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Rasputina
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« on: June 15, 2009, 10:57:28 AM » |
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The app has been out for awhile and their have been some upgrades so I thought I'd write a review.
The best thing about the app is that if you have an iphone, you probably always have it with you. Which means you always have your Amazon library with you too, even if you don't have your full size K. With whispersync you always have access to the last page you read, which is great. I've found the syncing between devices to be very convenient and accurate. Notes, highlights and bookmarks are wonderful on the app, much better than on my K1. Just tap the screen and touch the little open book icon and all your notes, highlights and bookmarks are right there instantly to scroll through. So far we can't create new notes but we can add bookmarks in the application. There is no load time, unlike with the kindle, it pops up instantly.
There is a convenient archive feature which loads very quickly to scroll through your books on Amazon and just tapping the screen downloads the book. You can view archives by title or author. The home page can be viewed by title, author or recent. Downloading takes a few seconds to accomplish. To delete books or samples just tap edit on the home page and tap the - then delete and it's instantly gone.
We also have a choice of 5 font sizes and 3 different text and background choices. My personal favorite is black background with white text. Other options include sepia with a beige background and brown text or white background and black text. We also have a slider bar to quickly slide through the locations in the book, but it sometimes has been difficult for me to get it to pick up my finger. Another bonus is the color pictures inside and color book covers on the home and archive pages. Contrast and sharpness are very nice and you never have to worry about ambient lighting.
The biggest drawback of the app is that there is no way to add personal documents like on the Kindle device, with the app you are limited to Amazon kindle books. I've found a pretty easy work around by using the iphone Stanza app for these. I have both apps right next to each other on my iphone and I haven't found any problem remembering which book is where. With the stanza app we also get use of tags and a type of folder system which is natively missing from Kindle completely.
Another benefit of the app on the phone is it's size, which easily fits in the palm of your hand. You can read holding it from any of it's 4 sides and lock your choice easily by tapping the bottom right of the screen and popping up the lock. Just tap to lock and unlock the rotation ability.
It's also now very easy to shop the Amazon kindle store from the app. Just click get books on the home screen and it takes you straight to the kindle store. You are already logged in and you can search, look at suggestions and get samples. There is also a drop down menu to choose which kindle you want to send the sample or book to, if you have more than 1. You can send it to any of your authorized devices on your account. Having chosen to sample or purchase the app then asks if you'd like to return to the kindle app, you can choose to keep shopping if you aren't done yet too. If you tap return to app it quickly takes you right into the kindle app home page and immediately starts downloading your sample or book.
I personally love the app and there is very little I'd like to see added. I would like the ability to create notes and highlights in the app and I'd like to be able to import personal documents over wifi like you can with Stanza. A read to you feature would be great too, especially for such a portable device.
For the size of the device it's surprisingly enjoyable for me to read on, and I don't have the best eyesight, wear glasses and am middle aged. My daughter uses the app on her ipod touch and loves it. I asked her recently if she wanted a regular full size kindle and she said she doesn't think she needs one and she is an avid reader. Neither of us have experienced eye fatigue from reading on it. I really love the responsiveness of the application and lightening fast load times all around but especially for page turns. Speaking of page turns, I find I prefer the touch screen taps for page turning and that means no buttons are required to be on the sides of the device that might accidentally get hit while reading.
love this app.
We now also have the ability to create notes and highlights.
I tested it out, very easy to use and nicely designed. You just tap any word and it opens the round magnifier, when you are on the correct word you lift your finger and it pops up the choice of note or highlight and you can drag the parameters to highlight. For notes you choose that and it opens the keyboard where you type in the note and click save. To remove a note tap on the note icon in the book and when it opens delete the note and choose save. It asks you to confirm your deletion of the note.
It also reminds you that it will sync across all devices.
Well done. It was the only thing I missed about the app vs the kindle. I'm a happy camper.
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