Kindle Cloud Reader

The Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader (Free) stashes your Kindle library in your web browser. Built on HTML5, Cloud Reader replicates much of the UI polish customers expect from Amazon's mobile apps, sans-install. For now, the site only runs in Google Chrome and Apple Safari, but, thanks to Safari's desktop and mobile flavors, you can read from a MacBook Pro as easily as you can an iPad 2. Most importantly, because the service is cloud-based, there's no downloading or re-downloading from device to device, though you can cache texts for offline reading. Cloud Reader does ask users to sacrifice some app luster for browser reading: the site doesn't support notes, text search, or full-screen reading, and there are still some syncing issues to smooth out.

What it does have?and why, I think, Cloud Reader exists?is integration with Amazon's Kindle Store. Since Apple instituted new rules that require companies with in-app purchases fork over 30 percent of sales, Amazon, like Vudu, has dodged the Apple tax by removing store links from apps and creating a full-featured mobile site (why else, after all, would they target Safari and Chrome, which, together, comprise only a fraction of the browser market). The result is an imperfect experience, a site that lacks the polish of an app but enables mobile customers to buy content and browser-loving desktop customers to experience their Kindle libraries without installing software.

Two Choices
At the moment, Kindle Cloud Reader has limited browser support?you can only browse via Safari and Chrome (both WebKit-based browsers, coincidentally), which, at last count, leaves about 80 percent of the market in the dark. If, in fact, you try and visit the site from FireFox, Internet Explorer, or Opera, you'll encounter the message: "Your web browser isn't supported yet. Download Chrome or Safari below." Because the sign-in is grayed out, your Reader experience ends there.

Caching Texts

Whether you're using Safari or Chrome, you'll be prompted to run an extension installer to cache books for offline reading: In Chrome, its an extension that pins a "Cloud Reader" shortcut to your app screen; in both desktop and mobile Safari you consent to expanding your database size from 5 to 50 megabytes. Allowing either extension to run is up to you: If you're using a laptop or mobile device, caching makes sense; however, if you're using a desktop with fixed Internet access, you may have little reason to localize texts from Amazon's cloud.

If you do run the extension, you'll have the option "Download & Pin Book" when right-clicking (control-clicking on a Mac, hold-tapping on an iOS device) a book cover. Doing this will save a text for offline reading, identify it as cached via a green tack in your library, and copy it to your "Downloaded" tab. If you're using Safari mobile, as soon as you open a text it automatically begins caching, though it won't get the green tack treatment unless you manually specify "Download & Pin Book."

The Library

Once you're signed in, by default your library sorts by recent additions. In my experience this related to the most recently accessed. For example, I began by downloading Ben Franklin's Autobiography and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both free). Even though I download Autobiography after Holmes, once I opened Autobiography, it re-sorted to top of the list. If you have a more extensive library, you may prefer sorting by author or title or even toggling from book cover to list view.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/3xu8XiAAqnM/0,2817,2390839,00.asp

kraft foods jersey shore italy va tech ipa ipa darius miles darius miles