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Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software
palmsolo writes "The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync and read everywhere you go. Readers on the iPhone also now get access to over 200,000 ebook titles on the Amazon Kindle storefront. Check out the hands-on image gallery and video of the Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2."
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Thousands of iPhone zombies squinting into tiny little screens, walking into cars, telephone poles, other zombies.This world is getting out of hand.
Actually, I'm just jealous. I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software
Finally I won't have to huddle around a pile of tinder in the forest, rubbing two iPhones together just to get a spark to light my campfire.
We lived like cavemen before iPhone software.
My work here is dung.
Do you need a Kindle to use this iphone app? The article only talks about the benefits of using the app with the kindle, but for all of those that don't have one, can we use the app and buy ebooks on the amazon store?
Cue the author's guild bitching about how they lose money because now their ebooks can be read by two devices instead of just one in 3...2...1...
Amazon probably makes plenty of money off eBook sales. With tons of iPhone and iPod Touch users using Stanza and other eBook readers, it only makes sense to support this market. Now instead of having Amazon eBook sales tied to Kindle hardware, they can tie to iPhones and iPod Touches too.
While I don't think this will do anything to get iPhone/iPod Touch users to buy a Kindle, it will certainly quintuple their Kindle eBook sales.
Watch the Kindle software platform become available on other devices (Android, Windows Mobile) in the near future.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
It's almost like I predicted this.
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1121425&cid=26786435
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
No Kindle is needed. You can buy books using a web browser on your PC and have the books sent wirelessly to your iPhone/iPod touch.
DRM = no sale
The summary doesn't make it clear, but the article mentions that it also works with the iPod touch. Considering the touch is smaller, lighter, and much cheaper than both the iPhone and the Kindle, this application might give a significant boost to readers looking for a (relatively) inexpensive reader.
Having read long books on old Palm PDAs, the size of the screen is only a minor annoyance. Those PDAs, though, were not backlit LCDs. Some people might find an iPod screen too fatiguing for long reading.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
If Amazon starts allowing its software to be used on _any_ platform, whether it be iPhone, Kindle, Laptop, Netbook, or 3rd Party eBook Reader, would that be an acceptable compromise to the fact that their e-books use DRM?
Valve's Steam has shown that people (even Geeks who notoriously hate DRM) are willing to compromise and use DRM if something of great enough value is offered with it (and possibly because of it).
The screen won't get larger, but most rumors say the next iPhone (much like the G2 launching in April) will feature an OLED screen with much higher resolution. It will use less battery, and be slimmer.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
No, you don't. I just downloaded it and tried out a sample chapter. I had previously used eReader from Fictionwise, but they were unable to get "The Amber Spyglass," even though they had the first two books of Pullman's Dark Materials series.
Amazon had the content, so I went and bought Amber Spyglass.
Vote for global prefs bug
I know most of the people here might not agree, but the new iPods are extremely cool and nice. :( Since you don't need the Kindle to use it, buying an iPod would probably be more in line with most people's budgets. And this would be great way to read on the subway or on a break with coffee, if your vision is decent.
I really like the Kindle too, but if you could have a small portable iPod for your books and music that is really great. For commuters this is a very nice piece of technology and software.
The iPhone is too expensive and not worth the money. The average person would probably buy the iPod because it costs so much less than the iPhone. With the Apple stores and going online and looking around there are always have deals or a refurbished one, you just have to watch for them every few months.
While I agree that text-to-speech should not be a copyright issue, and that it currently sounds horrible, I think the quality issue will change.
If text-to-speech is even remotely popular, it will keep improving in quality. Eventually you won't know if you're listening to a recording or a rendering. And yes, the market for audio books will (mostly) dry up. (Some people will still want to hear authors read their own work, or hear celebrities read it.)
But hey, them's the breaks. You can't sue obsolescence.
Which is why the iPhone absolutely sucks as an ebook reader.
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It seems I can't get the software, because it's not available on the german store... Has anyone had any luck getting the software with a non US account?
