Is The Kindle App All That Great?
March 6, 2009 by Ryan Ray
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With much fanfare Amazon has released the Kindle 2. The Kindle as we all know is Amazon’s device that lets your read your books digitally. It’s an amazing concept and their first iteration of the Kindle was very successful, and now with version 2 leaked and out the door available for sale Amazon may have an even bigger hit on their hands. The one thing that hinders most purchases though is the Kindle’s slightly crazy price tag. Coming in at $359 it isn’t cheap to read your books digitally. You can argue though that buying your books through the Kindle store is for one not only environmentally much more friendlier but on the long run the Kindle may pay for itself through the cheaper version of the Kindle book. Typically if you look at the price of a paperback book then the price of the Kindle version it’s slashed in half. Due to the Kindle eliminating the need for printing, shipping, etc.. If you buy a lot of books then you can potentially justify the Kindle.
So this had nothing to do with the iPhone until earlier this week, on the 3rd when Amazon released an iPhone app to coincide with the Kindle. The best thing about it, it’s FREE! This app was really meant to use to coexist with your Kindle, but really the app just turned your iPhone into a mini version of the Kindle. Score one for all of us iPhone users. What does this app do then that makes it worth it to read your books digitally.
For one this app syncs up with your Kindle. Imagine you were reading a book and you got to page 290 on your Kindle that would then be saved and synced up with your iPhone if you happened to switch over. Definitely a crucial part of this app is the syncing between the two devices. Without this you’d have to use one or the other, thankfully they get along just great. If you’ve previously bought any books from Amazon for your Kindle then you can read them on your iPhone just as easy, and vice versa. Buy a book with your Kindle and then it is also available on your Kindle. This is all synced through Amazon.com which is very cool.
Another cool thing is that you can read the first chapter of any book on the Amazon website entirely free. This is something similar to what the iTunes App Store should let us do. So take a hint Apple. If we could only preview apps before buying them! Someday, someday..
Is this is app worth it? Yes, I say yes. Especially for you Kindle owners already out there and for anyone who loves books. The Kindle app may not be the best digital book app out there but it does a good job integrating with Amazon and the Kindle device itself. The interface is easy to understand and buying a book is as simple as pie. I highly recommend you go out and read a good book or two. What do you think about digital books? Leave a comment and let me know.
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