Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software 232
palmsolo writes "The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync and read everywhere you go. Readers on the iPhone also now get access to over 200,000 ebook titles on the Amazon Kindle storefront. Check out the hands-on image gallery and video of the Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2."
Just what the world needs... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, I'm just jealous. I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type.
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Actually, I'm just jealous. I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type.
That's what pinch gestures are for...
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Likely because selecting particular sizes of purpose built fonts look a lot better, and readers are unlikely to want resize "on-the-fly" the font size.
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That's not surprising if you've used a e-reader before on a portable device. Most have adjustable font sizes and autoscrolling, so even if you're only fitting a dozen 24 pt font words on a 2" screen you can adjust the scrolling to keep up with your reading speed.
I'd imagine the iPhone, with it's 3.5" screen, would actua
iPhone Resolution (Score:5, Interesting)
The screen won't get larger, but most rumors say the next iPhone (much like the G2 launching in April) will feature an OLED screen with much higher resolution. It will use less battery, and be slimmer.
Re:iPhone Resolution (Score:5, Interesting)
The screen won't get larger, but most rumors say the next iPhone (much like the G2 launching in April) will feature an OLED screen with much higher resolution. It will use less battery, and be slimmer.
I hope so. Resolution is a big deal. I can easily read text without zooming in on most pages (for instance, this one) on my 640x480 htc diamond display. I tried an iphone briefly after I got the diamond and while it was very slick in a lot of ways, I couldn't handle the lower resolution for web browsing. I have only so-so vision and I imagined pixel density would make high resolution on these little screens pointless, but I was wrong. An iphone with at an 800x600 display would more than double my interest.
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm illegally blind. What is the typical punishment if I turn myself in?
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You probably already have hair on your palms...you've been punished enough.
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thousands of iPhone zombies squinting into tiny little screens, walking into cars...
Never mind them, some will be driving cars.
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+1 scary
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:5, Funny)
+1 Darwin
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:5, Funny)
-1 Collateral Damage
I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type. (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is why the iPhone absolutely sucks as an ebook reader.
Re:I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I couldn't possibly read that tiny little type. (Score:5, Informative)
But then I'm certain you have never actually tried reading an ebook on an iPhone, just trolling.
Re:Just what the world needs... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've done a very significant amount of reading on devices as small or smaller than the iPhone. Originally it was all Pocket PCs, and more recently my Blackberry Pearl and iPod Touch. I end up doing most reading on my Blackberry (recently Moby Dick, The Stand and the Lord of the Rings trilogy) simply because I've always got it with me, and it's convenient to pull it out and fill in little downtime here and there.
I've contemplated actual dedicated ebook reader hardware, like the Kindle, but most of my reading is done when I don't have anything better to do, regardless of where I'm at. The spontaneity of always having the ebook with me without having to consciously bring it along or keep track of extra hardware is what allows me to do much reading in the first place.
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It's just a very stylish and aesthetically pleasing form of population control.
Like a really glamorous Eugenics...
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*gets back to reading her book in the sunset*
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Glad the mods rated that funny instead of insightful. Clearly you have never used an iPhone or an iPod Touch. While the screen is small, you can still fit a decent amount of text on it at 11 point size. If you read in landscape mode, that's almost as wide as a normal column of text in a paperback novel, or a newspaper column. So even at 12 points, you have the same text size as a standard newspaper column, albeit just a paragraph at a time. I typically don't worry about folks squinting at their newspa
It's About Time (Score:5, Funny)
Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software
Finally I won't have to huddle around a pile of tinder in the forest, rubbing two iPhones together just to get a spark to light my campfire.
We lived like cavemen before iPhone software.
Re:It's About Time (Score:5, Funny)
if you'd ever fallen asleep with a Mac on your lap you'd realize that Apple solved the kindling problem already.
Posted from a Macbook Pro on my boiling genitals.
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Mod parent "-1 Too much information"
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Don't they have Li-ion batteries? There are much easier ways to start a fire with them. Rubbing, sheesh. How quaint.
