Kindle for Android Now in the Android Market
I admit I was only settling for using the Kobo app on my HTC EVO 4G because the Kindle app for Android wasn’t available. That’s a thing of the past now with Amazon finally releasing the Kindle app into the Android wild. Installation is quick and easy (Android 1.6 or later) and after logging in with my Kindle credentials my bookshelf was right where I left it.
The reader portion of the app works like other versions and it syncs books and bookmarks with all other Kindle devices being used. Shopping for books fires up the web browser as the app doesn’t handle that function, but it’s integrated nicely and almost seamless. This will be changed in the near future according to Amazon:
Several features will be added to Kindle for Android in the near future, including full text search and purchasing of Kindle books from within the app. Customers can learn more about the free Kindle for Android reading app at www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid and can download the app from Android Market.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Irrational Exuberance Over E-Books?
Just discovered this and installed. Works flawlessly, although I agree that it would be neater if the actual purchase could be done from within the app. Really looking forward to carrying my library and music collection in my pocket, just need a 32gb Sd card to store it all on.
Does it work as well as the iPhone app ?
Experience has shown that most Android apps are not up to the quality standards of the corresponding iPhone app, but they are getting better.
Consistency between apps is another inherent weakness of the Android platform which unfortunately seems to be getting worse.
As Apple streamlines, tightens, enhances and polishes their experience the Android market is rapidly becoming a vast wasteland of garbage me-too cloned apps. So sad but true.
Apple has far more crap apps in its catalogue percentage wise. As for inferior apps versions of apps on Android, to the extent that is true, it is likely a temporary problem as everyone is rushing to get out their Android apps to meet the demand as Android sales are skyrocketing. All of this is a positive, not a negative.
With the Audible Beta, Slingplayer App and now the Kindle app I have everything I need on my Droid. Well, OneNote would be nice but that’s about it.
Mark
If Microsoft release of version of Silverlight for Android or the open source version of Silverlight (Moonlight) is released, you can use the Microsoft Web Apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote) with your free 25g Skydrive storage. With the Microsoft Web Apps you can create, edit and view MS Office documents. Also the Web Apps are integrated with Hotmail.
I don’t use Kindle, but my mom does and is looking to pick up an EVO soon once Microsoft finishes turning on ActiveSync for Hotmail accounts. This will make her very happy indeed.
I downloaded it to my Evo and it’s great. One question: can you read books from non-Amazon sources, like the free public domain ones on Feedbooks.com and elsewhere? I can’t figure out how to do this.
No highlighting or note capability. :(
Fortunately I got the EVO 4G’s firmware update today so my EVO now does 802.11n at 65Mbps. This let it rapidly download Kindle ebooks into the new Kindle app today. The text rendering is gorgeous on it’s huge hi-res display and the speed of page turning is excellent. You can tap or swipe to move between pages.
But after using the fast Wifi to download Bird Songs I discovered the spiffy new Android app doesn’t support the new multimedia features.
I like Amazon’s take on “Vook’s” far better than the actual Vook’s. The Bird Songs, Beatles and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes have impressed me.
Rose’s Heavenly Cakes contains some very practical videos such as how to measure flour, which is hard to describe well and how to test your butter for the right softness, again hard to describe and easier to show. This ebook is inspiring me to go bake a cake from scratch, something I haven’t done in years.
And of course having the actual bird songs to compare with is quite useful. I guess I’m taking the IPad EVA instead of the EVO for now. :-)
Awesome. Had not heard about that app before. Running to d/l it now. Thanks!