The Kindle App for the iPhone. It’s a winner.
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I had previously given you a heads-up that a Kindle ebook application was coming for the iPhone, and now it’s here. It lacks the “read aloud” feature of the Kindle 2 and a couple other “like to have” features, but it’s a winner in my book.
Although the Kindle is a wonderful ebook reader, the truth is that you won’t always be carrying it around when you find that you have time to read. This iPhone app solves that for me. In addition, after installing this new Kindle app on my iPhone I’ve found that it’s not only very easy to retrieve my existing Kindle ebooks from Amazon, but when I open the book on the iPhone I’m taken to the last page I read when I was reading my book on the Kindle. How cool!
I have found that buying a new ebook from your iPhone isn’t as seamless as it should be–you’ve got to open a separate iPhone browser to do this (and log in again, etc) but it’s certainly doable. And Amazon one-click makes shopping a breeze for book buyers.
I’ve also noticed that this new app doesn’t take advantage of the iPhone’s horizontal orientation for text layout (as does the iPhone’s Stanza ebook reader), so you have to read everything in a “portrait” layout. But, these minor quibbles aside, it’s a great app for ebook readers and authors alike.
Why is this good for authors? Because devices and applications like the Kindle and iPhone represent the future of books. Ebooks have been floundering in book purgatory for the last ten years, but their day is almost here. It’s music industry disruption deja vu all over again, because in the same way that Apple rescued music from an inefficent distribution model, Amazon and other technology companies will rescue books in a big way.
If you’re an author, you should be there. If you’re not there, let’s talk.
Till next time, keep publishing!
Henry Hutton
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December 13th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I’ve had my Kindle for about three weeks now and I absolutely love it. It took me a few days to get used to the screen flash for the page turn, but I don’t even notice it now. Downloading books is incredibly easy and I find that I’m reading far more than I was before I owned the device. I’ve downloaded several from Project Gutenberg as well as from Amazon itself. Books I never would have thought to read before are now on my Kindle.
I even took it to the emergency room a few days ago and it saved me. I was in the waiting room for almost an hour, and waited another 3 once I was in a room. I wasn’t sick - I was bit by a potentially rabid cat - so I would have been extremely bored without it. I didn’t have time to search my bookshelf for a book before leaving for the ER, so I just grabbed my kindle and had almost 100 books to choose from.
This thing is amazing, and I’m so happy I bought it.
December 13th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Hi Nanette, I’m glad you like it! Yeah, I’m sold on the Kindle, which has also sold me on the future of books (as ebooks). It’s a tool that makes reading fun, and you can’t ask for more than that…
Thanks for the comment, and happy holidays!
Henry
January 26th, 2010 at 4:17 am
Hi, I came across your blog while searching bing for Kindle 2. Your website is really cool and I liked the theme. Just thought would let you know that I have bookmarked it. I think your readers will also like this site - Kindle 2. Also on a couple of pages I also encountered a 404 not found and after refreshing a couple of times was able to view the pages. Thank you
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Hi Hildegard, and thank you for commenting on my site. Where did you see those broken links? I’ll try to fix them asap-
Henry