Kindle Cloud Reader

[stonetools]

This comment on the article nails it:

QUOTE]Apple wants tons of games in, sorry, on the App Store. And most other apps. But it doesn't want apps that sell media. Hence, the 30% tax, which Apple knows makes it impossible for these companies. Apple wants magazines to use its forthcoming Newsstand app rather than create their own apps. And Apple could care less about other eBook readers. It has iBooks, which essentially uses the same model as iTunes. There's only one iTunes, and no one complains much about it being the only option for buying songs. [/QUOTE]

I would add that the deal with magazines was with magazine PUBLISHERS, not RETAILERS. But he's pretty much right. Ibooks is now to competing booksellers as ITunes is to competing music and video stores. Prior to the policy change, NO ONE here said, " Gee, isn't it mean of Apple to stop Amazon from selling its music and videos directly on Ios devices?"
Maybe Apple's problem is that it didn't forbid store links on ereader apps from day one, thereby setting up unrealistic expectations. Had it done so from the beginning, hardly a soul would have taken notice, just like no one complains that Netflix has never had a Subscribe button. Yet Netflix has thrived in the Apple ecosystem.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

Like what?

The only thing I disagree with is this-

Right, because what users love is difficult installation processes. They dig that. They crave it. Your average iPhone user hates the convenience of the App Store. What they really like is Web standards.

The KCR installation process is really quite painless. But , agreed, that's a quibble. The Macalope pretty much nails it.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by stonetools

The Macalope pretty much nails it.

He has been on a roll for a few weeks. Great writer.

I just wish he'd branch out beyond the Apple-verse.

[HappyMartin]

Hate to interrupt this fascinating debate but have something off topic yo bring up, i.e. the KCR.

I am unable to even launch the app unless I am connected via wireless or 3G. I get a message saying that I am not connected to the web and so the app cannot launch. Is this normal? Can I then not read books offline, not even those downloaded to my ipad? Also my battery now runs down to dead on the ipad even when I have it in sleep mode. This didn't happen before.

I wonder if I have issues with the app or is something else going wrong? Anyone else trying to KCR and have these problems?

OK we can get back off topic now

[kjk]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

Hate to interrupt this fascinating debate but have something off topic yo bring up, i.e. the KCR.

I am unable to even launch the app unless I am connected via wireless or 3G. I get a message saying that I am not connected to the web and so the app cannot launch. Is this normal? Can I then not read books offline, not even those downloaded to my ipad? Also my battery now runs down to dead on the ipad even when I have it in sleep mode. This didn't happen before.

I wonder if I have issues with the app or is something else going wrong? Anyone else trying to KCR and have these problems?

OK we can get back off topic now

According to the FAQ:

To store your Kindle content in your browser's database so that you can read it even when you are not online, right-click on any book cover in your library, then select "Download & Pin Book" or "Pin Book." The item will be available in your Downloaded tab.

If you're unable to access your Kindle content through Kindle Cloud Reader while offline, connect to the Internet, then open Kindle Cloud Reader and select the Downloaded tab. If prompted, follow the instructions to enable offline reading functionality.

Ok, just tried it-you are right, you can't even open the app in Airplane mode, for example.

I just downloaded & pinned a book (took a while-have to say it isn't the quickest app in the world), and a little green pin appears below the book.

Turned airplane mode back on and....still can't even access the app. Odd.


Edit: ok, I'm seeing a "Saving App for online use" note on the bottom of the screen, with a spinning wait symbol...and just got an "error saving app", which is odd, because I'm pretty sure I saved the app to my iPad a few days ago. Every time I restart the app, I'm seeing that saving app...requestor, and it keeps failing. I have over 3G free on my iPad, so space isn't an issue.

Are you seeing that as well?

[HappyMartin]

Yes that is exactly what I am seeing. The battery running down issue I sorted out and it was an unrelated thing, not KCR at all.

Still if I am unable to read a book offline the whole thing is entirely pointless for me.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by stonetools

RDM, don't you know that everything Amazon does is wonderful, because low prices, whereas Apple is EVUUL because it brought in agency pricing, all by itself, with Google , independent booksellers , and EVERYONE but Amazon being innocent bystanders?

Because passive-aggressiveness is always the best way to close divides and heal rifts. People respond so favorably to it.

Didn't we just go to great pains to figure out that most people contributing to this thread aren't the Apple haters that you (and others) seem to need them to be?

[din155]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

most people contributing to this thread aren't the Apple haters

Doesn’t it get a bit tiring after sometime to keep arguing on the same thing which will never reach a conclusion?

[RockdaMan]

Whaaa?

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Graham

I suggest that the reason that people chose iPods over better competing products that were just as easy to use was because of Apple's brilliant marketing... and you reply with the slogan.

Case proved?