Surprisingly it is quite readable even on the iPhone's small screen. You just swipe your finger across the screen to flip back/forth through the pages. There is options to change the font size, so really the only complaint you can have is how much/little text fits on the screen before you have to flip a page.
There are some free books on the Kindle Store (mostly classics like Treasure Island and some religious texts like the Bible), so there is no cost to try out the Kindle iPhone app.
Really cool how you buy via your web browser. Next time you open the Kindle app, it just automatically syncs what you have just purchased to the iPhone. Since it is just text, it takes just seconds to sync. Should not be painful to use even in poor signal locations and on EDGE. Plus you can download any purchase you make for free again in the future.
I don't know if if I would buy all of my books this way (I lately have been using the local library), but in a pinch (say on a trip) when I want a book to read and don't want to or can't stop by a bookstore or library, this could work very well.
Due to DRM of bookware.
They hope you have a better reading experience and spend more money if you use their reader.
I think they focused on the benefit of using this app with the Kindle because... well, the first question that popped into my head was, "If I buy a book on my iPhone and then get a Kindle in a few months, will I be able to transfer my books over to the Kindle, or are they going to try to make me buy them all again?"
Once I had gotten past that thought, my next question might have been, "Well how hard will it be to transfer books from one to the other? Will Amazon provide a mechanism for that?" If I had gotten past those two, I'd like to think I'd be clever enough to ask at some point, "Can they provide any method for me to read on my one device and have my place synced over to the other so I can pick up right where I left off?"
It looks like Amazon may have covered their bases pretty well.
Disappointingly, it seems that it's only available in the US too. Very disappointing for us Brits.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
Always make sure you preview a sample before buying though. The font choices for some of these are just inexplicably bad. Check out Zoe's Tale vs An Autumn War. The AWA font is terrible...
I have an iPAQ hx4700 that has a touchscreen bigger than the iPhone's, a 624MHz CPU, and both SD and CF slots; how about an "app" for that, hmmm, Amazon?
I'm frankly getting sick of these Apple "there's an app for that" ads, ads that once again twist reality to make it sound like the planets revolve around a big glowing apple rather than the sun. Pretty much every non-3G app that exists for the iPhone would be just as functional and applicable on an hx4700, but Apple doesn't want people to know that.
It's great Amazon is opening up the market to iPhone and iPod Touch users. The other shoe will drop when they release a desktop version of the Kindle. The ebook wars will be on their way to over if that happens.
blog
No, the app works just fine if you don't own a Kindle.
Agreed. I was going to get this app until the Kindle made its way to the UK, but I can't even do that.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
Give me a phone with e-ink display first.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
I like Stanza better, actually. It's more pleasant to read with. In Stanza I can tap to turn the page, pinch-unpinch to alter the text size, and rotate to get a different aspect ratio. In the Kindle app, I have to swipe to turn the page, tapping just annoyingly brings up some controls I usually don't want, and rotation does nothing. I still haven't figured out if I can adjust the text size in Kindle. On the other hand, rotation not working means I can lay down on my side, turn the phone to align with my head, and read, which is harder with Stanza.
Kindle places a border around the text on the page, which is pleasant to look at, but means there's less text on each page so I have to change pages more often. Stanza uses the entire screen.
Also, if I buy an ebook from an online retailer for use in Stanza, I can back it up with my computer. Kindle books are delivered directly to the device, so I have to trust that Amazon will still be delivering my ebook to my devices in the future, and that I'll want to be doing my ebook reading on a device they support.
I don't think I'm going to be buying a lot of ebooks for Kindle as long as it has its DRM issues, unless they lower the prices a lot. The books I found on the kindle store that I would want were not significantly cheaper as ebooks than as paperback. If they want me to put up with DRM, I want to pay half the price of dead tree media, or less.
Not available in the Canadian app-store (or in Europe).
I really am saddened by this aspect of 'progress', you can order physical CDs, DVDs, kindles, anything from all over the world and nobody has an issue with that, but the second anything becomes distributed electronically boom, we're transported to this strange super-protectionistic world where things do not move freely anymore.
