The official Kindle app for iOS has been updated to version 3.2. Following the redesign introduced with version 3.0 last March, the app was heavily criticized for its implementation of wide margins, which was eventually fixed with an update earlier this summer. Now, the app has been updated with a new setting to control “adjustable margins”. You can choose between three different layout options, as pictured above. The option is available on the iPad from the View Options menu, which also includes settings for font size, brightness, and background color.

Speaking of brightness, Amazon says the control slider has been updated to be more responsive and optimized for “better viewing”. The app’s changelog also focuses on “rapid highlights”, a way to mark important passages of a book for future reference that had been implemented by almost any other eBook reader or PDF viewer on the App Store. This option is available under “My Notes & Marks” in the Go To menu.

Among other changes for Print Replica Textbooks, Kindle 3.2 looks like a solid update that addresses a common annoyance of the app. You can find the update on the App Store.

Amazon’s official Kindle app for iOS reached version 3.0 today, adding a number of improvements for the new iPad, as well as a new design for the eBook library.

The new view of Kindle for iOS is organized in two separate Cloud and Device tabs. Cloud shows all items available in your online Kindle library; Device shows items that have already been downloaded locally. Items can be downloaded from the cloud with one tap, and they can be removed at any time. On the iPhone, users can choose to view their library in grid view, and a different view setting is also available on the iPad through a button in the bottom left corner of the app. Titles can be sorted by recent, title, or author.

Aside from these new options, the Kindle reading experience seems unchanged from the previous versions of the app; in the standard reading mode, there are still options to search, bookmark and go to the table of contents, sync with other Kindle devices, and change view choosing from three color schemes and six font sizes. On the new iPad, text is “optimized” for the Retina display, Amazon says. The Kindle app can obviously work in conjunction with the Cloud Reader web app Amazon launched last August, allowing users to read eBooks in the browser, while still syncing content and information across devices registered as Kindles.

Kindle 3.0 is available on the App Store. Check out more screenshots below. (more…)

I don’t doubt that the Kindle Fire’s usability matches its bargain bin price tag. David Pogue was pretty clear when he said, “You feel that $200 price tag with every swipe of your finger.” Reviews, ranging from forgiving to absolutely scathing, are mixed. On one hand, you have Andy Inhatko who loves the crisp text and the reading experience on the smaller, 7″ display. On the other hand, the founder of Instapaper finds the reading experience to be absolutely awful. TUAW and GigaOM both posted comparative guides for consumers on the fence about which tablet to buy, straddling the line that the Kindle Fire is good enough because of its price-point. There is a common consensus:

• The Kindle feels good in the hand thanks to its small form factor and rubberized texture.
• The 7″ display is impressive.
• Amazon’s digital content can be easily purchased thanks to excellent store integration.
• OS responsiveness varies, but overall is OK in comparison with higher-end tablets.
• The Silk browser doesn’t perform akin to Amazon’s claims. It is as fast or slower than other mobile browsers.
• The price is really the winner here.

Where the reviews differentiate is with the experience of actually consuming content, which is likely what consumers want to do with a tablet integrated with Amazon’s ecosystem. Ben Brooks writes that the Kindle Fire’s three main experiences, which are reading, watching video, and web browsing, are simply poor in comparison to its polished rivals (the iPad). Erick Schonfeld on the other hand writes the exact opposite, even giving the Kindle Fire’s often lauded browser a pass. From what I’ve seen, the big tech press has been giving the Kindle mostly fair but favorable reviews, with independent writers chomping down on the lack of a polished experience.

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Earlier today Amazon announced a completely revamped Kindle family, which includes the standard $79 Kindle, the $99 Kindle touch, and the much-anticipated $199 Kindle Fire tablet. Ad-supported options and hands-on coverage aside, I’d like to quickly touch upon a common mistake in today’s tech headlines — that the Kindle Fire will “kill” the iPad.

First off, Amazon gets it: they know an ecosystem has to scale to different devices and operating systems, so they diversified their approach to ebook reading and media consumption with three different sets of Kindle (Keyboard/$79 Kindle, Touch, Fire) all tied to a single defining feature: your Amazon.com account.

In discussing Microsoft’s approach to the concept of ecosystem when compared to Apple’s, I wrote:

In Apple’s vision, separate operating systems can live inside the same ecosystem. The single defining aspect of this vision is the Apple ID, which on iOS devices, Macs, PCs, and web browsers gives you access to:

- Songs, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Podcasts;

- Apps;

- The Apple Online Store;

- Your iOS device’s location (still free with MobileMe);

- Email, Calendar, Contact and data sync with MobileMe;

- Your desktop operating system (with Lion’s Apple ID support).