Graham

Um...the problem is that the competing products are not "better." The reason I respond with the slogan is not the marketing - it is that the slogan is correct.

I've used "competing" products at work for over 25 years, and Apple products at home for 20. I've learned two things from this experience:

1. The Apple products are ALWAYS easier to use than the PC products.
2. The Apple products ALWAYS cost more than the PC products, at least in the short run.

To me, these kind of products are better when you have to spend less time maintaining them and getting them to work right. It's not that Apple products don't have problems, it's just that they have a lot fewer problems.

And let me say, I'm enough of a geek that when my friends have problems with their electronic products (usually non-Apple products,) they call on me to fix them.

There's no denying what you say to the extent that you point out the brilliance of Apple's marketing. But it helps the marketers that they have brilliant products to market.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Graham

However, it's probably reasonable that some discussion of Apple vs Amazon takes place in this thread because the introduction of the Kindle Cloud Reader does have a bearing on the restrictions placed on the Kindle app on iOS.

Graham

I agree with this. It looks to me that the KCR is just another move in the dance of these two giants.

It seems to me that Amazon is gradually learning how to be Apple. For example, the remark about Apple customer service being so good can be countered by the observation that Amazon customer service seems to be even better, at least in my experience. And despite its defects, the Kindle strikes me as being pretty close to what an Apple EBR would be like. It will be interesting to see the 4G Kindles.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Um...the problem is that the competing products are not "better." The reason I respond with the slogan is not the marketing - it is that the slogan is correct.

I've used "competing" products at work for over 25 years, and Apple products at home for 20. I've learned two things from this experience:

1. The Apple products are ALWAYS easier to use than the PC products.
2. The Apple products ALWAYS cost more than the PC products, at least in the short run.

OK, I promised myself I'd stay out of this but can you put a big YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY sign on this post because it sounds like you're taking the fact that you think Apple products are easier to use and you're extrapolating from that that therefore they are easier to use [objectively, for everyone].

I may be a freak, but I do *not* find Apply products easy to use. When I went shopping for a smartphone, I sampled the iPhone and the Android Captivate at the same time, with zero previous exposure to either. I found the android system easy and intuitive and I thought the Apple phone was confusing and frustrating. (Partly from the lack of buttons -- the system/options menu on the Android phone makes perfect sense to me.)

I also vastly prefer Windows OS to Apple iOS, and yes, I've used both. When I was a kid, we owned a Mac for years, long before we owned Windows, in fact.

So please do not think that just because Apple is easier for you that it is therefore easier for everyone.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Harmon

There's no denying what you say to the extent that you point out the brilliance of Apple's marketing. But it helps the marketers that they have brilliant products to market.

Exactly.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Graham

But Apple's mp3 players are a classic case in point. Why on earth would the average user prefer these products that had poorer battery life, smaller storage capacity and poorer sound quality than well-known and often cheaper competing brands?

Regardless of the extra features, mp3 players from people like Creative and iRiver were just as easy to use, and there were plenty of stylish options so it wasn't pure style.

Apple make elegant products, but I do think that it's more their brilliant marketing that sweeps up the average user, not that the other products are only fit for geeks.

Graham

I owned an mp3 player in the pre-ipod days (a creative nomad), and it was easy to see why the iPod dominated - iTunes syncing. While I think that iTunes is getting kind of long in the tooth now, at the time it was far better than any alternatives. You didn't have to set up file systems, or drag and drop specific files you wanted; you just plugged your iPod into your computer and it would sync automatically. Plus it would charge your iPod.

It wasn't that the iPod itself was better than an iRiver or whatever; it is that the iPod plus iTunes, taken together, were much better than the iRiver and its system, later Creative products and their systems, Sony and their spectacularly horrible system, plus atrac...pretty much everything. The iPod was easy to use, and much more convenient to use than the competition; that's why the iPod was successful. Not marketing, although obviously Apple is good at that.

There were (and still are), audiophile and geek complaints from people who prefer a system with (slightly) better sound, or who want to manage their libraries manually, or who want other esoteric features. Apple does not cater to these people, presumably deciding that they would rather have the 80% of the market for whom the sound quality is quite good enough.

This is exactly the same reason why e-book readers didn't really take off until the Kindle: Amazon realized that it wasn't enough to have a good e-reader (Sony had that already); what you needed was both a good e-reader and an extremely easy way to put books on the reader. I think that Amazon was probably explicitly following the iPod model here - they gave you both a good e-reader and a seamless way to get content on the reader. B&N followed this plan as well...which is why Sony quickly fell to 3d place in US market.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

Yes that is exactly what I am seeing. The battery running down issue I sorted out and it was an unrelated thing, not KCR at all.

Still if I am unable to read a book offline the whole thing is entirely pointless for me.

I have uninstalled it, and tried reinstalling, and am getting the same error.