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Amazon Releases Free 'Kindle for iPhone' Application

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pilotkid said:
Well that explains why I havent been able to get a newspaper to work...This app is now useless for me and coming off my phone:mad::mad:
Come on no newspapers!:confused::mad:
Click to expand...
I think your anger is undeserved.

Think about it: Kindle books are basically just text files, tagged internally with "locations" so that the Kindle can track your progress as you read a book. There's no special formatting beyond bolding and italicizing words or characters.

A newspaper or magazine, however, is laid out in a columnar format which is more complicated. Since the iPhone does not have the requisite screen resolution (only 320 pixels wide, compared to the Kindle's 600), documents that require a specific layout would not work without extra work "simplifying" them on Amazon's end.
 
Kindle as a platform, not a device

I haven't used the application yet (will do later when I get back home), but there are a couple of things of importance about this release that I would like to point out:

1.- By Amazon releasing this software on the iPhone, they are converting the Kindle into platform more than just the device. this is important as you most likely have Amazon releasing this App for more devices (other cell phones, other e-readers?, PCs, etc). If you don't the Kindle device, you will still have access to their platform on the device of your liking. What Amazon wants is to sell books to as wide an audience as possible. This is the second step (the first was the Kindle device itself)
I've been reading that newspapers and magazines are not working on the iPhone. While this is an issue, it is only temporary as publishers will most likely push Amazon to correct this and have access to a wider audience.

2.- Hearst Publishing was reported to be developing their own reading device to compete against Amazon and keep some of the profits from the book sales. This move from Amazon puts it way ahead of them and others (you hear me Sony reader?) in the same way that Apple did when they introduced the iPhone.

First, was the revolutionary device (iPhone in June 2007), then the pervasive ecosystem (App Store, in July 2008). Now everybody in the mobile industry is running to catch up. Once you start buying from within the ecosystem (App Store, Kindle store) you are attached to it. And the more you buy, the more attached and dependent you are.

This is a very good business move.

I mention, I haven't used the software yet, and I may have my own quibbles of usability with it. But good thing about software, it can always improve. But having access to 240,000 books so easily makes it a very tempting offer to refuse.
 
britonish said:
Anyone else experience the pop up error on the iPhone Kindle app of "No Internet Connection - Please check your WiFi or cellular data network and try again" on the registration screen?

I cannot get past the registration screen because of this error.

I definitely have a WiFi and cellular signal and connection to the internet because every other app and service works perfectly.

Also the iPhone shows up in the Amazon Kindle account as being registered to the account.

I've tried the usual un-install/install, sync, etc. I even called Amazon Kindle Support and they said it was an Apple problem - yeah right!!

A quick search of google in the last 24 hours shows other people with this problem but no solution.

If anyone had this problem and found a solution please post.

Thanks you.

debroglie we must have been submitting at the same time!!! Yes I have the same problem ;-)
Click to expand...

Ahhh! Figured it out!

In the FAQ, they mention that there are problems with special characters in your sign-in and/or password. Well, I don't have any of those... but I do have a hyphen in my name (and hence, account name), so on a hunch I removed that from my account settings via my Mac, deleted the half-registered iPod touch from my devices on Amazon, and logged out.

And now the Kindle app magically works. Boo to Amazon for discriminating against those of us who are hyphenated:p;)
 
Nice FREE App

This just adds another benefit to owning an iPhone. It has consolidated my:

Cell Phone
iPod
PDA
Camera
Internet
...and now
Book Reader
all into ONE device. Simply amazing!!! Not all are perfect and have room for improvement but being able to carry one device that takes care of all media needs is just amazing.

I have added the new app and purchased my first audio book. It was easy and painless set up. I already had an amazon account and just needed to register my iPhone to the account.

I have mainly been listening to audio books using the iPod but titles are still limited. Being able to purchase and sneak in a few chapters here and there is amazing and simply convenient. My first book is People of the Thunder...I love this series of Historical Fiction. The only audio book so far was People of the Raven.

The other advantage is for parents and the educational value. Put a few childrens books on the phone to hold a childs interest during waiting periods. Think of the short term entertainment/educational value let alone a little more quality time with mom and dad if it is a learning book.

Two Downsides to the current app:
1) Cannot view/hold in landscape mode and scroll the pages in an upward swipe. It would be more comfortable to hold/view in landscape if you get to that chapter that just won't let you put it down.