Compare this to Amazon, which is doing the following:

• Amazon Prime: faster shipping times and Instant Video;
• Amazon MP3;
• Amazon Kindle;
• Amazon Appstore;
• Amazon Web Services.

Amazon is building an ecosystem, and all you need to access these services is a single Amazon.com account, possibly connected to a credit card. Like Apple, it may be difficult to keep everything in one account, but it’s not like the average consumer needs all the functionalities of Web Services anyway. Furthermore, Amazon controls its platforms with the web infrastructure they’ve created, and the newly announced Silk browser is the perfect example of how Amazon should also be able to somehow control and optimize web traffic operated by its devices.

There’s more. Amazon gets it because they’re offering a limited choice of devices to use with their ecosystem. Many often cite Apple’s product line-up as an example of simplicity and “just one model” philosophy, but if you think about it, there are multiple ways to get started with iOS:

• iPhone (two colors, different storage options, carrier variations);
• iPod touch (different storage options);
• iPad (two colors, different storage options, carrier variations).

and the Mac (all with multiple configuration options available):

• MacBook Air;
• MacBook Pro;
• iMac;
• Mac mini;
• Mac Pro.

Amazon may kill off some members of the Kindle family soon (DX perhaps?), but here’s what they offer today to access the Amazon.com ecosystem:

• Kindle;
• Kindle Keyboard;
• Kindle DX;
• Kindle Touch;
• Kindle Fire.

The similarities in the underlying concepts of “ecosystem” and “uniqueness” between Apple and Amazon are clear, but there are some key difference that many people don’t seem to properly consider when referring to the latest Kindle Fire as an “iPad killer”. Assuming that by “killer” they actually imagine a scenario where people will stop buying iPads altogether and start seeing the Fire as the only option, Amazon would still need Apple’s retail power at an international level. These people that write “iPad killer” seem to forget that the iPad is available in 64 countries today. Amazon’s Kindle Fire will ship November 15th in the US. So let’s put the “killer” argument behind us once and for all.

Amazon is about to launch a product that may end up being a feasible alternative to the iPad for some people, a product shares several similarities with Apple’s approach to the digital ecosystem. I have no doubt Amazon will sell millions of these new Kindles, and I think the Fire in particular will prove popular with families, readers, movie watchers, gamers — average consumers that may prefer a cheaper device integrated with the Amazon.com account they already have and use daily.

It’s hard to form a complete thought on Amazon’s new strategy because they’re just getting started. The unification process of Amazon’s ecosystem and diversification of unique devices begins today, and the Kindle Fire will ship in less than two months. It’s hard to imagine whether Amazon’s long-term plan is “trying to be like Apple” with international releases, rich App Store, deals with music labels, partnerships with carriers, and so forth. It’s also worth considering that Amazon isn’t completely independent from others yet, as the Kindle Fire runs on a modified version of Android 2.x with possible legal implications in patent fees. And more importantly, it doesn’t even make sense to “judge” the Kindle Fire right now as a winner or PlayBook when we even haven’t tried one. But two months from now, right ahead of the holiday season, let’s picture the following situation: assuming an average consumer interested in reading, listening to music, playing games, watching movies and browsing the web has $500 to spend, will he pick an iPad or a Kindle Fire? And is there a reason to pick both?

That’s where ecosystems prove their strengths.

Over the past six months there has been a (fairly) quiet tussle between Apple and various publishers and other content suppliers over the issue of In-App Purchases and Subscriptions. At the beginning of the year Apple had demanded that by July, all content available within an app must be available for purchase within the app through In-App Purchasing, for the same price as it was available on the publishers website (say the Kindle online store) and that the app did not link to the website for purchases but used the In-App Purchase system. Apple reversed their policy in May, removing the first two restrictions — but still denied publishers from including a ‘Buy’ link that went to a website and then finally late last month various publishers began to abide by these rules, including the Wall Street Journal, Kobo and the Kindle apps.

This obviously isn’t the best situation for consumers and as many have noted, including Dan Frommer of SplatF, it has made purchasing Kindle books more difficult for the user – despite the premise of In-App Purchases aiming to simplify purchases. Consequently, Amazon today released the Kindle Cloud Reader, a web app for Chrome, Safari and the iPad – with support for other browsers and devices promised soon.