I fear for tomorrow's world, where instead of being exposed to music, shows, books, tv, from other countries you will just be able to read, listen and watch to things 'approved' by some company somewhere.
And let's not talk about people learning a foreign language: say you're studying German and you'd love to read some German books and watch some shows from Amazon.de, sorry, no way. Or maybe you live in Brazil and you'd like to improve your English by reading books, listening to music and watching shows over the internet, nossiree, not gonna happen.
It seems that modern technology is more and more used as a 'control' technology, vs an 'enabling' technology, which is quite sad as it just promotes an extremely insular world, instead of the free exchange of information.
I really hope that, as it happened to the music DRM, at some point the 'powers that be' will realize that this attitude is completely wrong, but given the latest salvo by the book authors about the kindle's text-to-speech functionality (which could've helped a lot of blind or non-native-English speakers) I am really not sure if it will ever happen.
-- the cake is a lie
Last I checked you weren't allowed the privilege of purchasing an amazon ebook without having a Kindle registered to your account.
And believe me I was interested in find out if it was possible, the kindle inferior. You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
Question everything
Most likely because they only have the book rights for all those books in the US. It would have been foolish to have paid extra money for worldwide rights (or even US+UK) when they were going to be testing the Kindle in the US first to see if it would flop or succeed. It may or not also be related to purchasing UK versions of books (because yeah, some books are localized even though it's kind of dumb) and purchasing a different title list based on popularity in the UK.
I would expect once they purchase book rights to your region, they'll turn on the iPhone app even before they get the Kindle out the door. Unless some exec gets nervous that somehow that will make the Kindle less likely to sell.
Last I checked, the iPod Touch was $30 more than the iPhone hardware for an 8GB ($229), and the same price ($299) for the 16GB). (I last checked 1 minute ago.)
Now, if you're talking data plans, sure, the iPhone ends up more expensive after just one month. But the price difference obviously depends on your current phone plan. I had unlimited Internet on my old Blackjack, and getting the iPhone 3G was only $15/month more for me--and I was told I would have to pay $15/month more for any phone I got, as I was on an older, cheaper data plan than they currently offered (woo, prices went up!).
YMMV.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
You need a book light for an ebook reader?
Its better than staring at a lightbulb for hours at a time.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
Last I checked you weren't allowed the privilege of purchasing an amazon ebook without having a Kindle registered to your account.
Did you bother to look since this announcement? Web pages do change, or so I've heard.
You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
You need a book light because it's epaper. Just like regular paper, it doesn't emit any light of its own. The upside with this is that the display only draws power when you turn the page. I think that the convenience of having a device that you can use continuously for days without recharging kind of outweighs the inconvenience of having to provide your own light source.
And, ehhh, everyone else.
I'm curious if this is restricted to the US App Store, given the restrictions around the Kindle itself.
Why not? Most geeks will use it for their own pleasure.
for those of us that have not fallen to the Apple Side (yet), any chance we'll get a blackberry app from Amazon soon? And for that matter, what about the Windows Mobile application? I would like to be able to read books on my BB, especially when on long flights.
-- All this knowledge is giving me a raging brainer.
I just wish I could download kindle software to my tablet, and not have to buy proprietary reader. stupid DRM :P
Isn't the Kindle ebook format the same as the Mobipocket format (Amazon owns Mobipocket)? And aren't the same ebooks that are available through Amazon also available through Mobipocket.com? Mobipocket has had an ebook reader for almost every device out there for a long time. So isn't this just Amazon bringing the Mobipocket reader to one more device? I guess the advantage is that you can share books between the Kindle and the iPhone, but still, not very big news, IMO. It's not even the first ebook reader for the iPhone.
OK, why is this flamebait? Even by the unofficial definition that a lot of moderators use ("flamebait" == "you're full of it") that seems a stretch.
