Amazon's Kindle for iPhone hits the App Store | Hacker News Reader

Amazon's Kindle for iPhone hits the App Store

engadget.com

71 pointstortilla29 comments

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

Stanza and eReader apps (iPhone) can do over the air purchases from http://www.ereader.com/ and http://www.fictionwise.com (they're basically the same site now)

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

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.

Shortcovers (http://www.shortcovers.com/) is an interesting new entry in this space from huge Canadian bookseller Indigo - they released a week ago. Their software has its failings as an e-Reader but they have a lot of free content and the structure of the service nicely matches the kind of usage that seems likely on a device like the iPhone.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Just downloaded Founders at Work - Excellent!

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.

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

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

My own experience with the Kindle (I bought 20 books on it last year) and circumstantial evidence (Kindles being sold out half the time, other people who have actually used a Kindle loving it - although not all of it etc.) gives me reason to believe him.

Once you plunk down the $350, the itch to buy a $8 - $10 book that you just heard plugged by a friend you respect is simply too hard to resist. I have little doubt that Kindle owners are buying books more frequently and in large numbers. I think you still need a Kindle device for this iPhone app to work (not sure). Considering the fact that all the book lovers I know who hate the Kindle, love reading on their iPhones, if / when Amazon disconnects the two, this will accelerate.

Add to the fact that the you want to recoup the price you paid for the device in cheaper books. I bet that that would incentivize myself 200% towards buying more books.

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

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.

> The kindle is not selling and has no future.

Numbers? That's a big statement that -- unless you're on Amazon's board, I guess -- you don't really have any idea is accurate.

I just got one and am the biggest evangelist of it to my friends. Also have spent over 100 in the last week of it.

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