Books & Reading

Did you know that the Apple Books app (formerly iBooks) lets you buy e-books, audiobooks, and even radio-plays? When you’re stuck at home, listening to audiobooks and reading ebooks is an enriching way to pass the time, especially as a family. Apple’s Books app doesn’t get much love, but it’s got a great collection of books to buy as well as some freebies! Let’s dive in with how to make purchases in Apple’s Books app.

While family sharing can be a useful way to consolidate your family's tech, there can be many reasons why you might want to hide app or e-book purchases. Some apps have credit card information you might not want to give your kids access to, and other apps may have content suitable for some family members but not others. Whatever your reason is for wishing to hide certain app or book purchases from Family Sharing, it is possible to do. First, here's how to hide app purchases, followed by how to hide book purchases.

When you purchase a new Kindle book, it’s automatically delivered to your default device. You can send e-books you’ve purchased to any or all of your devices, but only your default device will receive it automatically. While you may simply be able to view your Kindle Cloud on your device and download the book for reading there, you may not want to go through that process each time you get a new book if you know for certain where you’re going to end up reading it. For some, books get read on iPhone or iPad, since it’s a device that’s often or always with you. Regardless of whether you want your iPhone, iPad, or Kindle device to be your default, here’s how to change where new Kindle books are sent.

One of the best features of digital books, besides their incredible helpfulness in saving space, is their ability to be updated. When corrections and changes need to be made, Amazon can simply send the updated content to your Kindle. But how can Kindle owners manage their Kindle settings to make sure these automatic updates happen? We've already gone over how to buy Kindle books on your iPhone or iPad and how to delete them on the Kindle app or a Kindle device. Now, let's go over how to manage your Kindle settings to make sure your e-books are automatically updated so you can have all the most current versions of your Kindle content! 

These are the best apps for writers who want to finally complete that novel they’ve been letting collect dust. I’ve got recommendations for apps that will help you write your story in every part. First, we’ll look at the best writing apps for planning your story, from mind-mapping to idea generating. Then it’s time to sit our butts in the chair and get started, so we’ll look at creative writing apps for actually doing your writing. Lastly, there are some tools every writer needs during and after the process, which is why I’ve got a writing app with tips for the business side of writing. As a writer, I use all of my devices to work, including the iPhone, iPad, and a Macbook. So each writer's app below will also indicate which devices it’s available on. I believe we’ve all got a book in us. Here are the nine best writing apps for getting your book onto paper and into the world.

The native Apple Books app, formerly iBooks, has the ability to save e-books and audiobooks to a wish list for later purchase. This feature, called Want to Buy, is perfect for keeping track of which e-book or audiobook you'd like to read or listen to next. Let's get started learning how to save audiobooks and e-books to purchase later in the Books app on your iPhone or iPad. 

Some people are wondering, "Can you share iBooks?" While you can share purchased e-books with other members of your Family Sharing group, if you want to know how to share iBooks, now just called Books, with a friend outside of Family Sharing, this tip will show you how to give them an e-book. Sending the gift of a good book is a real pleasure, and being able to do so instantly with just a few clicks is even better! As long as you've set up an Apple ID and you have the email address for the friend you want to send a book to, you'll be able to complete your purchase quickly. So let's dive in with how to send an Apple book as a gift.

We've already shown you how to buy Kindle e-books on your iPhone or iPad, but did you know that there's a whole library of free e-books available for anyone who knows how to find them? There are literally thousands of books to read, in e-book form, and audiobooks as well, if you know where to download them. Come along, bookworm, and we'll reveal the reading apps that offer more free books to read than you can get through in a lifetime. 

Here's a tip that you might not use too often, but that's useful to have if you have to get through an audiobook quickly, say, for a class or work assignment. Did you know that you can speed up the playback tempo in your Audible app on iPhone? You can also slow down the narration speed, although I've never needed to use that feature. Read on to learn how to speed up or slow down the narration speed in the Audible app on your iPhone. 

I've been a fan of audiobooks since they were books on tape, and I clearly remember the very first one I ever listened to, Brahm Stoker's Dracula. Thanks to my local library, this classic audiobook was free; and as the years rolled on, I checked out the new-and-improved books on CD, until I finally modernized and started streaming audiobooks on my iPhone. I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read anymore, so the Audible app has been a great way to keep up with my favorite authors. One problem, though; I listen to far more than one book per month, and it's getting expensive to keep purchasing extra credits. That's why I'm excited to report that I've ended right where I began, with free audiobooks from my local library! There are two apps, called Libby and OverDrive, that let me borrow e-books and audiobooks, read or listen to them, and then return them all on my iPhone or iPad.  Let's get started learning how to find audiobooks on Libby and OverDrive, so you can have as much fun exploring and "reading" these free audiobooks as I am! 

The New iPad Will Have Apple Pencil Support

Apple unveiled a new 9.7 inch iPad for 2018 with lower educator pricing and an expansive package of classroom-management and curricular apps at its recent "Let's Take a Field Trip" event. The new hardware and applications are designed to launch teachers, students, administrators, and the classroom itself into an integrated, streamlined future where educational and creative opportunities are expanded, organized, and optimized. 

There are various ways to share Kindle books. With friends, you can loan ebooks out for a couple weeks. But if you set up Family Sharing with Amazon, you can share Kindle books with family members easily and with fewer limitations. When you share Kindle books, the recipient can read the Kindle book you lend them via the Kindle app on iPhone or iPad, as well as Kindle devices, including Kindle Fire. Kindle family sharing allows two adults to create an Amazon Household with up to four children. The two adults in your Kindle family must have separate Amazon accounts. However, setting up family sharing and sharing Kindle books with your Amazon Household is actually quite straightforward. We’ll go over how to set up Family Sharing on Amazon, how to share Kindle books with that family, how to access content shared with you via Amazon Kindle family sharing, and how to leave an Amazon Household should you need to in the future. Here’s everything you need to know about how to share Kindle books with family members.

The Amazon Kindle app is available for free for just about any and every device you can think of. That means not only can you read your e-books on a Kindle, but also on your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook as well. Adding a device to your Amazon account is as simple as downloading the app and logging in with your Amazon account email and password. But what about when you get a new iPhone or buy a different Kindle? As you upgrade devices, the old devices will remain on your Amazon Kindle Account, which can lead to e-book samples accidentally being sent to the wrong device, unless you delete the device, a.k.a., deregister it. Here’s how to delete an old iPhone, iPad, or other device from your Amazon account on iPhone.

We’ve all been in this situation: you’re reading a book and come across a quote or passage you just have to share. For whatever reason, the quote is just too good to keep to yourself. iBooks is Apple’s e-reading app for iPhone and iPad. You can purchase and read your books right from the iBooks app. You can also highlight quotes you love and then share those quotes with a friend or on social media. Here’s how to share a quote from iBooks on iPhone.

Some iBooks in the Apple iBooks store include multimedia elements you can interact with, such as movies, diagrams, presentations, galleries, 3D objects, and more. But when you stumble across one of these multimedia iBooks, how do you navigate it? There’s a couple different taps, pinches, and swipes to know before you start reading. Here’s how to read an iBook with interactive multimedia.

There’s a great feature in iBooks that allows you to tap a button and skip fifteen seconds ahead or backward when you’re listening to an audiobook. This is helpful if you didn’t hear what the reader said, if you’ve already heard this portion of the book, or if you really enjoyed a point and want to hear it again. However, you can alter how far you skip back and forward when listening to an audio book in iBooks. Here’s how to change the length of time audiobook tracks skip in iBooks.

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