Technologies

Need a Last-Minute Present? Gift a Kindle Book From Your Couch

We’ll show you how to send a Kindle ebook with a personalized message right now from your computer.

This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season.

Did you forget someone on your list and need to get a present immediately? Kindle books from Amazon make great last-minute gifts because they’re received and redeemed through email. You can even set up a Kindle ebook to arrive on a specific day, like Christmas, so your gift recipient will be surprised.

Kindle books work on all Amazon Fire and Kindle readers, and you can read them on phones, iPads and other non-Amazon devices through the Kindle app, which is available on both the Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. No matter what technology your friends and family use, chances are, they’ll be able to access and read their new Kindle book.

I’ll walk you through exactly how you can send a Kindle ebook as a gift on your computer through Amazon’s website.

Pick out the Kindle ebook you want to send

Amazon has a massive ebook library with millions of books to choose from, so chances are high that if you have a book in mind, Amazon sells it in Kindle format. If you don’t know what book to give, try looking in the regular «Books» section on Amazon where you’ll find curated lists including The Best Books of the Month, The Best Books of the Year and 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.

Clicking on a book shows all the formats in which it’s available, such as hardcover and paperback. Choose the Kindle format. Often the Kindle edition is the cheapest way to buy the book.

The key step: Buy the book for others

Once you’ve clicked on Kindle under formats and editions, you should see a box with the price and the Buy Now with One Click button. Don’t click it!

Instead, choose the box directly below that says Buy for Others. This is where you pick how many copies of the book you want to give. If you want your whole family or reading group to get the same book, you can send each person an individual email with their own copy. Select how many copies you want to gift and click the yellow Buy for Others button.

Enter the recipient’s email and pick a date

If you’re not signed in to Amazon, you’ll be prompted to do so, then taken to a page where you can enter the email address of the recipient and write them a short message. You can also email the book to yourself and forward it to another person at a later time, if that’s more convenient.

Next you can pick out a specific delivery date, like Christmas, up to a year in advance. This feature is only available for those who give a single copy of a book. Those who are looking to send multiple copies to different people don’t get to pick out what time it’s sent.

It’s also important to note that due to copyright issues, Kindle books can only be sent to people who live in the US. If you accidentally send a book to someone in another country, they won’t be able to download the book, but will be able to exchange it for an Amazon gift card in the amount that you paid. US users who aren’t thrilled with the gift will also have the ability to exchange it for a gift card, so they can get something they like better.

Send your gift

Once you enter your recipient’s email, write out your message and set a delivery date, you’re ready to hit the Place your Order button.

On the appointed day, your recipient will receive an email from Amazon announcing that they have received a kindle book from you. The email contains an image of the book cover, the message you wrote, and a button that says Accept this Kindle Book. Pressing the button brings them to their Amazon account where they can see the full description of the book. Once they sign in, they’ll be able to hit the Accept Gift button and download it to their Kindle library to read.

You’ll be able to see if your recipient has downloaded their book by looking under your orders and heading to the Digital Orders tab. You’ll find the date the order was placed, the cost, and its status. If the recipient downloaded the book, the order will say Claimed.

Note that the instructions above cover Kindle, but other companies also sell ebooks. Generally you’ll need a specific e-reader or app from that company in order to read the ebooks that you’ve bought. For example, you won’t be able to read a book from Apple Books on an Amazon Kindle and vice versa. Instead, you’ll have to read the book that you bought from Apple on the Books app on your Apple device.

Technologies

Google’s New AI Features Are Trying to Make Data Entry a Thing of the Past

More Gemini AI features will come to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

The latest batch of Google updates to its workspace tools highlights AI’s promise to automate mundanity in the workplace. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive all have new AI-powered features, the company announced Tuesday. The one thing all these updates have in common? Gemini is using your files, emails and chats to give you relevant information, not random answers gleaned from the web.

