Kindle for the iPad is now available to download and my isn’t it pretty.
I don’t own a Kindle but from what I’ve seen of the standard Kindle it puts it to shame. How you can even compare the gorgeous colorful UI of the iPad’s to the Kindle’s basic black, gray and white is beyond me. Yes, you’re carrying a little extra weight, paying more and the Kindle does read better in the sunlight but when you compare visuals and overall experience, the Kindle (device) looks like an ancient predecessor.
Feature wise, Kindle for the iPad feature Whispersync to keep your books, bookmarks and notes in sync between devices. The app also features the slick page turn effect and changing of background color, and screen brightness.
Buying books on Kindle for the iPad completely excludes Apple from the process. When you want to buy a book, you are sent to the Kindle store in a web browser (within the app) to make your purchase and therefore no cut for Apple. There are officially two book stores on the iPad.
Check out the app in the app store here, it is of course free.
I think this might be a little premature. The Kindle is grey and drab and boring for a reason — it looks like actual printed text while you're reading it! I know some of the early reviews say that the iPad's backlit screen isn't a problem, but I'm still not convinced that long-term reading on it (hours at a time, night after night) is going to be a better experience than the Kindle. That said, I hope to get proved wrong!
I hope you're wrong too :) That said, you could be right… Mossberg (or it might have been someone else) said you needed two hands to hold the iPad which is going to become a pain. I'm hoping having it on my lap or lent against something in bed fixes that…guess we find out tomorrow.
I have a Kindle, and the beautiful thing about it is that it really “disappears” when you use it. I've read books and can't remember if they were on the Kindle or books IRL, which is kind of what a real bibliophile like me is looking for. Slickness and beautiful interfaces may be great for gadget geeks, but a simple book lover just wants the words!
I have read two books so far and the screen does not bother me at all. I have been a Kindle owner for more than a year and I will be passing it on to my son. The only issue is reading by the pool or beach – the Kindle wins on both fronts (but I don't read at the beach or pool).
This is total nonsense!
I doubt the author ever read a book on an electronic device! Not some pages…. an entire book!
I don't want my kindle to have bright colors and lots of fancy visuals and “slick page turn effect”!!!! I want it to make me comfortable reading with one hand, without tiring my eyes with the back light and THE BATTERY LAST ONE WEEK NON STOP READING!!! (I don't want to pay more to have great visuals, hurt my eyes, use two hands and charge everyday my battery!!!!).
Stop comparing the two! The kindle is for reading! The Ipad is a general purpose device, much like an netbook!
That being said, I think the Ipad is great like I think my kindle is great!
Right on. I totally agree with you.
My guess is Apple is allowing this on to avoid all possible anti-trust concerns/investigations. They even made it so that the iBooks app has to be downloaded first, which speaks volumes.
Apparently they learned from the backlash over Google Voice. Apple controls a lot of things in its universe, but it doesn't want to deal with Congress or the EU…
My questions …
Will it allow you to load books that are not from the Amazon store?
Does it support text to speech?
I've read many, many books on my iPod Touch, as well as on a backlit-color-LCD-equipped Sony Clié and Nokia 770 before that. I never had any problems.
I don't know, when I pick up a paperback I find the “page-turn animations” annoying, why am I supposed to like them now that they're on an Apple device? There are some books that will really benefit from the iPad experience, but 99% of books exist solely on paper with just words. Why do I need a color screen for that? Why do I need slick software for that? I like my books on the Kindle, it doesn't hurt my eyes and I can read for hours with one hand, can I do that on an iPad? Until then…I'll pass on it as an ebook reader, Kindle app or otherwise.
Learned from the backlash over Google Voice? If so, then why have they still not approved Google Voice? Besides, In any event, I don't see how GV is analogous to the Kindle app. Apple doesn't compete with Google in telephony, but they do compete with Amazon in book selling. I have no idea what Apple's motives are, but regarding this “backlash,” I think any tech company that infers universality from fanboy tech discussions on the Web does so at its own peril.
They haven't learned anything. One reason I changed from an iPhone to a Nexus One is that the Nexus One is open. For example, you can replace the entire keyboard with another keyboard app. You can replace the SMS app with another SMS app. That functionality is BUILT IN to the OS. It prompts you and asks you which to make default.
That's forward thinking, and something Apple will never allow. As a friend of mine said, the iPhone does not TRULY become useful until it is jailbroken.
Color and the screen that the iPad has can lead to eye discomfort over time. The Kindle uses e-ink for a reason. That said, the iPad is not JUST a reader, and that's what is going to propel it, not iBooks.
Oh well, who says, iPad and Kindle doesn't love each other now?
I've read many, many entire books on my iPod Touch, Nokia 770, Sony Clié 760, Sony Clié 415 (B&W), Visor Deluxe (B&W/low-resolution), and Palm IIIe (B&W/low-resolution) devices over the years.
Any display technology, even physical ink on paper, will tire your eyes if you don't read it in the proper lighting conditions. Just because the proper lighting conditions aren't the same across all display technologies is no reason to shun one if you don't understand what the proper lighting conditions for it are.
I think it's funny when people make comparisons like this. Yes, the Kindle app on the iPad is very pretty, but last I checked, books weren't made for the visual experience. If I want a visual experience, I go watch a movie.
Pick up a regular book (e.g., Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), and see if you can tolerate reading it. If you can't because the “visuals” just aren't there, then read it on the iPad for the pretty UI effects and touch effects and backlit screen. Otherwise, if you really just like reading a book, read it IN a book, or for a similar experience, read it on an e-ink reader like the Nook or the Kindle.
It's so silly how people don't understand this. I'm a visual person and love cool gadgets and pretty effects, but when I want to read a book, I really just want to a read a book.
Plus, I stare at computer screens ALL day, and my eyes get tired if I decide to read books on yet another computer screen. If I'm not reading a regular book, then some e-ink device is the next best thing.
When I'm buying a book, I'm not buying it for the “visual experience” (I'm buying it for the content), so why people even think that's part of the equation when it comes to reading is beyond me.
No one is talking about this regarding the iPad vs. the Kindle, but re: iPad as an electronic reader, isn't eyestrain a pretty important issue with this?
Oh, wait… people ARE talking about it…