You can now read your Amazon Kindle books on any browser, mobile or PC and offline to boot thanks to cloud reader from Amazon. Simply visit https://read.amazon.com/ from any browser and you should be presented with this screen:
Cloud Reader by Amazon
On the iPad, once you log in you will be asked to increase the database size. Say “increase”.
You will then be presented with your kindle library.
Your cloud reader library as seen on the iPad
Select a book to start reading. It will open up in a vertical screen like this:
Cloud reader in portrait mode
Or a horizontal one like this. You do of course have the option to restrict which way the book displays by forcing an orientation lock on the iPad.
Cloud reader in landscape mode
Next you will want to create a bookmark for your iPad’s home screen. Do that by selecting the arrow icon next to the address bar in safari and select “Add to Home Screen”. You can rename the bookmark if you wish. When you are ready, simply press “Add”.
How to add cloud reader to your iPad home screen
Here is a screen shot of the kindle cloud reader bookmark icon on the iPad:
What the cloud reader icon looks like on the iPad
The kindle cloud reader gives you the same presentation options you have in native apps such as background colour, text size and brightness.
Cloud reader with a white background
Given that the iPad already has a native kindle app, I’m not sure who will use the cloud reader. What it does do though, is demonstrate that with HTML5 not all applications require a native app. This will be a big draw to developers who will then only need to develop for one application – the web browser. I expect to see more applications go web only in the future.
Amazon have unveiled the Kindle to the British public or should I say the “International Wireless” version is available to order from Amazon.com who will then ship it to the UK.
In the meantime: “Your international shipment is subject to customs duties, import taxes and other fees levied by the destination country.” Thus bumping the price up!
You would expect a device such as the Kindle to come with a local power adapter, but you’d be wrong: the “Kindle ships with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable for charging your Kindle via a computer USB port.”
However you can purchase in US $: “Kindle books, newspapers, and magazines are currently priced and sold in United States dollars” which makes the price of books volatile.
But all is not lost as ebooks such as “New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99 to $13.99 (prices include VAT), unless marked otherwise. You’ll also find many books for less – over 70,000 titles are priced under $5.99″ which isn’t bad until you realise that other ebooks are similarly priced at other UK stores.
So why would you buy a Kindle at this stage? The question on everyone’s lips is how much of the UK ebook market will the Kindle acquire and how quickly?
I’ve been waiting for the iPhone App and at the time of writing there is still no word on when a UK version will be made available.
The Frankfurt Book Fair takes place later this week and more details about distribution rights will surely become known then, unless the industry is engulfed in the google books deal.
As predicted by a whole host of sites including, boy genius, Amazon released the updated Kindle. But as I predicted, they talked about a future plan for ebooks on mobiles.
While I’m disappointed by this, I’m excited by their honesty, although I suspect that they face some strong opinion from publishing houses.
Ebooks are starting to sell in sufficient numbers to suggest that they will become the main income stream for publishers, therefore they will be keen to protect future revenues and learn from the mistakes the music and film industry have made i.e. failing to adopt digital at an early stage.
Rumours are circulating that amazon have revamped the kindle and are set to launch the product next Monday. While I believe this will happen, I wonder if Amazon could seize the ebook market by releasing an iPhone app?
Let’s take a look at the advantages.
1. Ebooks are already popular on the iPhone / iPod touch platform. 2. Amazon are a well respected seller if books. 3. They have an existing ebook sales outlet fully stocked with the latest titles. 4. Many consumers already have a relationship with Amazon, therefore the trust element already exists. 5. The ebook market is still in the early stages of development, which is where Internet shopping was when amazon launched. They therefore have the necessary experience to launch this product. 7. The smartphone market is growing, therefore an ereader programme is going to gain more exposure. An android is another possibility.
Ok, are there any disadvantages?
1. Cost of R&D – is the market worth the risk? 2. Piracy, how to stop your ebooks circulating on torrent sites? 3. DRM: do your customers want this?probably not. 4. Cost, ebooks have to reflect the price of physical books, but offer up an advantage ie cheaper! Lower margin? 5. Affect traditional sales like how digital sales if music have cannibalised sales of CDs.
So, will the ebook market take off? Only time will tell.
First up is Amazons deal to buy Audible for nearly $300 million. If you’re not an audible user, then you probably will not care about this deal, but for those of us who are, then this deal is huge. It will allow Amazon to sell paper books, ebooks and downloadable audio books through its shop window. OK, this might not sound like a big deal, but with Amazon releasing the kindle, the user now has greater choice on how to consume literature. Kindle already supports the subscription model, therefore audible will sit nicely on the kindle as an add on.
Next up is Microsoft’s proposed take over of Yahoo!. This has got a few bloggers running scared, not least google. I have to say that I’m not that bothered. Yes it’s a huge deal, but it real terms, we wont know how it will impact on net users for at least 12-18 months. This deal is disguised as a defence to googles advertising and search monopoly and will easily pass anti competitive measures. But, it’s not just about advertising and search. Yahoo and Microsoft together have over 500 million email users. They also have a huge instant messaging presence, which means that together they will dwarf all other email and IM services. By contrast gmail only has around 50 million users. The implications for this part of their business is unknown; will yahoo mail become live mail for instance?
I’ll be posting a follow up article in a couple of days.
