Oh, that marvelous iPod...

[alexpgp]

I downloaded the "Kindle for iPhone" application the other day (because it also runs on the iPod Touch) and finally got around to visiting Amazon to see if they had any freebies I could download to allow me to take the app for a spin. They did and I did.

I downloaded a free promo book, Persuader, written by Lee Childs.

The app works well enough, the controls are dirt simple and intuitive, and the form factor (i.e., the iPod screen) is pretty comfortable.

About two screens into the volume, I had the feeling I had read the book before (or at least the beginning of it), somewhere within the past couple of years, maybe at Baikonur. I certainly recognized the opening scene, and I vaguely recalled some other details after that, but basically it's like reading a new book, as I have no idea what's supposed to happen next.

Reading kindlemedia on my iPod may just be the "golden mean" for me. Although I'd really like to acquire some kind of book reader, the full-blown Kindle largely turns me off, due mostly to the poorly thought out - and perhaps even deliberately poorly thought out - DRM protection that means (a) once you buy a Kindle, you're pretty much locked in, because books books bought from Amazon can't be read on any other reader, (b) books bought from Amazon have zero resale value because they cannot be read on any other Kindle, and (b) you can only buy books from Amazon.

I've also looked at the BeBook, which has a more open approach to the data that it works with, but I'm not impressed enough to buy it, at least not in its current incarnation.

Cheers...

Comments

kindle for iphone

[papoose.livejournal.com]

I am so out of touch.
Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea.

[baikonur.livejournal.com]

I downloaded it and have been reading 'Red Mars' on it, which is one of my favorite novels. I am surprised at how well it works for reading. My concern about the Kindle is that there is no way to transfer books you already own onto the device. Unlike an iPod, where you can covert all of your existing media to run on it, you essentially have to re-buy books you already own to read them on the kindle. If book publishers sold books with a coupon/code to get a digital copy, that might incentivize me to buy one.