Bindle

What's New

Each edition of this book arrives with an update to Bindle. This chapter lists what changed in each one, newest first.

Edition 2

Not yet released.

  • A book keeps the theme you pick while reading as you go on to its next chapter, and in dark mode the reader bar stays dark when you put the reader away, whatever theme the reader uses. See Theme.
  • iPad: Turn pages with your Apple Pencil: squeeze an Apple Pencil Pro to turn to the next page, or move down a screen, and double-tap to turn back. The first time Bindle sees your Pencil in the reader, it shows you how. See Turn Pages with Apple Pencil.
  • Read in pages: choose Pages under Layout in the reader's Appearance panel, and turn pages with a tap at either side, a swipe, or the keys, in articles and books. Pages curl over like paper, a wide screen shows two pages like an open book, and a book opens from its cover. See Pages.
  • On Linux, bdl saves a copy of your library before its first run after this update, shows which devices it waits for before saving changes, with H to edit anyway, and shows how much history Linux stores, with the last cleanup and U to undo it. See After an Update.
  • A full archive now collects the page snapshots your other devices take, and your other devices let a snapshot go only once the archive has it. Page snapshots says how many are waiting for it. See Snapshots Are Never Lost.
  • The privacy policy and What Bindle Connects To now list everything Bindle connects to, including videos, Apple Maps, the welcome link, model downloads, and e-readers, and Permissions covers motion for driving.
  • Mac: Settings > Browsers & Shortcuts > Quick Add now says the panel starts with a link on the clipboard, which is what it does. See Quick Add.
  • Settings > Reading > E-Readers names the device answering your e-readers now, on every device, and a device that lost the e-reader name to another takes it back by itself, so a reader no longer finds no one until Bindle is reopened. See E-Readers.
  • When Local Network access is off, Bindle stops retrying after a few tries instead of trying every two seconds, Settings shows "No Local Network access" with an Open Settings button, and it looks for your devices again when you come back to it. See Devices Not Syncing.
  • Archiving what you finish is now two settings, one for reading and one for listening, in Settings > Reading > Reader. See Archive When Finished.
  • iPhone: A simple player for driving: six big buttons for Play or Pause, Back and Forward a sentence, and the previous and next article, always or only while your iPhone senses you are in a car. Turn it on in Settings > Listening > Driving. See While Driving.
  • iPhone and iPad: Scan QR Code on the Lock Screen: a widget, a control for Control Center and the Lock Screen, and a Siri Shortcut open the camera straight away to save a link from a poster or slide. Choose whether the link waits in Add Link, is saved at once, or asks, with Read Now to read it without saving. See Scan QR Code Widget.
  • While a book plays, the player, the TV when you mirror to it, and the Lock Screen show the book standing as it does on its shelf, worn as far as you have read, with its ribbon and seal, instead of a flat cover. See The Player.
  • Organize your books: filter by Not Started, Reading, Finished, or With Audio; sort by title, author, series, or progress; group by author or series; show them in rows; and put books in collections. Author and series come from each book's file and sync, and Edit Details fixes them. See Organize Your Books.
  • Book audio can be made automatically for only some books: the ones you have started, those and the next few unread, or every book, in Voices, Book Audio. Don't Prepare Automatically on a book leaves it out. See Automatic Book Audio.
  • A book whose audio is all ready wears a red waveform seal on its cover, and it shows as soon as Bindle opens. While audio is being made, the percent shows under the book. See Prepare a Book's Audio.
  • A book you have never opened stands in its shrink wrap until you first open it, on any of your devices, and the light moves across the wrap as you tip your iPhone or iPad. The ribbon at your place is satin now, and it swings a little as you turn your device. A book you have not started has a red New band across its corner, as in a shop, instead of New under it. The seal on a book with audio ages with the cover as you read. See The Books Screen.
  • Open in Reader reads a link without saving it: from Open in Bindle Reader View in the share sheet, the Add Link sheet, or Quick Add on the Mac. It stays on this device for a day under Just Looking in the Add Link sheet, and Keep saves it with your place. The Add Link sheet is on paper in the serif type now, like Quick Add. See Open a Link Without Saving It.
  • Saved Audio, in Voices, lists every article and book with audio on this device, with why it's kept, how far along it is, and its size. Swipe to delete one, or stop and resume it. See See and Delete Saved Audio.
  • Prepare Audio on any article makes its natural-voice audio ahead and keeps it until you remove it, and listening to an article keeps the rest of its audio for next time. See Prepare an Article's Audio.
  • Listen to saved PDFs and pictures, from the page you're on, with the pages turning as it reads; scanned pages are read first. Scroll Hands-Free works on them too. See Listen to a File.
  • "Continue from" offers only your newest reading. An article left collapsed in the reader bar on one device no longer keeps coming back after you have read something else. See Walk Up and Continue.