The desktop version of the Kindle Cloud Reader is nice, but it is the iPad version that is most intriguing and impressive. It is a web app but it does an excellent job at masquerading as a native app — particularly features such as offline support and menus that hide/reappear when you tap the screen. It starts from when you first load the Kindle Cloud Reader and it asks permission to reserve 50 MB on your device so that it can store all the necessary elements of the ‘app’ and your books to ensure that when you have no 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity, everything continues to work. To really see how well it does at pretending to be a native app, try it yourself or jump the break for more screenshot’s of the Kindle Cloud Reader — pinning it to the Home Screen as a web app (which it dutifully suggests you do) in particular just amplifies the native app feel by removing the browser chrome.

What Amazon has done by creating this web app reminds me of the Financial Times, which also created a web app for delivering their content to users and subscribers after they also felt Apple’s terms were too restrictive and negative. Unlike the Financial Times, Amazon has not removed their iOS app from the App Store — it remains, albeit hampered by the lack of easy access to the Kindle Store. On the Kindle Cloud Reader however, the Kindle Store works great with a link in the top-right corner and it is made better by the fact that the store has also received an iPad-enhanced design and works much better whilst also looking great.

You can access the Kindle Cloud Reader now, simply by logging in to your Amazon account – all your purchased books will already be there.

[Via TechCrunch]

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The Amazon Kindle app has been updated in the App Store, and subsequently has removed the button linking to their Kindle Store in complying with Apple’s rules for termination (with the ultimate deadline being set at June 30th). Apps offering subscriptions must use in-app-purchasing, and all links to external stores must be removed. The Wall Street Journal and Kobo are also among some of the companies complying at the last minute with the rules pending the upcoming deadline.

Amazon didn’t just update their Kindle app to comply with Apple’s terms of service, however, adding the capability to deliver newspaper and magazine subscriptions to your iPad or iPhone, and download recent editions from the Archived Items section of their app. Amazon is seemingly skirting around subscriptions by making customers push new issues to their devices via the Kindle Store on the web, but automatic delivery makes us wonder whether this infringes on IAP rules.

A second addition brings the ability to highlight text and share quotes or passages with friends on Facebook or Twitter. I’ve never been so enamored to share text of a book I’m reading with my compatriots on either social network, but you bookworms have no more excuses for not showing up to your weekly book club discussion.

As companies experiment with the idea of digital textbooks (look at Inkling for a perfect example on the iPad), new and affordable models for distribution will be thought of along the way. Amazon announced this morning that students will have the opportunity to save up to 80% on textbooks by renting them from the Kindle Store. The 80% discount applies to the initial 30-day renting period, which students can adjust to fit the length of their short or long semesters (normally eight to sixteen weeks at my community college). You can rent books for up to a year, but at that point I’d just buy the book.

What’s interesting to me is how Amazon is tackling the ability to retain your notes. My biggest fear with digital textbooks is that they aren’t cheap enough to buy (I can always sell a textbook back and get up to 60% back of what I initially paid), and that any notes I’ve taken will be lost if I’ve written in the margins. This same concern is expressed by Amazon, whom have tied these features in with Whispersync. All of your notes will be kept in the Amazon Cloud, where you can pull notes back down and read related passages even after the rental period of your textbook is up. I find this intriguing (particularly so if notes are easy to take in the first place).

I’ve always purchased textbooks from Amazon, but now they raise the question of whether I should rent a digital book. Textbooks are available to read across devices from the iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the Kindle itself (along other devices that support Amazon’s Kindle app). Students who want to remove a couple of six pound textbooks from their backpacks (and save their backs) might want to invest in a slim messenger back and an iPad instead, but with the Kindle you know there will the issue of finding pages (with its weird take on page numbers), and its unclear how well graphics and margin notes will be presented. Maybe one of you dear readers would be bold enough to take the dive? Have you purchased digital textbooks in the past? Let us know in the comments!

[Kindle Textbook Rental via Amazon Media Room & TUAW]

The previously announced biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, which will be the first ‘authorized’ biography of Jobs, is now available for pre-order. iSteve: The Book of Jobs will be released on March 6^th, 2012. The description of the book from Amazon provides:

From bestselling author Walter Isaacson comes the landmark biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In iSteve: The Book of Jobs, Isaacson provides an extraordinary account of Jobs’ professional and personal life. Drawn from three years of exclusive and unprecedented interviews Isaacson has conducted with Jobs as well as extensive interviews with Jobs’ family members, key colleagues from Apple and its competitors, iSteve is the definitive portrait of the greatest innovator of his generation.

You can pre-order iSteve: The Book of Jobs from Amazon right now for $19.80 in paper, or $14.99 for the Kindle edition. Curiously the release date (March 6^th), will be on the fourth anniversary of the release of the iOS SDK that allowed developers to build third party apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

[Via Cult of Mac]