Amazon ’s new Kindle Cloud Reader , announced Wednesday and usable now atread.amazon.com , is a Web - based interface to Amazon ’s Kindle ebook store , unadulterated with the power to read Quran within a web browser app . Using HTML5 and related technologies , Kindle Cloud Reader is n’t just for browsing books when you ’ve got an Internet connection : It can even store books on your twist for offline reading .
I ’ve been a Kindle customer for a couple of years and have a raft of experience with using physical Kindle hardware as well as the Kindle apps for iPhone and iPad ; here ’s a hand - on look at where the young HTML - based Kindle Cloud Reader shines and where it lags behind the Kindle iPad app .
It works on your computer, too
Kindle Cloud Reader on a Mac . Click to enlarge .
reportage of the Kindle Cloud Reader has mostly concentre on how it behaves on the iPad — and with good reason . But it ’s important not to miss the fact that Kindle Cloud Reader works on Safari and Chrome , too . That mean you could read Kindle books on jolly much any Mac or PC . ( Kindle Cloud Reader does n’t crop on the iPhone . )
That ’s not bad , but if you ’re going to do a lot of reading material on your Mac , you ’re probably better off downloading the free Kindle for Mac app , since it offers many more text and formatting options . On a screen background web browser app , the Kindle Cloud Reader lets you choose from five different margin breadth and five dissimilar font sizes ; the native Mac app offers 12 dissimilar font sizes and something like 20 different margin widths .
Kindle Cloud Reader on a Mac. Click to enlarge.
Still , Kindle Cloud Reader seems like a heavy option for people who are using a shared estimator , perhaps at a school computer research laboratory , since it gives you access to all your Kindle volume without having to install any software .
Installing the web app
It ’s intemperate not to consider the Kindle Cloud Reader as Amazon ’s attempt to rule a elbow room onto the iPad in a way that bypasses Apple ’s restrictions on app development . Recently Amazon ’s Kindle app was updated to remove a tie-in to the Kindle Store because Apple mandated it ; the only financial transactions leave within iOS apps must practice Apple ’s leverage system , which Amazon ca n’t expend due to the fiscal model of the ebook clientele .
As Steve Jobs himself has said on many social function , Apple volunteer two tract for developers to put content on the iOS — via the curated App Store experience and via the completely open earth of HTML5 - based vane apps . With the release of the Kindle Cloud Reader , Amazon is now doing both .
One of the advantages aboriginal apps have is that they ’re well-heeled to find oneself : plunge the App Store app , type Kindle , and in a few seconds you ’ve downloaded and deploy the Kindle app on your iPad ’s home screen . Adding the Kindle Cloud Reader is a morsel more complicated .
Kindle Cloud Reader on a Mac. Click to enlarge.
First , you have to open Safari and visitread.amazon.com . Amazon will call for you to lumber in with your Amazon.com exploiter name and word , and then you ’ll be prompted to authorize an increase to the amount of data Amazon can store on your iPad — essentially carving out 50 MB of space to download book for offline reading .
At this gunpoint , the best matter to do — and I ’m surprised Amazon does n’t in reality step you through the process — is tip the Share ikon in Safari ’s toolbar and choose Add to Home Screen . This will produce a new Cloud Reader icon on your iPad ’s home screen , complete with custom icon . Tap on it , and Kindle Cloud Reader will load again — this clock time without any web - browser app interface trappings . ( It ’ll even show up in your inclination of running apps when you bivalent - rap the home button . ) alas , you ’ll need to sign in to Amazon.com again and authorize the offline information storage a second time .
Compare and contrast
Though the home - screen icon and lack of browser app chrome makes the Kindle Cloud Reader feel like a native iOS app , there are still some notable difference .
A tale of two home screen : the aboriginal app ( result ) and the web app ( rightfield ) .
Everything in the web app is a little irksome , a short less responsive . But it ’s still a remarkable emulation of the app experience . Like the native app , there ’s a home screen full of book covers — by default option the Kindle app evidence you the item on the machine ; the Kindle Cloud Reader shows you all the Word useable to your business relationship . Scrolling through the Word covers is not as unruffled as scroll in the native app , nor does it feature the intertial - scroll effect that founder scrolling in an app that superfluous something . Taps are sometimes not registered , or are register much later than you ’d expect .
A tale of two home screens: the native app (left) and the web app (right).
To salt away a volume for offline admittance , take Download and Pin .
To scan a book in the Cloud Reader , just tap on its cover art ; while tapping in the Kindle app will download the entire book to your twist , the Cloud Reader vane app will start load the leger over the Web and display it right away . To store a book topically on your gadget in the Cloud Reader , you must tapdance and hold on its binding , then tap “ Download & Pin Book ” from the ensue pop - up menu . To see all books that have been downloaded , you tap on the download tab at the bottom of the screen .
