Amazon Releases Kindle for Mac Application

[DaveGee]

Maybe this will encourage Apple to push their iBook store beyond USA more promptly.

You do know that it's not Apple that is (often) held back at marketting Videos, TV, Music & Books to locations outside the US.

All of those media have a nasty habit of selling 'DISTRIBUTION RIGHT' (often exclusives) to local companies in the country and/or region in question. This has been the SOP (standard operation procedure) for a very long time. Some of the HUGE corporations have actually gone out and created their own "XYZ-Company-UK" or "XYZ-Company-FR" or JP or IT or EU etc etc (look no further than Apple for a good example). These companies are independent arms of the parent company but still responsible for the sales of 'their merchandise' in those countries and/or regions.

Why? Well its been said that who knows the region (and can sell to a region) better than someone who lives and breaths in the region and there's a lot of truth to that which is why its still done to some degree today.

What does this mean... Well in the case of 'exclusives' the Book, Movie, TV, Music, etc are UNABLE to Allow Apple to sell into said countries could you imagine paying a handsome sum to a record company for exclusive 'distribution rights' and then see Apple selling the same material to YOUR PROTECTED REGION? First thing you'd do is call your lawyer and the second thing you'd do is try and figure out how you'll spend all the money from the lawsuit you are about to file.

I've said this before and I'll say it again..

- Do you think Apple LIKES not being able to sell iTunes content worldwide?

- Do you think Apple LIKES having to maintain different 'catalogs of merchandise' for each country? Since 'song ABC' might be okay to sell to the entire EU except for France (due to some long term exclusive contract the record company made to a French distributer that happens to include 'song ABC').

If Apple had it's way they would LOVE to sell EVERYTHING to EVERYONE and cut out all the country specific catalogs and tracking. Unfortunately Apple doesn't have any say in the matter other than PERHAPS convincing the corporations that OWN the content to NOT do these exclusives anymore. However a LOT of people all across the world would be extremely upset if their business was suddenly cut off from new content developed in the US and instead it was ALL being sold by iTunes instead.

So yea... when you see people cry about APPLE getting off the stick and start selling to THIER country remind them of this... Cause it's more often than not... Not Apples fault.

 

[koach]

Try turning the brightness of your lcd monitor to max and stare at it for 1 hour non-stop and see if your eye's don't strain. The turn it down to 25% and you instantly feel relieved.

Try staring at the sun directly for 10 seconds non-stop and see if your eyes don't hurt. Now put on a pair of sunglasses and look away and you will instantly feel relieved.

Conclusive proof that the sun is bad!

 

[TheSlush]

If only I could sling these e-books to my Apple TV and read them on a giant HD screen!

 

[Becordial]

Try turning the brightness of your lcd monitor to max and stare at it for 1 hour non-stop and see if your eye's don't strain. The turn it down to 25% and you instantly feel relieved.

That's just weird as LCD monitors are generally set at or near the max all the time and it's unusable at 25% unless in a very dark room. Turning it off, similarly, might cause you to instantly feel relieved.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Is reading an ebook actually going to be harder on your eyes than staring at the web all day already is? The 'hard on your eyes' argument seems like it makes sense intuitively, until you think about it (and how may hours you spend at your computer, which for some of us is a lot). (There is also some talk of inverse settings/contrast/accessibility settings, etc, but obviously none of us know how effective those will actually be.)

That's exactly when I notice how much I appreciate e-Ink the most - after a long day of staring at LCD screens.

 

[danny_w]

That's just weird as LCD monitors are generally set at or near the max all the time and it's unusable at 25% unless in a very dark room. Turning it off, similarly, might cause you to instantly feel relieved.

I have 2 original 24" Aluminum iMacs and keep the brightness down at 0 at all times but they are still almost too bright in a bright room, they are far too bright for a dark room. Hopefully the iPad can go much dimmer or it will be an eye killer for reading, but since it is battery powered I assume that will be a non-issue.

 

[Lesser Evets]

I don't think so....my parents and in-laws each have Kindles and swear by them...they have macs as well, but they would never give up the Kindle...it will have its market, and the price will come down...but it's all about selling the books, not the devices....nice to have choices!!

Perhaps, but let's be practical: most people do NOT want two devices. The Kindle will become a device for those purists, few indeed, who want a book reading experience with a good screen to read books.

Most people will not want to spend $1000 for two, and will use the iPad since it offers so much extra and a great platform for consumer connectivity and entertainment.

*Pac-Man wrinkle & die SFX*

Amazon might still continue to make such a device for years to come, but unless it has wider application, it won't cut it as Apple develops their device further.

You might like Kindle, but put a fork in it.
It's over, Johnny.

 

[elmo151]

So if it works on the iPhone then it should work on the iPad - until they develop a special app for it. If it took them this long for getting it on the Mac it may be Christmas before we see a special one for the iPad though.

My hope is an Amazon app for the iPad but I think it quite unlikely. Apple and Amazon have different deals with the publishers which could be a big problem.

Apple will make a great deal of money selling books.

 

[Chris Rogers]

can't change the background color from white to a dark color. It's HARD to read (My brightness is set at 0 on a 24" iMac - maybe there is hope for my MacBook)

 

[CReimer]

Unbelievable. Intel computers started showing up over FOUR YEARS AGO. How long do companies need to keep supporting PPC for people to be happy?

Just because Apple abandon the PPC four years ago doesn't mean that everyone else abandoned their PPC hardware. I got a 2005 Mac mini that's still kicking. Since Kindle is available for both Leopard and Snow Leopard, producing a universal binary shouldn't be a problem on the Leopard side. If the Kindle was available only for Snow Leopard, then the Intel CPU requirement would be understandable.

