The Amazon Kindle Fire is the first Android device to ship with the new Amazon Instant Video app. If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can use it to watch thousands of TV shows and movies for $79 per year. You can also pay to rent or purchase movies on a case-by-case basis.

But it turns out the app is just a regular Android app… which means it can run on other Android devices. There are a few caveats.

First, it only seems to be optimized for 1024 x 600 pixel displays a the moment, which means that most Android phones and tablets could have some problems displaying content.

Second, you can install the app on any tablet, but it won’t stream video over 3G or if you’re using a rooted device.

Third, in order to login to your account you’ll need to either have an Amazon prime subscription or be willing to spend a few bucks to rent or purchase a video.

That’s because when you use the Instant Video app on the Kindle Fire you’re already logged into your account. But when you try to use the app on a different device the only way to login is to purchase a video — at which point the app will notice that you’re not logged in and ask you to enter your Amazon username and password. If you’re a Prime subscriber you can do that for no additional fee by clicking on an Amazon Prime video selection.

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It looks like the reports of Stanza’s death have been somewhat exaggerated. Today Amazon and Lexcycle released the first update to the popular iOS eBook app since February.

The update doesn’t add any new features, but it does fix one glaring problem: the previous version of Stanza didn’t work with iOS 5. The new version does.

Stanza has long been one of the most versatile eBook apps available for the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

The free app makes it easy to download free eBooks from popular digital book marketplaces including Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and SmashWords. You can also add custom catalogs, or import books from a computer using iTunes or simply by emailing EPUB files to yourself and opening them in Stanza on your mobile device.

Stanza’s reading view provides more customization options than nearly any other eBook app I’ve used. You can choose from a variety of themes, have day and night themes, or create custom color schemes. The app lets you adjust sizes and fonts, and set up custom line and paragraph spacing, margins, or tweak the page turn effects and settings.

While Bluefire Reader offers a few features that you don’t get from Stanza, including support for Adobe DRM, Bluefire isn’t nearly as customizeable – and since upgrading from iOS 4.3 to iOS 5 I’ve noticed that Bluefire is also less responsive than it used to be.

Stanza is available as a free download from the App Store.

Update: OK, the reports of Stanza’s death were premature… but not completely wrong. Amazon tells MacWorld that today’s update will be Stanza’s last. That’s a shame, because it really does providing a better reading experience than any other eBook app I’ve used.

For a few year ab app called Stanza was the undisputed champ of eBook readers for iOS. Stanza allowed iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad readers to download and read eBooks from a number of digital book marketplaces or copy books from a computer. The app did a great job of organizing books, and offered a number of options for viewing your books by changing font sizes, background colors, and other features.

All that changes if you upgrade to iOS 5. While the Stanza app is still available as a free download from the App Store, the app hasn’t been updated to support Apple’s latest operating system.

The first time I tried to open Stanza after upgrading to iOS 5 I experienced a series of crashes. A few days later I gave it another try, and while the app loads the last book I was reading, I can’t flip pages — and it crashes if I try to return to the library view.

Stanza simply doesn’t work with iOS 5.

The app probably won’t be updated anytime soon either. The company that produces Stanza was acquired by Amazon a few years ago, and Amazon kind of has its own eBook apps to focus on. Stanza hasn’t been updated since February.

Unfortunately the official Amazon Kindle apps don’t support EPUB books. You can convert any DRM-free EPUB books to MOBI files supported by Kindle software, but it’s kind of a pain.

There are a number of other eBook apps ready to take Stanza’s place. Bluefire is probably one of the best. It supports EPUB files including books that use Adobe DRM and even digital books from public libraries that use the OverDrive system.

But I’m still kind of sad to see Stanza go. We’ve been good friends for the last year or two as I fell in love with reading eBooks on my iPod touch.

Update 11/10/2011: Apparently Stanza’s not dead yet… it’s just almost dead. A new version has been released, complete with support for iOS 5.0. Unfortunately, this will be the last time Stanza is updated.

It was nice while it lasted. Yesterday we reported that Android users around the globe had discovered that the Amazon Appstore was suddenly working. Today reports are starting to roll in that Amazon may have pulled the plug… for now.

The Amazon Appstore is one of the highest profile alternatives to the official Google Android Market. Amazon offers thousands of apps in a well-organized system, complete with user reviews, photos, and even a way to test drive apps in your web browser before you download them. You can also purchase apps from a desktop web browser and download them on any Android device with the Appstore installed.

Unfortunately at launch the Amazon Appstore was only available to residents of the United States. Yesterday people with international Amazon accounts reported that they were able to login and download apps. But now they’re no longer able to do so.

It’s possible that Amazon was running tests in advance of an international rollout. It’s also possible that this was just some sort of glitch.

Amazon is running a special “Geek Week” promotion with discounts of 50 percent off or more on eight Android apps for power users. That includes some apps that only work on a rooted device such as SetCPU or Root Explorer, as well as remote desktop client, and a PDF viewer that support annotations.

In order to install these apps you’ll need to be running the Amazon Appstore on your mobile device — and you’ll need to keep the Appstore installed. If you remove it, the apps will stop working.

Since the Amazon Appstore launched earlier this year, Amazon has been offering one free app each day. But few of those apps have been aimed at power users. The Geek Week promotion reaches out to… well… the geekier set.

One nice thing about Amazon’s system is that you can also clearly see the regular price as well as the sale price, so you know exactly how much money you’re saving when an item is on sale.

via Android Police

Amazon is expected to launch a 7 inch tablet later this year running a highly modified version of Google Android with a focus on eBooks, music, movies, and apps that you can acquire from Amazon’s digital media stores. But the company hasn’t abandoned its apps for other Android phones and tablets. Amazon recently launched a major update to its Kindle app for Android.

The Kindle 3.1 app includes a new home page which offers quick access to books you’ve purchased, books on your device, and to the online Kindle Store — something Apple has prohibited the company from doing with its iOS app. There are also recommended titles at the bottom of the screen and tabs

The new Kindle app also offers in-app notifications when there are upgrades available.

Amazon Kindle for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Amazon has released a new mobile app for iOS aimed at students. You can use Amazon Student to buy items from your phone or scan barcodes to check prices so that you can decide whether to buy that textbook or video game in the store or if it would be cheaper to order it from Amazon. But the company’s existing Amazon app for iOS does those things too.

What’s new in the Amazon Student app is a “sell your stuff” option that lets you scan the barcodes on your books, DVDs, games, or other items and find out how much Amazon will offer you in trade-in value. You can then ship your items to Amazon for free and Amazon will give you a gift card for that value.

Don’t expect to strike it rich using this app. I dug up an old college textbook which is still selling for $32 on Amazon, and the app told me I could get a whopping $3.26 if I traded it in. Amazon only offered 50 cents for a DVD I scanned.

But if you’re looking for a way to make your next textbook purchase a bit more affordable and you’re too lazy to go through the hassle of listing your old items on eBay, the Amazon Student app may come in handy. If you’re only dealing with used textbooks though, you can probably get a better bargain by selling them back to your school’s bookstore, assuming there’s a buy-back program in place.

Amazon and Vudu have launched new web apps that bring media to iPad users without requiring you to download and install an app. The Amazon Cloud Reader lets you read Kindle eBooks on a computer web browser or an iPad, while the Vudu web app lets you stream videos from Vudu’s subscription-based service.

What these two new services have in common is that not only can you use them without installing an app — but the companies can push out new features and other updates without getting approval from Apple. Oh yeah, and they can or rent you content without sharing 30 percent of the revenue with Apple.

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