Amazon has announced its Kindle app for the iPad, which includes features such as a full-colour display, optional page-turning animation, and the company’s Whispersync technology, which synchronizes the app with other devices (such as a computer, iPhone or BlackBerry). However, the New York Times reports that the new Kindle app won’t be available until shortly after the iPad’s U.S. launch on April 3, as Amazon wants the chance to actually test it out on the device before releasing it.

In typical Apple fashion, a shroud of secrecy surrounds the details of its new tablet computer, and only a handful of companies “ including Major League Baseball, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times “ have access to a pre-release version of the iPad. And those who do have access to the device must agree to keep the iPad hidden from public view, chained to tables in windowless rooms, according to the Times. Companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which are both creating apps specifically for Apple’s newest device, must use special Mac software that mimics the iPad. From the Times:

At the offices of Barnes & Noble’s digital unit in New York, 14 developers have occupied a windowless room since January, completely redesigning the company’s iPhone app for the iPad, according to Douglas Gottlieb, its vice president of digital products. The developers hunch over Macs around a big table, and printouts and notecards are taped up on the walls.