 

[kainjow]

Is there no way to display thumbnails of each page like Preview? It'd be nice to have some sort of overview.

What do you mean? Of course there are both forward and back buttons. Hover the mouse over the area to the right or left of the page.

It's not immediately obvious. How would you know there are back and forward buttons unless you randomly moved your mouse over those areas? IMO the arrows should permanently display.

 

[blindzero]

I assume Apple will put iBookstore on Macs and iPhone/iPods too?

 

[Jaro65]

I've been waiting for this. Now I can still comfortably read my eBooks (since I'm getting rid of the Kindles).

 

[Objectivist-C]

Unbelievable. Intel computers started showing up over FOUR YEARS AGO. How long do companies need to keep supporting PPC for people to be happy?

It's usually the matter of a checkbox in XCode, unless they felt the need to write it in assembly to squeeze out that extra bit of performance from their E-BOOK READER.

 

[applesupergeek]

Lots of people do that, all over the world, every day-- usually to avoid paying anything for the book.

If there is an occasional hardcore individual who can read a book on a computer for 200-300 pages, I concur, but lots? I don't think so.

 

[Perrumpo]

Now WHEN will Macs be able to download purchased content from Amazon Video OnDemand?

 

[iSee]

It's usually the matter of a checkbox in XCode, unless they felt the need to write it in assembly to squeeze out that extra bit of performance from their E-BOOK READER.

There's an additional test & support burden as well. I.e., you can't ship a PPC version of something without doing at least some testing in that environment.

Also, the app is a little bloated with the extra binary in there.

But I agree: this is a little soon to drop PPC support. The transition was completed less than four years ago and a PPC-based notebook -- especially a 12" model, would make a pretty decent book reader.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

The funny thing about the "requirements" page is that it says the CPU must be 500MHz or faster. There is no Intel Mac with such a slow CPU in existence so it makes no sense. And they apparently couldn't be bothered to support PPC so there's no relevance. My PPC machine has a 1.8GHZ 7448 G4 in it so there's no reason it wouldn't run except for Amazon is apparently too lazy to hit the Universal App compile button or isn't using Apple development software.

Since there is no PPC support and since my main server/browser machine is my PPC machine, I guess I'll pass for now. Maybe I can use it on my Dell Mini 10V I have on order (sorry iPad, but I need a real computer for trips not a big iPod Touch and I'm not taking my $2000 MBP to certain locations where it's at risk of being stolen whereas I don't worry so much about a $250 Netbook, which is fully capable of running Snow Leopard (the full version without iPod limits). It's what Apple SHOULD be selling, but Steve decided you don't need 10" computer, just a giant notebook (oh wait, wasn't that app was REMOVED from the iPad because it "didn't look right big" and they're apparently WAY too lazy to update the app to look good or box in a window).


The Mini 10V has a 10" screen with a 93% sized keyboard, actual USB ports, a 160GB hard drive (kind of makes that tiny 16-32GB flash stuff seem like total crap) and can run Firefox (WITH Flash!), Thunderbird and everything else that a Mac (within those CPU constraints) can run (including this Kindle viewer!). The heck on Apple. I'm taking my future purchases elsewhere if they don't want to compete for my business with products I actually WANT instead of what Steve thinks I should want. The Mini 10V costs less than half as much than the base model to boot, adding insult to injury, IMO.

 

[doctor-don]

While I did buy a Kindle for my wife last year, I cannot imagine sitting in front of my Mac Pro/ACD to read a book. Maybe it would be better with a Kindle or iPad that I can sit in a more comfortable reading position or read while walking around the house or sitting outside. That's the advantage of a single-pane device as opposed to a folding-screen notebook computer.

Would they release a version that works on my Compaq notebook?

 

[gregsim]

No NEXT button!

What a crummy browser! There is a back button but no next button.

So with my MacBook, I must use the two finger gesture to scroll through the text, which is a delicate operation making it difficult to read a book.

I guess Kindle for Mac must be really designed to be used on the iPad with the touch screen. Hopefully the book I just bought will transfer to the iPad when it arrives.

Ah! I found that the up and down arrows work. I was mislead by the back button in the browser window, which led me to look for a next button.

 

[doctor-don]

If only I could sling these e-books to my Apple TV and read them on a giant HD screen!

Connect an HDMI cable between your TV and your computer.

 

[zedsdead]

I assume Apple will put iBookstore on Macs and iPhone/iPods too?

Sadly we do not know the answer to this yet. So far, Apple has not advertised it as such. I am not switching until all my devices have eBooks, like the Kindle app does.

 

[doctor-don]

That's just weird as LCD monitors are generally set at or near the max all the time and it's unusable at 25% unless in a very dark room. Turning it off, similarly, might cause you to instantly feel relieved.

My ACD is set at its lowest brightness/dimness setting. For most of what I do, it's is perfect. Making it brighter is unnecessary, and the life of the screen is shortened.

Chris Rogers: Would it help to reverse the black/white? See Universal Access in System Preferences. If it's already set up, just use control-option-command-8 to toggle to/from white-on-black.

 

[mex4eric]

So if it works on the iPhone then it should work on the iPad - until they develop a special app for it. If it took them this long for getting it on the Mac it may be Christmas before we see a special one for the iPad though.

Changing from iPhone (and iPod touch) to iPad should be a lot easier than changing from PC to Mac, so I would guess it'll be ready for April3rd. It is probably already sitting in the Apple approval hopper.

 

[applesupergeek]

Sadly we do not know the answer to this yet. So far, Apple has not advertised it as such. I am not switching until all my devices have eBooks, like the Kindle app does.

Yeah, cause it's not as if there are a few dozen of .epub readers already on the mac.