Amazon shows off Kindle app for iPad

It's interesting how many articles have quotes like these<p><pre><code> but it also sends Amazon’s own grayscale-only hardware to the back of the line </code></pre> that lack any consideration for the positives of Amazon's decision to have an E-ink screen. For many people who bought the Kindle, the insanely good contrast, even in areas with direct sunlight, is a must have.<p>Also, I'd like to see an iPad last for a month without charging.

I've been waiting for _precisely_ this application for about 12+ months (I'm a K1, K2, and Kindle-on-iPhone User).<p>The Kindle E-Ink is _the_ platform to read books outdoors, by the beach, anywhere it's really sunny - you just can't do better (it outperforms paper - less glare).<p>But, for anywhere you need backlighting (Bed, Dark Trains) - The Kindle is a less than exciting performer. Even my little book lights are problematic - the sun works fine, but the little LED lights tend to put point glare on the Kindle screen. I always end up reading books on my iPhone, which is _almost_ acceptable - iPad will blow it all away.<p>My hope now is that people like Oreilly will start offering their kindle books at a reasonable price. I _already_ have all their books on paper, paying $30+ dollars for the Kindle Version is painful)

The Kindle software is absolutely awful. It's slow - you can list 4 bookmarks and it takes 20 seconds, and the same goes for substring search (buggy AND slow). Also, the system has a 534MHZ CPU but because it's Java running on top of Linux, it's a dog. I only got one for the screen and because it lets you upload a book in open formats (unlike the Sony and Nook devices).<p>As a point of interest, I wrote a text ebook reader for my Psion 3/5 which was written in OPL and reformatted text automatically. Interesting, because it ran faster than the Kindle can on a 8 or 12 MHZ CPU with very little memory.<p>Kindle also extremely lacks options, like different fonts, text that goes to the edge (no border), no justify on/off (on by default), and so on.<p>My point is that <i>I</i> can write a better ebook reader than Amazon, on a device with a tiny amount of CPU and memory, and it's shameful that the Kindle software is SO awful.

The app looks amazing. However, I think this will be the Google Voice of the iPad. Under review ad infinitum, always possible never approved :-)

Let's see... I'm willing to bet that Apple will not approve the app for the iPad. After all, they now provide their own ebook reader and we all know their stance about third-party apps duplicating functionality that's already available on the device.<p>Maybe they'll even remove the existing iPhone app because that would run on the iPad too.

Looks great. I bought a lot of books on the Kindle for iPhone so I'm happy to see that they platform is alive and growing.<p>But I'd also like to see Amazon create apps for other devices. I can't change phones easily because too few of them have a Kindle app.

Looks good. Makes me wish even more that Amazon had been able to keep the $9.99 pricing on ebooks. At that price, I'd probably buy many ebooks. But for 50% more, the public library will still be my #1 choice.

Doesn't this "duplicate functionality of one of Apple's apps"?<p>I smell a storm coming.

Whether or not it's approved, it seems this may well "pay" for itself in terms of PR.<p>The article notes:<p><i>You can adjust "paper" color</i><p>I wish that Safari Online offered this feature. Reading extensively from a transmissive (or strongly lighted reflective) white background is tiring. I'd welcome the ability to tint the background to something more tolerable (preferably a user-defined setting).