Amazon Brings Beta Kindle Application to the Mac

By Geoff Duncan Published March 18, 2010

Last October Amazon extended its Kindle platform with a desktop application for Windows PCs; now, the company is bringing Macs into the fold with a free beta version of its Kindle application for Mac OS X. The application requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or newer, and enables users to read, sync, and shop for Kindle titles from their Macs without requiring a Kindle device.

“Kindle for Mac is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX,” said Amazon Kindle director Jay Marine, in a statement. “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.”

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Mac OS X is just the latest technology Amazon has targeted with its Kindle book platform; Kindle applications are also available for Windows PCs, the iPhone/iPod touch, and BlackBerry devices…and Amazon promises Kindle will be coming to the Apple iPad soon.

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Kindle for Mac supports Amazon’s WhisperSync technology to save and synchronize bookmarks across devices, so users can start reading a book on a Kindle device and sync their bookmarks to an iPhone, Mac, or other supported kindle platform. Users can also brows their library of previously purchased Kindle titles stored on Amazon’s servers, purchase and download new content from Amazon’s Kindle store, and (of course) actually read content: the Kindle app offers full color support and users can choose from 10 different font sizes and adjust line lengths.

Amazon says it plans to bring full text search and note-creation features to the Mac app in future releases.

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