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Matchbook, matchbook make my format decisions easier
Among my personal modern struggles are the tough decisions about which formats to buy which books in. This is both a personal and professional struggle.
Sometimes I want a print book. When I travel, I want my book on my Kindle. When I drive and cook or clean, I want professional audio.
When I buy books for a library, I want them all too.
And because I also so love a bargain, I was delighted to discover that Amazon now offers low-cost audio and ebook editions of your purchased print titles.
The new Matchbook shopping tool pairs your print purchases with Kindle ebooks and scans your library to find books that have a corresponding audio version compatible with Whispersync for Voice. Audio versions pop up displaying a bundled bargain price and an audio preview. You’ll need to download the free Audible (owned by Amazon) app to listen.
Just as you can pick up your book at the point you left it across Kindle platforms, you’ll also be able to get to that right spot when you switch from ebook to audio.
Price vary, but many of the bundled (ebooks/audio) deals cost only $2.99, $1.99, $0.99 and many classics are free. (Pretty fabulous for many of our students who need multimodal support and teachers who need to do a quick reread of an assigned title!)
Note: Kindle Fire devices offer an Immersion Reading option that allows you to read and listen at the same time, narrating and highlighting text as you read. It sparks an extra connection that boosts engagement, comprehension and retention, taking you deeper into the book.
Audio playback is currently available on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Keyboard, as well as iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices.
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And, in other Amazon news: the Kindle for Android app was recently updated with a Collections feature which allows readers to organize ebooks, magazines and documents into directories.
About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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