Thursday, September 20, 2012

Example: Kindle App


Tagline:
The Amazon Kindle App takes your favorite books and allows you to access them on your tablet, phone, and computer. 

The solution to your book reading problems:
Have you ever had a book that was too large to carry around? Or, have you ever left your book at home during a weekend trip? Well the Kindle App solves all of those problems. After you purchase a book from the App Store, you can access it via your tablet (various tables are supported), your cell phone (Android, iPhone, and Blackberry), or even your computer! All books are pushed into the cloud and can be accessed anywhere.
Have you ever lost your place in a book? Well the Kindle App sync's your location (as long as wifi is available) and will carry across every device. You can also take notes on a certain part of the book, highlight words, and define words.   

Why I love this app:

I love the Kindle App because of the convenience it allows in my life. I can download books for class, which are usually cheaper, and access them anywhere. I also enjoy the Kindle App because it allows me to send documents to a special kindle e-mail address and the document will show up instantly across all of my devices (as long as wifi is available). The Kindle App also creates a unique user experience when using it on an iPad. If you turn on "Page Turn Animation" the pages will give a similar page turn effect that you receive when reading a real book.

Competing Apps:
Nook and iBooks are both apps that compete with the Kindle App. One downfall with the iBooks application is that it is limited to only the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. If you currently own an Android phone and an iPad, if you buy a book on your iPad using iBooks you will not be able to access that book on your Android phone. If you want to read the book on your computer, you will not have that option. The nook has similar capabilities, but the user interface isn't as friendly as the Kindle App.

How It Works:

First, you have to log-in to your amazon account via the web in order to purchase books. After you've completed that, you can access the books on the app using the cloud. If you want them to be available offline, download them to your device and you can read them later. To highlight, tap and hold on a word in the text then drag the blue handles to select the text you want, then tap Highlight. If you want to add notes to your book, select a relevant bit of text using the technique described to highlight then tap Note in the pop-up; write in your note, which will be synced to all your Kindle apps and devices. To define words tap and hold on just one word and a definition pops up on the screen. If you don't have a dictionary installed, the app will prompt you to download one for free, and we recommend you do. To check the progress of your reading you can tap on the centre of the screen to show or hide a range of icons and controls 'Äì such as this one that shows you how far through a book you are. You can grab this little slider to move forward or back. One of the great things about the Kindle App is that you can search them. Can't remember quite where a fact was or when a character said something in particular? Tap and search! If you read something you think your friends and followers would enjoy, highlight it here and then you can share it on Twitter and Facebook. Once you start doing this you'll love this feature!

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