Kindle for iOS 3.9 released

What's New in Version 3.9?

• Kindle Free Sample Search - From the existing Library Search, customers can now search Amazon's catalog of millions of Kindle books and download free samples from within the app. New books are easier than ever to find.
• Bring Your Own Dictionary - Customers can now use previously purchased Dictionaries, such as medical, legal, or other translation references to define words in any of their other eBooks. Dictionaries downloaded to the device automatically appear in the selection list.
• Accessibility Quick Reference - Accessibility gestures for blind and visually impaired customers are included for quick reference and can be found under the FAQ section in settings. The guide has been translated for all supported languages.
• Instant Cover Loader - Book cover art displays quicker and more fluidly.
• Bug Fixes/Stability Improvements

Link: iTunes

[tubemonkey]

Although Apple stopped Amazon from including direct purchasing links inside the Kindle app for iOS, Amazon has now come up with a clever workaround for avoiding Apple’s 30 percent fee: free book samples within the app. Kindle users can now search for and preview books on an iOS device, and the Kindle app offers the option to send a purchase link via email at the end.

That 30% fee for in-app purchases is utter nonsense.

[Nate the great]

The app also gained a feature not mentioned in the changelog: KF8 support
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...onary-support/

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That 30% fee for in-app purchases is utter nonsense.

Yes, Apple should be providing all that infrastructure for free and out of the goodness of their heart.

I get that Amazon wants to keep all the profits themselves, but Apple's business model of you charge what you want, but if you charge, you pay us 30% is hardly nonsense. Most iPad developers are more than happy with it. Amazon just wants to have their cake and eat it too.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yes, Apple should be providing all that infrastructure for free and out of the goodness of their heart.

I get that Amazon wants to keep all the profits themselves, but Apple's business model of you charge what you want, but if you charge, you pay us 30% is hardly nonsense. Most iPad developers are more than happy with it. Amazon just wants to have their cake and eat it too.

Except Apple didn't provide any infrastructure to the major ebookstores, and frankly it wasn't possible for Apple to do so. At best Apple's systems supported the sale of a few thousand items in-app, not tens or hundreds of thousands or the millions needed for an ebookstore.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yes, Apple should be providing all that infrastructure for free and out of the goodness of their heart.

I get that Amazon wants to keep all the profits themselves, but Apple's business model of you charge what you want, but if you charge, you pay us 30% is hardly nonsense. Most iPad developers are more than happy with it. Amazon just wants to have their cake and eat it too.

And don't forget that Amazon gives the publisher only about 30% or so on each book sold but keeps the rest. So if Apple wants to stiff Amazon for 30% that still leaves the a$$holes with 40%, which is more than the publisher/author gets. That is really darn good money for Amazon considering they don't do a darn thing to earn it other than allow the author to list their books. (Well at least in my case, I think I get about 30$ from the sales.)

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by jswinden

And don't forget that Amazon gives the publisher only about 30% or so on each book sold but keeps the rest. So if Apple wants to stiff Amazon for 30% that still leaves the a$$holes with 40%, which is more than the publisher/author gets. That is really darn good money for Amazon considering they don't do a darn thing to earn it other than allow the author to list their books. (Well at least in my case, I think I get about 30$ from the sales.)

In what world does Amazon get 70%? OK, yes for some self-pubbed stuff if it doesn't fall in certain pricing categories yes (like the $0.99 books), but with Agency 30% was Amazon's cut of the sale, not sure how much that's changed with new contracts while coming off Agency, but it certainly didn't go from 30% to 70%. They've never gotten that much from main stream publishers.

[LupaSola]

I downloaded the update and a dictionary sample, but I didn't see an option to add the dictionary as the default dictionary. Is that because it was a sample? I'm hesitant to buy a $10.00 if it won't work.

[HarryT]

You needn't be; you can return any ebook for a full refund within 7 days of purchase.

[LupaSola]

Thanks for the reminder about that! I will surely try it! I'd really like to have a Merriam-Webster dictionary instead of the Oxford, especially because of the respellings.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LupaSola

Thanks for the reminder about that! I will surely try it! I'd really like to have a Merriam-Webster dictionary instead of the Oxford, especially because of the respellings.

Does the Kindle App not have the "Oxford Dictionary of American English" that the "real" Kindle does? That has American spellings.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Except Apple didn't provide any infrastructure to the major ebookstores, and frankly it wasn't possible for Apple to do so. At best Apple's systems supported the sale of a few thousand items in-app, not tens or hundreds of thousands or the millions needed for an ebookstore.

Apple provides the infrastructure for the app store. The ebook reader is an app. Apple does not get a percentage of ebooks sold by Amazon via their ebook store. It does get a percentage of all apps sold in the Apple app store. It also gets a percentage of all in app purchases from within the apps, since in-app purchases is a way for "free" apps to make money. Most app developers are very, very happy with that.

Amazon just released version 3.9.1 calling it a "stability and performance" update.

[LupaSola]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Does the Kindle App not have the "Oxford Dictionary of American English" that the "real" Kindle does? That has American spellings.

The Oxford Dictionary does have English respellings, but they are more complicated than the respellings in the MW. I have memorized the MW respellings, so prefer to use a MW dictionary.

[HarryT]

Can you give an example of a "more complicated" spelling? I'm interested to know what the difference is.