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back to article Amazon's Kindle goes soft with iPhone app

Amazon has extended the Kindle brand into software with an iPhone application, also available for the iPod Touch, replicating the electronic-book experience but without the electronic ink. The latest version of the Kindle was only launched last month, but Amazon recognises that not everyone is wowed by electronic ink and is …

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  1. Francis Fish
    Happy

    I've already got Stanza, thanks

    Free, looks in all the common libraries of free books plus offerings from Random House, Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard, Pan Macmillan etc. etc. (plus romance titles which ain't my thing).

    I bet I could find all of the out of copyright titles Oprah recommends on Feedbooks or Gutenberg.

    Why do I need kindle? And I don't live in the US anyway.

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  2. OrsonX

    Stanza?

    What will Kindle offer that Stanza doesn't?

    Er, guess I should try it and find out...

    Stanza is pretty amazing already, so some tough opposition there for Amazon.

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  3. Paul Bruneau

    I tried it

    Seems to be an OK implementation. Except for one note: why do people feel the urge to full-justify lines that contain 3 or 4 words???

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And Stanza allows user 'generated' content

    An advantage in using Stanza is that you can transfer user 'generated' content onto your iPhone. 'Obtain' plain text, rtf, html etc and it's a cynch to transfer it into Stanza. So content that comes from a variety of sources can be used not just the overpriced eBooks that the eSellers make available. I have read many books on pdas and phones over the years, and would be quite happy to purchase eBooks if they didn't cost more than their physical counterparts !

    How can sellers justify charging more for an electronic form of something that can be purchased in physical form for less ? I can buy a CD from the supermarket for less than the mp3/aac download. I then have a better quality, permanent copy that can be imported into iTunes anyway. I don't lose by buying the physical form. Oh and I can lend the CD to my friends. (What they do with it is there concern ...)

    Granted that when you buy a paper book you cannot transfer it onto your iPhone/kindle, but why should you have to pay more for something which costs the retailer nothing in reproduction, distribution or sales ?

    I don't get it. I know there is the convenience of an immediate download for both music and books, but the record labels and publishers complaining of declining sales should examine the value they are providing their eCustomers if they want to fight the 'battle' against piracy.

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  5. Andrij
    Unhappy

    where?

    Oh, yes, US not the UK store again!

    I'll have to stick with Stanza and Classics for now then.

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  6. Peyton

    @stanza users

    Doesn't that make your eyes tired after a bit? I don't think I could manage a whole book off my phone's display...

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  7. Tom
    Thumb Down

    Don't blame the hardware...

    Like the US Canada has a CDMA network, but no Kindle.

    I just typed kindle into the amazon.ca search box and the no. 1 response is...

    Puttin' on My Big Girl Panties by Michelle Kindle-Clyburn (Paperback - Jul 2007) :p

    It's the same content control freaks who insist on carving the world up into regions.

    I can buy a book from Amazon.com but not download an MP3. I can only buy a track from itunes.ca they will not let me buy something from the US or Japanese itunes store.

    Ask them why and they go one about contracts and licences and crap... Well who wrote the contracts?

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    wow

    Two products I didn't want, rolled into one! Outstanding.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @Andrew Martin

    Why read and comment on the article then?

    I don't want a car, but I can accept that there's probably a market out there for them. I don't read troll the AutoTrader forums as a result.

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  10. Steven Jack
    Paris Hilton

    UK Kindle ....... Coming soon

    Amazon have said on several occations now they want to bring kindle to the UK, they were aiming for a Christmas 2008 launch and then had to can that idea, but hopefully UK readers will soon be able to buy it.

    Paris because she has been available worldwide for quite some time.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Peyton

    Surprisingly, it doesn't - I've read a few books using it already, from short novella to long novel.

    Stanza offers a lot of options for how fonts are sized and displayed, so you aren't restricted to squinting at less than ideally-sized text. I honestly don't see any need either for either a Kindle or the Kindle app unless you aren't content to read out of copyright material for free and want to pay for stuff from Amazon. Even if you don't have an iPhone, if there is equivalent software for your smart phone of choice, that is likely to be the case there too.

