Amazon launches Kindle cloud reader, bringing back iOS access

Apple recently instituted new rules preventing any developer from linking to their own store within an iOS app. This new rule directly impacted Amazon who linked from their Kindle app directly to the Kindle store to allow users to purchase books from their device. With that no longer being an option Amazon decided to introduce Kindle Cloud Reader.

Kindle Cloud Reader is a browser based application allowing users to read their books in a browser, including the one on the iPad. The other currently supported browsers include Chrome and Safari. There still isn't support for Firefox or the iPhone browser but one can imagine that support will be built in soon.

ADVERTISEMENT

The way this business works is that Amazon renders the book in HTML5. Users can also download the books for offline reading which is a nice feature if you are an iPad user who doesn't want to pay for 3G and doesn't always have wireless access.

Beyond just rendering your books for browser viewing, Kindle Cloud Reader also easily allows you to purchase new books. I played with this on my iPad, in Safari, and in Chrome and it feels like a native app you would download for your device. Buying books and viewing them is seamless and pulling down books to read later works just as advertised.

I'm a very heavy user of the Kindle app both on Android and on iPad and was definitely bummed when I could no longer purchase new books right from my tablet. This is a nice, clean, solution that gives me back the functionality I was so desperately missing. The best part about all of this is that it's built right into a browser, so there isn't anything Apple can do to block this. Go Amazon go.

ADVERTISEMENT

Do you use the Kindle app and did you previously buy books from your iDevice? Let us know how you feel about the Kindle Cloud Reader in the comments.

No posts to display