Amazon Kindle Application Development Tutorial – Part 1

Hello All.

hope everything is good.

From last few weeks i’m working on an application development of Amazon Kindle, an ebook reading device by Amazon. In my last post i introduce to you kindle device. Now its sdk is also available for custom applications. I’m probably the first in my region who is working on kindle. So as per my bad habit, i’m going to share what i have learned so far. So from today i’ll post 2, 3 tutorials covering basic concepts regarding application development on kindle platform.

Note : This tutorial is a part of my series of tutorial on Amazon Kindle Application Development. So far we have discussed following topics in this category.

• Amazon Kindle :: An Introduction
• Amazon Kindle Tutorial – Part 1 :: Basic Concepts
• Amazon Kindle Tutorial – Part 2 :: Setting up Your System For Amazon Kindle
• Amazon Kindle Tutorial – Part 3 :: Kindle Application Lifecycle

As its mid night, i will try to be concise and will focus mainly on key points. But i assure you as developer you will quickly get what you EXACTLY need to know… more details i will post in next tutorial. So as a tradition of my blog, have a cup of tea/coffee, sit relax in chair and for few min just forget everything around you. Read the rest of the post and get what you actually want to learn; in a simple  and quick way.

i’m going to explain some very basic concepts first. then in later post will move to actual development process.

Orite lets go .. few general things need to know in start

• Kindle was basically an ebook reading device by Amazon. You can download books from Amazon, subscribes to blogs and can read contents on your kindle device.
• Kindle as application is also available for iPhone. You can install that app from AppStore and can use same features provided by standard kindle device.
• Then Amazon launched beta sdk for kindle platform; let the developer community to develop application for kindle device. Many application has been developed including games, productive apps etc. The kindle kdk team is continuously intouch with all developers and taking their platform to much more mature state by having feedback/suggestions.
• In this series of tutorial, we will learn how to develop application for kindle platform using kindle skd. We will test them over its simulator and then run over device.

Orite now something related development perspective.

• First of all, congratulations, kindle development is java based so thumbs up , take a relax breath and have little smile .. yesss that’s the way  🙂 …  (don’t forget to take sip of tea/coffee)
• As there is java development, me like many other developer community suggests you should use eclipse IDE for your development. Eclipse no doubt the best tool currently available. Here I’m not going to tell which features it provides else I need few years to tell everything in details. As we have already used eclipse for our Android and blackberry application development, so again I will prefer to use eclipse.
• The kindle sdk provides a simulator for testing your application. Though you can fully test your creativity over there but as a matter of fact you MUST need to run it over kindle device before submitting to your client or to launch publically. I used kindle that was cost nearly $150 (though it wasn’t mine at all)  so if you wish you can have your own kindle else test it over simulator 🙂

Thats all from today’s lecture. In the next part I will describe how to set development environment on your system to start applications for kindle.

have good time.

Aasim Naseem

I’m an engineer by profession, a blogger and a photojournalist by hobby. Seasonal writer at LAFZ Media UK. I write on different topics and things around us. Contact me at +971.56.126.8842 or Aasim.Naseem@outlook.com