Kindle for iPad app now optimized for new high-resolution display
Amazon has updated its iPad app just as the new iPad is hitting stores.
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One of the big benefits of the new iPad's high-resolution display is how sharp it renders text--and how good e-books and other text-based content looks on it.
Apple, of course, has already updated its iBooks e-reader app to optimize it for the new display. And now Amazon has introduced a new version of Kindle for iPad that's also optimized for the new iPad's display.
Amazon says that customers reading on the new iPad will "find crisper fonts and a new library view where covers look brighter and crisper than ever."
Amazon is also bringing over some of the Kindle Fire's user-interface features, allowing users to switch more easily between viewing their "local" content and content stored in the cloud (at the top of the home screen you now get "Device" and "Cloud" options). This feature is available for all iOS devices, including older iPads, as well as iPhones and iPod Touches.
The new app doesn't have links to buy content directly through the app but Amazon is encouraging folks to create a bookmark to www.amazon.com/kindlestoreforipad in their Safari browser to "easily launch the new touch-optimized store."
Amazon also notes that all of the new features launched in the last few months will still be available on Kindle for iPad, including the ability to open personal PDF files by opening them from Mail or Safari or sending them to the Amazon Cloud.
We expect that other major iPad e-reading apps (Nook, Kobo) will get updates shortly, but no word yet on just when that will happen.