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Amazon updates Kindle for iPad, iPhone/iPod touch with video and audio

By | June 28, 2010, 2:31am PDT

Summary: Amazon has sweetened up the Kindle application that runs on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch with some extra multimedia support.

Amazon has sweetened up the Kindle application that runs on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch with some extra multimedia support.

The latest version of the Kindle app, which is available for free in the iTunes app store, will allow for the support of embedded video and audio clips. So that includes stuff like hearing random bird calls to some awesome extras like an on-scene tour with Rick Steves’ Rome guidebook.

This seems like a great step in making e-reader apps (and e-book readers themselves) more exciting and better learning tools with more features to take advantage of. Clips will have to be small in size though, depending on the target gadget’s hard drive space. Hopefully Amazon expands this to more titles soon as well, as only 13 titles are tagged with ”Kindle Edition with Audio/Video” at the moment.

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Apple iPhone, Audio, Apple iPod, Apple iPad, Amazon.com Inc., Video, Apple iPod Touch, Corporate Communications, Digital Music, Digital Media, Marketing, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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JLHenry 28th Jun 2010
@Thod

The value of this mainly in the Educational market, just imagine what textbooks could be! They've been talking aobut this kind of work for awhile, but I still doubt it will cause the death of the dedicated reader.

As I've said before, I don't think the Reader market will EVER be huge, but there are people like myself that actually read books that don't have pictures, illustrations, etc., and as such we don't need all the gizmos and gee-williker thingys that come with an all-in-one device. I CAN see however, an upgrade to a color device coming (if you really want pictures . . .).

If you think about it, an E-book Reader is mainly for novel, or non-fiction books like poly-sci, autobiographies, etc. You COULD use it for Textbooks, but that whole market is about ready for a tech overhaul anyway, so I hesitate on saying that either this OR the iPad will be the ideal device for that. The future only knows on that one.
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The irony of it
Thod 28th Jun 2010
This happening just a week after long and heated discussions about the end of the ebook only reader.
This isn't the end of the Kindle or the Nook - but it is one tiny step more in the direction.
Time will tell if these features will be used (and people will buy them) in the future.
It will be interesting to watch if this fizzles out or if some great books will come out in the near future using the new capabilities.
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I can see . . .
JLHenry 28th Jun 2010
@Thod

The value of this mainly in the Educational market, just imagine what textbooks could be! They've been talking aobut this kind of work for awhile, but I still doubt it will cause the death of the dedicated reader.

As I've said before, I don't think the Reader market will EVER be huge, but there are people like myself that actually read books that don't have pictures, illustrations, etc., and as such we don't need all the gizmos and gee-williker thingys that come with an all-in-one device. I CAN see however, an upgrade to a color device coming (if you really want pictures . . .).

If you think about it, an E-book Reader is mainly for novel, or non-fiction books like poly-sci, autobiographies, etc. You COULD use it for Textbooks, but that whole market is about ready for a tech overhaul anyway, so I hesitate on saying that either this OR the iPad will be the ideal device for that. The future only knows on that one.

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