The Amazon Kindle is one of the most popular e-reader devices, and for good reason. It’s both practical and packed with great features.
Kindles also offer tons of apps, book titles, magazines and more, all at your fingertips. It's a bookworm's dream come true. And because it's so lightweight and portable, you can easily carry it in your backpack, briefcase or handbag, making it the perfect travel companion.
However, like most electronic devices, Kindles have some hidden features that are pretty cool and helpful that you may not know about.
Here are my top 10 must-know features to help you get the most out of your e-reading experience on a Kindle. Keep in mind that these tips will depend on which Amazon Kindle model you have.
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With some of the later Kindle models, you can make the cover of the current book you're reading - your Lock Screen. It's a unique feature that you can change with every book you read. Here's how to do it:
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Reading is a great way for us to learn new words and expand our vocabulary. To help you with this, Kindle has two great features that will quickly teach the meaning of a word you don't know while you're reading your book. One way it does this is with a feature called Word Wise, which automatically shows the meanings of long words in any given book. Here's how to turn the Word Wise feature on:
A quicker way to learn the meanings of words without turning on Word Wise is by simply long-pressing on a word you don't know. This hidden shortcut will make a dictionary definition of the word appear right above it so you can get a glance at what the word means.
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If you're an active Goodreads user, you can connect your account to your Kindle. In case you're unfamiliar with Goodreads, it is a popular online platform that serves as a pretty amazing social cataloging website for book lovers.
Connecting the two makes it that much easier to review and rate books. It’ll also update your reading progress for each book you're reading in real time. Here's how to connect your Kindle to your Goodreads account:
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The Warmth Schedule is a feature that will help reduce the amount of blue light emitting from your device to make reading more healthy for your eyesight. Blue light exposure before bed can interfere with sleep patterns, so enabling this feature can be beneficial for those who enjoy reading on their Kindle before going to sleep. Here's how to turn on the Warmth Schedule feature:
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Another cool feature that Kindle has is Popular Highlights. This feature will make a certain line or passage of text appear underlined in the book you're reading, because more than 10 people who have previously read this book have highlighted that line or passage. Although this is a cool feature, some people might find it distracting. Here's how to turn it off:
If you're someone who downloads many e-books to your Kindle or uses a lot of apps, your storage space can be taken up quickly. This hidden gem of a trick can easily free up some space with a quick Archive feature on your device by following these steps:
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Every book on a Kindle will default to being viewed in a vertical Portrait mode. However, there is a way for you to read your books in a horizontal Landscape mode if that's what you prefer, and this is a feature that comes on every Kindle model. Here's how to turn on Landscape mode:
If you have several e-books on your Kindle and want to keep them more organized, you can separate them into different collections. You can sort by author, genre, your favorites or whatever category you can think of that suits you. Here's how to make a collection:
Since Kindles are Amazon devices, yours should come with an Alexa feature. Once you enable Alexa on your Kindle, you can use it just like you would with a regular Alexa-powered device to ask it questions, make voice commands and more. Here's how to activate Alexa on your Kindle:
Kindles are super-lightweight and often easier to carry around than a physical book. With a small device comes a small font, and you may have difficulty reading a font that small. That's why Kindle makes it easy for you to change your font size as well as the style of the font you're reading to make it exactly how you like it. Here's how to make the text size bigger or smaller:
The Kindle is more than just an e-reader. It’s a handy, slim device that can enhance your reading experience with some pretty amazing features. Whether you want to learn new words, connect with other book lovers, adjust the screen warmth to make reading easier on your eyes or customize your reading preferences, Kindle has it all.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your Kindle, and discover a whole new world of reading. And if you don’t have one, maybe it’s time to consider investing in one of the most popular readers ever made. Check out the Best Kindle of 2023 here.
What’s better, reading on a Kindle versus a physical book? And what are some of the best books you have read on your Kindle, and why? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.
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