Whether or not you own a Kindle, you can now read Kindle books on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

To do this, you will need to first download the  “Kindle for iPhone  application” from the iPhone App  store to your iPhone or iPod touch..

Here’s how…

1. Tap the App Store icon on the home screen of your iPhone or iPod touch.
2. Do a search for “Kindle for iPhone” or choose it from the alphabetical list of applications.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to install.
4. Tap the Kindle for iPhone icon that now appears on your iPhone or iPod  screen to launch the Kindle for iPhone application for the first time.
5. Log in to you Amazon.com account and your iPhone or iPod touch will be registered.

You can now access your Kindle library of books store at Amazon if you already have one.

If you don’t already own a Kindle, chances are you don’t have a Kindle library at Amazon, so you will need to build one.

To do this you will  need to…

1. Visit the Kindle store, from your computer, choose the book you want,   go to the the product detail page, and click the “Buy now with 1-Click” to buy.
2. Next choose the iPhone application as your download device and your  purchase will be completed and automatically sent to your iPhone.

If you already own a Kindle and have a Kindle book library your amazon account, you are ready to download any of the content to you iPhone or iPod touch from the library.

Note:  The key here is to make sure that your iPhone or iPod is registered at amazon.com…by registered I mean that you are logged-in to your amazon account from  you iPhone or iPod touch …or you registered it the old fashion from your computer.

So why is this cool?
For a couple of reasons. First you don’t have to own a Kindle to read books on your iPhone or iPod touch  and second, you have access to all the 240,000 plus…books at the Kindle store.

What if you already own a Kindle?
That’s even better. You can download the contents that you already bought for that Kindle to the iPhone or iPod at any time.

You can also make your purchases from you Kindle and have them delivered to your iPhone or iPod touch.

You can also synchronize both device so that you don’t loose place in your reading if you read a book on one device and you have to switch to another.

You can download content to any device you choose at anytime. All you have to do is make sure both devices are registered to your account.

What about the quality of the content on your iPhone/iPod?
I don’t have an iPhone at this time so I have not tried it…but I suspect that the quality may not be that great, since this is a totally new idea.

I personally cannot imagine reading a book on such a small device as the iPhone or iPod touch…and I do wonder how  the battery will hold up for page turns.

…and what about newspapers, magazines, or blogs? …there is  no mention of access to that content…which simply means that perhaps there is none.

I am quite sure there are a lot of questions to be answered about this new  iPhone/iPod touch/Kindle application which incidentally was launched yesterday March 6th…so it is brand new…but the point is we will find the answers to all these questions as we go along.

Of course we will keep an eye on the  feedback given by those who’ve actually tried the application and see where that leads.

One of the “kool” features of the iPhone is that You can customize the layout of icons on the Home screen. And that of course include the Dock icons that are sitting at the bottom of the screen. Here’s what you can do:

You can Re-arrange icons
Here’s How:

1. Touch and hold any of the Home screen icons until it starts to wiggle.
2. Drag the icon to where you want to place it on the screen.
3. Press the Home button to fix and save the new arrangement.

You can add links to your favorite websites To the Home screen

1. Create additional Home screens by dragging an icon to the right edge of the screen until a new screen appears.
2. Return to the original screen by flicking back, then drag additional icons to the new screen.

- You can create a total of up to nine screens. The number of dots above the Dock is equal to the number of Home screens you have created. The hi-lighted dock tells you which Home screen you are on.
- Also, Instead of flicking (to the left or right) to switch Home screens, you can tap to the left or to the right of the row of dots above the Dock.

If in the end your are not satisfied with your Home screen layout, you can reset it to the default layout. Simply do the following:
1. Choose Settings
2. Select General
3. Press Reset
4.Tap Reset Home Screen Layout

…and you are done.

The Price is Right but what’s the Catch?

I always wanted an iPhone, but was not willing to pay $400 for it. So when the price dropped to $199, I thought it was the perfect time to buy…my goal? To see if this much talked about device would live up to the hype. All those captivating features: touch-scroll-zoom-rotating screen, music, video, internet browsing, email access, navigation system, scrolling contact list, etc., do they really work? There was only one way to find out…get one. The timing was right and the price ($199) made sense…so for me it was time to buy.

I logged on to Apple.com , credit card in hand, ready to buy only to be redirected to an Apple retail store (AT&T Store). Apparently AT&T have some kind of agreement with Apple which gives them the right to be the sole distributor of the iPhone in the US…bomber! they have Monopolized the darn iPhone!

I mean there is no other mobile phone distributor in the country authorized to sell the iPhone…AT&T have completely decimated the competition. Can you believe it? I couldn’t. Yes, you may be able to get an iPhone (probably unlocked) at Ebay.com, but at what price?…and What does this mean for the customer? it meant they have very few choices. Whatever AT&T throws at them, they have to accept. I was furious, but still went to get one at a nearby retail outlet.

To get the phone, I had to agree to a two year contract, mandatory internet data plan, and optional SMS texting. The cost? – connection fees, prorated charges for days leading up to first billing cycle, plus other miscellaneous charges which I don’t even understand. I didn’t care, I just closed my eyes and got the phone… Within a week, I was slammed with a $200 plus bill…

Since I wasn’t expecting my monthly cost to be that high so fast, I made the decision to either keep the iphone and pay a high monthly bill, or return it, wait out the Monopoly, and get another at a later date. I chose the latter. I kept the iPhone for a month, tried out all the features then returned it. I have to admit, it is a really nice phone with some awesome features. I loved it. I have tried a few imitations including CECT 168 and it doesn’t even come close. Getting rid of the iPhone was really hard for me.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this phone re-define mobile phones and is worth having at the right price.

At this point, I will wait a while and see what happens…I know I may be waiting for a while because AT&T is going to milk this cash cow for all it’s worth before the competition comes in…but I have time.

In the meantime, I will consider other options. Perhaps I will travel overseas and get one that is unlocked. Several other countries offer the iPhone with less restrictions. AT&T’s tentacles are too short to reach beyond the boundaries of US soil.

As of now, I have learned what I need to know about this phone firsthand. If future upgrades occur that’s worthy of my attention, I will get my hand on another. That said, If you decide to get one now, I would say, “go ahead.” Just be willing to pay the price.