Kindle too
As much as I want a Kindle 2, $360 is too much for a device that allows me to buy books for $10 and access web content that I can already get (and pay to access) through my iPhone. Fortunately, there's an intermediary solution: The iPhone Kindle app.
Just like the Kindle, you can buy an eBook on Amazon.com, and it will automatically download to your phone. More interesting, if you have a Kindle 2 and the Kindle app, the Amazon network will sync your bookmarks. So if you read 50 pages of a book on your Kindle 2 before you go to bed, your iPhone will automatically jump to where you left off when you start reading on your morning commute. Pretty snazzy.
I bought Coraline to test it out. Reading a book on a small screen isn't a big issue for me. (I actually read the first four Harry Potter books on my old Palm Pilot.) The font size scaling is nice. The illustrations are included. It's portable. And it was cheap (less than $5).
One thing is for sure: The Kindle app is not a Kindle.
For starters, you use the basic flick motion to turn pages, which doesn't really feel right. You have to go the Amazon website to buy books. You can use Safari on your iPhone to do it, but it's still inconvenient. Sorry, no magazines.
But I think the app accomplishes Amazon's main mission. I want a Kindle 2 even more now.
Just like the Kindle, you can buy an eBook on Amazon.com, and it will automatically download to your phone. More interesting, if you have a Kindle 2 and the Kindle app, the Amazon network will sync your bookmarks. So if you read 50 pages of a book on your Kindle 2 before you go to bed, your iPhone will automatically jump to where you left off when you start reading on your morning commute. Pretty snazzy.
I bought Coraline to test it out. Reading a book on a small screen isn't a big issue for me. (I actually read the first four Harry Potter books on my old Palm Pilot.) The font size scaling is nice. The illustrations are included. It's portable. And it was cheap (less than $5).
One thing is for sure: The Kindle app is not a Kindle.
For starters, you use the basic flick motion to turn pages, which doesn't really feel right. You have to go the Amazon website to buy books. You can use Safari on your iPhone to do it, but it's still inconvenient. Sorry, no magazines.
But I think the app accomplishes Amazon's main mission. I want a Kindle 2 even more now.
Labels: Mark
posted by M S Martinez at 3/04/2009 10:07:00 AM
5 Comments:
i agree.
kindle is cool, and desirable.
but, it's hard for me justify the expense of that versus just downloading one of the free reader apps and then free .txt files of the books through other means.
i mean, what's the moral difference between doing that and going to the library?
I still don't buy the convenience of the Kindle. One of the many selling points of the iPod was the ability to carry your entire music library around with you. I (and I assume the same with other people) can't think of a single time when the equivalent need has ever come up in regards to books. Books take too long to digest and I almost never read multiple books simultaneously.
Also Mark: Coraline was a fairly faithful adaptation, so your aren't in store for many surprises. Except one. And it is a doozy.
Brad: I think you know the answer to that question.
You mean there is no difference right?
Seriously though, to me kindle isn't about the convenience of having a s***-ton ( :) ) of books with you at all times. It's appealing to me because I could read and turn pages with one hand while the other one holds the strap or bar on the train. I could carry a magazine and book and newspaper, and switch between them without the bulk. Better, I could decide on the spot which magazine or newspaper I want to read, and then read a different one on the way back from work or school.
Does it change the game the same way the ipod does? Probably not, but print media can use all the help it can get right now. And to me, this helps.
I will grant you the one-handed reading. And it might be convenient for those huge tomes that are a pain to lug around.
But why would I "subscribe" to a newspaper or magazine on the Kindle when I could just read all of the content for free online on my iPhone? And, if anything, the Kindle is probably really cutting into the profit margins of print media.
I think Amazon should partially subsidize the price - use it as a loss-leader - to get people to use their online e-book store.
i dunno, if i could buy wired the moment i got bored and thought about it, i probably would. but i haven't bought an issue of wired from the newsstand in a couple of years.
that's just me, i buy iphone apps too.
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