Amazon.com today introduced “Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch,” a new application available for free from Apple’s App Store that lets iPhone and iPod Touch users have acees to over 240,000 books, including 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers.
The Kindle program isn’t the first e-book reader for the iPhone, but it marks the first time Kindle content is available on device which isn’t a Kindle. This also give Amazon inroads to sell e-books on a a device most people already carry with them, a cell phone or MP3 player
Amazon’s new Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes a customer’s bookmark across their original Kindle, Kindle 2, iPhone and iPod touch, letting cutomers read a few pages on their iPhone or iPod touch and pick up right where they left off on their Kindle or Kindle 2.
The one thing missing on the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the software is the store. You need to shop on your PC or Mac’s web broswer or via the Safari brower on the iPhone/iPod touch at http://www.amazon.com/kindlestore. Books are wirelessly transferred and made available to read the next time you lauch the Kindle app on your iPhone or Touch.
“We are excited to bring the new Kindle application to Apple’s App Store and think customers are going to love how easy and fun it is to read their Kindle books on the iPhone and iPod touch,” said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. “Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is a great way for customers to catch up on their current book wherever they are, like in line at the grocery store or between meetings.”
As with the Kindle, the iPhone app lets users change the text size on the screen, and add bookmarks, notes and highlights. Unlike either version of Kindle, which only shows content in shades of gray, the iPhone version will show books in color that were developed that way. Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is not include on the IPhone/iPod touch version of the software.
Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is available for free from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
