Further thoughts on the Kindle iPhone experience

One thing you forgot to mention is that you have to have a hacked iPhone in order to get your non-purchased books onto your iPhone, since the online store doesn't manage anything ported via Kindle's USB drive.

Until the Kindle app adds features that Stanza has I don't see much benefit to having access to Amazon's library if the reading experience is so piss poor when compared to Stanza.

Kindle scares me - I don't know how I feel about a digital reader. I'll be honest, I prefer the real thing over a screen any time. If the issue is that you want to save money on books, then use the library or one of the new book rental services like BookSwim that's like a Netflix for books. That way you spend peanuts on lots of books and it's just as easy as getting it uploaded to some device. Give me paper, darnit!

@JD - "...Amazing how TUAW unthinkingly accepts and endorses the idea of Steve Jobs's whims dictating what programs we can and can't run on our own phones. I'd understand if it was simple sycophancy, being positive when they need to to preserve their access to Apple, but it's clear from asides like this one that some of them really do believe that this dictatorial and capricious control is perfectly fine."

This is total bullshit. The blog post does not read, 'We here at TUAW are shocked and appalled that the Hegemony of Steve even deigned to consider this app.'

They are merely saying that, given the stance of the company's CEO and, bearing in mind that Amazon is introducing a book store onto the iPhone; undermining potential revenue the App Store generates from sales of eBook apps, Apple could just have easily have denied the Kindle app entry to the store.

If anything, this is an acknowledgement of the arbitrary nature of the approval process, rather than a vindication of it.

unghh, uh

Stanza is a much better reading experience for the iPhone IMHO. Surprised no one else has mentioned this.

As for the Kindle device, I prefer to read real books, but for camping or traveling the iPhone & Stanza works just fine for me. I know people who love the Kindle, but it's just not for me. The best books out there are either public domain or usually available at a good used book store for a few bucks.

Regarding Apple approving it, DUHHH! They don't sell ebooks and they don't sell ebook readers. No competition there. Obviously Amazon created this app to sell more ebooks and maybe more Kindles.

So I'll sit here with my tattered hardback copy of Imperial Earth ($2) while everyone else oohs and ahhs. Books will always be around, but it is entirely conceivable that Amazon will be gone in 20 years .....

Plus I can always give books I've read to friends, family or strangers.

I added the iPhone Kindle app as soon as it was available and love it. I usually take my Kindle 2 with me when I go shopping or to lunch, but yesterday I had to make a "quick" trip to the pharmacy to pick up some pills and didn't bother taking it along. When I got to the store where the pharmacy was, I discovered that it was closed for lunch so I had about 25 minutes to kill. I pulled out my iPhone and picked up reading a current book with no problems. When I got home, I turned on the Kindle and did a quick sync to last page read and finished the chapter I was on. It works like all apps should. Easy to use and no learning curve.
Erick

One thing I don't hear mentioned enough is that in addition to the free Kindle books you mention, you can also download a pretty good sample of most (all?) books available for the Kindle for free. These free samples are excellent ways to "test drive" a book before buying in a way I often can't even take the time to do in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

So this question may mean that I am too stupid to deserve an answer, but how do you get books from sites like feedbook or freekindlebooks onto the iPhone? I don't own a kindle, but I just wanted to check it out on the iphone.

I've found that when I read on my iPhone and open my Kindle, it tells me I've been reading on the iPhone right away and asks me if I want to sync. I don't have to sync before closing the iphone app.

However, if I read further on the Kindle, and I open the iPhone app, I have to hit Sync for it to check and see if I've read further on another device.

Occasionally I will read on the iPhone to let's say page 100, close it, then open the iPhone app again without touching the kindle and the iPhone will open to something like page 75, even though I just read to page 100 right there on the iPhone. Hitting Sync then brings it up to where I left off, but still an odd problem.

So far I am very impressed. Sync works automatically and well for me. As soon as I open either the App or the Kindle I get a message telling me the time and section of other device and asking if I wish to go to the new page. I am sure it is very dependent on 3g coverage, fortunately the DC area has pretty good reception...