Everything iPad

Information on Amazon’s plans to get their Kindle app onto the iPad have emerged, with the bookseller demonstrating their software to the NYT together with releasing screenshots of what the tablet UI will look like.  According to Amazon’s Ian Freed, VP of Kindle, the company’s software team “have actually developed a tablet-based interface that redesigns the core screen and the reading experience”; their site suggests you can change fonts and background color to reduce eye-strain.

They’ve also been working on making the app more playful, with an animated book browsing view the wallpaper of which varies according to the time of day.  Whispernet sync will also be supported, meaning you can pick up reading on the iPad where you left off on your Kindle or any of Amazon’s other software versions.

“The Kindle app for the iPad, which Amazon demonstrated to a reporter last week, allows readers to slowly turn pages with their fingers. It also presents two new ways for people to view their entire e-book collection, including one view where large images of book covers are set against a backdrop of a silhouetted figure reading under a tree. The sun’s position in that image varies with the time of day.” NYT

The NYT piece also reveals that Barnes & Noble have dedicated 14 developers to the creation of their own iPad app, which has been in progress since January.  Like the Kindle app, it will allow readers to customize fonts and colors, use gestures for navigation, and potentially include multimedia content depending on deals with publishers.