Amazon has released an update to the popular iPhone Kindle app. Version 1.1 allows us to read in both portrait and landscape modes. Also available in the update is the ability to “lock” the mode so that the screen doesn’t rotate when you don’t want it to.

Other new features include:

• Turn pages with a tap
• Zoom in on images with a “pinch”
• Change the text and background color combinations to suit.

Add all these features to the fact that Amazon recently iPhone purchases easier and the acquisition of Lexcycle (the company behind another free e-book app, Stanza), and you’ve got another great platform to keep you reading on the go.

This is a really smart move for Amazon because, let’s face it, we can’t always carry our Kindle or Kindle DX around where ever we go, but we almost always have our phones. This focus on the platform rather than the product should carry Amazon a long way.