  • Fix how the natural voices say a word: select it in the reader and tap the speaker, or choose Fix a Word in This Sentence in the Voice menu while listening. Tap a reading to hear it, or spell it the way it sounds, and your fix is used on all your devices. Settings > Listening > Pronunciations lists them. See Fix a Word.
  • The natural voices say more words right: brand names like Macintosh, Bible names, King James English, Latin and French, names from well-known fiction, and places spelled one way and said another. Abbreviations such as Ch., v., pp., cf., and St. are read in full. A larger list from Wiktionary covers about 41,000 more names and rare words. See How Natural Voices Say Words.
  • Personal circle is easier to scan: one sentence says who is caught up and who is behind, then each device is one line with its name, a dotted line, and how it stands, grouped by whether it is here now or away. See Members and Sync Status.
  • The bars match the paper: the reader bar is a sheet of paper with a thin line showing how far you read, the sidebar is paper too, and "Continue from" shows in the reader bar, its close button ringed by a countdown. Today's digest and Rediscover each fold to their heading with a tap, and show rows in the list and cards in the grid, where Rediscover fills its row. Archived links leave Today's digest. See Continue on Another Device and Rediscover.
  • Settings is organized: it opens on nine categories, such as Reading, Listening, and Saving & Storage, each with its own page. Every page comes two ways. Explained, the default, writes each setting as a sentence with the choice underlined, and Advanced is the usual list of switches. The switch between them is at the top of Settings and on every page. See Explained and Advanced.
  • The daily digest is the same on all your devices: its settings apply everywhere, every device notifies you, and Today's digest shows the same links on each, even where you never saw the notification. A link one device has an offline copy of now has a reading time on all of them. See The Daily Digest.
  • Today's Highlights matches the rest of Links: a slip of paper on a short stack, the quote in the serif type, how many are waiting, and a small × for Not Now. The review's cards are paper slips too. The Paper and Standard card styles, and the Card style setting, are gone. See Highlight Review.
  • The Links screen lines up: one margin for the title, filters, headings, cards, and rows, and the same spacing in the list and the grid. Today's digest sits right over Rediscover, Rediscover's Not Now is a small ×, Save as Collection moved into the Add (+) menu, search on iPhone and iPad is a line of serif type over a rule, the filters on iPhone are small capitals over a line with the chosen one marked, and Up Next looks the same as a list and as cards. See Up Next.
  • Mac: The Mac matches the iPad: the sidebar is paper with serif names and brick symbols, the chosen item on a soft brick band; each screen's name is in large serif type at the top left; search is the serif line at the top of the list, where Esc clears what you typed and then leaves the search; and Quick Add is on paper in the serif type. Clearing a search brings the whole list back at once. See Start a Search and Quick Add.
  • Mac: While the reader covers the window, its toolbar has only the reader's buttons, with Collapse Reader first at the left, and no strip over the sidebar. The sidebar can be dragged wider too. See Open and Put Away the Reader and Arrange the Sidebar.
  • Listening goes on into the next chapter or Up Next article with the screen locked. See Books and Up Next.
  • Prepare audio for every book, in Voices, makes every unfinished book's audio ahead (now Automatic Book Audio, with more choices). Your devices ask each other first, so a plugged-in Mac makes it and your iPhone takes it in seconds. See Automatic Book Audio.
  • Prepare Audio makes a book's sound ahead in the natural voice, from the chapter you're on to the end, so listening later uses less battery. Start listening right away; the chapters after the one playing are made while you listen. See Prepare a Book's Audio.
  • Books stand on shelves, each turned a little so you see its pages beside the cover, and a longer book stands thicker. A book you have started has darker read pages and a ribbon at your place, and a book not on this device faces straight out until it is downloaded. See The Books Screen.
  • The end of an article shows a card for what comes next, with Archive and Read Next, Keep and Read Next, and Just Archive. In Settings > Reader, articles and books can each go on by themselves after a short countdown on the button. See Reading.
  • A daily digest: at a time you choose, a notification offers a few unread links that fit the minutes you set, soonest due first, and opens to the morning's reading. See The Daily Digest.
  • Overdue links can go to the archive on their own, and Declare Bankruptcy archives the unread pile in one go, with Undo and Bring Back Last Bankruptcy. Read By is in the reader's menu and can be a quick action. See Start Fresh.
  • Give a link a date to read it by: choose Read By in its menu. Rows show "read by tomorrow" under the byline, cards show a label, and overdue links say so in red. The Read By filter lists them soonest first, and Settings > Read By and Digest can give every new save a date. See Read By.
  • iPhone and iPad: Try opening quick actions without the dot: set Open With to Edge Swipe in Settings > Reader > Quick Actions, then swipe in from either side of the reader and slide to an action. See Edge Swipe.
