I love reading Kindle books on my iPod Touch in bed. I also have the Kindle app on my Windows PC which is where I do most of my research/writing, and my Android tablet which I can use when I want more screen real estate and am sitting up so the weight isn't an issue. But really, reading on the small iPod Touch screen is quite pleasant. The text is clear and readable, and it's so fast to turn pages with just my thumb, so I can hold it with one hand while lying down.
Michtrixie
March 13, 2012 8:25 AM
Love, love, love the Kindle application! I have it on all my devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, desktop and 2 laptops) so I can read anywhere anytime. Plan on getting a Kindle Fire soon. Have also installed it on several friends' computers. Although I have several other reader apps also installed, I seem to read the most using the Kindle app.
Ben
March 13, 2012 8:37 AM
Does anybody have experience buying Kindle books and reading them on the Nook Tablet? Barnes & Noble is a competitor to Amazon, and the Nook is not "pure" Android. So I was wondering...
Kindle books cannot be read on the unmodified Nook. However I have heard of people "rooting" their Nook so that it runs a more pure Android version, and then installing the Kindle application. I'm in no way suggesting it, just reporting it as having been done.
17-Mar-2012
Pat Siler
March 13, 2012 8:43 AM
Leo - Another great feature of the Kindle suite is the loan feature. After reading you can loan anyone with email the book to read for 14 days. As your article states they only need the Kindle app to enjoy. Amazon plays librarian and returns the book to you after 14 days - simple.
Montesquieu
March 13, 2012 8:55 AM
Another point: Many public libraries now have e-books for loan in the Kindle format. This means we have another source for free books.
Bob Funkey
March 13, 2012 9:11 AM
Yes, the Nook Color works just fine with the Kindle app installed.
Paul D.
March 13, 2012 9:30 AM
Just one question about the Kindle platform. If I have accessed a kindle book on a device, is it still accessible if I go somewhere where there is no internet access? In other words, is there any local storage of the book on the device or is reading utterly dependent on being connected to the cloud? Nothing in the article quite explicitly says so.
And an answer for Ben: You'd have to jailbreak the Nook Color. This is one of the easier and safer devices to jailbreak because it will happily boot an alternate OS from a card in its MicroSD slot without destroying the native OS installation.
When you want to go back, just turn the device completely off, remove the MicroSD card, power it back up, and it will reboot back in its native OS. . .
Google "jailbreak Nook Color".
-- Paul
Dash
March 13, 2012 9:37 AM
The Kindle app downloads a copy of the book to your device so it is available completely offline.
I have the app on my android tablet and easily continued to read the book while taking a flight across the country.
Chuck Small
March 13, 2012 10:47 AM
Firstly, you can no longer borrow e-books from your library. There are, in effect, only five book publishers and they all have reneged on their previous agreements to sell libraries e-books. They are worried about "piracy" by all us potential "pirates" (Arrr matey! Actually what we have here is a form of the misdemeanor shopliflting and not really a felony like piracy.). Hmmm...would it not be easy to scan and OCR a paper version of a book or have a moderately talented hacker cook up a program to OCR a DRMed e-book, page-by-page, from video memory? Anyhoo...secondly, and much more importantly, in addition to learning how to read Kindle-formated books on readers other than a Kindle, how about the obverse: Reading non-Kindle formated e-books on your Kindle? Easy as pie/pi! Just download and install the totally amazing and wonderful Calibre, Open Source e-book management, format-converter, e-book reader, meta-data finder, and backer-upper: http://calibre-ebook.com/. The Kindle "format" is actually a DRMed version of the old MOBI format. So with Calibre (yes there are other ways to do this, such as Zamzar, but Calibre is the way-coolest) you simply convert your - say - Open Source EPUB e-books to MOBI format and then Calibre will load them into your Kindle. Calibre will also automatically download your choice from over 300 on-line publications (I get the AP and BBC newswires every day for free) and convert the HTML to the e-book format of your choice! Who needs a daily newspaper?