The article doesn't seem to answer a basic questio (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you need a Kindle to use this iphone app? The article only talks about the benefits of using the app with the kindle, but for all of those that don't have one, can we use the app and buy ebooks on the amazon store?
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:5, Informative)
No Kindle is needed. You can buy books using a web browser on your PC and have the books sent wirelessly to your iPhone/iPod touch.
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I really like the Kindle too, but if you could have a small portable iPod for your books and music that is really great. For commuters this is a very nice piece of technology and software.
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Last I checked, the iPod Touch was $30 more than the iPhone hardware for an 8GB ($229), and the same price ($299) for the 16GB). (I last checked 1 minute ago.)
Now, if you're talking data plans, sure, the
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Last I checked, the iPod Touch was $30 more than the iPhone hardware for an 8GB ($229), and the same price ($299) for the 16GB). (I last checked 1 minute ago.)
Now, if you're talking data plans, sure, the iPhone ends up more expensive after just one month. But the price difference obviously depends on your current phone plan. I had unlimited Internet on my old Blackjack, and getting the iPhone 3G was only $15/month more for me--and I was told I would have to pay $15/month more for any phone I got, as I was on an older, cheaper data plan than they currently offered (woo, prices went up!).
YMMV.
*Qualified customers only. Two-year contract required.
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Last I checked you weren't allowed the privilege of purchasing an amazon ebook without having a Kindle registered to your account.
And believe me I was interested in find out if it was possible, the kindle inferior. You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:4, Funny)
You need a book light for an ebook reader?
Its better than staring at a lightbulb for hours at a time.
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:5, Informative)
Last I checked you weren't allowed the privilege of purchasing an amazon ebook without having a Kindle registered to your account.
Did you bother to look since this announcement? Web pages do change, or so I've heard.
You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
You need a book light because it's epaper. Just like regular paper, it doesn't emit any light of its own. The upside with this is that the display only draws power when you turn the page. I think that the convenience of having a device that you can use continuously for days without recharging kind of outweighs the inconvenience of having to provide your own light source.
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:4, Informative)
OK, why is this flamebait? Even by the unofficial definition that a lot of moderators use ("flamebait" == "you're full of it") that seems a stretch.
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:4, Informative)
The app registers your iPhone as a Kindle after you put in your account info. I just bought a couple books off of there and I don't own a Kindle myself.
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You need a book light for an ebook reader? Seriously?
They call it "electronic paper" for a reason - because it looks and works like one. Yes, that means you need an external light source to read in the dark. It also means that your eyes don't strain anywhere near as much as they do when you stare at the backlit LCD (which isn't fundamentally different from staring at a pretty powerful lamp shining right into your face).
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:2, Informative)
No, you don't. I just downloaded it and tried out a sample chapter. I had previously used eReader from Fictionwise, but they were unable to get "The Amber Spyglass," even though they had the first two books of Pullman's Dark Materials series.
Amazon had the content, so I went and bought Amber Spyglass.
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they focused on the benefit of using this app with the Kindle because... well, the first question that popped into my head was, "If I buy a book on my iPhone and then get a Kindle in a few months, will I be able to transfer my books over to the Kindle, or are they going to try to make me buy them all again?"
Once I had gotten past that thought, my next question might have been, "Well how hard will it be to transfer books from one to the other? Will Amazon provide a mechanism for that?" If I had gotten past those two, I'd like to think I'd be clever enough to ask at some point, "Can they provide any method for me to read on my one device and have my place synced over to the other so I can pick up right where I left off?"
It looks like Amazon may have covered their bases pretty well.
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Disappointingly, it seems that it's only available in the US too. Very disappointing for us Brits.
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Agreed. I was going to get this app until the Kindle made its way to the UK, but I can't even do that.
