Of all the tech products Amazon offers, Kindle is the only one I'd seriously miss if it went away.

I was never much of a book person, but that's changed over the last year as I've tried to divert more time away from social media. Kindle—not just the e-reader, but the mobile apps—are where a lot of that spare screen time has ended up.

As such, I've been digging deeper into the Kindle software to make the most of it, and using it not just for e-books, but as a hub for all kinds of reading. Here's what I've come up with:

If you haven't read a book on a smartphone lately, you might be surprised at how pleasant it's become as mobile displays have grown larger and more vibrant.

To that end, the Kindle app on iOS and Android is a great way to read e-books, and you don't need a Kindle e-reader to use it. Any Kindle books you purchase online will automatically sync across devices, as will your reading progress, so you can pick up where you left off on any phone, tablet, or e-reader that's logged into the same Amazon account.

Tap near the top of the screen on a Kindle e-reader—or anywhere on the mobile app—then tap the "Aa" icon to change various reader settings, such as font size, line spacing, margins, and page color.

Personally, I always visit the "More" tab and enable "Page turn animation," which lets me compulsively dogear the virtual pages while reading. I also disable "Popular Highlights," because nothing ruins a great quote like seeing it underscored for emphasis. (Too bad Amazon doesn't sync these settings across devices.)

Some Kindle options don't require a trip into the settings menu:

/im

Unfortunately Kindle e-readers don't let you switch between multiple user profiles, but there are a few things you can do to set up a device for more than one person:

I'll never tire of recommending Libby as a way to check out free e-books from your library, and it integrates flawlessly with Kindle so you can read across your devices and e-readers. The Libby app will ask to connect your Amazon account the first time you download a book, but you can also find this setting by tapping ☰, selecting Settings, then selecting "Read Books With..."

For more ways to get free e-books, consult the big list of free stuff.

If you're a longtime Kindle app user, you've probably got an unwieldy list of devices to choose from when you buy a book online or borrow one from Libby. To make device selection easier, head to Settings in the Kindle app, then select "Device Name" and pick something more memorable than "Joe's 6th iPhone." (On e-readers, you'll find this option under Settings > Your Account > Device Name.)

You can also head to Amazon's Kindle app manager to remove old devices and set your current device as the default.

Got a book in PDF form or a lengthy Word document you need to read? Look up your Kindle email address—formatted as username_XXXXXX@kindle.com—and send those documents to yourself:

While each Kindle device or app technically has its own email address, anything you send to one should sync with all the others.

With your Kindle email address in hand, you can start using it to bring in articles from elsewhere.

My preferred method is Instapaper, a free service that lets you save articles on the web for reading later. With Instapaper's Kindle integration, you can get weekly or daily digests of unread articles delivered a single e-book.

Here's how to get started:

Once you've set this up, you can use Instapaper's bookmarklet, browser extension, or mobile apps to save articles, and they'll show up on your Kindle app or e-reader in digest form. (The paid version of Instapaper also lets you send articles to Kindle directly.)

Instapaper isn't the only way to send articles to yourself. Here are a few others:

If any of these articles are adding too much clutter to your library, just tap ⋮ on any article, then hit "Permanently delete." After all, it's not truly a reading list if you don't neglect at least some of it.

Got any favorite Kindle tips I missed? Send me an email and tell me about them.

Instagram's redesign issues: Instagram is walking back plans for a TikTok-like redesign, with look full-screen videos and photos with full-screen instead of a scrolling feed. The new design caused an outcry among users—including multiple Kardashians—and Instagram's own data showed that people hated it. While Facebook (or Meta, as it's now called) still plans to make Instagram more-video centric in the long run, it's now taking more time to figure how not to enrage its users in the process.

As Ernie Smith wisely points out, the backlash ties into a broader reason people have become so wary of Meta: It has a habit of fundamentally changing its services into something other than what you signed up for, usually to woo advertisers or snuff out some new competitor. I'm struggling to think of other major tech products where that's a regular occurrence.

Amazon Drive's demise: Amazon plans to shut down Amazon Drive, its all-purpose cloud storage service, later this year. Drive's mobile apps will become unavailable to download after October 31, and upload support will end on January 31, 2023. The service will shut down entirely on December 31, 2023.

Amazon says it's killing the service so it can focus more on Amazon Photos, which isn't going anywhere and needs a lot more love to compete with the likes of iCloud Photos and Google Photos. (Still missing from Amazon's service, for instance, is a way to automatically share new photos of specific people with someone else.)

Besides, Amazon Drive has been a dead service walking for several years now, with no desktop sync app or third-party app integrations. Not being able to store documents and other files in Amazon's cloud doesn't seem like a major loss.

Car Thing kicked curbside: Spotify has stopped making Car Thing, its first and only foray into consumer hardware. The $90 touchscreen device connects to your car's aux input, then provides a simple interface on which to play music or podcasts via a connection to your phone. Spotify says it will keep supporting the device, which you can buy at a discounted price of $50 while supplies last, but didn't see enough demand to keep manufacturing new units.

As I wrote for Fast Company in April, Car Thing's learning curve is a bit steeper than it ought to be, but the bigger problem is that it exists largely to lock you into Spotify. It doesn't support any other music or podcast services, and you can't even use it without a $10 per month Spotify Premium subscription. While I like the idea of a simple aftermarket music controller for cars—especially older ones without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto support—Car Thing's usefulness is just too limited.

Put your wallpaper to work: Plash is an extremely cool Mac app that turns websites into desktop wallpapers. Just install the app and select a website, and Plash will make it your background, even updating it in real-time. (You can also enable "Browser" mode in the menu bar to make changes on the page.)

Why would you want to do this? Some use cases to consider:

Any website that's always being refreshed with new information will be a great fit, especially if it doesn't require any interactivity on your part.

What about Windows? While it's not quite as focused in purpose, Lively Wallpaper has a similar feature for turning websites into wallpapers. Just click the "Add Wallpaper" button, then add a website under "Enter URL." You can also disable live mouse input under ⚙ Settings > Wallpaper.

Best Buy is currently selling Lenovo's Chromebook Duet 5 for $379, which is a decent deal on its own, but if you also sign up for Qualcomm's Snapdragon Insider email list, you'll get a coupon for an additional $100 off. I'm also seeing open-box models for $309 on Best Buy's website, with no coupon necessary.

I've greatly enjoyed the original Chromebook Duet tablet, and the Duet 5 is essentially a larger version with a 13-inch OLED screen, and it still comes bundled with a keyboard and trackpad case. It's been well-received by reviewers and is worth considering if you want a large touchscreen device that runs Android apps, Linux software, and the desktop Chrome browser.

Other notable deals:

I am coming to you this week through the haze of a seemingly never-ending head cold—which repeated at-home tests claim is not COVID—so I apologize if my prose is floatier than usual.

Anyway, send me your tech questions or let me know what you thought of this issue by replying to this email.

Until next week,
Jared