Kindle for iPhone out- read Kindle ebooks on your phone
The Kindle 2 has only been out a short while, and reviews of the new model are pretty much positive. One of the most intriguing aspects of the new Kindle was indicated by Amazon when they said they intended to make ebooks for the Kindle available for other platforms. This excited folks, as it meant their ebooks could provide better value, given they weren’t going to be locked to the Kindle hardware.
Well, it sure didn’t take long for Amazon to live up to their word as the Kindle for iPhone app is already available from the App Store. This free app lets you read Kindle ebooks on your iPhone, something I’m a big fan of doing, and even uses the “Whispersync” technology developed for the Kindle 2 to sync both ebooks and bookmarks to the iPhone. This is great, as you can pick up in your Kindle ebook right where you left off, even if you forget to bring the Kindle with you.
Matt Miller is very excited about Kindle for iPhone as he got one of the first Kindle 2 readers. He’s already given Kindle for iPhone a run. He’s posted a gallery of the app in action and this video that shows off the Whispersync technology in action.
This is very big news for Kindle owners and for Amazon, too, as they can now sell Kindle content to folks with other devices. This may very well be the first of many devices that can read Kindle books down the road.
James, suppose that it will also come for your Storm and G1, is this something that will get you consider buying that format from Amazon now instead of eReader?
Having the same provider for music and books …
Also I would really like to hear your comparison which has a better user experience for iPhone the kindle reader or eReader.
Tal
I’m playing with this now and will write something up today. To answer your question about buying from Amazon going forward, very possible.
“The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the UK store.”
Now, there’s a surprise!
American companies continuing UScentrism in a globalalised community and world wide web constantly amazes and dissapoint sme.
Don’t blame Amazon, it’s those evil book publishers that impose the limitations. Sometimes for good reasons – i.e. there may be a different rights holder for the same book in other countries.
Frankly, Amazon can go f$!@ themselves. No matter what they do it’s US only – video downloads, amazon MP3, and now this. It’s getting extremely tiresome and it seems they don’t grasp the concept that the US isn’t the world. Thank god for services like ereader.com and audible.com that aren’t internationally incompetent.
Editited by staff.
Well, it’s not all one-sided. I recently stumbled over a site (Zattoo) that offers all kinds of TV channels via streaming video. Sadly, even though they have an office in the US, they block US users (I assume they only have licenses or legal loopholes covering Europe).
Yes, yes, let’s blame Amazon and the US. I’m sure it’s also a horrible US-centric attitude that blocks that evil BBC video content from streaming to US IP addresses.
It couldn’t *possibly* be a bull-headed rights issue on behalf of almost every country on the globe, so let’s go ahead and blame the biggest country that we can reasonably target!
I have just as much trouble obtaining digital content from the UK as UK citizens do for US content. It’s just as difficult for books, except that rights management is harder to enforce when it is reduced to a person vacationing in London and bringing back a couple of books and CDs.
It is a shame that these services are U.S.-centric and I hope that Amazon starts expanding across borders soon. My first impressions (solely from watching the video) are that for now, other eBook software titles offer more customization, which could lead to a better reading experience. However, Amazon can easily address any functionality gaps with
hardwaresoftware updates.In the end, it’s all about content and Amazon exceeds all others there in terms of current / recent title as well as breadth and depth. I definitely like how the original Kindle owners haven’t been left in the cold on this as well. Now, if only Amazon could fix those silly page “location” numbers!
I guess page numbers become somewhat irrelevant with synchronization, but still!
I believe that cross platform reading is why Amazon adopted those silly page numbers in the first place. Page numbers are only relevant for the screen and settings of one device and aren’t appropriate for multiple devices.
Hardware updates?
Yes! I want Amazon to replace everyone’s hardware each time there’s a firmware update!
OK, just kidding… thanks for the catch. 
I saw this mentioned on Engadget just after midnight and immediately downloaded it. I had recently purchased the Kindle (1st gen) on eBay and although I really liked it, I didn’t see myself using it enough, so I went and sold it (at a profit!). But I still missed it. I think the linkage to Amazon is fantastic and the content simply cannot be beat.
Sure enough, within a few brief moments (literally less than a minute), I had the application and my previously purchased content on my iPod Touch. This is fantastic.
I will say though that I agree with comments I have seen elsewhere. This is not going to cannibalize Kindle sales all that much. Reading on the Kindle is a joy. Reading on an iPod Touch is really good, but it’s not the same. Most people will probably read 30 minutes at a time. Battery life will be an issue. the smaller viewing area will be an issue as well.
But for now, I couldn’t be more pleased.
As moving to Canada in a few weeks – does Amazon provide its services in Canada as well? or is the US the sole country on their north American geography?
anyone having a problem getting anything other thn books? books work ok but it wont recognize i have an iphone for magazines, blogs, newspapers…
I believe this first version supports books only.
really? does it say that it only does books anywhere? thats a shame, the newspaper is what i really want.
Amazon’s official press release mentions books but doesn’t say anything about other content formats.