The reading experience in the two apps is quite standardised , but here there are some notable divergence , too . In both interfaces , you’re able to tap on the screen for toggle the display of various reading controls , include text preferences , a link to the book ’s table of contents , and a slider that lets you jump anywhere in the book . The web app expose the pitch-black bar at the top of the iPad ’s filmdom at all time , showing you the time , your battery status , and wireless connectivity , while the aboriginal app only displays that selective information when you rap to reveal the various varlet controls . The web app displays most of its menu option via a toolbar that strike down down over the top of the Thomas Nelson Page , while the options on the iPad app fade in seamlessly over clean space .
To store a book for offline access, choose Download and Pin.
The reading interface in the native app ( left ) and the connection app ( right field ) .
The text options are more special in the Cloud Reader app : you could choose from five schoolbook sizes , while the iPad app gives you six to opt from . ( Both apps rent you opt from black , white , and mahogany people of colour schemes . ) Most of the books I read in the aboriginal Kindle app feature film justified textbook , but some of the books in the Cloud Reader app appear to display with a ragged right margin . One book I tested , Paolo Bacigalupi’sShip Breaker , appear justified in the native app and ragged - rightfulness in the web app , which I really ca n’t explain . The native app can show book schoolbook in two separate columns when you rotate the iPad into landscape fashion ; the Cloud Reader will only show you a single , wider column .
In the native iPad app , you could tap or swipe to change Page . The same gesture work on the Cloud Reader web app . The only remainder is in what happens as you make those gestures : the iPad app shows an living of one page sliding away and another slide in ( and in fact , moves the page right under your finger if you choose to swipe from one page to the next ) . The web app offers no such animation — the fresh page just appears .
The reading interface in the native app (left) and the web app (right).
Amazon allows Kindle users ( in both its iOS apps and on its dedicated Kindle devices ) to highlight passage in books and make notes about the school text . you may even opt to see passage that were highlighted by other readers . The Cloud Reader does n’t bear out this feature , though its toolbar features a button that countenance you take in any note and crisscross you made elsewhere .
I noticed some lag and delays in the Cloud Reader app as I used it , specially when impress from chapter to chapter . It appears that the tool is doing some very clever thing with caching and return portions of a book , perhaps one chapter at a clip .
In general , the web app reading experience is pretty good . If I did n’t have the aboriginal iPad app to equate it to , I ’d declare it serious . But it ’s not as responsive or still as the native app .
Two screens from the Cloud Reader version of the Kindle Store: the main screen (left) and a detail page.
Buying books
If there ’s one position where the Cloud Reader has it all over the native iPad app , it ’s in buying record . Even before Apple involve that Amazon remove the Kindle Store button from the Kindle app , buying books on the iPad was a suboptimal : you still had to use Safari to sail through the standard Amazon.com website until you find the book you wanted to buy .
Two screens from the Cloud Reader variation of the Kindle Store : the main screen ( left ) and a detail pageboy .
On the home projection screen of the Cloud Reader there ’s a Kindle Store button , but it does n’t do what the old iPad app did . or else , it open a Kindle Store interface right within the Cloud Reader . This is n’t the Amazon.com web site for PCs : it ’s plan with a tablet in mind , right down to a row of swipable book covers at the very top . You ’ve got ready approach to various book list , and there ’s a search loge to get any other book you ’re wait for .
And here ’s the estimable part : Once you determine you need to buy a volume , you tap the Buy button . That ’s it . You ’re already lumber in to Amazon.com , so if you ’ve bugger off 1 - clack ordering turned on , tapping Buy will immediately buy the record . One more water tap and it ’s open . It ’s instantaneous satisfaction on a level that user of the Kindle storage on the iPad have n’t gotten before .
It ’s a pity this kind of experience ca n’t be integrated in the native iOS variant of the Kindle app , but Apple has made it clear that it wo n’t allow that , so here we are .
The choice
Now Kindle users have a alternative when it comes to the iPad . The native Kindle app launch in the App Store is smoother , faster , and offers more flexibility . The Kindle Cloud Reader , at least in this first iteration , show some of the limitations of swear on internet technologies . No , it ’s not as good as the aboriginal app — but it ’s still pretty good , and will undoubtedly get better . And when it comes to grease one’s palms Christian Bible , its attractive and merged Kindle Store is immensely superior to the no - help approach force on Amazon ’s native app by Apple ’s App Store guidepost .
I ca n’t really commend that Kindle users on the iPad deck the native Kindle app for this young Kindle Cloud Reader — at least not yet . Certainly most non - technical users are going to keep searching for the native app in the App Store and install it from there . But the Kindle Cloud Reader bear see : It shows that while native apps have the principal for now , web apps are coming on strong .
[ Jason Snell is Macworld ’s editorial director . ]
