First Impressions of Kindle on iPhone
by Walter S. Mossberg
Posted on March 3, 2009 at 11:02 PM PT
As I predicted in my review of Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 e-book reader last week, the giant bookseller has moved quickly to make the 240,000 book Kindle catalog available on other devices. On Tuesday night, the first Kindle software reader appeared, and it’s a free iPhone app. Called Kindle for iPhone, the app replicates the basic book-reading functions of the hardware Kindle device, and can be thought of as a complement to that device, which has more features. However, you don’t have to own a hardware Kindle to use this app. You can now choose instead to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as the reader for books from Kindle’s catalog.
I tried the new iPhone Kindle app moments after it became available on Apple’s App Store (AAPL), and my first impression is generally positive. But first, let me note the key features of the hardware Kindle that aren’t carried over to the iPhone app. It doesn’t support periodicals. It doesn’t read books aloud. It doesn’t allow you to enter notes or highlight text, look up words in a dictionary, or perform searches.
And, if you wish to purchase a new e-book, the Kindle app sends you over to the iPhone’s Safari Web browser to go the Amazon (AMZN) Web site; it lacks a built-in Kindle store.
However, it is a solid basic app for reading books, and is especially valuable if you already own a hardware Kindle, as I do. In my brief tests, the iPhone app synchronized rapidly and perfectly with my purchased library of Kindle books on Amazon’s servers, and allowed me to retrieve a previously purchased e-book, without paying again, just as my hardware Kindle does. It also synchronized to the furthest page I had read in that book on my Kindle. After reading for awhile on the iPhone, I performed that process in reverse, and my Kindle took me to the same spot where I had quit reading on the iPhone.
This means that, if I were in line at the grocery store with my iPhone, I could read a few pages of my book, and then, when I picked up my Kindle at home, I could continue reading, starting from the same spot.
I also was able to buy a new book using the iPhone’s Web bowser, and Amazon gave me a choice of auto-delivering it to either my Kindle or my iPhone, which it treats as just another Kindle. I did so, and it appeared very quickly. I later downloaded it as well to my Kindle.
Reading on the device was easy. You turn pages using the iPhone’s horizontal swiping gesture, and you can change the font size on the fly, and create bookmarks, which then can be synced back to a Kindle device. You can view any notes you made on a hardware Kindle. And there’s a slider to quickly go back and forth through chunks of the book.
The only flaw I encountered in my brief testing: if you turn pages too fast you get a fleeting blank page or two.
In two key respects, using the iPhone app seems superior to using a Kindle. First, the iPhone’s screen is brighter, and supports color, so book covers and illustrations in my test books looked much better on the iPhone than they did on the Kindle. Second, the iPhone is smaller and thus much more portable.
The new Kindle app isn’t as full-featured as some other e-reader apps for the iPhone, which do allow annotation, searching, and so forth. But it gets the job done and it gives you access to Amazon’s large catalog, which contains more popular and current commercial titles than other e-book sellers offer.
If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch owner who has yearned for a Kindle but balked at its $359 price, or a Kindle owner with an iPhone or Touch already, this new Kindle app is a good bet, even if it is bare-bones.
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Comments
This is a great move by Amazon, and I really love being able to access my Kindle books on my iPod Touch. The only downside I have found is that I have to turn on wireless on my Kindle (v1) in order to sync my place in the books. I generally avoid leaving wireless on because it drains the battery, but the convenience outweighs the cost of more frequent charges.
Posted by Daniel Norton at March 4th, 2009 at 7:04 amThe only thing missing from Amazon’s solution, for me, is the ability to also read my books on a computer.
Posted by John Nullstream at March 4th, 2009 at 9:49 amNice review. I’ll have to check the app out to see how it compares with eReader which I enjoy.
Posted by Anne Hennegar at March 4th, 2009 at 11:59 amThanks for the immediate review. I would dearly love to own a Kindle, but I just can’t swing $359 for what is essentially a trivial device. Looking forward to the iPhone app as a replacement, but I recognize the limitations.
Posted by David Owens at March 4th, 2009 at 12:08 pmOnly one problem for me – same as the physical Kindle, the Kindle app isn’t available in Australia (or, presumably, anywhere but the U.S.). Not happy, Amazon!
Posted by David Grigg at March 4th, 2009 at 1:25 pmI too tried out the APP as soon as it came out. This is best reader for Kindle books. I like it better than my Kindle by a large margin. And I have had a Kindle since the day the became available and it is with me constantly. BUT…
I use my Kindle 95% of the time to read NYT and WSJ. And since the APP does not support periodicals, it is USELESS to me.
Both papers would look oh so much better on my iPhone. This is so frustrating.
One prays Apple fixes this ASAP.
Posted by John Birch at March 5th, 2009 at 11:18 amMeant to say I hope Amazon fixes this. Not Apple.
Posted by John Birch at March 5th, 2009 at 11:19 amThis is a nice companion app for the Kindle. Sometimes the iPhone/iPod Touch is just a better choice to carry.
I like that is allows for reading in the dark, something Kindle is not so good at. And I also like that some books format better on the iPod. For example, I have a book on home beer brewing and some of the tables do not format correctly on Kindle yet they look great on the iPod.
I still like the Kindle for its larger screen and access to more types of media but the iPod version is definitely going to get more use on business trips.
Posted by Tony Clark at March 9th, 2009 at 3:16 pmI don’t have a Kindle but I have been reading books on my Handspring/Palm/iPhone device for a while.
My primary reader is eReader and I really don’t annotate, look up words or any of the other features. But I do pay for books.
The first two books that I bought from Amazon for the Kindle iPhone reader were substantially less than the same titles from eReader – in one case (Malcolm Gladwell’s latest) about 50% less.
I don’t know if this will hold up across all titles, but for me, the cheapest provider wins because the readers are effectively the same.
Posted by Daniel Currie at March 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pmI tried the app and I can’t get it to sync with my Kindle. Does syncing work only with books purchased after the App installed?
Posted by Ernest Robles at April 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pmThe best thing about this iPhone app is that it is on the iPhone itself: nothing else is needed. A Kindle is just one more object to drop, lose,carry and worry about. The physical Kindle is wrong because it is a step away from the necessary convergence of function to a single thing. If I need to carry something else, give me a book any time. (Try killing a spider with an electronic device)
Posted by Dick Rutherford at May 4th, 2009 at 2:04 pmI don’t have a Kindle but do use my iPod Touch to read Kindle books. It’s a great experience. I kinda suffer from ADD so the smaller screen and limited text per page actually make me read faster with much higher comprehension. Thus far, my favorite app.
Posted by Bill Fisher at July 17th, 2009 at 12:20 pm