Novelist Nicholson Baker tackles the Kindle in this week’s New Yorker.
The takeaway is that he’s not very impressed with Amazon’s (AMZN) device, and that all things being equal, he thinks Apple’s e-reader is at least as good. He’s not talking about the yet-to-appear iTablet, of course. Like a lot of other people, he’s fond of Apple’s (AAPL) current iPhone/iPod touch line.
See: Apple iPod touch 8 GB 
For those that have an iPod Touch/iPhone and use or have tried the Kindle app, what do you think of it? Anyone have both the Kindle and the iPod Touch/iPhone? Any feedback on that experience?
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Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2
I use the Kindle app on my
I use the Kindle app on my iPod Touch and iPhone and I love it, for what it is. Downside is that I read fast so I am constantly flipping pages on the small screen. I have “young eyes” so the size of the screen didn’t matter to me. Upside is that I enjoy being able to read in bed without having the light on and disturbing my husband who wakes up early in the morning. I used it a lot when I lived in Japan because it was a source of English books not available in the bookstore over there, and it saved on space and weight when we had to ship all our stuff to the US. Plus, it gave me something to do on the train, or on the airplane without having to carry and charge an extra device. I should note I thought about buying a Kindle, but they wouldn’t ship to Japan and the Whispernet won’t work outside of the US at that time. So I would have had to connect my Kindle to my computer if I wanted a new book. So I just downloaded the free Kindle app for my Touch and used that with WiFi instead. Battery life for the Touch and iPhone is less than the Kindle, but I think the convenience of not having two devices outweighs battery life… and lets face it, if you have an iPhone you’re used to charging it every day anyway. I can probably read about 8ish hours before I will need to charge my iPod/iPhone.
However, all that being said, I haven’t bought many Kindle books. I worry about the long term storage of and access to these “books” I’m buying.
I’d like to try it
but you can’t use the Kindle software in the UK. Mind you you can’t buy a Kindle here either.
I have both
I just downloaded the Kindle app to my iTouch today. I have a first generation and a second generation Kindle. I like the Kindle and I like the Kindle app. I enjoy my Kindle, but still read books, and enjoy their smell and the tactile experience. I prefer the Kindle, though, because I find books unwieldy and hard to keep open, especially when reading in bed or reading while eating. I love the dictionary feature, which is not available the Kindle app, of course. I also liked downloading the entire Dickens collection for about $5.
The app is a good one. The text is quite crisp and you can choose different fonts sizes and a limited number of font colors (white, black and sepia). You can turn pages with a flick or a tap, backwards and forwards. You can also tap a bookmark, or tap to view the menu. I always use the browser on my Mac to order my books, so it didn’t bother me that there was no way to order from the app. I will use the iTouch to read my books while in the doctor’s office on in line or in bed late at night so I don’t wake my husband using a reading light.