Customer Reviews

Kindle for Android

5 star:		(202)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(38)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(110)

 

 

I don't own a Kindle, but have been using the Kindle app to read e-books on my cell phone ever since the program was released and absolutely love it. I have since also installed it on my rooted B&N Nook Color, and enjoy it even more.

This is a very convenient way to read since the program offers very stable performance, allows extensive customizations (such as changing font size and screen brightness), and remembers where in the book you last left off. I frequently use this program in the subway, it is great for when you want to relax but you don't have a cell signal to run some other programs.

The real benefit of reading through the Kindle app as opposed to some alternatives is that the checkout process is lightning-fast. You can also frequently get free books for Kindle, so not only am I able to read more conveniently, but more cheaply, too!

I am currently running it on my Droid 2 Global running Froyo (2.2), and have had no problems. While you can't download onto a tablet or AT&T phone through the Amazon Appstore yet, you can get this through the Android Market on those devices.

I have the kindle & this app is great. It doesnt always sync to my kindle & you cant save to wishlist but you can read in the dark which you cant do with the actual kindle b/c its not backlit.

(12 of 12 people found this review helpful before I rewrote it with intent to improve. Please let me know if you still find this helpful.)

Generally speaking, this Kindle reader compares well to the competition and appears to work better than the Nook. It's features are probably just about everything a fiction reader could want, including easily accessible options to adjust the display to your liking (font size, colors, etc.), as well as to navigate, search, bookmark, and create notes.

For non-fiction study and learning (e.g. studying a book on stock trading), it lacks important features (detailed under Cons, further below).

For all readers, the Android version of this app has two problems (one with Whispersync, and the other with Archiving books; see details under cons).

Cons for users who switch between devices:

1. Whispersync problem. If you switch between devices like I do (for me, it's between the Motorola Xoom and my iPhone), the Whispersync feature is very important. It tells Amazon the furthest point to which you've read. If you later want to pick up your reading on another device, the Kindle app will prompt whether you want to go to the "furthest read" point within the book. This is an invaluable feature, but it fails way too often, and without any way to fix it. (Examples: i. you accidentally click a Table of Contents link that takes you far into the book or to its end, as I have done by accident, ii. you click a superscript that takes you to the index, and the app fails to give a back button, then proceeds to mark the index as your "furthest read" point.) This feature has failed on my a number of times, and there is no way to reset the "furthest read" point. From then on, it becomes very tedious to page through a book and find where I left off each time I switch devices.
SUGGESTION to Amazon: A simple "Set current location as 'furthest read'" option would resolve this issue.

Cons for all users:

2. Unlike my iPhone's Kindle app, the Motorola Xoom app does not show which page you're on. Instead, it only reports how far you are into a book as a percentage.

Cons for non-fiction readers who study to learn:

3. Cannot name bookmarks.
4. Cannot categorize/group bookmarks and notes. A folder system (just like that used for web browser bookmarks) would be great --but one collection per book; not a global (multi-book) collection. Of course, ability to re-organize --versus being stuck with the initial organization-- would be important as well.
5. Unable to archive free books. The iPhone has an Archive option, whereas the Android app does not; instead, it provides a Delete option. Archiving on the iPhone puts any book (whether it was free or not) into the Archive. In the Android version, choosing to Delete a book (whether it was free or not) results in a "Archiving book" message being shown briefly. Afterwards, if the book was a paid book, it will show up in the Archive; if it was a free book, it will disappear altogether. I spent hours downloading lots of classics last night (books by Plato, Aristotle, the founding fathers, Thoreau, etc.), only to discover that if I want to free up my Library (current reading) space, I have to delete them altogether from the app; they are now archived on the iPhone, but if I want to read them on my Xoom, I will either have to leave them in my current reading space (Library) forever, or return to Amazon's store to search for them each time I want to read or reference them and hope that they're still available.

I used to love this app. I worked well, synced easily with my kindle, and was convenient when I found myself with a few unexpected minutes to read.The update that came out yesterday was supposed to just change the permissions. Instead it swelled the app to 25.75MB and it takes up way too much of the memory on my phone. I had to uninstall the app. Please fix,or make the old app available. I miss this app. It used to be 5 stars, now it's 1 only because I can't give it none.The app takes up mose space that Flashplayer and Maps combined.

The newest update for Kindle takes up almost 30MB of memory space on my phone. Also, it cannot be moved off to my SD card. Additionally, permissions changed inexplicably. Uninstalling until these issues are resolved.

When I don't bring my kindle with me I love having this ap for my droid X. A little bit small but I don't have problems reading it and I love that you can change the background to either be black or white. Perfect reading ap for phones!

At first, I didn't know how I would like reading an electronic book, but when I got an Android phone, I decided to test the Kindle app. It is awesome! Some of the highlights for me are:

1. Take an entire library with you wherever you go. I hate waiting and reading keeps me occupied.
2. Instant gratification. I want that book now. No problem!
3. Read in bed without annoying your significant other with the light on.
4. If you have the Kindle app on multiple devices, it will sync to where you left off last.
5. Don't know the meaning of a word, click on it to get the definition instantly.
5. The highlight and note taking features are also cool. You can to back and search your notes.

The one thing that I don't like is that when I zoom in on charts or graphs in the book, it gets larger, but is totally blurred so I can't read and since I do most of my reading on my phone, that sucks. I am not sure if that is a Kindle issue or a publisher issue.

If you reduce the screen brightness too far, brightness goes OFF. You will then be unable to change it back because everything on the screen is black. Restarting kindle, restarting android,clearing cache, none of these get back the picture, so now I'm forced to uninstall and reload the app.

I read on my Xoom for a couple of hours every day and this latest update freezes on the intro screen! I'm deployed and now my one source of entertainment is gone because of the update. Please, please fix this so I can read the books I've paid for.

Folks, it's a COMPANION to Kindle. It doesn't have all of Kindle's features because it's meant to be used on the go when you don't have your Kindle with you. however, I can see some value in the prospect of having a more full features version for tablets. But for smartphones? Totally unnecessary.