Have Your Cake & Hear It, Too: New Audio-Video Enhancements in Kindle for iPad & iPhone Books Go Beyond the Birds and the Beatles

Reading ebooks on your iPad, iPhone or iPad Touch is getting more fun, full-featured, and interesting every day, and Amazon announced overnight that readers can now enjoy embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books on these Apple devices. The important thing about these enhancements is that this is not a matter of adding "How I wrote this book" or "Here's the room where I write" videos to popular novels, which I frankly expect will be a non-starter. Instead, Amazon is focusing on an interesting selection of books for which embedded audio and video could really make a difference in what you get out of an ebook, as with these examples:

• Together We Cannot Fail "brings [FDR] and his era to life like no other biography, combining the insight of noted historian Terry Golway with Roosevelt's own voice in audio excerpts from his most memorable speeches and chats."
• Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song  "presents the most notable North American birds, including the rediscovered Ivory-billed Woodpecker, with lavish full-color illustrations and accompanied by their corresponding songs and calls. Renowned bird biologist Les Beletsky provides a succinct description of each of the 250 birds profiled, with an emphasis on their distinctive songs."
• Best of the Beatles for Acoustic Guitar helps you "learn the trademark acoustic guitar elements of rock's most influential band. This audio/ebook by guitar dean Wolf Marshall provides in-depth analysis of 21 songs including: Across the Universe, And I Love Her, Blackbird Girl, Here Comes the Sun, Hey Jude, I Will, I've Just Seen a Face, Julia, Norwegian Wood, Rocky Raccoon, Till There Was You, Yesterday, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, and more. 
• Rick Steves': Venice 2010 "includes 4 Venice audio tours: Frari Church, Grand Canal, St. Mark’s Basilica, and St. Mark’s Square, presented in 63 audio clips, narrated by Rick Steves."
• Lullaby Baby by Audrey Ficociello features 50 well known lullabies with written lyrics and audio tracks and full-color illustrations.

Although some publishers have spoken of enhanced ebooks as if they might somehow justify prices in the range of current hardcover prices, Amazon has wisely priced these new offerings at $9.99. Here's the guts of today's Amazon press release:

Amazon Announces New Functionality for Kindle Apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touchReaders can now enjoy embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books on their iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch SEATTLE, Jun 27, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced a new update to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. The first books to take advantage of this new technology, including Rick Steves' London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway, are available in the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.
"We are excited to add this functionality to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch," said Dorothy Nicholls, director, Amazon Kindle. "Readers will already find some Kindle Editions with audio/video clips in the Kindle Store today--from Rose's Heavenly Cakes with video tips on preparing the perfect cake to Bird Songs with audio clips that relate the songs and calls to the birds' appearances. This is just the beginning--we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps."
"We are truly excited to have collaborated with Amazon to launch Kindle Editions with audio/video," said Peter Balis, Director, Digital Content Sales, Wiley. "Innovations like these represent the advantages that digital can offer. Advancing our content in this manner is important for our authors and our readers and it will raise the bar on what digital reading can offer for years to come."
"In the new Kindle Edition with audio/video of Rick Steves' London, the embedded walking tours allow customers to listen to Rick as they explore the sites of London," said Bill Newlin, publisher, Avalon Travel. "Rick's narration adds depth to the reader's experience, while listeners can follow the routes more easily with the text."
Kindle Editions with audio/video are available now with the latest Kindle App on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Kindle for iPhone is now optimized for iPhone 4's retina display. For more information, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindleapps.

iBooks App Slips as Kindle App Jumps in the iPad App Store

By Stephen Windwalker
Editor of iPad Nation Daily
Originally posted May 8, 2010

Related posts:

In Thinking About Google Books, the Kindle, and the iPad, How About a Little Reality?

at Teleread: Don’t diss Stanza and people who love e-books, Jeff—including us iPad owners

Click here to have posts like this one from iPad Nation Daily pushed directly to your Kindle 24/7 with a free 14-day trial from the Kindle Blogs Store

See updated status report below.

Could this be a watershed moment?

Apple's iBooks Store has just fallen from the top rung among free iPad Apps in Apple's Top Charts listing. Beatweek Magazine called attention to the iBooks' slippage, in which it has been supplanted an utterly lovely ambient app called Pocket Pond (see screen shot at the right, but it is just the beginning). As the screen shots at the end of this post attest, Pocket Pond is the new #1 free app for the iPad, iBooks has fallen to #2, and the Kindle Store has climbed from the mid-20s to #13 in recent days.


Naturally, after all we have heard about iBooks during the past three months, most of us iPad owners were eager to download it for free and try it out. The reading environment is very nice for indoor reading, but iBooks has a long way to go to compete in the ebook content marketplace when it comes to selection, prices, user-friendly search/sort/browse features, and access to a critical mass of reader ratings and reviews.

