Kindle for iPhone: Get the Lowdown on the Kindle iPhone App

Amazon has outdone itself again. Just within days of launching the Kindle 2, Amazon also released its new Kindle iPhone app and sent iPhone users scrambling to download the free app and trying it out. The verdict? iPhone owners have been impressed enough that many of them have jumped on the Kindle bandwagon and have purchased one themselves.

How exactly does this Kindle iPhone app work? For starters, it's like having an extension of your Kindle with you wherever you go. If you're one of those who think that reading the Kindle even while waiting in lines or taking subway rides is a bit overdoing it, then the iPhone app is the answer to your reading dilemma. Take the iPhone with you anywhere and take advantage of short bursts of reading your Kindle books whenever you have some free time.

Applicable for both the iPhone and iPod touch, the Kindle for iPhone app has even taken the effort to make reading from the iPhone a pleasant experience. Given that the iPhone is a compact device, the readability is still great with 5 font sizes to choose from. Plus, going through pages is easily done with just a mere swipe of the screen right to left, or back. For bookmarking pages, finding the table of contents, going to the beginning or a specific location, and looking at the image cover, a couple of taps is all it takes as well.

Accessing all your Kindle books even without the Kindle around is also possible with the Kindle iPhone app. Just log-in to your Amazon account and download any of your books stored there straight to your iPhone. Even better, you can continue to read right where you left off from either device, thanks to Kindle's Whispersync technology. Make sure to sync your Amazon Kindle or iPhone before leaving and either one of them will automatically go to the last page read when you resume reading.

Another great thing about the Kindle iPhone app is that it gives the reader a full-color version of the images from its LCD screen, as opposed to the Kindle's shades of gray. What it cannot do however, is permanently replace the Kindle as the choice reading device. While the iPhone acts as a perfect foil to the Kindle, the latter's e-paper technology, wide screen, and superior readability is still the best device for hours of nonstop reading.

However exciting the new Kindle for iPhone may be, it still has a few downsides. First, buying books from Amazon or even just browsing available titles directly through the app is not yet possible. Moreover, the Kindle iPhone app is currently exclusive for ebooks and not for newspapers and magazines as yet. And one more thing, the dictionary feature is not available yet on the Kindle for iPhone app. These are minor drawbacks though, and with the way things are going with the Kindle, these features are surely not far off.

See the Kindle iPhone App in action and then be sure to read the full Amazon Kindle 2.0 review here.