One of the biggest complaints early reviewers have had about the HP TouchPad tablet is the lack of high quality apps available for webOS 3.0. In fact, some of the apps HP had promised would be available at launch didn’t make the cut when the tablet started shipping earlier this month. Take the Amazon Kindle app for the TouchPad, for instance.

The TouchPad hit the streets on July 1st. Nearly three weeks later, Amazon released a beta version of its Kindle app for the tablet last night.

You can find the new app in the webOS App Catalog, but there’s no mention of it on Amazon’s web site yet. The eBook app is also geographically restricted right now — you can only download it if you’re in the United States.

The folks at PreCentral have put together a detailed hands-on review. In a nutshell, there are a few bugs that have to be worked out (for instance, many users are seeing multiple copies of the same book), but overall the app provides a good experience for reading eBooks. You can also search books, take notes, or highlight passages.

If you’ve already used the Amazon Kindle app on another platform, any books you’ve already purchased will be available to download and sync with the TouchPad.

While an Amazon Kindle app doesn’t really set the TouchPad apart from the competition (there are similar apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry), it does help the new tablet compete.

Amazon has released a new version of its Kindle app for Android, bringing improved support for tablets running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Appropriately, the new app is Kindle 3.0 for Android.

There are two key areas where the app has been redesigned. The first is the new grid view for your library which lets you see thumbnail icons of all your books instead of a the default list view which Amazon’s Kindle apps for smartphones uses. The new grid view option is also available on smartphones now, but it looks much better on a big-screen tablet such as the Motorola XOOM.

The other major change is the in-app Kindle Store, which has a much more app-store like feel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon has announced plans to launch Kindle Library Lending later this year, allowing Kindle users to borrow digital books from more than 11,000 US libraries. The feature will be available both on physical Kindle eBook readers and on the company’s mobile apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and other mobile and desktop computer platforms.

A number of other eBook readers have been offering access to digital library books for a while, but Amazon’s system has a few things that make it stand out:

• Users will be able to check out Kindle books on one device and continue reading where they left off on another.
• Your annotations, bookmarks, and other data will be saved so that if you check out a book a second time they’re all accessible. You can also access this data if you later purchase the same book from Amazon.

Amazon is working with OverDrive on the Kindle Library Lending feature. OverDrive powers the digital book and audiobook lending systems for most public libraries in the US. Most OverDrive titles are currently available as PDF or EPUB files. Amazon Kindle eBooks use a proprietary format, so it’s not entirely clear at the moment whether all books that are currently available for other platforms such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble NOOK, or Bluefire app will be available for Kindle when the service launches later this year.

Amazon has launched version 2.5 of its Kindle app for iOS with a few key new features. First, if you’re running iOS 4 you can now download books in the background while running other tasks. You still need to start your download from the Kindle Store, and to be honest, most eBook files are so small that they’re done downloading before you know it, but this is still a good feature to have for times when your internet connection slows to a crawl.

Kindle 2.5 also adds support for free, copyright-expired books from Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and other sources. Just visit the web site, click the download button for the Kindle version, and on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, select “Open with Kindle.” You can also use the File Sharing option in iTunes to transfer files from your computer.

Amazon has also made some bug fixes and improved image zooming.

The Amazon Kindle app for iOS is available as a free download from the App Store.

Amazon has launched a Kindle app for Windows Phone 7. The app has all the usual features, allowing users to read books downloaded from the Amazon Kindle store — and to synchronize your data including bookmarks and last page read across all of your Kindle devices.

The app lets you buy books or download free titles, adjust fonts, colors and contrast, and supports portrait and landscape mode.

Kindle for Windows Phone 7 is available as a free download from the Marketplace.

via Download Squad

Amazon already offers Kindle apps for Windows and Android, allowing you to purchase and read eBooks on a PC or phone. But the company has announced plans for new Windows and Android apps specifically targeted at tablets.

Android tablets will likely have larger, higher resolution displays than a typical Android smartphone, which means a redesign is in order. Windows tablets, on the other hand may have lower resolution displays than many desktop and laptop computers. But more importantly, the way you interact with touchscreen tablets is very different from the way you interact with a keyboard-and-mouse computer, so a user interface overhaul could come in handy.

Like other Kindle apps and devices, users will be able to download content they’ve already purchased from the Kindle store and synchronize data between devices. So if you start reading a book on your tablet you can put it down and grab your phone or a Kindle DX, or an iPhone or another device to pick up where you left off.

Amazon already offers an iPad-specific Kindle app which offers two-column viewing and other features not available in the iPhone and iPod touch apps.

The new tablet-friendly apps are due out later this year.

Amazon has released a major update to its eBook app for Android. Probably the biggest change in Kindle for Android 2.0 is support for newspapers and magazines, with Amazon offering over 100 periodicals to choose from. But another nice touch is the fact that Amazon has finally integrated the Kindle Store directly into the app, which means you don’t have to flip back and forth between your web browser and Kindle app to purchase and read books.

Scan to download

Other changes include:

• Ability to share your reading progress via social networks, email, SMS, or other apps installed on your device
• Zoom on image and graphics
• Option to turn pages using volume keys
• Chapter titles now show up in the status bar
• You can move the app to your SD card on Android 2.2 and up.

With the new newspaper and magazine options, you can either purchase a subscription or pay for an individual episode. Subscriptions come with 14 day free trials.

Amazon Kindle for Android 2.0 is available as a free download from the Android Market.

You can find more screenshots after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon has announced plans to develop a Kindle eBook app for Windows Phone 7. That’s hardly surprising, since Amazon currently offers several physical Kindle devices,PC and Mac apps, and software for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android. Still, it’s nice to see that the company doesn’t plan to give up on the whole cross-platform thing anytime soon.

The Windows Phone 7 app will allow users to read books and synchronize their settings with other Kindle devices. That lets you download the same book on multiple devices and remember the last page read so you can start reading on your phone and finish reading on your iPad, for instance.

The app will also let users shop for eBooks without leaving the app — which is more than I can say for the Kindle apps on some other mobile platforms, which dump you out to the web browser when you want to browse for or purchase books. Kindle for Windows Phone 7 supports landscape and portrait mode, multiple font sizes and background colors, and personalized recommendations on your home screen.

The app is due out later this year.