Syncing with your iPhone or iPod Touch

This morning I awoke to stories in the New York Times, Gizmodo and other publications about the release of the application for the iPhone and Touch so that digital books may be purchased from Amazon for these devices. The app is just called Kindle and may be found in the iTunes store. After downloading and opening the app, it asked for the e-mail address used with Amazon and for my Amazon password. After entering these, it listed all of the books I have purchased for my Kindle, alphbetically by title. I selected one which I have been reading, and it downloaded it to the Touch and opened the book at the page where I had stopped reading on the Kindle. You need to have Whispernet turned on for it to do this. You advance from page to page on the Touch or iPhone by swiping sideways. Later, I opened the book on the Kindle and a box popped up telling me my present location and asking if I wanted to sync to the farthest location read. If so, you just click the 5-way. This is quite ingenious on the part of Amazon, even though I expect to do very little reading on the small screen. The Kindle is easy on my eyes and a backlit screen is not. However, now we shall see how all the people feel who said they really didn't need a Kindle—they could read just fine on their iPhone. Maybe so, but not for long periods of time. Anyway, they will now have lots more e-books available for purchase.

Under Manage your Kindle on Amazon, my Touch is now listed and Amazon knows its serial number. It would be a good idea to deregister if you lose your device, just as you can deregister your Kindle.