It's all about the book rights (Score:3, Informative)
Most likely because they only have the book rights for all those books in the US. It would have been foolish to have paid extra money for worldwide rights (or even US+UK) when they were going to be testing the Kindle in the US first to see if it would flop or succeed. It may or not also be related to purchasing UK versions of books (because yeah, some books are localized even though it's kind of dumb) and purchasing a different title list based on popularity in the UK.
I would expect once they purchase boo
Possible desktop version of Kindle? (Score:2)
Re:The article doesn't seem to answer a basic ques (Score:3, Informative)
No, the app works just fine if you don't own a Kindle.
Sitting ducks again (Score:5, Interesting)
Cue the author's guild bitching about how they lose money because now their ebooks can be read by two devices instead of just one in 3...2...1...
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The authors need to STFU immediately.
This is what the text-to-"speech" sounds like Keep in mind that this is bezos himself presenting the thing....its the best conditions possible for it to work correctly. [youtube.com]
Sound familiar? Yeah...that is because this is the voice used in airports across the land to say things like "Thomas Anderson. You have a message waiting. Please go to the paging station".
I cannot think of ANYBODY (that can otherwise read) that would ever want to listen to a book or newspaper read to
Text-to-speech will squash audio books (Score:2)
While I agree that text-to-speech should not be a copyright issue, and that it currently sounds horrible, I think the quality issue will change.
If text-to-speech is even remotely popular, it will keep improving in qualit
Re:Text-to-speech will squash audio books (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the quality issue will change.
I don't know about this, at least not in the near future, and probably not on a device as weak (computationally) as the kindle.
There is a lot *more* to speech that the words, the sounds of the letters. Speech is music, words are like tabs.
Every tried to play a guitar song by looking at a tab and having never heard the song before? Or tried to sing karaoke? Its hard. Its almost impossible to get it right.
Computers are trying to do the same thing with text-to-speech. Text doesn't tell you what sort of inflection to use, what sort of cadence to use, says nothing of dynamic range. (can you see that I'm trying to draw a correlation between speech and music).
More analogies:
Text-To-Speech is a lot like trying to get a concert masterpiece from a midi file...except that even the midi file is telling you WHEN to play the notes. The text doesn't even do that.
A lof of the cues that we use to read speech naturally comes from our ability to "render" whatever scene we're reading from in our head, and use the cues from the scene to act out the part of whatever we're reading (be it the narrator, or a character, or a journalist in a magazine article).
Is it possible to replace human speech with a computer? Yes, most definitely. Is it practical to do it in something like the kindle with current technology?
No.
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It could drastically be improved with a format for adding information of pacing, inflection etc. to ebooks. Old ebooks could be retrofitted with it, new books could come with it as standard. The books without the data would be read as they are now, the books with would be much better with very little additional computational overhead.
Re:Text-to-speech will squash audio books (Score:5, Interesting)
Very true. With the top text to speech software available, plus additional annotations amnually added to the ebook, a very pleasent experience could be had.
Consider the addition of a pronunciation key for text-specific words that the automatic pronunciation deduction gets wrong, along with per sentence (or group of words) metadata to indicate things like tempo, word spacing, pitch, etc. Combine this with a sufficiently configurable TTS engine, and the result could be remarkable similar to an audiobook. Character dialog could be differentiated to the point of giving each character a unique voice, along with the appropriate variations in dialog as per context. An annoyed character may end up talking lower and deeper with a more monotonic quality to the voice, for example.
Perhaps that sounds like a lot of work. But with some software a person could define the narrator and character voices, along with names, and have the software run through thhe text, and attempt to attch the metadata to text with a variety of algorithms, which can be slightly agressive, since mistakes will be corrected. It should be reasonably possible for software to fairly accurately determine which character is speaking each line of dialog from the text, and mark those, and even look for adverbs on the associated sentence ("1.21 Gigawatts", he correctly quickly.) and attach modifieres to the dialog.
Then the person would just listen to the book, stopping it wherever there is a problem (mispronounced word, attributed dialog, etc.) and making corrections. I'd imagine the time for the read-through and corrections for many works would be not much more than 5-10 times the final length of the work. Initial setup, especially crafting character voices may add some significant time to the beginning though.