Nan Bush
March 13, 2012 11:28 AM
Barnes & Noble has a similar PC-based app for the Nook service--free download, multiple OS, etc.
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
March 10, 2012 7:59 PM
I love reading Kindle books on my iPod Touch in bed. I also have the Kindle app on my Windows PC which is where I do most of my research/writing, and my Android tablet which I can use when I want more screen real estate and am sitting up so the weight isn't an issue. But really, reading on the small iPod Touch screen is quite pleasant. The text is clear and readable, and it's so fast to turn pages with just my thumb, so I can hold it with one hand while lying down.
March 13, 2012 8:25 AM
Love, love, love the Kindle application! I have it on all my devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, desktop and 2 laptops) so I can read anywhere anytime. Plan on getting a Kindle Fire soon. Have also installed it on several friends' computers. Although I have several other reader apps also installed, I seem to read the most using the Kindle app.
March 13, 2012 8:37 AM
Does anybody have experience buying Kindle books and reading them on the Nook Tablet? Barnes & Noble is a competitor to Amazon, and the Nook is not "pure" Android. So I was wondering...
17-Mar-2012
March 13, 2012 8:43 AM
Leo - Another great feature of the Kindle suite is the loan feature. After reading you can loan anyone with email the book to read for 14 days. As your article states they only need the Kindle app to enjoy. Amazon plays librarian and returns the book to you after 14 days - simple.
March 13, 2012 8:55 AM
Another point: Many public libraries now have e-books for loan in the Kindle format. This means we have another source for free books.
March 13, 2012 9:11 AM
Yes, the Nook Color works just fine with the Kindle app installed.
March 13, 2012 9:30 AM
Just one question about the Kindle platform. If I have accessed a kindle book on a device, is it still accessible if I go somewhere where there is no internet access? In other words, is there any local storage of the book on the device or is reading utterly dependent on being connected to the cloud? Nothing in the article quite explicitly says so.
And an answer for Ben: You'd have to jailbreak the Nook Color. This is one of the easier and safer devices to jailbreak because it will happily boot an alternate OS from a card in its MicroSD slot without destroying the native OS installation.
When you want to go back, just turn the device completely off, remove the MicroSD card, power it back up, and it will reboot back in its native OS. . .
Google "jailbreak Nook Color".
-- Paul
March 13, 2012 9:37 AM
The Kindle app downloads a copy of the book to your device so it is available completely offline.
I have the app on my android tablet and easily continued to read the book while taking a flight across the country.
March 13, 2012 10:47 AM
Firstly, you can no longer borrow e-books from your library. There are, in effect, only five book publishers and they all have reneged on their previous agreements to sell libraries e-books. They are worried about "piracy" by all us potential "pirates" (Arrr matey! Actually what we have here is a form of the misdemeanor shopliflting and not really a felony like piracy.). Hmmm...would it not be easy to scan and OCR a paper version of a book or have a moderately talented hacker cook up a program to OCR a DRMed e-book, page-by-page, from video memory? Anyhoo...secondly, and much more importantly, in addition to learning how to read Kindle-formated books on readers other than a Kindle, how about the obverse: Reading non-Kindle formated e-books on your Kindle? Easy as pie/pi! Just download and install the totally amazing and wonderful Calibre, Open Source e-book management, format-converter, e-book reader, meta-data finder, and backer-upper: http://calibre-ebook.com/. The Kindle "format" is actually a DRMed version of the old MOBI format. So with Calibre (yes there are other ways to do this, such as Zamzar, but Calibre is the way-coolest) you simply convert your - say - Open Source EPUB e-books to MOBI format and then Calibre will load them into your Kindle. Calibre will also automatically download your choice from over 300 on-line publications (I get the AP and BBC newswires every day for free) and convert the HTML to the e-book format of your choice! Who needs a daily newspaper?
March 13, 2012 11:28 AM
Barnes & Noble has a similar PC-based app for the Nook service--free download, multiple OS, etc.
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