2) Must leave the app to download books. It is just easier to shop for books on the computer and buy then just sync when ready then it is to use safari and have to pinch and tap and type and ahhhhh forget it just use the computer to purchase books until they have an ordering section on the app.

Does not seem to adversely affect battery life. Read 3 chapters with no change in power with brightness set to just above half. Used free memory to check percentage.

Overall, an outstanding app and I highly recommend downloading it, especially while its FREE. That should answer Kindle purchase question...if purchase of Kindle goes down or declines due to the app...what do you think Amazon will do to the app? How about...$10...$20 or more, will more then make up for any loss to the free app, and it will happen. Again, get it while its free, it won't stay forever!

Get it and Enjoy
 
Well, my Kindle is here! And what a good-looking device it is too. A little early to talk about functionality as it's only just started to charge, but I'll post back later once I've set it up.
 
kas23 said:
I can't really see this hurting Kindle sales because Kindle sales are already down in the dumps to begin with. They only sold about 200,000 of the first generation and the 2G doesn't really add that much besides memory. I'm sure they would sell a lot more if they dropped the price by half - I definitely would buy one.
Click to expand...

Wait- What? I don't know where you are getting your data, but amazon has refused to release data. Based on parts orders, some analysts believe upwards of 500,000 were sold. I wouldn't call that down in the dumps for a reading device, since it has such a narrow market.
 
You can purchase books via Amazon mobile...

CoolPuppy said:
Kindle is US only for a variety of reasons. Ask Apple how easy it was to negotiate cellular contracts worldwide. Eventually Amazon will get there, but obviously not yet. Plus Kindle is (right now) CDMA (Sprint in the US), so it's not turnkey to simply port the device.

Also, I could have sworn that Apple prevented developers from extracting "secondary revenue" through their apps. I believe TechCrunch blogged about this with their recent Tapulous 2.0 entry. This is why you can't purchase books via Kindle for iPhone. You can only purchase via the Web or via the Kindle itself.

For Kindle owners, this is an awesome, awesome, awesome release. For non-Kindle owners, keep bugging Amazon to get you the device in your locale. It's amazing.
Click to expand...

So it wouldn't surprise me if the next update allowed you to purchase Kindle books...
 
I got it working in Canada!

If anyone is wondering I managed to download the kindle app and buy kindle books from my browser even though I'm in Canada and don't have a US credit card or address.

First, I bought an amazon.com gift certificate using my Canadian credit card but on the amazon.com site (not .ca). I then used this gift card on a separate brand new amazon account with no address or credit card attached. I then purchased a kindle book using my gift card balance, entered the amazon.com account info in the kindle app and my book showed up instantly! Works great.

If you don't want to do all this and instead wait for an official Canadian store you can still download the kindle app and read a bunch of sample chapters on the kindle app since those aren't geographically limited.

All this is assuming you've done these same kind of workarounds to download apps from the US App Store in iTunes.
 
Killer App

The automatic, wireless download from Amazon is amazingly painless - the iTunes and App Store downloads should work this way. The free samples of every book is a very nice feature. Looks like another killer app for the iPhone is born.
 
clayj said:
I think your anger is undeserved.

Think about it: Kindle books are basically just text files, tagged internally with "locations" so that the Kindle can track your progress as you read a book. There's no special formatting beyond bolding and italicizing words or characters.

A newspaper or magazine, however, is laid out in a columnar format which is more complicated. Since the iPhone does not have the requisite screen resolution (only 320 pixels wide, compared to the Kindle's 600), documents that require a specific layout would not work without extra work "simplifying" them on Amazon's end.
Click to expand...

It would work just like a web page. I see no reason to block them. I look at wide web pages all the time with no issues.
 
No Subscriptions on iPhone

matperk said:
Anyone else having trouble adding subscriptions? My iPhone shows up in my Amazon account as registered, but when I go to add a subscription, it says that I don't have a registered device.
Click to expand...