  • Books leads with the book you are reading, with Continue and Listen and the chapter you are in, then the shelf. Ask sets each question as a heading and lists sources as numbered footnotes under the answer, with raised numbers in it. Collections names its lists in serif. See Books.
  • Up Next reads like a programme: what plays now is a card with Listen to All and Read, and the rest follow under Then with the time each one starts. Search results are grouped by why they matched (In the title, In the text, Close in meaning), with the matched passage in italic, in the list and the grid. Rediscover shows its picks as cards in a sideways row in the list too. See Up Next.
  • Link details lead with the picture and a serif title, the site in small caps, and how long it takes and when you saved it, then a summary in italic. Listen sits beside Read Offline, the actions are named under their symbols, About is now the Colophon, and related links are numbered. The Listen player and its full-screen text are set in serif too. See A Link's Details.
  • The reader opens in serif: New York is the default font, the headline is set in it whatever the font, the site shows in small caps, and an article or chapter opens with a large initial letter. A book's chapter has its name centered under a running head with the author and title. The Appearance panel names its groups. See Font.
  • Under Development: a first Linux client, bdl, that runs in a terminal, pairs with your devices, and syncs your links over the local network. See Linux (Omarchy).
  • The grid has the same headings as the list, such as Today and Earlier this week, each with its cards packed under it. See Grouping by Day.
  • The grid's cards are covers now: the picture fills the card, with the title in serif type, the site, and a line that says how long it takes and when you saved it ("18 min read · Saved 1h ago"), and the buttons along its foot. A link with no picture is a book cover. See Rows and Grid.
  • iPhone and iPad: Choose what a tap on a link does: show its details, as before, or open it straight in the reader. The other becomes a button on each row and card. In Settings > Appearance, "Tapping a link". See A Link's Details.
  • The list has a new look: serif titles, a byline with the site and reading time, the unread dot in the margin, and a thin line showing how far you have read. A new Compact layout shows only titles and bylines, from the layout switch or "Compact rows" in Settings. See Rows and Grid.
  • Bindle reopens where you left it: the same tab, list, details, search, and the article you were reading, even after your device closed it in the background. See Bindle Reopens Where You Left It.
  • The library is smoother with a large library: the grid measures only the cards you have scrolled to and the list groups its rows once per change, so scrolling, clicking a card, and a new link arriving cost what is on screen. On the Mac the grid shows at most four columns, each about as wide as an iPad card, and opening Bindle no longer pauses before the library appears. See Rows and Grid.
  • A library mirror on a network drive waits quietly while the drive is asleep or not mounted, saying it is waiting for the drive to mount instead of showing an error, and on the Mac picks up on its own when the drive mounts. See Things to Know.
  • Save PDFs and images to your library beside your links, from the + button, the share sheet, drag and drop, or Open With, open them, find words in a PDF, tap to see only the PDF, and search the words inside them. They move to your other devices like books do. See PDFs and Images.
  • While your device charges, the natural voice reads your Up Next queue ahead, so listening to it later uses less battery. See Up Next Audio.
  • Read Together: read one article or book on two of your devices at once, each following the other, and select a passage to point it out on the other. See Read Together.
  • AirPlay in the Listen player, and with Screen Mirroring the TV shows the player large, its words lighting up as they are read. See On a TV.
  • Typing in a text field, such as a place's name or address, no longer sets off a keyboard shortcut. See Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • One kind of note now says how things you started ended, one after another, including over the reader. Refresh Title and Preview and pairing now say when they finish. See Notes When Something Finishes.
  • Checking links, syncing, Save Offline, importing, exporting, adding books, and the Settings buttons that remove things now show that they're working and say how they ended. Sync Now and pull to refresh say which devices they reached. See Sync Now and Restart Sync.
  • The natural voice's download from the reader shows how far along it is and says when it's ready, Voices can cancel a download, and voice previews show when they're loading. Site sign-in pages show when they're loading or failed, and Mirror Now, Ask, and Summarize say what they're doing. See Voices.
  • The share sheet shows when it's reading and saving, and after a failed save you can choose Save again. Shortcuts that mark read or change a collection say so, and Open Next Unread, Continue Reading, and Up Next say when there's nothing to open. A Send To waiting for its device stays in the capsule until it arrives. See Shortcuts Actions.

Edition 1

October 11, 2026. The first edition: a guide to every feature and setting in Bindle for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, written to be practiced on.