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

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the long Saturday version, and some of the clues are stumpers. I was really thrown by 10-Across. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Jersey Shore» channel
Answer: MTV

4A clue: «___ Knows» (rhyming ad slogan)
Answer: LOWES

6A clue: Second-best-selling female musician of all time, behind Taylor Swift
Answer: MADONNA

8A clue: Whiskey grain
Answer: RYE

9A clue: Dreaded workday: Abbr.
Answer: MON

10A clue: Backfiring blunder, in modern lingo
Answer: SELFOWN

12A clue: Lengthy sheet for a complicated board game, perhaps
Answer: RULES

13A clue: Subtle «Yes»
Answer: NOD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: In which high schoolers might role-play as ambassadors
Answer: MODELUN

2D clue: This clue number
Answer: TWO

3D clue: Paid via app, perhaps
Answer: VENMOED

4D clue: Coat of paint
Answer: LAYER

5D clue: Falls in winter, say
Answer: SNOWS

6D clue: Married title
Answer: MRS

7D clue: ___ Arbor, Mich.
Answer: ANN

11D clue: Woman in Progressive ads
Answer: FLO

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 21, #516

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 21, No. 516.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. I actually thought the purple category, usually the most difficult, was the easiest of the four. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Old Line State.

Green group hint: Hoops legend.

Blue group hint: Robert Redford movie.

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Maryland teams.

Green group: Shaquille O’Neal nicknames.

Blue group: Associated with «The Natural.»

Purple group: Sports that have a driver.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Maryland teams. The four answers are Midshipmen, Orioles, Ravens and Terrapins.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Shaquille O’Neal nicknames. The four answers are Big Aristotle, Diesel, Shaq and Superman.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with «The Natural.» The four answers are baseball, Hobbs, Knights and Wonderboy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports that have a driver. The four answers are bobsled, F1, golf and water polo.

Technologies

Wisconsin Reverses Decision to Ban VPNs in Age-Verification Bill

The law would have required websites to block VPN users from accessing «harmful material.»

Following a wave of criticism, Wisconsin lawmakers have decided not to include a ban on VPN services in their age-verification law, making its way through the state legislature.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 130 (and its sister Assembly Bill 105), introduced in March 2025, aims to prohibit businesses from «publishing or distributing material harmful to minors» unless there is a reasonable «method to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.»

One provision would have required businesses to bar people from accessing their sites via «a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.»

A VPN lets you access the internet via an encrypted connection, enabling you to bypass firewalls and unblock geographically restricted websites and streaming content. While using a VPN, your IP address and physical location are masked, and your internet service provider doesn’t know which websites you visit.

Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard moved to delete that provision in the legislation, thereby releasing VPNs from any liability. The state assembly agreed to remove the VPN ban, and the bill now awaits Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s signature.

Rindala Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the digital freedom nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Wisconsin’s U-turn is «great news.»

«This shows the power of public advocacy and pushback,» Alajaji says. «Politicians heard the VPN users who shared their worries and fears, and the experts who explained how the ban wouldn’t work.»

Earlier this week, the EFF had written an open letter arguing that the draft laws did not «meaningfully advance the goal of keeping young people safe online.» The EFF said that blocking VPNs would harm many groups that rely on that software for private and secure internet connections, including «businesses, universities, journalists and ordinary citizens,» and that «many law enforcement professionals, veterans and small business owners rely on VPNs to safely use the internet.»

VPNs can also help you get around age-verification laws — for instance, if you live in a state or country that requires age verification to access certain material, you can use a VPN to make it look like you live elsewhere, thereby gaining access to that material. As age-restriction laws increase around the US, VPN use has also increased. However, many people are using free VPNs, which are fertile ground for cybercriminals.

In its letter to Wisconsin lawmakers prior to the reversal, the EFF argued that it is «unworkable» to require websites to block VPN users from accessing adult content. The EFF said such sites cannot «reliably determine» where a VPN customer lives — it could be any US state or even other countries.

«As a result, covered websites would face an impossible choice: either block all VPN users everywhere, disrupting access for millions of people nationwide, or cease offering services in Wisconsin altogether,» the EFF wrote.

Wisconsin is not the only state to consider VPN bans to prevent access to adult material. Last year, Michigan introduced the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act, which would ban all use of VPNs. If passed, it would force ISPs to detect and block VPN usage and also ban the sale of VPNs in the state. Fines could reach $500,000.