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Hands-On: Kindle for iPhone spreads the e-reading love across platforms
Amazon rolled out Kindle for iPhone, a free download from the iTune app store that opens up Amazon's library of 240,000 e-books to iPhone users. We installed the app on an iPhone, and found it to be a useful enhancement to the Kindle 2 experience, as well as an excellent e-reader in its own right. With its "Whispersync," it cues up your book on the page you last read on the Kindle, and gives you access to all your bookmarks and highlights, too. It's a joy to use — a swipe to the side with your finger, and one page gracefully slides to the next in that unmistakable iPhone way.
Most of the Kindle features are all there, including text sizing, table of contents, and an unexpected enhancement not on the Kindle itself: a spot of color here and there. But you can't read periodicals or newspapers on Kindle for iPhone, listen to text-to-speech, or add notes or highlights, as you can on the Kindle hardware.
This iPhone app not only enhances the Kindle, it might encourage more people to buy the E Ink reader with its much longer battery life, bigger screen and wireless book purchasing. Oh yeah, you can't buy books directly from Kindle for iPhone — you'll need to use the iPhone's Mobile Safari or a Mac or PC and then transfer the e-book over to Kindle for iPhone. Can't make it too easy, because even though Apple's apparently given up on selling books and book-reading hardware because of Steve Jobs's misguided pronouncement that "people don't read anymore" (despite statistics that show Americans reading more than ever), Apple's not stupid.
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iTunes link to Kindle for iPhone app, and NYT
By Baroquem at 12:27 PM ON 03/04/09
I'm not sure what "Apple's apparently given up on book selling" is supposed to mean. Apple has never been in the business of selling books. Furthermore, it's not at all obvious that it *should* be. One of Apple's (and Jobs') strengths is that it doesn't feel compelled to try to compete in every available market -- unlike, say, Microsoft. It focuses its strengths and picks its products carefully. As you say, the company ain't stupid.
By Baroquem at 12:35 PM ON 03/04/09
Sorry, I left that previous comment incomplete.
The iTunes Music Store was created in order to sell iPods, not music. Steve Jobs was very explicit on that point. It grew to the point where it is now (slightly) profitable, but the focus was always on pushing the far-more-profitable hardware. (That's why so many copycat stores, completely ignoring that point, flopped miserably.) In this case, Apple has no need to pick up a few dollars selling e-books when there are countless third-party developers -- and now Amazon -- providing that content and functionality for Apple. The iPhone is made more useful and desirable, and thus more sell-able, at no extra cost to Apple.
By jay jay at 1:10 PM ON 03/04/09
i don't see what all the fuss is about WWWOOOWWW !!!!! e-books on the iphone!!!! i've always wanted to read books on a 3.5 inch screen (sarcasm).
By sauropod at 4:14 PM ON 03/04/09
"i've always wanted to read books on a 3.5 inch screen (sarcasm)."
Before buying a Kindle, I read many books on my PDA. The small screen never bothered me, as long as the text was big enough.
By opal at 4:30 PM ON 03/04/09
thanks for the info
By BillHoo at 5:15 PM ON 03/04/09
Yep. they said the same thing once they got rid of the Town Crier Sheets that used to be posted at the square for news. They said these new things called "news papers" would take over. I said, "Who wants to buy a newspaper. Hell! Who wants to read tiny print on a 2 inch column of butcher paper!"
By wow gold at 4:43 AM ON 03/09/09
e-books on iPhone?? I think that's cool specially when I'm travelling..
By natalie at 3:29 AM ON 07/09/09
It is cool to read E-books on a larger screen of iPhone~
I also like watching many movies on it`
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natalie:
It is cool to read E-books on a larger screen of iPhone~ I also like watching many movies on it`...More »