Yes, it seems we Kiwis finally have access to the FREE Kindle application for iPhone now.
I downloaded it and have successfully purchased Kindle books off Amazon with it and onto my iPhone.
As I said on my review on the site, you need an Amazon account (which is free) which you use to sign into the application. If you choose to 'Buy Books', this in turn will open iPhone's Safari where you again must sign in to Amazon through the browser (probably only the once). The purchase didn't work for me the first time, as Amazon hadn't recognized that I wanted to purchase through the Kindle part of the site. I had to restart application and browser and then the site seemed to recognize the application. I have bought a couple of books using the application and they downloaded as they should (the application 'syncs' itself over the cellphone, downloading books in the process that you've bought via the Safari browser ). You can also sample whole chapters of some books before you buy them. From what I understand, if you've bought paper books from Amazon, the Kindle version (if one is available) should sync to your iPhone free as well.
The Kindle reader itself on the iphone lacks the iPaper that makes the Kindle device special and although you can change font sizes, you can't seem to alter the typeface from the default which seems to be Times New Roman.
Price of the novels I bought tends to be around $11.95 I think (as long as Safari is displaying the results in NZ prices - I may correct this later if I am wrong). [edit] the price is in US dollars. The charge finally came through onto my credit card today and was NZ$16.95.
I'm not sure if this will replace the experience of reading a paper novel for me, but it was pleasant enough.
Download from iTunes FREE by clicking button below.
The attraction of the Kindle for me is the text/ink effect of approximating a typewritten page. Does this software do a good job of that, or is such a feature entirely hardware bound?
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that!
ReplyDelete(It is especially good to hear when you are selling a ebook!)
Who am I kidding? Now that I have an iPhone, I'll have to try it. I'll report back after a play.
ReplyDeleteI'll see if I can get your book on there Oswald and do a post with a plug!
Would I get a loyalty card?
Zen, it's probably not up to par with the Kindle unit's eInk technology, but I'm finding it not bad to read. Of course it woul dbe nice to have a bigger screen as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Kindle device is selling in many parts of the world now, including Australia; it was thought we'd have it here when Australia got it, but somehow we missed out :(
mazon said on its website that the device would be released in more than 100 countries on January 19, but no deal had yet been struck to bring it to New Zealand.
“Unfortunately, we are currently unable to ship Kindles to New Zealand,” the Amazon website said.
In October last year, Vodafone said it was in “deep discussions” with Amazon to bring the Kindle to New Zealand. However, no deal has been forthcoming and Vodafone spokesperson Tom Chignell said today that he was not immediately aware of the state of the negotiations.
Link: http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/3A523EA91DF640C3CC2576A3007629A3
Ps, as the article in PC World says, there is also a Kindle app available for PC (mac coming soon). I suppose this would be more useful on a laptop that a desktop PC.
ReplyDeleteI must say though, having had a decent look today, that the selection in the Asia/Pacific store is quite...limiting...
ReplyDelete