Amazon Releases Free Kindle iPhone App

Now the entire Kindle library of books, magazines and newspapers is accessible without a Kindle device. All you need is your iPhone or iPod Touch, the free application released by Amazon, and your Amazon account. Just install the Kindle app, then register your iPhone with Amazon by entering your account information.

After you're in, you have access to all titles you've purchased through Amazon's website or with your Kindle. 225,000 titles are available, and $9.99 will deliver you a New York Times bestseller immediately. For $1.25 a month you can get the current issue of the Atlantic (sans pictures) delivered automatically as soon as the new issue hits newsstands.

Of course, Kindle allows the user to read the first chapter of a book for free before purchasing the text.

The Kindle iPhone app has many features that people have come to expect from the Kindle device. Although the screen size is noticeably smaller, users can change text size, highlight passages, and bookmark pages on the iPhone. Annotations to text can't be made on the iPhone, however previous notes made on a Kindle device are viewable on the Kindle iPhone app.

Whispersync is a feature of the Kindle iPhone application that automatically syncs your last read position with your Amazon account and your Kindle device, should you have one. "We are excited to bring the new Kindle application to Apple's App Store and think customers are going to love how easy and fun it is to read their Kindle books on the iPhone and iPod touch," said Amazon Kindle vice president Ian Freed.

Not only is it easy, fun and good for your brain, it's easy on your wallet. You could spend $359 on the Kindle 2 and carry around another electronic device. Okay, e-ink is pretty cool. But let's face it, you've already spent plenty of money on the iPhone. It's attached to your hip at all times.

The app is free.

Competition is already heating up in the iPhone book market. Amazon's Kindle app follows the recent introduction of mobile Google Book Search on the web, offering access to 1.5 million books.