The flip side of these shortcomings and the obvious likelihood of comparison with the 2 1/2 year old granddaddy of all ebook readers may be among the reasons why the iBooks fall is juxtaposed with the Kindle app's rise, but they are not the only reasons. As the three ads on a single web page in the screen shot at right suggest, however anecdotally, Amazon is investing plenty in making sure that iPad owners and enthusiasts are aware of the ease with which they can download the Kindle for iPad app free in a few seconds to gain access its 512,000 ebook offerings, at a mean price that's about half the mean price of the iBooks store's comparatively meager array catalog offerings.

Of course, snapshots are just snapshots, and it remains to be seen what the long-term trends will be. I'm finding the iPad a terrific place to read Kindle books, listen to free Audiobooks and paid Audible.com books, and read free Internet Archive texts in ePub with the Stanza for iPhone app (even after the departure of Stanza fountainhead Neelan Choksi from Stanza.Amazon.com yesterday). Stanza doesn't show up in the iPad rankings because its app is designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch and has not been optimized for the iPad, but it remains prominent in the smaller devices' app store ebook-related rankings and may still be the best way for an iPad owner to access over two million texts that are available from the Internet Archive, to say nothing of 12 million titles that may be available in the sweet bye and bye from Google Books.

Update: As of 7 pm ET May 9, 2010, 24 hours after the original post, the iBooks App has moved back to the #1 Free Apps position in Apple's TopCharts sales rankings, but the Kindle app continues to climb and has passed a Solitaire app and the Dictionary.com app to move into the #10 position.

Amazon Releases Kindle for iPad App Ahead of Schedule!

When hundreds of thousands of iPad owners switch their iPads on for the very first time this weekend, they will have immediate access to nearly half a million books in the Kindle Store.

Contrary to earlier reports indicating that the Kindle for iPad App would not be immediately available with tomorrow's iPad release, Amazon announced this evening that the App is now available in the Apple Apps store.

For the prospective iPad owners among us who have already been ordering Kindle books and reading them on our Kindles and Kindle Apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, PC, Mac, or Blackberry, this is very good news because it means that we'll have immediate access to all those books on our iPads.

Click here for full download instructions. 

Details -- and actual user experience -- to follow!

Here's the news release that Amazon put out moments ago:

Amazon.com Announces Kindle App for iPad

Free App for Reading Kindle Books on iPad Gives Readers Choice from over 450,000 Titles
SEATTLE, Apr 02, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced its Kindle App for iPad is now available in the App Store. The app lets users select from over 450,000 books from the Kindle Store on iPad and features Amazon Whispersync technology that saves and synchronizes customers' last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, iPad, and more.
"Kindle for iPad includes all the features customers love about Kindle for iPhone, including a massive selection of over 450,000 books, along with a beautiful new user interface tailored to the look and feel of iPad," said Jay Marine, director, Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for iPad is the perfect companion for the millions of customers who already own a Kindle or Kindle DX, and a way for customers around the world to download and enjoy books even if they don't yet have a Kindle."
With the Kindle App for iPad, readers can choose from over 450,000 books available in the Kindle Store, including new releases and New York Times Bestsellers, plus tens of thousands of the most popular classics for free including titles like "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Treasure Island." Bestsellers such as "Backlash" by Aaron Allston, "Big Girl" by Danielle Steel, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot, and "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown, and hundreds of thousands of other popular books are $9.99 or less in the Kindle Store. The Kindle Store is the only place to find tens of thousands of books added to the Kindle Store by authors and publishers using Kindle's self-service platform. Customers can search for a specific book or browse by genre or author, and can take advantage of all the features that customers enjoy in the Kindle Store, including Amazon.com customer reviews, personalized recommendations and editorial reviews.
Features of the Kindle App for iPad include:
* Automatically Syncs with Kindle and Kindle Compatible Devices: Amazon's Whispersync technology automatically syncs customers' last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad, and more. Customers can read on their Kindle, read some on their iPad or Mac, and always pick up where they left off.
* Beautiful User Interface: The Kindle App user interface is tailored to the large size, look, and feel of iPad. The new user interface with bold colors, animation, and seamless user experience make Kindle on iPad a unique reading experience.
* Customizable Appearance: Customers can choose to dim iPad's screen within the app to make reading easier regardless of the ambient light or time of day. Readers can also choose from three different background colors and alter the font color and size to customize the reading experience and help ease the strain on their eyes.
* Page Turn Animation: Kindle App for iPad offers an interactive experience with page turn animation designed to replicate the look of a page turning in a book. Customers who prefer a simpler, unadorned reading experience can choose the "Basic Reading Mode" option and turn off animation.
The Kindle App for iPad is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore.
For more information please visit: www.amazon.com/kindleforipad.