Amazon Kindle SDK (KDK): First looks
24-Jan-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
Last week,
Amazon announced that they will be
releasing an SDK for creating Kindle
Apps. I
know that three days before the big Apple
Tablet/Slate/Canvas announcement, I’m supposed to
be getting ready to tabletize my app, but the idea
of developing for the Kindle
is looking kind of
interesting.
Given that the beta isn’t out yet -- there isn’t a lot of information about the KDK yet. However, there have been some successful hacks of the Kindle and Amazon was forced by the GPL to publish their modifications, so we do know some things:
is looking kind of
interesting.
Given that the beta isn’t out yet -- there isn’t a lot of information about the KDK yet. However, there have been some successful hacks of the Kindle and Amazon was forced by the GPL to publish their modifications, so we do know some things:
- The Kindle runs Linux
- Kindle GUI’s are written in Java
- There will be three models of apps, free, one-time purchase, and subscription. The first two will have a monthly bandwidth cap of 100KB/user.
- Advertising is listed as something you can’t do -- perhaps they mean an app that only advertises, but even so, why not? Mobile advertising is large part of the app ecosystem, so I assume in-app advertising will be allowed.
- A generic reader is not allowed -- again, does this mean a PDF reader wouldn’t be allowed? I can see Amazon not wanting the 3G being used to buy from other stores, but why not let me read content I get from other means (or from subscription apps).