Amazon offers e-books on Apple devices

Updated 5:25 a.m. PST Wednesday to note the official release of the Kindle application.

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a free application that will allow the same electronic books available on the e-tailer's Kindle to be read on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.

The program will be available for download for Apple's App Store and give users access to the more than 240,000 e-books that Kindle users can buy on Amazon. The program's Whisper Sync service promises to keep track of a reader's place in their chosen book, allowing users to pick up where they left off on either device the Kindle or iPhone if users own both.

While other e-book reader such as Stanza from Lexcycle and the eReader from Fictionwise are already popular on iPhones, it is the first time that Kindle content has been made available on a non-Kindle device. Amazon Vice President Ian Freed hinted at the move in an interview with CNET News last month, and expressed optimism that some of those who try Kindle on a cell phone will ultimately buy Amazon's device.

The app release is Amazon's latest salvo for a greater piece of the e-book market. The e-tailer unveiled the second generation of its Kindle e-book reader on February 9. Amazon touted the $359 Kindle 2 as thinner than its predecessor and offering longer battery life.

But the company quickly came under criticism from the Authors Guild, which claimed the device's new text-to-speech feature would hurt sales of audio books. The trade group representing 9,000 authors argued that Amazon wasn't compensating authors for the feature, and thus violating authors' copyrights. Amazon ultimately acquiesced, announcing late last month that it would modify systems to allow authors and publishers to decide whether to enable Kindle's text-to-speech function on a per-title basis.

In launching the new app, Amazon is taking on Google, which last month launched a mobile version of its Google Book Search, giving iPhone and Android users instant access to more than 1.5 million public domain books.

See also: First impressions of the Kindle iPhone app

[DarkHawke]

So. I'll now buy a Kindle because....? Okay, I imagine it'll be a lot easier to read a book off of the larger Kindle screen than that of an iPhone. Then again, I drop three bills for an iPhone and I get a fantastic multi-media handheld computer with an integrated cell phone. I fork over nearly a Benjamin more for the Kindle and though I gain a larger screen, I lose nearly everything else. The Kindle doesn't have on-going service payments, but you get literally the world for your monthly AT&#38;T bill with the iPhone. Seems to me Amazon just killed any value proposition that the Kindle had, but hey, their company, not mine.<br /><br />Thankfully.

[aaydogan]

Perhaps they are interested in selling content. I think that worked pretty well for Apple with iTune store. It's good to have a choice of hardware platforms. Now what we need is an Apple device that has the performance of an iTouch with the screen size of a Kindle....oh, and we need to see a lot more content available....how the entire Library of Congress?

[Goodbye Helicopter]

until we get 300dpi screens, you're just hurting your eyes, methinks.

[crescentdave]

Oh joy. War and Peace on an iPod.

[forever4now]

Good news! Shortcovers recently launched their e-book service for smartphones, as well.<br /><br />One of the major benefits of having all content (music/video/books/...) available to smartphones is that the content is automatically made available to other device types that are running a smartphone OS (MIDs, netbooks, e-readers, photo frames, ...).

[Larry_Smyrna]

Personally, I don't think I could read books on an I-Phone because of eye strain but for people who can't afford the $400 to get a Kindle, then this is great news. I have a Kindle 2 and I loving the new features because I can "LISTEN" to my Jackie Christian erotica books using Text-to-Speech and <br />I have an all new appreciation for her, uh, writing skills now. Ladies should check out "The UPS Guy"

[artistjoh]

It seems everyone who has never used an e-reader on an iPhone is quite certain they wouldn't read on the iPhone because it would cause eye strain. I think you need to try it before deciding that it causes eye strain. Sure the screen is small but on most e-readers you can adjust the text size, change fonts, change backgrounds etc to suit yourself - there is no real reason for eye strain to be an issue. <br /><br />Personally I like reading on the iPhone and I love that my "book" is now with me at all times in my pocket ready to continue reading. Larger devices are far less convenient.

[WilliamPC]

Just think about the iTouch/iPhone platform with the form factor of the Kindle. I just happened to see both Kindles today. They were impressive and super easy to read in great light but what if I wanted to download a Photoshop oriented magazine. The beautiful pix would look horrible in gray scale. The touch interface of of the apple product mated with the sleek form factor of the Kindle. Keep it PC free with the ability to d/l material like a cell phone, keeping at is. This would be a winner. Could you imagine using the touch interface to manipulate pics of Meagan Fox, ah, i mean Architectural diagrams.<br />Oh the hardware would fly off the shelf.<br /><br />I am sorry, the kindle is wowfully overpriced. Its sole function is a reader. with some minor other uses. Its worth about $150 and I am an avid reader. It was pretty funny in the resteraunt as it was kind of dark. Dude has his brand new $350 Kindle II mated to a sharper image type led book light,<br /><br />I looked at him and said my netbook is backlit.<br /><br />He was confused.<br /><br />Sorry. Kindle, Kindle 2 = massive fail

[zyxxy]

Kindle 2 = massive fail?<br /><br />Hmmm, Kindle 1 seemed to go out the door pretty well.<br />Current Kindle 2 is as well, so I guess what you meant was 'WilliamPC not buying == massive fail'<br />Are you physically large, hence the massive part of the fail, or are you now not planning to buy them by the thousands, where maybe you were planning to buy thousands of them before?<br /><br />As for pics, the primary use of this is as a reader. Get it? Reader. Okay? And Meagan Fox doesn't look so hot on a dinky smart phone screen either. That is why they make 720p eyeglass displays. Unfortunately, those still cost way more than the Kindle, and they need an external device to drive them.<br /><br />On the other hand, the two people that I personally know that have received their K2s are very happy with the device. YMMV

[ddhboy]

I really don't see the point of this, I guess you could read books on your iPod now but it won't beat the physical book and if I remember correctly Audible audiobooks are already available in the iTunes store, have been for some time, plus the other features of the kindle like getting newspapers is shut out for the most part since the iPhone can just access the regular NYTimes or whatever newspaper's website.

[vhase]

The main difference (besides form factor) is Kindle for iPhone only does books. At least, all the App talks about is books - I haven't tried (nor do I want to try) any other materials (newspapers, blogs, etc.), which makes sense - why pay 11 bucks for a subscription to USA today when there is already a USA Today app?<br /><br />Downloaded it at a ridiculous hour in the morning and gave it a test run - buy your book online (not within the Kindle program), and it loads to your Kindle program the next time you turn it on. You can move the books off of your phone, where they are listed as "Archived" until you decide to re-load them onto your phone - and the account you set up will 'transfer' to a real Kindle if you so choose.<br /><br />It's the worlds simplest text reader - and I don't mean that in a good way. They'll get hit for it in reviews, I'm sure - only brushing from page to page, no scrolling of text - and a simple bookmark feature (that I've seen so far- still tinkering with it). But hey, you get a color picture of the book cover (does that mean a color Kindle is on the horizon?)...<br /><br />I agree with others - the Kindle is priced too high - This is great for me - I already have a text reader on the phone with tons of Project Gutenberg free texts - so I'm very familiar with reading on my phone (and previously, my Palm) - let Amazon join the iPhone App gravy train - I think it was a smart move on their part.