Amazon is announcing on its website Kindle for PC!
You’ll be able to read Kindle books on a PC with no Kindle required. It will be a free download.
You’ll also be able to sync with your Kindle.
This is part of that platform expansion for Kindle books Jeff Bezos has mentioned, and something a lot of people have wanted.
It competes directly with the B&N e-reading software as well.
This is really exciting! It means reference books for the Kindle can link to live content (like web videos) and be much more effective. That content could be accessed on the iPhone and iPod touch before, but now anybody can get it. You’d read the book on your Kindle typically, but switch to the PC to connect to the other material.
If it works with the free books from the Kindle store, that’s even better. 
International users, the books to which you have access would still be limited.
EDIT: Here’s a link to a demo video on Windows 7, done by Microsoft: Kindle for PC Demo on Windows 7
UPDATE: See also this later post.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
October 23, 2009 at 10:31 pm |
I had not even considered that it would not work with non AZW files. I just assumed it would work on any book that the Kindle would work on. On the other hand Stanza and Calibre both open those anyway.
October 24, 2009 at 12:13 pm |
Al, my curiousity about the free books wasn’t so much about format. When you get a freebie from Amazon, it’s still in an Amazon format. My guess is they are all .azw (as opposed to their less commonly used format, Topaz, which is .azw1 or .tpz, depending on how it gets on your Kindle). I assume they’ll be able to choose which books are available for the store for which devices, which is indicated by them saying that different countries will have different availability. I also assume the computer will use up a device license, just like a Kindle or iPhone or iPod touch would.
So, I just wasn’t sure if they’d have the freebies be part of it. I assume they will.