Amazon has been busy today with releasing new Kindle clients. First there was an new update to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. Then later today they announced their first Kindle App for the Android platform.
Updates to the iPhone Reader
The first books to take advantage of embedded video and audio clips on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, including Rick Steves’ London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway, are available in the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.
“We are excited to add this functionality to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch,” said Dorothy Nicholls, director, Amazon Kindle. “Readers will already find some Kindle Editions with audio/video clips in the Kindle Store today–from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes with video tips on preparing the perfect cake to Bird Songs with audio clips that relate the songs and calls to the birds’ appearances. This is just the beginning–we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps.”
Plus Kindle for iPhone is now optimized for iPhone 4’s retina display and is a free download on the iTunes Store.
Kindle Now on the Android Marketplace
Android-powered device ownerscan enjoy their kindle books on the go with a free application from Android Market. Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for Android includes Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a customer’s books and bookmarks across their Kindle, Kindle DX, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, PC, and now Android-powered phones so customers always have their reading material with them and never lose their place.
Android Kindle App Features
- Search and browse more than 620,000 books, including 108 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers, plus tens of thousands of the most popular classics for free directly from their Android device.
- Read the first chapter of books for free before they decide to buy
- Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books storedon Amazon’s servers for free
- Synchronize last page read between their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Android-powered phone
- Customize background color, font color, and font size to help ease eyestrain
- Read in portrait or landscape mode, tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages
- Adjust screen brightness from within the app to make reading easier
Several features will be added to Kindle for Android in the near future, including full text search and purchasing of Kindle books from within the app. The buying books within the Android app will be a first outside of the Kindle devices themselves and feature that will be very unlikely to come to the any of the Apple device versions of the Kindle app. This is due to Apple’s policies for the iOS which would require Amazon to give a 30% commission to Apple on sales within an iOS app.
You can learn more about Kindle for Android at http://www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid and can download the free app from Android Market.
