Amazon pushed out a major update to its iOS Kindle app that brings it up to speed with competing apps such as Oyster and Scribd. The Kindle app now supports book browsing for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, Goodreads recommendations, Audible progressive play, and more.
Oddly enough, when Kindle Unlimited arrived earlier this year, Amazon didn’t update the Kindle app to allow for in-app book browsing. Users had to check out books from Amazon’s website and send them to the Kindle app on their phones or tablets. Now, iOS users can use Amazon’s Book Browser to look for their next book in Kindle Unlimited’s massive, 700,000-book library.
If you’re not sure which book you want to read next, you can tap on it to see the book description, customer reviews, and a sample. As soon as they find the book they’re looking for, they can simply start reading without leaving the app. You can also add books to your wish list, so you don’t forget what you want to read next. For some inexplicable reason, the Book Browser feature isn’t available on iPhones. Only those with iPads can take advantage of the new browser.
Regardless of whether you read on your iPad or iPhone, the Kindle app will give you recommendations from Goodreads, the social book sharing site Amazon bought a while back. If you’re already a Goodreads user, you can share reading progress updates, highlights, and more directly in the book while you’re reading. Avid readers may also share quotes on social media or rate and review the book they just finished on Goodreads and Amazon.
To help you find what to read next, the Kindle app will recommend books to you based on your previous purchases. If you’re reading a series, Amazon will automatically show you the next book in the series, let you read an excerpt, and even add it to your wish list. Last but not least, the company added Audible progressive play, which allows you to start playing audiobooks while they’re downloading.
Overall, it’s a pretty comprehensive update, and one that’s sure to up the ante in the all-you-can-eat ebook subscription app competition. If you don’t have the Kindle app on your phone, you can get it for free from the iOS App Store.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.