Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader now available for web-based ebook reading

Apple changed their in-app purchase policy and ebook vendors were forced to close their integrated stores. Rather than just direct you to the web browser to buy ebooks, Amazon created a web-based ebook reading experience where you can buy ebooks and read them in online or offline modes right from within the browser.

Check out my full ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer post for more details on this reading experience.

You are presented with a pop-up explaining how you are going to get books into offline mode by increasing download storage to 50MB, which should hold quite a few books.

As you step through the process you will see easy to understand directions and prompts for action.

Tap and hold on an ebook to choose to download it for offline usage.

A dialog box appears to show you download status. Notice at the bottom there is a tab for books that have been downloaded.

These two books have been downloaded and pinned so I can now read them without an internet connection.

This is a sample of the reading experience you get through the web browser.

While not all formatting options seen in the dedicated app are present, there are enough to make the experience decent.

You can jump to various parts of your book as well using this menu.

The Kindle Store looks great in the Kindle Cloud Reader and is fast and responsive.

You can browse titles and easily make purchases in the Kindle Store.

This is a screenshot of the Amazon Kindle application on the iPad so you can see the difference in options and the reading experience.

Kindle Cloud Reader gallery 1