The iPhone eBook Reader

When Apple made available its Apps Store for its iPhone it already had some of the best eReader apps for reading books, blogs, and offline web pages.  Instapaper, which  provides a simple downloadable “read later” service and Stanza, a free e-reader app with built-in access to a huge library of free books are just two of the apps that can quite easily fill our on-the-go reading needs. In order to combat the suspicion that a dedicated electronic reading device is not needed when the iPhone ebook reader already exists, Amazon introduced its free Kindle for iPhone app.

Amazon is giving iPhone users just enough of a taste of the Kindle experience to make them crave the real thing.  With the iPhone’s pixel density and high-contrast, rich color display, the Kindle for iPhone app is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate makeing reading faster and more pleasant.  Moving from page to page uses the same swiping gesture as most other ebook readers for iPhone. Placing a finger on the screen brings up a navigation overlay, which allows setting a bookmark, jumping to the table of contents or other bookmarks, changing the type size, and syncing your location within the book. There is also a slider that allows jumping ahead by arbitrary pages, and a button to jump back to where you were previously.

The Kindle for iPhone app does not have the capacity for the purchase of ebooks. This is probably due to a stipulation in Apple’s iPhone Developer agreement. In order to make a purchase one has to go to Amazon’s web site and establish an account which contains your iPhone number.  Using the Kindle for iPhone’s “Get Books” button brings up a “How To” page and using the iPhone’s Safari browser to navigate the Amazon site can be quite frustrating, so its better to make ebook purchases by using a Mac or PC.  Once on amazon’s sight the purchase process is made almost effortless through the use of Whispersync.  Your ebook is downloaded to your iPhone’s archived page, which incidently if you are a Kindle user, books you have already purchased will show up there and selecting books here will allow you to sync them to your iPhone. Titles synced to your iPhone will show up in a list and your reading in moments.

By opening the market to the 12 million or so iPhone users, Kindle for iPhone is a great step forward.  The competition will have a hard time keeping up with Amazon’s catalog of 240,000 Kindle-formatted books.  Apple and Amazon, the Kindle 2 and the iPhone makes for great ebook reader.  Though a bigger screen would be nice.

Find more eBook reader products here

Amazon Kindle 2 eBook Reader Leather Case Cover Jacket US $16.99 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-09-2010 15:17:47 PST   | Watch this Item

Sony PRS-300 eBook Digital Book Reader Pocket Edition US $169.00 (17 Bids) Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-09-2010 15:18:12 PST   | Watch this Item

Sleeve Case Cover for Barnes & Noble Nook eBook Reader US $6.03 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-09-2010 15:44:02 PST   | Watch this Item

For Amazon Kindle 2 eBOOK READER AC+CAR Charger ADAPTER US $7.20 Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-09-2010 15:52:58 PST   | Watch this Item

Booker T Washington,13 e-books for computer or e-reader US $0.99 Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-09-2010 16:10:41 PST   | Watch this Item