Kindle Cloud Reader

[DianaB]

Amazon’s Answer To Apple’s Terms: A Web-Based Kindle Cloud Reader — Brilliant On PC, Better On iPad

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/09/kindle-cloud-reader/

Amazon has quietly launched a new web app called "Kindle Cloud Reader" that allows Chrome and Safari users to access their Kindle eBooks through their browsers. The Cloud Reader also supports the iPad version of Safari, giving Amazon a workaround to Apple's new subscription rules requiring any in-app sales to go through Apple's purchasing system.

[tubemonkey]

What!? No Firefox!?

[arcadata]

The Kindle Cloud Reader app looks great though on Google Chrome, I'll try it out on Safari later on. There's a real handy Kindle store button on the upper-right side of the reader too

[leebase]

Happy to be able to read my kindle books on my computer. Not that I plan to do that often, but it is a nice thing. On my iPad/iPhone, I'll continue to use the kindle app.

When you click on the "Kindle Store" button in the web app...it takes you to the regular ol' Amazon kindle store website. The same site I've used all along to buy my kindle ebooks. I still don't see the "big deal" about having that button removed from the kindle app. It's no trouble to fire up safari and type in amazon.com

Lee

[SensualPoet]

Very, very nice looking html-5 based browser reader running on Windows 7 under Google Chrome. Slick, fast, synced reading experience to enhance the Kindle eco-system.

Bravo. Job well done!

[mldavis2]

Call me a luddite, but I'm not into this "cloud" stuff. It gives someone else far too much control over my reading, and my data, not to mention that servers do fail -- read the headlines from yesterday where the entire Amazon network was offline in Europe. It also clutters up bandwidth which is becoming more and more apparent as my internet connection download speeds continue to fall on my DSL from my ISP as people use it for streaming movies and all manner of bandwidth intensive use. I've complained to no avail and my download speeds are about half what they were when I signed on a couple of years ago...too slow for net streaming HD for sure.

I'll take my chances with my own backup systems "in house" and avoid relying on some unseen corporation in the "cloud" for my data, information and security.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Call me a luddite, but I'm not into this "cloud" stuff. It gives someone else far too much control over my reading, and my data, not to mention that servers do fail

In this particular case, I think these concerns are less valid than in general. Amazon already has this data - the books that are available are those that you've bought from Amazon, not ones that you upload.

In addition, books can be downloaded to read offline, so if the servers go offline, you'll still be able to read your book. Admittedly, you won't be able to download a new one to read, though.

Personally, I like it and have installed it on my copy of Chromium. The thing I really like about it is that it runs on Linux

Russ

[wooorm]

Anyone here that has experience with SQlite 3?

The books you've viewed on the Cloud Reader seem to be saved as .db files in:

Users/(Name)/Library/Safari/Databases/https_read.amazon.com_0

There also seems to be a .localstorage file in file, but its small, and something else. Its located here:

Users/(Name)/Library/Safari/Localstorage

All those files seem to be SQlite3 files, with a text encoding i cant get a handle on. I do recognise some things tho: <div> Tags, some words, the ASIN of the book, but theres a lot of gibberish to...

any of you do?

[misling]

Woorm: what about books you've 'downloaded' to 'read locally'? ad-hype says you can do that.
Also what about books you have 'open' in the browser? are they in the browser cache somewhere or the temporary internet files location? Possibly that would be a different format. I would expect them to be encrypted somehow or other, just to enforce the DRM.

[jocampo]

Brilliant!

Wonder what will be next Apple's move, block Amazon IP ports or addresses? lol ...

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Call me a luddite, but I'm not into this "cloud" stuff. It gives someone else far too much control over my reading, and my data, not to mention that servers do fail -- read the headlines from yesterday where the entire Amazon network was offline in Europe. It also clutters up bandwidth which is becoming more and more apparent as my internet connection download speeds continue to fall on my DSL from my ISP as people use it for streaming movies and all manner of bandwidth intensive use. I've complained to no avail and my download speeds are about half what they were when I signed on a couple of years ago...too slow for net streaming HD for sure.

I'll take my chances with my own backup systems "in house" and avoid relying on some unseen corporation in the "cloud" for my data, information and security.

I think you missed the point.

Your Amazon books are there already. This is another way to read those.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by misling

Woorm: what about books you've 'downloaded' to 'read locally'? ad-hype says you can do that.
Also what about books you have 'open' in the browser? are they in the browser cache somewhere or the temporary internet files location? Possibly that would be a different format. I would expect them to be encrypted somehow or other, just to enforce the DRM.

I just tested turning my wifi off.

I am able to read the downloaded book on my iPad but of course, I can't browse my collection.

So for reading a book, there is no additional bandwidth I believe. The data or ebook file is being kept locally.

The question is .. will this be the beginning of the end for Kindle on iOs? Because I must admit, Kindle for iOs is a very mature and nice app. A browser is a very clever idea, but limited on some aspects anyway. On Kindle for iOs I can even use the dictionary while being offline. I don't see a dictionary using web browser alternative.

[wooorm]

Originally Posted by misling

Woorm: what about books you've 'downloaded' to 'read locally'? ad-hype says you can do that.
Also what about books you have 'open' in the browser? are they in the browser cache somewhere or the temporary internet files location? Possibly that would be a different format. I would expect them to be encrypted somehow or other, just to enforce the DRM.

1: Yes, you can read them "locally", but thats just the information saved offline (the html, the css, the javascript, etc. i think). All that information is saved (i guess) in a .db file (000000000000000b.db for me). When i downloaded more books for offline use, that file grew bigger.

The books you have open will indeed, probably, be cached somewhere, although i have no idea where that would be. Although i doubt the DRM part...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by wooorm

When i downloaded more books for offline use, that file grew bigger.

Officially the Kindle Cloud Reader will cache up to 50MB of files on the host device.

[wooorm]

Liza Daly just tweeted this:

Kindle Cloud reader uses jQuery, Web SQL db, appcache - just like us. Has same 50 MB storage limitation on Safari that @ibisreader does.

and

They're storing complex datastructures in SQL as JSON objects, so the DB schema is simpler than ours.