Amazon is adding a new Kindle feature focusing on readers who frequently skip back and forth between pages. The latest feature named Page Flip is available on Amazon’s Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Kindle app on iOS and Android phones.
The key function of Page Flip is to make it easy to hop, skip and flick through the book while saving your place. The app allows skimming past pixel-accurate thumbnails of every single page in a book, tapping to zoom in or out to get a birds-eye-view. Moreover, the last page you read will be shown as a thumbnail pinned to the screen, making it easier to go back and continue reading.
Although the Page Flip works well with any Kindle book, the feature is most suited for non-fiction. These are the books that you usually do not want to read continuously from the beginning to end. Undeniably, if it is a how-to book, you may need to refer charts, diagrams or concentrate on topics that interest you.
The notes, charts, pictures, highlights etc. that show up in Page Flip thumbnail function as markers since page layouts are retained. Hence, Page Flip will give you a good sense about the length of the book, kind of the rough digital equivalent of flipping pages of a paper book.
The feature gives the Mission Control birds-eye view feature on Macintosh computers. Page Flip also works well with Amazon’s Audible audio edition books integrated with Kindle Apps. When you have played the narration, and hear about charts and diagrams, you can refer the same without interrupting the narrator. The page pin will follow the narrator automatically.
Laura Hillenbrand, the author of best-selling book Unbroken says in an Amazon press release, “As an author, I love knowing that my work is presented with fluid clarity, freeing my readers from the page shuffling that can cloud and spoil the narrative.”
Page Flip does not substitute any of the existing features. If you need, you can still bookmark pages, move in either direction page by page, jump to certain pages from the table of contents etc. using the existing tools only.
Amazon prioritizes the Kindle ecosystem by frequent updates. Last week it launched an updated version of the entry-level $79.99 Kindle eReader. And also earlier this year it introduced the Oasis model, which is far more expensive one.
Kindle Director of Project Management, Mike Torres says that the sales and reading stats continue to upsurge.