managing books via Kindle cloud is convenience.

You can access your books any time you are connected to the web, from any device or app registered with the same Amazon credentials. Use a Kindle e-reader, a Kindle app on an iPad, Amazon Fire tablet, or an Android-powered tablet or phone. You can also access your books on a desktop or laptop computer, by going to Kindle Cloud Reader in your internet browser, by typing read.amazon.com in an address bar.

Therefore, there is no need to download all the books from your Kindle to your iPad. Keep your Kindle app clean – keep only the titles you are going to read in the coming weeks. It will be much easier for you to find the right book.

Also, if you have to choose from a few books, you will easier make a decision which one to pick up in the current mood and situation. Having too many books to choose from may actually discourage you from reading.

Kindle reading app for iPad and iPhone

On the bus, on your break, in your bed – never be without a book. Kindle books you have purchased on Amazon will automatically appear in your app. Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members can select and download Kindle books directly in the app.

Find your next great read
Choose from over six million Kindle books (including those with Audible narration), magazines, and comics and start reading in seconds.

Read Kindle Unlimited books
Kindle Unlimited members can enjoy unlimited reading and listening, with the freedom to explore over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and current magazines.

Read your way
Customize your text size, font type, margins, text alignment, and orientation (portrait or landscape) – and choose whether to turn pages from left to right or continuously scroll. Read comfortably day and night with adjustable brightness and background colors.

Look up words, people, and places while you read
Breeze through words you don’t know and characters you can’t remember with the built-in dictionary, X-Ray, Wikipedia lookup, instant translations, and search within your book. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition, or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information.

Sync your books across devices
When you’re reading a book, the Kindle app will automatically sync where you left off—along with any bookmarks, highlights, or notes – so you can start reading on one device and pick up where you left off on another. Works across the Kindle apps on iOS and Android, Kindle E-readers, PC, and Mac.

Enjoy Whispersync for Voice
When you can’t read, listen. Switch seamlessly from reading your Kindle book to listening to the Audible book, all within the Kindle app.

Compatible: iPad, iPhone
Price: Free

⇢ Kindle for iPad

Keep exploring. Here are the latest news, tips, and lists:

With Bookly, you’ll be able to keep track of all your books, rate them, set reading goals, and more.

If you’re just getting into the habit of reading, chances are you sometimes find it hard to keep yourself motivated and stick to a routine.

On the other hand, if you’re an avid reader, you might be in desperate need of a good app that would keep up with your readathons. Well, your prayers have been answered – with Bookly, you’ll be able to do all that (and even more).

Bookly is a bit like a mix between a workout-tracking app and Goodreads – it records the time spent while reading, analyzes it, and gives away suggestions on how to improve your reading routine, keeping you motivated all the way through.

How Bookly works

Whenever you start a new book, you can add it by scanning the ISBN code or finding it via the app’s database.

Then, you’re good to go – all you have to do is start a timer every time you read with a simple tap, and Bookly will record and analyze your reading progress over time.

While reading, you can also add quotes and thoughts about the book, set a countdown, or even play relaxing ambient sounds (such as light rain, flowing river, crowded café, and more) to help you focus on reading even better.

After you’re done reading for the day, you can simply press “Stop” and enter the number of pages (or, if reading an ebook, the %) you got to, and Bookly will accumulate the data over time, analyzing your reading habits, speed and progress.

If you’re just getting into the habit of reading, there’s also a number of features to keep you motivated – you can set reading goals and reminders to maintain your reading routine, receive personalized tips on how to improve reading skills, or make reading even more fun with game-like features like levels, rewards and achievements.

The app also automatically generates a neat infographic with all the reading stats for each book you complete, perfect to share on social media.

What’s even more, Bookly also lets you mark a book as lent or borrowed – so that you never lose a book to a forgetful bookish friend again.

Bookly pricing

Bookly is free to download on App Store and Google Play with all the basic features free to use on without an online account or sign up needed.

The Pro version is free with a 7-day trial, after which there are three subscription packages available: a one-month subscription ($4.99), a six-month subscription ($19.99), and a one-year subscription ($29.99).

⇢ Bookly

Keep exploring. Here are other posts for book lovers:

[ef-archive number=5 tag=”tips”]