These updates come as AI is playing a bigger role in our work lives, for better or worse. Agentic tools like Claude Cowork and coding assistants like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex are more capable than chatbots and able to handle tasks announced independently. AI tools are also becoming more customized, with Google’s personalized intelligence rolling out across its platforms to help refine AI outputs to things that are relevant and useful for you. Google continues that trend with this new batch of Workspace updates.

New Gemini AI features in Google Workspace apps will cite their sources after each query. For example, if you ask Gemini in Google Docs to fill out an itinerary template, it will pull the information from your email, chats and files. The «sources» tab in the Gemini side panel will show you where it found the information it used, like your flight confirmation email and chats discussing dinner plans. Seeing where Gemini pulled its answers from is also how you’ll double-check Gemini’s work.

The most impressive new features are in Sheets, where AI can fill in the holes in your spreadsheets. You can describe what you want the AI to do with a simple prompt and avoid writing an exact formula. You can click on an empty cell, select the pop-up that says «Drag to fill with Gemini,» then highlight the cells you want Gemini to fill in. That deploys an AI agent to search the web to fill each cell with the necessary information.

For example, if you have a spreadsheet of the contact info for local companies, you can have Gemini search the web to fill in a the location, CEO and other publicly available information of each company. The tool aims to dramatically reduce the time needed for manual data entry. Gemini can also summarize, categorize and create charts with prompts alone.

You can also chat with Gemini in Sheets and have it scour your raw data to make custom reports and charts. No need for pivot tables if they confound you as much as they baffle me. One of the biggest uses of AI at work is helping create presentations.

In Google Slides, you can now tell Gemini in natural language what you want to appear on a slide, and it will create it, matching the style of your existing slides. You can also ask Gemini to edit your slides if you don’t want to waste time painstakingly moving design elements around the slide. The AI should fill the slides with relevant information based on your instructions and the work files it has access to, so you shouldn’t need to replace a bunch of filler text.

If you use Docs, Sheets and Slides through the Workspace account of your company, then you won’t be able to turn off AI features individually. The managing company is in control of AI access for users. Personal users can tweak their settings to limit Gemini. The new features are rolling out in beta now, in English only, to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US, as well as some Google Workspace customers who are part of the Gemini Alpha testing program.

For more, check out the new cowork feature in Copilot and how to use Perplexity AI for deep research.

Technologies

Nintendo Switches Lanes, Sues US Over Tariffs

Mario wants his money back.

Tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Companies that were subjected to those fees, such as FedEx and Dollar General, have since sued the federal government, and Nintendo wants a piece of the action.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of International Trade on Friday, as first spotted by Aftermath. The complaint seeks refunds of tariffs Nintendo paid, plus interest, and asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and stop the government from collecting them going forward.

«Since February 1, 2025, President Trump has executed the unlawful Executive Orders, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries,» Nintendo said in the complaint.

When reached for comment, Nintendo of America confirmed the lawsuit.

«We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic,» Nintendo of America said in an emailed statement on Friday, March 6.

It’s unclear how much Nintendo paid in tariffs, and it did not state an amount in the lawsuit. While the Switch 2 was priced at $450 when it launched last year, and has stayed at that amount, Nintendo did increase the price of the original Switch and accessories for both consoles. Microsoft and Sony also increased the prices of their hardware and accessories last year due to tariffs.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6 to 3 that the sweeping tariffs Trump instituted last year exceeded his executive powers. Following the ruling, on the same day, Trump announced a new set of tariffs of 10% on imported goods that would last for 150 days, starting Feb. 24.

The decision on what to do with the collected tariffs — a reported $166 billion — has been left to the US Court of International Trade. Judge Richard Eaton told the US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, March 4, to refund the importers that were forced to pay tariffs, which is more than 330,000. On Friday, the CBP said it couldn’t easily issue tariff refunds because its system requires duties to be recalculated and refunds processed entry by entry. This process would involve tens of millions of transactions. The agency said it’s updating its systems and could start providing refunds by late April.