So it sounds feasible with today's technology to have a near audiobook quality TTS-based reading, although it make take a similar amount of time as recording an audiobook to construct each.
Of course, if Kindle had such features, the tts-related complaints would probably be valid.
But that is all a far cry from the TTS accurately inferring all of that from the text on the fly, which of course would be far more desirable.
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It made me think of an additional feature. I often have a different book going that I read at home, one I leave in my car for when I'm waiting on a Dr.'s appointment or eating at a restaurant alone, and another one on my ipod hooked up to my car stereo. It would be great to be able to have a book that I could transition from reading to listening to and back again any time I pleased.
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This actually sounds like quite a bit MORE work than just having somebody read through it.
Speech is art, like it or not. If we get to a point where computers are producing our art, I'm quiting.
Re:Text-to-speech will squash audio books (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly, it sounds like a lot more work than recording the audio. What's the advantage of the TTS method?
You no longer need voiceover artists. Instead, you need a voiceover programmer. You still need someone with all the skills of a voiceover producer to make multiple listen-and-tweak passes. I suspect that it takes more producer time to tweak the TTS than it takes to tweak human talent - and producers are more expensive than talent. You'll also have the TTS equivalent of "browser compatibility testing". So your labor costs probably go up with TTS.
The real advantage of text is bandwidth and storage - and even today, the resource requirements of audio speech are already far more comparable to those of text than those of video. By the time we develop sufficiently advanced TTS workflows, why wouldn't TTS be as quaint a concept as recompressed-for-modem-download JPEGs on web proxies, or SID/MIDI files for popular music? Both were technical solutions that brought media to the masses before the masses were ready. Both disappeared as soon as we could feasibly transmit the real thing.
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What the writer's guild don't understand is that Audio books are just too damn expensive. The Twilight set is offered for as much as $200. Other set's are around $100. so after buying book and audio set, you're deep in the hole.
It is their pricing model that is pushing them out of the business, not the fact there is a text to speech feature on kindle, PDF blah blah. waah.
Could be an awesome feature, with improvement (Score:3, Interesting)
First off, as others pointed out the technology will improve. I think one day it probably will replace human audiobook readers. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Unfortunately, the quality of the performer has a LOT to do with the experience of the listener. Take for example Frank Muller. He was widely known as one of the "best" audiobook readers in the business, his career ended only by a tragic accident in 2001. I knew of him because he read almost all of Stephen King's audiobooks. While I feel for
And the Kindle software platform era begins (Score:5, Insightful)
While I don't think this will do anything to get iPhone/iPod Touch users to buy a Kindle, it will certainly quintuple their Kindle eBook sales.
Watch the Kindle software platform become available on other devices (Android, Windows Mobile) in the near future.
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the "other devices" is the first thing i thought of when i saw this.
I use a phone with Windows Mobile on it (the 8525) - i like the iPhone but without support for teathering (need it for work) it's a no go for me.
I already use my phone to read ebooks and if this software was avaliable for mobile 5 i would be downloading it instead of writing this response.
While honestly the page sync is nice it is a gimic really.. having the sync of the collection is very nice, I do have to wonder about adding books i alrea
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If it's got a good interface, I welcome it. If it will also read standard text files (txt, rtf especially) then I eagerly await it. I have a G1 and there's no decent book reader app yet. I have an n800 and the only decent book reader is ancient and the new versions aren't free any more.
I've considered writing my own, but man... I really hate Java. I even started coding and got about 30 minutes into it before I remembered why I hate Java: Arrays and files. (Especially Zip files.) They are every bit a
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While I don't think this will do anything to get iPhone/iPod Touch users to buy a Kindle
I'm not so sure it won't. It may be that iPod/iPhone users will try this out, generally like the experience, but decide it's worth buying a Kindle for the improved reading experience of a larger e-ink screen.
Otherwise, I think you're right. This seems like a smart move for Amazon.
