
Amazon's Kindle for iPhone hits the App Store - tortilla
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/04/amazons-kindle-for-iphone-hits-the-app-store/
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fortes
I just downloaded it and took it for a test drive with my existing Kindle
books. It's great, really.

The UI is distraction free (just a page of text). Page advances are done with
the standard flick, and are actually faster than a kindle due to the e ink.
Text looks good and sharp, and the syncing is great. I'm accessing the same
content I was reading this morning and I'm on the same page. Really well done.

Obviously, there are many scenarios where the kindle is far better (any kind
of longer reading) -- but I now have something I can pick up and read
intermittently when I don't have my Kindle. Sweet.

Now, I really wish I could email articles / snippets. This applies to the
Kindle as well. There are tons of articles in the New Yorker I'd love to
forward.

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ajju
I wish it had auto-scroll like some of the other reading apps on the iPhone
which scroll faster when you tilt more and slower when you tilt back.

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fortes
But the application doesn't scroll, it pages. That would only make sense if
you're trying to flip through pages quickly (which is quite rare)

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ajju
Yes, and I would like to have the option of auto-scrolling. Paging, regardless
of how well it's designed still requires some interaction. Autoscrolling flows
along at a speed you set without you having to interact with the device every
few seconds.

I realize that this is a personal preference but it would be nice to have an
option.

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bcx
Wow, this is a really slick move. Who else is competing with Amazon in ebooks
and paid online content delivery to mobile devices?

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jupiter
I guess it's not so much about competing with other ebook readers but to
attract iPhone users to buy a Kindle.

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rdrimmie
It definitely won't hurt to encourage people to buy more hardware, but the
hardware doesn't matter nearly as much as the content. Kindle being a
universal eBook manager type software brand is far more valuable to Amazon
than keeping the books exclusive to the hardware.

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jeremymims
I suspect that it's more important in the long run for Amazon to create the de
facto DRMed ebook format than to sell the Kindle hardware. With this move,
they've probably just checkmated every other competing ebook format and
guaranteed that they will remain the first place people go to buy books for a
long time.

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jamesbritt
"I suspect that it's more important in the long run for Amazon to create the
de facto DRMed ebook format ..."

Which is why I don't understand the enthusiasm for this.

Getting more people locked into any digital restriction management scheme is a
step backwards.

When I can get current digital books that use a non-proprietary format and can
be read on my choice of hardware, then I'll be excited.

~~~
there
apple "locked" everyone into its drm for itunes songs and ended up removing
it.

perhaps amazon is trying to do the same thing. promote the drm to get the
publishers on-board, then once they have the market (though i think they do
already), use their weight to convince publishers to ditch the drm.

~~~
jamesbritt
Maybe. But iTunes, and sellers crippled digital music in general, was
competing against free and unrestricted.

I am skeptical that Amazon or Apple will remove the encumbrances if there is
no market pressure from having the same content available in an open format.

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charlesju
The most interesting part is that it keeps your reading position from your
Kindle.

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palehose
It would be nice if Amazon released a version of the Kindle software to be
used on an actual computer.

Is there some sort of hidden assumption that people will never read an entire
book on their computer, only on a portable device? Maybe I am just biased
against the idea that no one reads a book on their computer since I do it all
the time with technical books that can be purchased in pdf format.

A Kindle software app would open up (as in make available, not DRM free) a lot
of books from publishers that do not have any sort of digital download of
their books.

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anuraggoel
This is great for people who buy Kindle books from Amazon. But Amazon does not
let you sync _all_ the content on your Kindle - it leaves out, for instance,
the free/public domain stuff that you didn't buy from Amazon. Non-Amazon
content is a large part of my Kindle library - partial sync makes this app
useless for me, unfortunately. Stanza/eReader are much more useful from that
perspective.

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CoryOndrejka
This is excellent for purchased books. Downside is that is does not appear to
allow you to read converted PDFs, DRM-free mobipocket books, or other content
you have transferred to Kindle, which is a bummer.

Very nice iPhone reading experience, clean UI, easy to setup, and fast
downloads (even on 1G iPhone).

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ajju
Kudos to Amazon for not letting Kindle's success delude them about their real
business (selling books) or from doing right by customers yet again.

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dkokelley
It looks like there's no way to purchase a book from within the app. Having to
use my computer to go to Amazon to buy a book so that it will sync with my
iPhone reminds me of when I had my old Handspring PDA.

This is a little disappointing from the company that brought us 1 click
ordering.

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johnrob
Just downloaded Founders at Work - Excellent!

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TweedHeads
The kindle is not selling and has no future.

This is a great move for Amazon, leave the hardware (low profit, high
maintenance) and focus on eBooks (high profit, low maintenance)

Sound strategy in the long run.

~~~
ajju
You're wrong. For titles available on the Kindle, more than 10% of sales are
now via the Kindle [1] That's significant and about to increase now that
content can be accessed on an iPhone.

[1]
blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/brierdudley/2009/02/09/amazons_jeff_bezos_explains_th.html

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staunch
Be wary of Bezos' need to distort stats to serve the portion of his ego tied
up in the Kindle.

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ryanwaggoner
That's a serious accusation. Do you have any stats to back it up?

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staunch
I think you're being a bit dramatic.

All I know is based on what I've seen him say. He's extremely evasive about
the actual numbers for the Kindle. He cherry picks a _single_ number: _"If you
take the 230,000 titles where we have Kindle editions - Kindle unit sales are
already more than 10 percent of all our sales."_

I believe (based on my conversations with people about this) that many people
hear that from Bezos and take away the idea that the Kindle is now 10 percent
of all Amazon revenue or at least all book sales.

I believe he's phrasing this in an intentionally misleading way. I think he
thinks that the Kindle isn't doing that well right now, but he believes in it
and doesn't want to take the stock market hit in admitting that it's going to
take a long time before the Kindle truly is a big success.

 _"For that to happen in 14 months is very surprising. It took us 14 years to
build up our physical book business."_

I'm just reading between the lines. I admit could be wrong.

