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No Kindle Required: The Importance, Limitations and Capabilities of the Kindle for Mac App

By Stephen Windwalker
Originally posted at Kindle Nation Daily 3.18.2010



Click here to download the Kindle for Mac app

Related posts:


This morning’s Amazon announcement, that the long-awaited Kindle for Mac app is now available for free download in over 100 countries, continues Amazon’s impressive and relentless expansion of the Kindle Revolution. While others gush about reports that (after over a year of waiting for an Apple tablet) there may have been 120,000 iPad pre-orders on the first pre-order day last Friday, today’s New York Times reports, as had been widely rumored previously, that the Kindle has a 90 percent market share for ebook content. And every month the number of devices capable of running the Kindle software grows by the tens of millions.

To put a bit of a finer point on that “No Kindle Required” phrase in the headline above, there are four times when a person might want to use the Kindle for Mac app or another Kindle device app:

  • Before you own a Kindle. Using these Kindle Apps will give you are great introduction to the selection and pricing available in the Kindle Store while you decide which Kindle, if any, is for you.
  • While you own a Kindle. Whether you’re someone who enjoys being able to grab 15 minutes to read at your office Mac or PC, or you want to get a better look at a Kindle book’s pictures, tables, or charts, the Kindle for Mac app will give you a large-screen full-color reading environment, that dependent on your vision and the quality of your screen, may be more user-friendly than you’d expect.
  • After you own a Kindle. If you were worried that you would lose your Kindle digital library in the event your Kindle were lost, destroyed, or otherwise checkmated, these Kindle apps are a guarantee that you would always have access to your Kindle books, unless, of course, you outlive Amazon.
  •  (If you believe you are in that latter category, of course, you may find that this entire blog is annoyingly reality-based).
  • If you are never going to own a Kindle. Who needs a Kindle? If you don’t want to buy a Kindle, but you own a Mac, a PC, a BlackBerry, an iPhone, an iPod Touch or, soon, an iPad, you are good to go in the Kindle Store.

As we’ve been saying for over two years, the most important long-term focus of Amazon’s Kindle initiative is to sell ebooks, to replace the sales of books that Amazon would have lost regardless of who develops and advances the inevitable ebook revolution. Selling Kindles is just a sweet by-product that enhances Amazon’s bottom line while also allowing Amazon to sit at the head of the table when it comes to defining important ebook feature set. The fact that Amazon may have achieved a 60 percent ebook device market share by selling over 3 million Kindles in the past years puts the company in a very, very strong position, especially when combined with free wireless connectivity, unmatched catalog and pricing, and the fierce loyalty and reading and book buying practices of Kindle customers. But Amazon has now succeeded in making Kindle software and store access available free, with no Kindle or other device purchase necessary, for well over a billion computer and smartphone users worldwide. When 1 percent of those people start using free Kindle Apps, it will quadruple the current installed base of Kindle devices.

I’ll leave it to the business pundits, at least for now, to analyze whether the extension of the Kindle store and reading app to tens of millions of other devices amounts to a Trojan Horse or the latest example of Amazon’s Big Tent strategy in which nearly every adversary is turned, even if kicking and screaming, into a revenue partner. For now, let’s focus on the capabilities and limitations of the Kindle for Mac app, which are pretty much the same as the capabilities and limitations of the Kindle for PC app.

For starters, here are the current Kindle device apps, all available for free download:

In the pipeline, we think, are Kindle device apps for

  • the iPad
  • some Microsoft smartphones and tablets, 
  • the Dell Streak or Mini 5, 
  • the Droid, Nexus One, the Android platform generally,
  • some Palm devices,
  • other dedicated ebook readers, and
  • wouldn’t this be the coup de grace? the forthcoming Fisher-Price iXL for kids.

Let’s be clear that we have no idea at all what the timetable will be for any of these, but my guess is that the order of march will be something like that of the above list.

The two primary features missing from the Kindle for PC app are also missing from the Kindle for Mac app, but this sentence from the Amazon news release (emphasis added) makes it clear that they are on the way: 

“Several features will be added to the Kindle for Mac app in the near future, including full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights.” 

For now, you’ll be able to bookmark a document with the Kindle for Mac app, and you can view any notes, highlighting, and bookmarks that you create directly on your Kindle.

A Few Other Noteworthy Features

  • Using the Kindle Whispersynch technology, your Kindle for Mac app and other Kindle device apps will synch and keep your place between the various devices on which you are reading a Kindle book
  • You can shop in the Kindle Store, of course, directly from your Mac or PC, but even better, you can also download free Kindle samples directly to the Kindle for Mac or PC app, read the sample there, and make a buying decision.
  • These Kindle apps for the Mac and PC are great ways to read and view ebooks that are rich in graphics or tables, or documents such as cookbook recipes or sheet music, either in color or black and white.
  • While we wait for Amazon’s promised accessibility enhancements for the Kindle, it’s worth empasizing that the Kindle for Mac app features a range of 10 different font sizes.

A Few Limitations and Caveats

  • Be aware that any devices to which you download a Kindle book count toward the limits that some publishers set on simultaneous device usage (scroll down to a Product Details on a Kindle book’s detail page to see if there is Simultaneous Device Usage field before buying)
  • As mentioned above, full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights are not yet available with the Kindle for Mac and Kindle for PC apps.
  • Like the Kindle itself, these apps do not yet feature the kind of folders- or labels-based content management system that Amazon has promised for the first half of this year. It will be interesting to see, when this system is rolled out, the extent to which an analogous system is available for the apps.

