How to move all your Kindle books to your iPad

If you've invested a small fortune in Kindle books you'll be glad to know you can read them on an iPad as well. Amazon offers a Kindle app for the iPad, similar to their iPhone app, but with the big screen in mind. These apps use Amazon's Whispersync technology to synchronize your location in each book across all devices, so you don't have to remember where you left off! All of this requires an Internet connection, of course, so make sure your iPad is either linked up via wifi or the 3G network.

Start by downloading the Kindle app on your iPad. You'll then need to register the iPad with Kindle, which is a very simple process where you provide your Amazon ID and password. Once you've registered the device touch the "Showing" link at the bottom of the iPad app screen. You'll see a choice of either "Home" or "Archived Items". Choose "Archived Items" and you'll see a list of all the Kindle editions you've bought. Then you simply touch one cover after another and Amazon will load the books onto your iPad. You'll probably discover the iPad-loading process is faster than the original Kindle download process, especially if you're using wifi on your iPad (which is faster than Amazon's Whispernet service for your Kindle). Once you've selected all the books you want, touch the "Showing" link at the bottom of the iPad app screen again but this time select "Home". The screen should now show all those Kindle books you downloaded and you should find each opens right to the page you left off on them with your Kindle.

There are a few drawbacks with the Kindle's iPad app though. First of all, you can only use it for books. If you're hoping to move your magazine and newspaper subscriptions from the Kindle to the iPad you're out of luck. Second, you can't use the iPad app to look at samples from books. This is pretty short-sighted on Amazon's part. I have a lot of samples on my Kindle that I'm still considering buying but I can't check them out through their app. They're pretty much daring me to buy them in the iBookstore instead, which is silly. Also, you won't find features like the dictionary in the Kindle iPad app. Again, Amazon needs to step up and implement features like this or they're just encouraging all of us to abandon them as an ebookseller and move to the iBookstore.