First off, as others pointed out the technology will improve. I think one day it probably will replace human audiobook readers. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Unfortunately, the quality of the performer has a LOT to do with the experience of the listener. Take for example Frank Muller. He was widely known as one of the "best" audiobook readers in the business, his career ended only by a tragic accident in 2001. I knew of him because he read almost all of Stephen King's audiobooks. While I feel for the man and his family, I have to say that I found him unlistenable. I bought a recording of Black House and could not make it past the first half hour. He read things in an overwrought, almost Shakespearean tone, even for mundane bits of narration. And every sentence had the same basic pitch structure. It made me laugh, as well as everyone I played it for. The part that made me stop laughing was that I'd paid $60 for something I couldn't listen to.
Clearly he has plenty of fans, what with all his awards and accolades and such. But he was not my cup of tea. This is unfortunate, as I'm a King fan. Even if I've read a book, it's nice to go back and listen to it again later on audiobook while driving or working out. After Muller had to retire, George Guidall performed the rewrite of Gunslinger. I was dismayed to realize he used the exact same performance style. Since then I haven't even tried another King audiobook. Considering the quality of his more recent output, this hasn't really bothered me that much.
And then you get older or more obscure titles that no one is going to perform because of the costs involved. Or titles that were performed long ago and you can't find them anymore. I recently found a torrent of Heinlein's Time for the Stars. I enjoyed the story quite a bit, even though it was a fairly lousy quality copy of an old cassette and the performer was nothing special. The only other way you're going to find this recording is eBay/craiglist/garage sale.
On top of this, places like Amazon and Audible frequently don't even list the performer. I'd say "usually", in the case of the titles I look for. And when they do and it's a person you've never heard of (also frequent), good luck finding a sample of their performance.
So yeah, I see a huge market for something like this if they can improve the technology enough. Audiobooks are insanely overpriced, and I wonder what using software like this might do to that price. I would hope that there'd still be a market for certain performers, like Jim Dale. His Harry Potter performances are wonderful. And I'd miss hearing the works of Sarah Vowell or David Sedaris in any voice other than his. Of course, eventually it's likely that a computer simulation will be able to mimic them fairly accurately. I know I can already mimic the latter two in my head when I read their writing in print. Imagine if you could get the works of Twain read in a sufficiently Twain-like voice. Or set the voice to "James Earl Jones" when you listen to Lord of the Rings.
The authors have nothing to worry about. In fact, they'll probably make money on the deal. It's the performers and those who work in the recording department who are going to be out of a job. But then, they'll be jobs created for software people. Such is the way of change.
I own a first gen kindle and an iPhone and this is a very nice gift from Amazon. A free app that allows me to keep reading my e-books when I'm bored and don't have my kindle handy. What's not to like?
It's not often that I say this about a huge corporation but Kudos to Amazon for thinking about the consumer and providing more convenience as opposed to the Riaa/Mpaa.
Now, if only they would get that stupid DRM off their ebooks and slash their (inflated) prices, I'd have nothing left to complain about.
Last I checked you weren't allowed the privilege of purchasing an amazon ebook without having a Kindle registered to your account.
The app registers your iPhone as a Kindle after you put in your account info. I just bought a couple books off of there and I don't own a Kindle myself.
I subscribe to the Financial Times on my Kindle. I just installed the iPhone app and FT is not available to download, only the books I've purchased.
Yes. Just did it myself. If you already have an amazon account, it's almost like magic. Just click the one-click purchase, then re-open the Kindle app on the iphone (or hit the Kindle re-synch button), and the book automatically appears.
Quite cool, but I think the books are over-priced.
Last I checked, the iPod Touch was $30 more than the iPhone hardware for an 8GB ($229), and the same price ($299) for the 16GB). (I last checked 1 minute ago.)
Now, if you're talking data plans, sure, the iPhone ends up more expensive after just one month. But the price difference obviously depends on your current phone plan. I had unlimited Internet on my old Blackjack, and getting the iPhone 3G was only $15/month more for me--and I was told I would have to pay $15/month more for any phone I got, as I was on an older, cheaper data plan than they currently offered (woo, prices went up!).