Free Book Alert: How to Access Millions of Free Books in Seconds from Anywhere in the World with Kindle for Mac or PC App

By Stephen Windwalker
Originally posted at Kindle Nation Daily 3.18.2010


Click here to download the Kindle for Mac app

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The new Kindle for Mac App, like its predecessor Kindle App for the PC, provides a seamless, elegant way to download Kindle content legally from a variety of free internet services and websites.

You can then read the material directly on your computer with the Kindle for Mac or PC app, which is a great option especially for material that is beyond the graphic-rendering pay grade of a 6″ Kindle display. The Kindle for Mac or PC App also provides a terrific gateway to your Kindle, with the help of your Kindle’s USB connection to your computer. Here are the basic steps, to be followed with a list of free content sites and services:

  • First, of course, you will need to make sure that you have downloaded the Kindle for Mac app here and registered it to your Amazon account.
  • Next, go to any of the free sites and services listed below, such as the Internet Archive page for a graphic-intensive title from 1941 called The Art of Caricaturing.(Note: some sites may include files that may require conversion through Amazon.)
  • Click on the appropriate link to download a Kindle, .AZW, or .MOBI file to your computer. In this screenshot, you would click on the “Kindle (beta)” link in the lower left corner.
  • When you see a download dialogue box like that shown below, choose “Kindle for Mac” as the application with which you wish to open the downloaded book, and check the box at the bottom so that your Mac will automatically open such files with the Kindle for Mac app in the future.
  • The newly downloaded book should appear in your Kindle for Mac display, and be represented on your Kindle for Mac Home screen, within seconds. 
  • You will then be able to move any downloaded book of your choosing seamlessly to your Kindle simply by connecting your Mac (or PC) to your Kindle via USB cable and transferring the downloaded book to your Kindle’s “documents” folder either by dragging and dropping it with your mouse or copying and pasting it with the usual Mac or PC commands.
  • For some of the services listed below such as the Project Gutenberg Magic Catalog and Feedbooks, you can make the process even more seamless by downloading and opening the service, just like you would open any Kindle book, from within your Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC app and clicking on a selected title to begin an immediate download to your computer.

Here’s a listing of free content sites and services that should be compatible with your Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC.

Read and Save Your Kindle Blogs with Kindle for Mac, Kindle for PC, or Other Kindle Apps

By Stephen Windwalker
Originally posted at Kindle Nation Daily 3.18.2010


Click here to download the Kindle for Mac app

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The new Kindle for Mac App, like earlier apps for the PC and other devices, allows you to download the latest edition of any Kindle edition blog to which you are a subscriber so that you can read it on your computer and keep it there as long as you like. This is a great way to save blog posts for future reference or research — or simply, in the case of blogs other than this one, because of their great literary quality. It can also be useful if there is a blog post that is full of useful links to which you want to return from time to time, because using Kindle for Mac or the other apps to click on any link in a blog, periodical or ebook will seamlessly take you to the destination web page without closing the Kindle App.

Ordinarily a Kindle edition blog is updated with each new blog so that you have a revolving snapshot of (up to) the 25 latest posts, but when you download a blog’s snapshot to your Kindle for Mac or PC you get to keep that snapshot with your Kindle for Mac or PC Home screen for as long as you wish, and even maintain multiple snapshots of any given blog.

It’s an easy process, and here are the steps. (Unfortunately, for those of you who are thinking along with me at home, this feature is not yet available for Kindle subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.)

Kindle for Mac – It’s Out and Available for Free Download Now!

By Stephen Windwalker
Originally posted at Kindle Nation Daily 3.18.2010


Click here to download the Kindle for Mac app

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The Kindle for Mac is now available free, internationally, for MAC OS 10.5 and above. More to follow, but here’s the free download link – www.amazon.com/kindleformac – and here’s Amazon’s news release: 

Introducing “Kindle for Mac” — the Free Application for Reading Kindle Books on the Mac, Now Available in over 100 Countries

Read on Your Kindle, Read Some on Your iPhone, and Now, Read Some on Your Mac – Read Wherever and Whenever You Want, and Never Lose Your Place
 
SEATTLE, Mar 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced “Kindle for Mac,” a free application that lets readers around the world enjoy Kindle books on their Mac computers. The U.S. Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) currently offers over 450,000 books, including New Releases and 102 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers, and is the only place to find some of today’s most popular books in digital format. Kindle books can now be read on the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC and Mac, and soon the iPad. Customers in over 100 countries can go to www.amazon.com/kindleformac to download the Kindle for Mac application for free today.
“Kindle for Mac is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX,” said Jay Marine, director, Amazon Kindle. “For those customers around the world who don’t yet have a Kindle, Kindle for Mac is a great way to instantly access and read the most popular new releases as well as their old favorites.”
Kindle for Mac features Amazon’s Whispersync technology that automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and last page read across devices. Whether customers are reading Kindle books on a Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the free Kindle applications, they can always have their reading with them and never lose their place. With Kindle for Mac, a customer can read some on their Mac, read some on their Kindle, and always pick up where they left off.
With Kindle for Mac, readers can take advantage of the following features:

  • Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
  • Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
  • Choose from 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
  • Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
  • View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle for iPhone
  • Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books and textbooks

Several features will be added to the Kindle for Mac app in the near future, including full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights. Kindle for Mac is available to customers around the world as a free download. To download the free app, visit www.amazon.com/kindleformac.