Kindle iPhone app
After using the Kindle app for iPhone for a few weeks now, I’m totally hooked. At first, I thought the small screen would be annoying, but I’m really loving this app!! In my less busy days I used to read a lot. These days life has taken over and I don’t make the time time read as much as I used to. The Kindle App has changed that. Since I have whatever I am currently reading in my pocket at all times, I can pick it up and read a few pages at times whenever I have a spare few minutes. To do this with a book I’d have to have it with me always – not practical. I have my phone with me all the time, so it’s easy to just open the app and read a few pages. In line at the store, sitting on the couch ignoring commercials, whatever. I don’t have to have a physical book on my hip, I can just reach for my phone.
I still love the feel of a book, that will never go away, but the huge advantage of having my books with me at all times is hard to ignore. Why pack bulky books on a plane when I can load up as many as I want on my phone? I don’t think that I’d spend the money on a Kindle just yet ($350 is way too much) because the main advantage for me (having the books with me at all times) goes away if I have to remember to bring the Kindle.
A friend said that he thinks this is just technology for technologie’s sake. I disagree – this is a classic evolution of technology scenario. Digital storage of media has been around since the first word processor was coded. The end of print media was implied almost immediately and it never happened because people are too tied to physical media. I don’t disagree with this – I love a good newspaper as much as the next guy, but I find myself moving more and more away from traditional print media toward online sources. News media made the move to the web a long time ago and is thriving while traditional print media is slowly dying. The iPhone Kindle app is just the evolution of books into the digital world in a way that makes sense, is functional and practical. I don’t see this as the end of printed books, I see this as an augmentation of digital media to include books, a source that was looking for the right hardware and application combination to make people want to read books digitally. I think the Kindle and the Kindle app hit the nail on the head.
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This is the first time I’ve heard reasoning that makes sense about reading books on a screen. Thinking of it as an addendum to “real” books makes it more palatable, too. I look forward to seeing it in person now.
I guess it costs $400 however you cut it, though (iPhone or Kindle).
thanks! fyi – the iPhone itself on the low end is $199, so you could be all kindled up for less than $400.
Yeah but what’s the monthly charge? I’m thinking it’s a major extravagance esp. since at&t isn’t the most reliable service in the hinterlands. (That’d be as opposed to Verizon which is sooooooo reliable, of course.)
yeah, the data costs stink – All in you will pay $70 or so/month minimum for an iPhone. AT&T is not great, I’d prefer Verizon as well – but I’m a dreamer.