YMMV.
*Qualified customers only. Two-year contract required.
t
Summary unclear: do we need a Kindle to use that software, or is it independent ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
The Kindle 2 is limited to 16 color grey scale, the original kindle only 4. The iP[od|hone] doesn't have that limitation- so are the diagrams and charts and images that are otherwise utter crap on the Kindle presented in all of their glory on the iP[od|hone] or do you just get the ugly 16 shades of pixel vomit?
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
They call it "electronic paper" for a reason - because it looks and works like one. Yes, that means you need an external light source to read in the dark. It also means that your eyes don't strain anywhere near as much as they do when you stare at the backlit LCD (which isn't fundamentally different from staring at a pretty powerful lamp shining right into your face).
but how can you use kindle to read FREE books?
stanza lets you download and read free books relatively easily.
kindle for iphone... doesnt seem to let you. By current definition, it only lets you read books that are "tied to your amazon account".
Whereas a "real" kindle seems to let you more easily grab books off the web that are formatted for kindle.
Boo.
I can now confirm that the new iPhone Kindle software works in Germany on the T-Mobile network with an American iTunes account and an American Amazon account. Just "bought" a book on Amazon for $0 and it is immediately delivered to my phone. Great job, Amazon!
If I can't download an article from JSTOR (or wherever), then the thing is useless to me. I don't care about ebooks. I don't care about audio books. But I'd really love a portable way to be able to read PDFs in a more convenient way than on my Dell Axim.
"Cut word lines. Cut music lines. Smash the control images. Smash the control machine." - William S. Burroughs
My Nokia N810 lasts for days of reading without recharging. And it's smaller. And it has a touch screen & stylus. And wifi for looking up definitions. And an IM client (optional) that I can use to chat while reading. And it can be configured (easily) to use dim red text on a black background that doesn't strain or ruin night vision.
The buttons on it are also incredibly convenient for turning pages. I just contract a single finger. Oh yeah, the pages turn almost instantly because it's not eInk. Or disrupting my gf sleeping next to me since there's no booklight. Or having an extra device that also requires batteries that don't last days clamped on to my ebook reading device.
Call me when you can backlight eInk evenly and still keep several days of battery life like my N810.
Who cares if "it only uses power when you turn pages!!11ONE" if the battery only lasts days. My N810's battery lasts days too - often a week or more of nightly reading - without even having to turn it off. AND it has a perfectly even backlight configurable to any color, brightness or contrast you choose. And you don't have to angle any lamps, lighting, or booklights. It's just always works perfectly.
Bonus? It runs Linux.
Question everything
My Nokia N810 lasts for days of reading without recharging.
Well, that's pretty amazing, considering that Nokia only claims 4 hours.
Not that this is a bad product — I came very close to buying its sibling the N800 (I have no use for thumb keyboards), until I decided I wanted a bigger form factor.
Call me when you can backlight eInk evenly ...
Jeez, what is this silly obsession with backlighting? The only reason you need them is these gooddamned technicolor displays that are unreadable without them. When I first started buying portable devices (including an early Toshiba laptop, a Palm Vx, and a Samsung cell phones) all these devices had simple monochrome displays that were perfectly readable without a backlight under normal lighting conditions. Which, oddly enough, is where you mostly use them. It was only when feature creep set in, and all devices had to have color displays that always-on backlights became mandatory.
Color displays have their uses (I love watching videos on my Motion tablet). But for reading??? And WTF cares about "even lighting"?
And wifi for looking up definitions. And an IM client (optional) that I can use to chat while reading. And it can be configured (easily) to use dim red text on a black background that doesn't strain or ruin night vision.
Actually, the Kindle also has a web browser, one that works even when you're not near a hotspot. As for night vision, do you really have time to read when you're on special ops?
Sorry, forget the sarcasm. Look, if this Nokia tablet meets your needs, by all means use it. But don't go all Jihad just because somebody else likes a different technology. It's just a little lame.