...and Stanza is better, mostly. (Score:2)
I like Stanza better, actually. It's more pleasant to read with. In Stanza I can tap to turn the page, pinch-unpinch to alter the text size, and rotate to get a different aspect ratio. In the Kindle app, I have to swipe to turn the page, tapping just annoyingly brings up some controls I usually don't want, and rotation does nothing. I still haven't figured out if I can adjust the text size in Kindle. On the other hand, rotation not working means I can lay down on my side, turn the phone to align with my hea
Also ipod touch (Score:5, Insightful)
The summary doesn't make it clear, but the article mentions that it also works with the iPod touch. Considering the touch is smaller, lighter, and much cheaper than both the iPhone and the Kindle, this application might give a significant boost to readers looking for a (relatively) inexpensive reader.
Having read long books on old Palm PDAs, the size of the screen is only a minor annoyance. Those PDAs, though, were not backlit LCDs. Some people might find an iPod screen too fatiguing for long reading.
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Compromise to DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Valve's Steam has shown that people (even Geeks who notoriously hate DRM) are willing to compromise and use DRM if something of great enough value is offered with it (and possibly because of it).
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Why bother backing them up to the computer? If they are DRM'd, you need Amazon's server to authenticate them. Since you can just re-download from Amazon anyhow, backing them up is pointless if you've no way to crack the DRM.
Not outside USA? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tried it out (Score:5, Informative)
Surprisingly it is quite readable even on the iPhone's small screen. You just swipe your finger across the screen to flip back/forth through the pages. There is options to change the font size, so really the only complaint you can have is how much/little text fits on the screen before you have to flip a page.
There are some free books on the Kindle Store (mostly classics like Treasure Island and some religious texts like the Bible), so there is no cost to try out the Kindle iPhone app.
Really cool how you buy via your web browser. Next time you open the Kindle app, it just automatically syncs what you have just purchased to the iPhone. Since it is just text, it takes just seconds to sync. Should not be painful to use even in poor signal locations and on EDGE. Plus you can download any purchase you make for free again in the future.
I don't know if if I would buy all of my books this way (I lately have been using the local library), but in a pinch (say on a trip) when I want a book to read and don't want to or can't stop by a bookstore or library, this could work very well.
Re:Tried it out (Score:4, Insightful)
I buy books from living authors I like, because I want them to keep writing. Dead authors? I use the library. I don't give a crap about supporting their whiny children's estate.
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There's an argument there that by not paying for dead authors' works, the living authors actually get more money because you have a certain amount of disposable income. Of course, it's opinion without actual science to back it up, and I can see how it might not work out that way.
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amazon makes money whatever reader you use (Score:2)
They hope you have a better reading experience and spend more money if you use their reader.
Fonts (Score:5, Interesting)
iStrain? (Score:3, Insightful)
Give me a phone with e-ink display first.
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Give me a phone with e-ink display first.
Is the Motofone [wikipedia.org] good enough? I have one, and it is a calculatorisque display. If you're a gadget freak stay away from it, but at 20 USD I can't complain much about it.
And as usual US-only (Score:5, Insightful)
Not available in the Canadian app-store (or in Europe).
I really am saddened by this aspect of 'progress', you can order physical CDs, DVDs, kindles, anything from all over the world and nobody has an issue with that, but the second anything becomes distributed electronically boom, we're transported to this strange super-protectionistic world where things do not move freely anymore.
I fear for tomorrow's world, where instead of being exposed to music, shows, books, tv, from other countries you will just be able to read, listen and watch to things 'approved' by some company somewhere.
And let's not talk about people learning a foreign language: say you're studying German and you'd love to read some German books and watch some shows from Amazon.de, sorry, no way. Or maybe you live in Brazil and you'd like to improve your English by reading books, listening to music and watching shows over the internet, nossiree, not gonna happen.
It seems that modern technology is more and more used as a 'control' technology, vs an 'enabling' technology, which is quite sad as it just promotes an extremely insular world, instead of the free exchange of information.