Didn't scroll through all 190 posts, but the word from Amazon is that subscriptions to newspapers and magazines are not available on the iPhone. I ran into the same message when trying to download the WSJ. I suggested to them that they need to return some message when an iPhone only user tries to buy a subscription instead of just making it look like they aren't registered.
 
northy124 said:
How does one transfer Amazon Kindle books (converted from PDF) to the iPhone version?
Click to expand...
I've been playing around a bit with the Kindle app. If you are jailbroken, you can add in files to the app's Documents folder, and once you start the app up it finds them and shows them. Both .prc and .mobi files work, such as the free ones by Cory Doctorow (craphound.com), though the metadata is not all there compared to the ones I've downloaded off amazon. So I've just been playing with an app I found called calibre, which as well as allowing you to convert between formats and change metadata (author etc), lets you change the cover image too.
 
pilotkid said:
Well that explains why I havent been able to get a newspaper to work...This app is now useless for me and coming off my phone:mad::mad:
Come on no newspapers!:confused::mad:
Click to expand...

As Seth Meyers would say on Weekend Update, really?

You're complaining about not being able to pay for newspapers when you can visit most of their Web sites for free? Really?

You're complaining about a free app? Really?
 
mexretroshore said:
The automatic, wireless download from Amazon is amazingly painless - the iTunes and App Store downloads should work this way. The free samples of every book is a very nice feature. Looks like another killer app for the iPhone is born.
Click to expand...

I'll say. I got a few free books last night to try it out. They're laid out a LOT better than the books on Stanza. I'll eventually try a paid book, but I'm hesitant to get one that I can only use on my phone for $10. Perhaps a good complement would be a Kindle reader for your computer.
 
nagromme said:
In other words, 60% of people in the U.S. read two books or more last year, and some unknown number of the rest read one book? Sounds like a sizable "niche" market to me!
Click to expand...

Well, I'm sure they have more marketing information than Jobs revealed in his little quip there, but I don't think that people who read 2 books a year would want to buy a $400 device to do so. We would really need to see how many people read enough to make it worthwhile to buy, although I bet there are people who would buy it because they like the idea of themselves reading enough to need a Kindle. I also think that people who read less would tend to have less money, so Kindle might be viable in that sense.
 
cazlar said:
I've been playing around a bit with the Kindle app. If you are jailbroken, you can add in files to the app's Documents folder, and once you start the app up it finds them and shows them. Both .prc and .mobi files work, such as the free ones by Cory Doctorow (craphound.com), though the metadata is not all there compared to the ones I've downloaded off amazon. So I've just been playing with an app I found called calibre, which as well as allowing you to convert between formats and change metadata (author etc), lets you change the cover image too.
Click to expand...
Ah thanks for the info, shame I am not jailbroken (scared of bricking it).
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I just don't have the time at the moment to read through all 8 pages of this thread, so here goes...

Is the only way to advance pages by swiping? Gets tiring after a while. I feel like I'm going to end up with carpal tunnel syndrome just from turning the pages! But I tried tapping everywhere, and can't find any way to turn pages by tapping. I really hope I'm missing something, because there's no way I'm swiping through any book of any significant length!
 
habermas said:
I agree with the sentiment of rydparis. This is the second time in two weeks that MacRumors has posted a news story leading readers to believe that a release was general only to disappoint the non-US readers subsequently trying to take advantage of the service.

Macrumors is presumably an international online media outlet focusing on Apple-related products across the world.

You people need to MENTION when an iphone app release is only for alimited part of the world - even when that limited part of the world turns out to be the writer's own backyard - be that the United States or otherwise. This explicit mention should preferably feature in the headline of a news story so the rest of the world won't have to waste minutes reading through what is in effect news only relevant to a local geography.

Failure to do so can only be seen as sloppiness and/or ethnocentrism on your part.
Click to expand...

Is it always obvious that a service doesn't work outside your own country though? If it isn't, and the vendor doesn't make it obvious in any press release etc., then aren't you expecting a bit much from MR?
 
Night Spring said:
Is the only way to advance pages by swiping? Gets tiring after a while. I feel like I'm going to end up with carpal tunnel syndrome just from turning the pages! But I tried tapping everywhere, and can't find any way to turn pages by tapping. I really hope I'm missing something, because there's no way I'm swiping through any book of any significant length!
Click to expand...

This inability and the inability to invert colors (white text on black background) make this a useless app. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the app and have found many books on Amazon I would love to purchase. But, ease of reading is very important to me. For version 1.0, it looks great, but really need tweaking. So far, for me, Stanza is hands-down the best ebook reader on the App Store. If Amazon makes these changes, I'll use their app and will give them a lot of my money.
 
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