Amazon has launched the long-awaited iPad app for its renting and buying video service, Amazon Prime Instant Video. With the software, tablet owners gain access to over 120,000 videos on the Amazon Instant Video store and can download TV shows and movies they previously purchased or rented for offline viewing. Prime Instant Video titles can also be streamed when connected to the Internet. In addition, users can pick up where they left off on other supported devices, including PCs, Macs, TVs, Blu-ray players PS3s and Kindle Fires. Those subscribed to a TV Season Pass will automatically get episodes on their iPads the day after they air.
A Prime account can be obtained at an annual fee of $79, with no extra cost for downloading or streaming. Amazon also offers discounted overnight shipping as well as free two-day shipping on almost every item available in its digital store. The offerings also include thousands of on-demand streaming TV shows and movies and Kindle Books.
A couple of days ago, the company also upgraded its Cloud Player, adding a matching feature similar to Apple’s iTunes Match, which is a very welcomed and long-awaited enhancement. Previously, Amazon’s cloud service required users to upload their entire music library, which could take hours or even days for some music lovers with huge collections.
Weighing in at 15.6MB, Amazon Instant Video can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store. The app is incompatible with iOS versions earlier than v4.3.
