Amazon has been busy the last week beefing up the capabilities of their universal iOS Kindle app, as well as making sure the Mac edition arrives safely in the new Mac App Store.
Macworld is reporting that Amazon has updated their universal Kindle app for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad to version 2.5, which finally takes advantage of iOS 4 multitasking (including background downloading of titles) while adding support for “millions of free and out-of-copyright books from Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive and other online sources.”
The ability to add supported files that weren’t purchased on Amazon.com is perhaps the biggest new feature of Kindle 2.5. In order to “side-load” your own compatible e-book files, you can tap on them from within Safari or Mail on your device or use the file sharing feature of iTunes to transfer files to the Kindle app in the same way you do other apps.
“In terms of file compatibility, it appears that the Kindle app's support matches that of the Kindle hardware itself,” reports Macworld. “It supports the Mobipocket format (files ending in .mobi and some files ending in .prc), but not the more common ePub format” -- which means you’ll have to stick with iBooks or another third-party app for your ePub-formatted e-books.
Kindle 2.5 for iOS also features improved image zoom, a new book indicator and of course, bug fixes. The app also wears an updated icon, which removes the word “Amazon” and replaces it with simply “Kindle” -- perhaps to avoid confusion with the Amazon Mobile app.
Meanwhile, Kindle for Mac has snuck onto the Mac App Store last last week, as noted by TUAW. The free app can be installed over an existing copy if you have one on your hard drive, but when you open the Mac App Store version and enter your Amazon.com credentials, it will be registered as a new Kindle device -- you’ll want to head to the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon website to remove the original Kindle for Mac registration first before you sign in on the MAS version.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