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  12. David

    @AC "I don't get it"

    Three words for you: "no physical media". Whem you have hundreds of books, CDs, or DVDs, it ends up taking a lot of space, and it becomes unpractical to find anything. And let's not talk about moving that stuff... In the case of e-books, there is no quality loss either... And in the case of Kindle, new books are cheaper in electronic form...

    Plus you're doing the earth a favor... :)

    The Kindle also accept your content: you can get send it to Amazon for encoding, or use Mobipocket's free soft to do it yourself. And you can use USB to transfer content...

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  13. J
    Pirate

    A shame

    Hardware/wireless system considerations apart, am I the only one who hates when the "capitalists" go against the globalization they are the first to exploit when it is to their interest? When it's time to send your job to a sweatshop across the world though, then very easy. If it's good to the consumer, then things get complicated, contracts and whatnot. (you might say that off-shoring does benefit consumers by lowering prices... but that could be a short term view of "benefit" that might not be worth it in the long run)

    What the hell, we gotta sort this out some day. If I can download a book/song/movie from a store in, say, Germany, why should I be forced to do it from a store in the US? We know why... problem is doing something significant.

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  14. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Battery?

    I thought the big advantage of the Kindle devices was the electronic ink is low in power requirement and therefore led to long battery life? Surely having a screen of stationary text on the iBone and iDouche will still require juice for the display and consequently run the battery flat even faster?

    Mind you, I don't think the iDiots do reading.

    /Well, the Sunshiners are slowing down today so it's time to start flaming the fanbois....

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  15. Sandra Greer
    Heart

    Kindle is easier to use - especially for elders

    I love books dearly, but they are heavy, take up a lot of space, and have a fixed size type. This is not wonderful for some of us whose vision is a bit weak.

    A pure text on Kindle can be read in 14 point if I like, takes no space at all, weighs hardly anything, and goes with me wherever I want. A whole volume of whatever (quite a few volumes actually) will fit in a purse! And there are lots of free resources in addition to Amazon's inexpensive downloads.

    I am a big fan!

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  16. John Latham

    FFS

    Reading this article inspires a sense of impending loss.

    On the axis of pleasure in my life, books are near one end and fucking-around-with-DRM-crippled-technology is right at the other.

    It's bleedin' obvious that textual books are the most freetardable commodity, since the data size is tiny. The only reason this hasn't happened is the lack of decent (and open) devices. This won't last forever.

    If these idiots don't sort out pricing and compatibility issues soon, they'll have lost the battle they sought to avoid for so long.

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  17. s
    Thumb Down

    @David

    Odd... Your reason for loving it is my reason to loath it... I like to sit with a book and read. I like to search for a CD and put it in the player. It's part of the experience, and generally speaking the quality of the end product is higher.

    I have a couple of hundred CD's, 100 or so DVD's + BluRays and somewhere around 400 books. I love going into the room and picking a book out - the intangible good feeling from the feel of the paper to the small you get in a room packed with books. Yes carrying them around is more difficult and moving house takes maybe one more van because of them, but seriously how often to you have to move before that is a problem?

    I wouldn't mind a reader to go with my books (for on the train or on vacation) but not instead of. Plus there is no DRM in my book collection. I can read a book, like it, and pass it to my wife - we don't need a license for each book reader in the house...

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  18. Joel

    Gutenberg on the iPhone

    I've read quite a few of the Gutenberg books on my iPhone, but don't need any app to do it. I simply go to the Gutenberg site, and load the html page of the book. Then, simply turn the phone on it's side, double click the text to zoom to the width of the display, and flick up as I read.

    I was surprised at the quality and ease of reading.

    Major advantage is that I can read in bed when the other half is asleep, without having to have the light on. Oh, and since they are Gutenberg texts, the content is free.....

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  19. Janko Hrasko
    Paris Hilton

    @FFS

    Totally agree. I love books and read a lot. I use good old Zaurus for that, because paper books hurt my eyes as they are not back-lit.

    I am more than happy to purchase books, but if they are not compatible with my readers that I can get hold of, what can I do?? Find it somewhere on the web?

    I think that in the end it will all end up like any other media, torrented to oblivion. Why? Because of the apparent lack of compatibility and availability of legal sources.

    Why Paris? Because she has to wear glasses too when reading paper books... ;-)

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