I have read books on the N810 and the Kindle and my personal take is that they are difficult to compare to each other. One is a general purpose computing device that happens to have a relatively pixel dense display and better than average battery life for a handheld computer. The other is a highly specific piece of technology largely aimed at imitating the printed page. In the highly specific case of wanting to read at night next to someone trying to sleep? I guess I would give the nod to the N810 but only if I am more worried about ticking off the person trying to sleep than I am about the strain on my eyes. Want to read in direct sunlight? Better leave the ole N810 at home. Even if you can crank the screen up high enough you can kiss that nice extended battery life that comes with the extreme low light settings goodbye.
Kindle and comparisons are largely null and void. They just are not covering the same territory. The LCD's are typically more general computing devices of which a 'book' reading is one small portion of its capability. The Kindle (or similar e-ink devices) are purpose built for reading comfort rivaling a printed book. It is all they are trying to do and they do it far better than any does.
I feel safe in making that assertion because I have been searching for an electronic option to books for a LOOONG time.
Davinci PDA- Fail but surprisingly better than most other options I have tried... 100 dollar PDA from '94 that still works.
Palm V - Fail
CRT based desktop - Fail
LCD based desktop or laptop - Fail
HTC Wizard - Fail
HTC TynTyn - Fail
Iphone - Fail but comparable to N810.... screen is ultimately to small, to many page flips.
N810 - Tolerable courtesy of high pixel density, caused eye strain during book style reading sessions but was actually able to get lost while reading it.
Kindle - Its a book with one page that re-arranges its ink rather than turning a page.
I don't ask you to be me. I only ask you not expect me to be you.
For once the Apple device is cheaper, huh?
It's interesting to note that Amazon OWNS Mobipocket, the encrypted format used by many of their competitors in the e-book industry, but have "embraced and extended" the format so that their Kindle is completely incompatible with other stores' Mobi encryption (without a lot of messing around with python scripts, anyway).
It occurs to me to wonder just how much longer Amazon will be content to provide DRM services to its closest competitors in the e-book biz. If it were to stop licensing Mobi DRM entirely, it could very well cripple large sectors of the rest of the e-book industry.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The Kindle is a nice device but every single kindle book just became available to iPhone owners. Other smart phones will follow. eBooks are now mainstream.
Knowledge is valuable. Ignorance is dangerous. Censorship is unacceptable. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10
Because for even more moderators flamebait indicates "I'm full of it".
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Well, in this case, I suspect the moderator was an editor in vindictive mode. (See my sig.) Very sad that somebody who plays a major role in running a site that's for online dialog has a compulsive need to shout down any dialog he doesn't care for.
If you've got bluetooth and wifi enabled and in use the battery goes a lot faster. If you're sitting there refreshing the screen occasionally it lasts much, much longer.
What's this silly obsession with nitpicking use cases you obviously aren't a party to? 90% of the time I read it's in bed a night. So it's more of a mandatory requisite for me than a "silly obsession".
No, I mostly read in bed, at night. And judging by the sheer volume of "kindle compatible" booklights for sale, I'm not alone.
Apparently a significant portion of the market given that Sony attempted to bolt this feature onto their eInk displays. And the reason I mentioned this was Sony had tried it and someone posted the pictures here on the last kindle story. And the results were extremely uneven lighting leading to being blinded at the edges and straining to read in the middle. And burning a nice after image into your retinas if you use it in the dark (you know, where you need a booklight).
I can only assume that since I'm only reading on special ops that you only read between 11:30 am and 12:30pm in the middle of death valley on cloudless days. When I first started reading with white text on black background is that when I put the device down to sleep I could still see a very strong afterimage of lines with my eyes closed. For several minutes. I figured this was bad for my eyes, so changed to red on black. The problem went away completely.
Question everything
What's this silly obsession with nitpicking use cases you obviously aren't a party to? 90% of the time I read it's in bed a night.
Dude, you're the one that sneered at any device that doesn't have backlighting. If you tout your own particular use case as the norm, it's not nitpicking for me to point out that it's not.