I really hope that, as it happened to the music DRM, at some point the 'powers that be' will realize that this attitude is completely wrong, but given the latest salvo by the book authors about the kindle's text-to-speech functionality (which could've helped a lot of blind or non-native-English speakers) I am really not sure if it will ever happen.
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It's all about price. If I write a book and someone wants to sell it in one single country, I'm going to get a lot lower of a price from them than someone who wants to sell it worldwide. This is especially true of electronic sales, as it's (unfortunately) tied to certain technologies. Books that only play on the Kindle, audiobooks that only play on the iPod, etc.
This isn't really a major issue with physical goods because you have to pay shipping. This naturally limits the sales outside of your region.
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I think you missed the news a little while ago where the American iTunes store will NOT allow you to purchase anything if your originating IP is not within the US (regardless if you have a US c/c or not). It wouldn't surprise me if the same restriction started on Amazon at some point.
Now introducing: the iPhondle (Score:5, Funny)
Kindle on a Blackberry (Score:4, Interesting)
Thumbs up to Amazon (Score:4, Interesting)
I own a first gen kindle and an iPhone and this is a very nice gift from Amazon. A free app that allows me to keep reading my e-books when I'm bored and don't have my kindle handy. What's not to like?
It's not often that I say this about a huge corporation but Kudos to Amazon for thinking about the consumer and providing more convenience as opposed to the Riaa/Mpaa.
Now, if only they would get that stupid DRM off their ebooks and slash their (inflated) prices, I'd have nothing left to complain about.
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It's still high, yes. But it could be a lot worse.
No Newspapers or Magazines. Only Books (Score:4, Informative)
do we need a Kindle for that ? (Score:2)
Summary unclear: do we need a Kindle to use that software, or is it independent ?
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Just installed and bought a book. Heading to the bathroom now.
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Yeah, BTW this is why I wouldn't buy an iPhone or iPod on eBay.
Re:Predicted (Score:5, Funny)
wait... you predicted that Amazon would someday support iPhones? You're amazing!
What's your next prediction?
mark me as flamebait/troll, i have karma to burn, but come on, that's a pretty dumb thing to say on
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I just had this conversation yesterday with our CTO. He was talking about how people weren't taking the Kindle seriously, and I was saying the Kindle will always be a niche product, but the Kindle store would soon appear on the iPhone and then become this huge beast.
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Re:Just out of curiosity... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you not think that this would be of interest to slashdot? Do you honestly think that this site, with millions of users, would have nobody submit this as a story, and that none of the editors would post it?
So what you're saying is that you think it's more likley that this is astroturfing, than just you know, the people who use this site happening to think this is cool news? I for one think it's neat.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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So you'd rather have news about ... what? What, exactly, would be news yet have no corporate ties of any sort?
Maroon. Pathetic, whiny maroon.
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Heck, I just thought it was a twisted form of moron. Thanks for all that fascinating history.
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no DRM = (no sale) x millions
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Undeniably, there have been phones with superior specs (and rather more open OSes) floating around for years now. In spite of that, no Kindle support.
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Mod parent up.
Marketing, rather than quality engineered products is what people are raving over. They'll take something shiny over something good any day.
I love my PDA, a Garmin iQue M5. Its 420MHz, has SDIO (I have an SDIO wifi card for it), bluetooth, a solid construction, and the screeen is large, bright, and easy to read. It also has a GPS and performs turn by turn directions. And it was on the market years before Apple even dreamed of the iPod Touch.
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Sounds like you have found an exciting marketing opportunity. When does the first one go on sale?
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I wouldn't hold my breath, but I've always liked the eReader (available for both Pocket PCs and iPod/iPhone) and the MobiPocket reader (PocketPC, no iPod/iPhone version). Fictionwise.com and ereader.com are both nice online bookstores that support both of those readers.
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Unfortunately, it is.
International copyright is sticky business. I do hope Amazon branches out to the world at large, but it will probably be on a country-by-country basis.