Kindle update brings eTextbooks and Book Browser to iPhone, and more

Kindle 4.7 for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

Amazon’s free Kindle for iOS app has received a refresh this morning. Bumped to version 4.7, it lets students access Kindle eTextbooks from their iPhone and filter their notes by chapter for easy studying, thanks to an enhanced Notebook feature.

Book Browser, another new feature created with iPhone owners in mind, lets you tap on a book cover to reveal additional information like the book description and customer reviews.

And if you’re a comics fan, browsing your favorite comic book is now a lot easier thanks to the new table of contents, accessible from the left panel navigation menu.

The table of contents lists chapter headings and page numbers. Amazon cautions that “most”, but not all, comic books have table of contents implemented in the Kindle app.

Kindle 4.7 changelog:

  • Book Browser (now for iPhone!): Using the Book Browser, customers can now view and get additional information about books. Tapping on a book cover displays a detail page that provides information about the book, including the book description and customer reviews. Kindle Unlimited members can download and read immediately.
  • Comics – Table of Contents: customers can now access their table of contents from the left panel navigation menu for most comic books and see chapter headings and page numbers.
  • eTextbooks on iPhone: Students can now access Kindle eTextbooks from their iPhone with the free Kindle app, making it easier than ever to study anywhere. With improvements to Notebook, students can not only view all of their notes and highlights in one place, but now also filter by chapter for easy studying.
  • Performance and stability improvements

Back in December, the Book Browser made its debut in Kindle for iPad, as did other features like Goodreads integration, progressive playback of Audible audiobooks and more.

The online retail giant should be credit for being among the first developers that refreshed the Kindle app with support for the new iPhone resolutions and iOS 8 back in September 2014, including a handy Kindle widget in the Today section of the iOS Notification Center.

And last month, Amazon released a free OS X app giving Mac owners the tools to create and publish their own textbooks on Kindle.

The 48.70 megabyte app requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 7.0 or later.

Grab Kindle for the iPhone and iPad at no cost from the App Store.