Kindle for Android Is Coming | Hacker News Reader

Kindle for Android Is Coming

nytimes.com

23 pointssound13 comments

It is, in some ways, a small things, but I'm really looking forward to the integrated Kindle book store in the android app. As far as I understand, Apple wants a 30% cut of in-app purchases, which caused Amazon to not add an integrated book store in the iPhone Kindle app. I think little things like this can add up to a lot of convenience over time and over many apps.

I had no idea that was why -- I always thought it was an unnecessary pain in the bum to get a book on my iPod Touch from my iPod Touch. Thanks for the info!

Couldn't Amazon have built an integrated book store linked to the Amazon account, rather than to the iTunes account? Or is that kind of think also forbidden on iPhones? So basically all e-commerce apps would be out?

I'm not an expert on this, but I believe that Apple's App Store agreement mandates that in-app purchases go through Apple.

This has been pretty obviously coming for a while, since Amazon has been talking about their upcoming Android tablet and its Kindle support. Still, it's great to see that this is a) still coming and b) not going to be restricted arbitrarily to a single tablet.

This, combined with the Notion Ink Adam whatever tablet (due sometime this lifetime) will definitely push me to drop the "real" Kindle.

*Edit: I was thinking of the Dell Mini 5 (aka Streak) tablet with the Amazon partnership, actually. So not an official Amazon tablet, but effectively the same as far as content apps.

Is the "real" Kindle that bad?

I'm still waiting for the moment when reader makers will figure out the right e-ink tablet.

The Kindle is great, I just don't use it enough to justify keeping it around, especially if I buy a tablet. If the Notion Ink Adam (http://www.notionink.in/) lives up to the hype, then I will buy it, and it's more likely to be with me. I love the display and the form factor on the Kindle. It just disappears in your hands and is great for reading. My problem is I consume so much more dynamic media (blogs, websites, etc) these days and a lot less static (books). More often than not I grab my phone than the kindle for reading, which means I read fewer books and more websites.

The Kindle is horrible for reading magazines. Navigation and skimming are stone-age, and there aren't any of the pictures that many of the magazines I want to read (I don't read physical magazines as they aren't conveniently located) are enhanced by.

The Kindle also is horrible for reading anything with footnotes. The "joy"stick provides anything but. Try reading a footnote heavy book (my particular example being one Oliver Sacks book) with the Kindle and you'll be ready to send a blank check to the inventor of the touchscreen.

A touchscreen is not the solution to the footnote problem. Rendering the footnote near the place in the text where it appears is. (Ever read one of those dead-tree books? That's what they tend to do.)

Sure it's a solution. It's not the only solution, but neither is in-lining the footnotes or placing them nearby.

Placing them at the end of the page has size-issues if fonts are changed. A moderately long foot-note could crowd the entire page if font sizes were increased. The point of footnotes is they are ancillary information that can be skipped if desired. If footnotes have to flow across to another page (or fill a page), then you've introduced an annoyance for the user as they are no longer easily avoidable.

Placing them inline has issues if you only want to read some of them and not every single one.

End-notes are another use-case that can be handled in pretty much the same way as footnotes if you have a touch screen (or a decent pointing device) and is handled horribly on the Kindle.

Just because there's a decent solution for the paper variety doesn't mean the digital variety needs to handle it in the same way. I resisted touch-screens for a long time, but it's clear this is a very good use-case for them.

Are you saying Amazon has announced an Android-based tablet computer? That would be pretty huge and I've never heard about it. Got any links? I tried to Google it and got lots of android tablets for sale at Amazon, plus stories about the Kindle app on Android.

Ok, I had to look back and see if I could substantiate that claim. It's not quite like I remembered it - my apologies for being a bit misleading. Here's one link to details:

http://androidandme.com/2010/03/phones/hands-on-as-new-dell-...

So it's the Dell Mini 5, not Amazon's. But the content deal with Amazon is big news.

I wonder, does Kindle for non-Kindles also run Kindle apps? I just tried to search for Kindle Apps on Amazon, which was a bit difficult (as some books also have "games" in their title). It seems apps are just mingled with the books - maybe apps basically are books? So they should work?

Finally!

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