It's happened to all of us at some point: a violent accident or catastrophe separates you from your PC, smartphone, and Kindle e-reader just as you're about to find out what really happened between Karrine Steffans and P. Diddy. All you have is a Chromebook, a reliable internet connection, and an insatiable hunger for Hollywood gossip. What do you do? Well, as of this morning, you turn to the Kindle Cloud Reader. Following hot on the heels of the company's Cloud Player for music, the HTML5 web app supports both Safari and Chrome for PC, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS, and Safari for iPad. And it's every bit as full-featured as the mobile and desktop apps -- including off-line reading -- which means you can truly "buy Confessions of a Video Vixen once, read everywhere," as Bezos is fond of saying.

Of course, the beauty of an HTML5-based iPad app is that it circumvents App Store restrictions, which in this case means you can finally buy your books from within the app itself. This offers a much smoother experience than having to switch to Safari and log into amazon.com every time you want to buy a book. Then again, it might be nice if Apple had let Amazon create the iOS app they wanted to build in the first place -- but that's a discussion for another time.

Source: Kindle Cloud Reader

Introducing Kindle Cloud Reader

Read over 950,000 Kindle books in your web browser – no download or installation required

Based on HTML5, Kindle Cloud Reader optimizes for the platform you’re using and automatically stores your latest book locally for offline reading

Instant Books – no waiting for a download, start reading the book immediately, offline or online

SEATTLE – August 10, 2011 – (NASDAQ: AMZN) – For over two years, Amazon has been offering a wide selection of free Kindle reading apps that enable customers to "Buy Once, Read Everywhere." Customers can already read Kindle books on the largest number of the most popular devices and platforms, including Kindles, iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, PCs, Macs, Android phones and tablets, and BlackBerrys. Today, Amazon.com announced Kindle Cloud Reader, its latest Kindle reading application that leverages HTML5 and enables customers to read Kindle books instantly using only their web browser – online or offline – with no downloading or installation required. As with all Kindle apps, Kindle Cloud Reader automatically synchronizes your Kindle library, as well as your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights for all of your Kindle books, no matter how you choose to read them. Kindle Cloud Reader with its integrated touch optimized Kindle Store is available starting today for Safari on iPad, Safari on desktop and Chrome at www.amazon.com/cloudreader.

"We are excited to take this leap forward in our ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere’ mission and help customers access their library instantly from anywhere," said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle. "We have written the application from the ground up in HTML5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser. The flexibility of HTML5 allows us to build one application that automatically adapts to the platform you’re using – from Chrome to iOS. To make it easy and seamless to discover new books, we’ve added an integrated, touch optimized store directly into Cloud Reader, allowing customers one click access to a vast selection of books."

Features of Kindle Cloud Reader include:
- An immersive view of your entire Kindle library, with instant access to all of your books
- Start reading over 950,000 Kindle books instantly within your browser
- An embedded Kindle Store optimized for your web browser makes it seamless to discover new books and start reading them instantly
- New Kindle Store for iPad is built from the ground up for iPad’s touch interface
- Your current book is automatically made available for offline use, and you can choose to save a book for reading offline at any time
- Receive automatic software updates without the need to download new software
- Select any book to start reading, customize the page layout to your desired font size, text color, background color, and more
- View all of the notes, highlights, and bookmarks that you’ve made on other Kindle apps or on Kindle
- Sync your last page read across your Kindle and free Kindle apps so you can always pick up where you left off

Kindle Cloud Reader is available for Safari on iPad, Safari on desktop and Chrome starting today. Kindle Cloud Reader on the iPad is optimized for the size and unique touch interface of iPad. Without even leaving the app, customers can start shopping in the Kindle Store and will find a unique and immersive shopping experience built specifically for iPad’s Safari browser.

Kindle Cloud Reader will be available on additional web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, the BlackBerry PlayBook browser, and other mobile browsers, in the coming months.

Amazon.com customers can start reading their Kindle books immediately using Kindle Cloud Reader at www.amazon.com/cloudreader.