Kindle
I was very excited to see a Kindle App for the IPhone/ITouch available because I am a Kindle version 1 owner and I just love my Kindle and all it’s functionality. At this point I had a pretty robust archive of books in my Amazon Kindle account to choose from so I felt I was really in a great position to test this Kindle App out thoroughly.
I was very surprised to see how much the Kindle App emulated the Kindle functionality and really enjoyed the fact that the Whispersync functionality not only let me download a book I was reading at the time on my Kindle but it brought me to the place in the book that I stopped reading on my Kindle just an hour before. And after I read my book late into the night on my iTouch, the next morning I powered up my Kindle and low and behold the book was at the place where I stopped reading late last night on my iTouch How cool is that right?!?!
One of the big drawbacks that I have with my Kindle is the fact that if you want to read in bed and don’t want to buy extra stock in the electric company (keep all your lights on) then you have to have a book reading light to read your Kindle. But with the Kindle App on my iTouch I don’t have that issue because of course the iTouch is lit up. Although it took some getting used to holding the iTouch and turning pages it became a non-issue once I found the comfortable grip and page movement (I held it in my right hand and changed pages with the thumb on my right and also).
I did find some things that were limiting in this FREE Kindle App by Amazon which was the fact that Kindles are not only used as Book Readers but we can read Newspapers, Magazines and Blog content as well. Me for instance I have the Wall Street Journal subscription and my local newspaper downloaded every day for a third of the cost of buying the newspapers by subscription/delivery. I realize that this is the first version of the Kindle App and we can hope that they will incorporate 
more categories of purchase into the future apps or maybe you have to buy a Kindle version 2 instead! There is no technical reason this can’t happen though I feel it’s more of a way to keep people buying the Kindle and not just using the iPhone or iTouch. Amazon has a huge investment in Kindle and cannibalizing it for the iDevices would not make financial sense.
The biggest issue I have with this FREE Kindle App is the fact that you cannot buy anything with it and it basically tells you to go to Amazon.com via your Safari browser on your iPhone/iTouch. Still I don’t see this as much of a drawback because I do most of my purchasing via the Amazon site just because it is so robust and content rich that you really don’t get the true value of the buying experience unless you are on a computer on their web site (that’s my take). You can however go and use your Safari browser and log into your account and make purchases and they will be available for download virtually immediately…give or take a minute or two.
Below I have listed a quick functional comparison between the Kindle App and the Kindle based on the Reading Functionality of the Kindle only.
| Functionality |
Kindle App |
Kindle |
| Read/Access Books |
Yes |
Yes |
| Sync Books |
Yes |
Yes |
| Buy/Browse Books Native |
No |
Yes |
| Read/Buy Newspapers |
No |
Yes |
| Read/Buy Blog Content |
No |
Yes |
| Read/Buy Magazines |
No |
Yes |
| View Recommended |
No |
Yes |
Even with these limitations I feel the Kindle App is a MUST HAVE for any IPhone/ITouch!
My final take on this Kindle App is that Amazon has not only made a nice App for iPhone and iTouch Users but I feel they enhanced my Kindle Reader as well because I don’t always have the luxury of carrying my Kindle everywhere I go but I pretty much carry my ITouch everywhere. It has added a whole new dimension to my IPod Touch experience and I am sure that it is ever greater for IPhone users as well.
The Good
Whispersync (syncing between Kindle Reader and Kindle App)
Reading at Night
Crisp Clear Book Reading
The Bad
Can’t Buy Anything Natively
No Newspaper, Blog or Magazine Content allowed currently
No Text To Speech
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Category: Applications, Games
I would love to be able to get a Kindle app. The Kindle app is not available in Canada.
Can the Kindle app read secure Mobipocket books. I would love an app that does that.
I have the eReader app, I use for my “bought” books. I use the Stanza for the the free books.
What about about a Microsoft Reader app???
http://www.suvudu.com/freelibrary/
Free books! Available for the Kindle, too.
I read the entirety of His Majesty’s Dragon on the Kindle App over the course of two-ish weeks. It was good–just as good of an experience as Stanza, IMO, though Stanza has many more features. I had to dim my default brightness so as not to hurt my eyes. -__-
The Kindle is a very compelling app, but if Stanza can add a library-like PC/Mac component (the iTunes management system for books, as it were), then it could survive. If it adds some other killer features, it will survive. If it doesn’t–Amazon has the name recognition. Enough said.
I hope that Stanza continues to do well–I love Stanza, and there needs to be competition…Amazon will get lazy otherwise.
lol that looks intersiting .. sorry can’T say an interesting to it
I still like Stanza for all kinds of reasons – one of which being the ease of purchasing and downloading books and other materials from within the application itself. Although, given the iPhone OS 3.0 announcements today who wants to start a pool on just exactly how quickly Amazon gets that functionality added into the Kindle app?
I would agree with you on Amazon quickly upgrading their Kindle app sooner rather than later.
I think the biggest challenge here is that Stanza has 100,000 books to download and Amazon has 245,000 books which sounds like a boat load of books to choose from but in reality it is not. The key here is for the book publishers to come to the realization that they need to publish ALL of their books in all the major media such as Downloadable books which we don’t have right now.
You may not think that the Kindle app is much of an app at this time especially if books that do not interest you are not available for download on Kindle but down the road you will be happy they made this app.
Yes I know this is a FREE application, but we put this in here because all the content requires you to BUY the application.
That and the fact that it’s a huge iPhone application.
My Borther in-law is a huge Kindle fan and was excited about the iTouch version so he made the article while I tweaked a few things. So thanks BOB for the review and welcome to the Apple side!!!
PS Everyone wins a free copy!! Ill change the number of apps given out to 30 million now
only 281 registers members glenn
damn..