Quick Review: Kindle on iPad

By Dieter Bohn
last updated

Kindle on iPad is, well, not as good as Kindle on a Kindle or iBooks. That's going to be the bottom line for a lot of people. It works in both portrait and landscape - though curiously I can't find a way to get a two-column book view in landscape. You can do most of the traditional ebook things: change the font size, adjust brightness, jump to any point in the book, have your place saved, etc. On Kindle you can also bookmark pages and add your own notes - all of which get synced up to Amazon's cloud so you can see them on other Kindle devices like your iPhone, a Kindle, etc.

Instead of an in-app store, Amazon sends you to Safari to browse and search for Kindle book - which I don't find especially annoying because the iPad's web browser is so good. Amazon has a slightly better selection of books than Apple does too, though in both cases I often find myself stymied when trying to find a particular book.

With both Kindle and iBooks my basic feeling is that they're good for light reading, but the difficulty of entering and exporting notes means that while I'll use them for entertainment, I won't use them for 'serious' work.

Hopefully Amazon will update this app to support two-column landscape mode soon.

Video and gallery after the break!

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19 Comments
  • How long can you stare at the iPad screen before it starts stabbing your eyes?
  • My question would be does it support magazine subscriptions, since right now an actual Kindle is the only way to read these.
  • "Amazon has a slightly better selection of books than Apple does..."
    Ohhh comonnn...crap statements like this make continue to remove all credibility from your blog...
    iBooks - 60,000 books
    Amazon - 450,000 books
    Is that slight?
  • Cryptonomicon, right?
    Nice read.
  • "Amazon has a slightly better selection of books than Apple does"
    Only a slight several hundred thousand more :p
  • (I apologize in advance for the rant)
    I think everyone misses the boat in their ereader reviews. Content is king, at the end of the day, you download and use an ereader because you want to read a book. It doesn't matter how fancy it looks or works, what matters most is which ereader (software or hardware) has the best content and can get you to that content the fastest.
    I've owned dozens of different hardware and software ereaders, kindle beats them all because of the Amazon store. Amazon has over a decade's experience in selling books. The data they've collected on books (user reviews and linking people to similar books) is priceless. Plus, Amazon knows how to categorize. I downloaded ibooks, but I have yet to buy a book. Can someone tell me how to get to the sci fi section in the ibookstore? Is it me, I can't see one?! On a device sold to techies?!
    Amazon kindle store, it's right there on the left side. Plus, you just search for a book you know you like and Amazon recommends a half dozen just like it. For me, that's the story at the end of the day. Not how nicely the pages curl when you turn them...
  • Does it have the iPhone option of white text on a black background?
  • Keep in mind that amazon didn't have an iPad to actually test things on. It'll improve. I'm just happy they got an app out so quick.
  • Amazon had a "slightly" better selection of books??? LMAO on that one. Yeah, just slightly.
    Also don't get why I am supposed to care that I can't see two pages side by side. Far as I know you can only read one page at a time.
    To the person that asked about magazines - Zinio will be releasing a mag reader for the ipad shortly. I have used zinio to read mags on tablet pc machines for years. Excellent stuff. Magazine subscriptions cost about the same as paper based and download automatically each month. Or you can purchase issues separately.
  • Amazon better design a better app than that, otherwise people are just going to overlook it in favour of iBooks. I mean at the difference in quality, theres no comparison!
  • Just an FYI, I did he majority of my Bar Prep on a Kindle DX for the NY and CT Bat Exams.....12-16 hours a day for 3 months....doesn't get any more 'serious' than that!
  • Apple still better store
  • Every app on the iPad does the white/black reversal. Some do it within the app itself. But go to System>General>Accessibility & you can set up the Home button to toggle black/white anywhere.
  • everyone is pointing out that Amazon has a much bigger selection of books than the Apple store. So.....is the selection for Amazon on an I-pad limited? If not, then what's the big bonus with regards to content/selection of a kindle over the ipad? I understand everyone found the exponential difference between books between the too described as 'slightly more' as ludicrious, but what does that mean for content between the two? If there is no difference between the Kindle app's content for the ipad/iphone and the Kindle itself, isn't everyone's rant on content difference moot?
  • John was looking for a way to find sci-fi books on iBookstore, and it took me about 5 seconds to find it. Launch iBooks, click on "Store", click on "Categories", and scroll down to "Sci-Fi & Fantasy".
    My main problem with Kindle on iPad (and Mac) is that I cannot see all of my Kindle content on it. If I want to read magazine subscriptions (I have a couple) or PDF files that I've sent myself, I need to use the Kindle device. Okay, PDF is no big deal with GoodReader on iPad, but my magazine subscriptions that I purchased to read on my Kindle, I can't read on Kindle on iPad. Which means I'm still carrying around 2 devices. Or more likely, I'm ditching the Kindle device as well as my magazine subscriptions.
  • I’ve owned dozens of different hardware and software e-readers, kindle beats them all because of the Amazon store. Amazon has over a decade’s experience in selling books.
  • I unquestionably accept everything you have explained. Actually, I browsed throughout your several other posts and I do think you're absolutely right. Great job with this particular blog.
  • I rattling thankful to find this internet site on bing, just what I was searching for :D also bookmarked.
  • I am startled at how many people prefer ibooks to the kindle for iPad-- aside from the number of books (no more need be said), shopping on the ibooks site is very difficult, and the books take much longer to load and are harder to search than the kindle for iPad books... i may be too impatient, but Kindle for iPad makes it clear that you don't have to wait a minute or more for a book to load! the only drawback I have found is that i can't set up "files" to group and store my books on Kindle for iPad, as I can on my Kindle. oh, well...