Amazon Cracks Open Kindle App for Windows PCs

By Geoff Duncan October 23, 2009

Kindle for PCs (laptop, thumb) — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Amazon has always said it intended to bring its Kindle ebooks to other platforms—the company’s first step down that road was its popular Kindle app for the iPhone, and now the company is bringing Kindle to the Windows world with the announcement of of Kindle for PC, a free desktop application that enables Windows users to purchase, download, read their Kindle titles on their PCs.

“Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for folks who own a Kindle or Kindle DX,” said Amazon VP Ian Freed, in a statement. “Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to read the most popular books of today even if they don’t yet have a Kindle.”

Kindle for PC supports enables Kindle customers to access their entire library of purchased Kindle titles for free via Amazon’s servers; of course, the application also enables users to purchase and download new books. Users can read Kindle titles right on the PC, and the app supports Amazon’s WhisperSync technology to synchronize bookmarks across all Kindle devices so users don’t lose their place. Users can also view notes marked on their Kindle devices, zoom in and out, set text display size, and—in a future Windows 7-only release—flip pages with a finger-swipe, assuming users have appropriate touch-enabled hardware.

In addition to Windows 7, Amazon plans to release Kindle for PC for both Windows Vista and Windows XP during the next month. Users can sign up for notification on Amazon’s Kindle for PC Web site.

The announcement follows Amazon’s recent move to drop its U.S.-only version of its Kindle device and drop $20 off the price tag. Now all version of the Kindle device—U.S. and international—rely on GSM to communicate with Amazon’s servers, which means the new Kindle’s are using AT&T’s 3G network in the U.S., rather than Sprints. U.S. customers also see a $20 price drop. Customers who bought the international edition in the last few weeks are already being cut $20 refund checks from Amazon.

Kindle for PCs (beta screenshot) — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Amazon

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

LG just knocked $300 off this 16-inch lightweight laptop

lg ultrapc 17 review front angled

For those people who are constantly on the go, grabbing a thin and light laptop makes life a lot easier, especially since they tend to weigh a lot less while also having very capable performance. Unfortunately, that does come at a bit of an extra cost, so we're happy to see this deal from LG on the UltraPC laptop that knocks it down to just $700 from its usual price of $1,000. That's an excellent price for a laptop that can outperform competitors at the same price range, even with the discounted price.

Why you should buy the LG UltraPC laptop
This new version of the Ultra PC is a big upgrade on the previous LG UltraPC laptop and follows the same lineup of LG's very thin laptops like the LG Gram 17, so LG has quite a lot of experience in this market. That's pretty obvious by the fact that the UltraPC has a tiny 0.64-inch thickness, making it thinner than many books. It doesn't lose out on other features, though, and it still comes with a pretty substantial 16-inch screen that runs a modified FHD resolution of 1920 x 1200, which may be a bit low for such a nice laptop, but it's not a dealbreaker if it helps keep the price down. The keyboard is also great to use, and while the previous version of the UltraPC had a comically small touchpad, this new one is a lot more substantial and useful.

Computing

How to do hanging indent on Google Docs

Google Docs in Firefox on a MacBook.

The hanging indent is a classic staple of word processing software. One such platform is Google Docs, which is completely free to start using. Google Docs is packed with all kinds of features and settings, to the point where some of its more basic capabilities are overlooked. Sure, there are plenty of interface elements you may never use, but something as useful as the hanging indent option should receive some kind of limelight.

Computing

How to disable VBS in Windows 11 to improve gaming

Highlighting VBS is disabled in Windows 11.

Windows 11's Virtualization Based Security features have been shown to have some impact on gaming performance — even if it isn't drastic. While you will be putting your system more at risk, if you're looking to min-max your gaming PC's performance, you can always disable it. Just follow the steps below to disable VBS in a few quick clicks.

Plus, later in this guide, we discuss if disabling VBS is really worth it, what you'd be losing if you choose to disable it, and other options for boosting your PCs gaming performance that don't necessarily involve messing with VBS.