kindle free download

[devonwoody]

http://kindle-for-pc.en.softonic.com/

Anyone here downloaded this app. is it worth the effort?

or is it a case of 'dont look a gift horse in the mouth'

 

[RogerP]

The best PC reader is probably Calibre which handles most formats - there are also several other applications for PC, laptop or smartphone but none of them are as good as a real Kindle.

I have a Kindle Touch and the main advantages over a PC or laptop are its portability and ability to read in daylight without reflections - it's just like reading a paperback book. It'll store a whole library, thousands of books, acts as a MP3 player and will read books to you if you don't mind the rather odd "voice" The built-in wifi downloads from Amazon seamlessly or it can connect and download from computer by USB. It has a network browser and can also send/receive email.

 

[AndyT]

+1 for what Roger said.

One question though - I have an original Kindle (with the keyboard) and like to use it to read old woodworking books, available as pdfs. Most of these are pdfs of images of typeset pages, not pdfs of editable text, and some of the bigger ones won't display on the Kindle. I suspect it's a memory problem when handling tens of megabytes of images. Are the later models any better for these?

 

[RogerP]

I don't think they are any better. My Touch throws a wobbly with a couple of very large PDF files I have. I don't like PDFs on the Kindle as I can never get just the right size - the words are either too small or too large with much scrolling about needed.

I rather expect the new colour Kindle Fire will make a better job of it - but at the loss of some the ordinary Kindle's best features. Especially battery life - I'm getting about 6 weeks between charges and I use it a great deal.

Two improvements I would like are orientation sensor so it swaps automatically between landscape and portrait as you turn the device. The second is that it would keep the set font size per book - it already keep one's place in each book so surely it can't be too difficult to keep the font size also.

 

[Jonzjob]

The fon't size on my Touch is changed by me depending on light conditions and how my eyes are on any day. Sometimes good, some not so good. So that isn't a problem for me. As for PDFs, I have not loaded any.

I have been looking at the K Fire, but from what I have seen it has a shiny screen like my MacBook and that really would be a pain in the bright sunlight we get here!

I really like my Touch!

That programme isn't an option for me anyway as it isn't for Macs..

 

[RogerP]

If you download books from Amazon the Kindle Cloud Reader works well. https://read.amazon.com/

 

[henton49er]

I downloaded Kindle for PC before I bought my Kindle, to see if I liked the idea of reading a book from a screen rather than a paper copy. Since buying a Kindle I have not used Kindle for PC at all. I still use the PC to manage my Kindle, but that is a different hing altogether.

 

[maltrout512]

DW I downloaded kindle for pc, now I only used it for a week and found that I did not like it full stop. It seemed long a winded way to get what I wanted. Free books. Anyway I think the only way you will know is to try it yourself. It is free to down load and use and can be deleted with no problems if you don't like it. Just my thoughts.

 

[devonwoody]

The Kindle download did not go cleanly for me.

I went for the custom download on everything and refused all offers of add ons.

Then attempted to download a free book in google (edgar poe something or other and got nothing)

So uninstalled and wont bother again.

But thanks for your suggestions above.

 

[Lons]

Hi DW

I suggest you download Calibre as mentioned. I use it to convert books for my wifes Kindle ( I can't be bothered with the Kindle personally but she loves it).
calibre will allow you to convert most formats of the loads of free stuff on the web then you can view on your PC.

Very good program - and free.

Bob

 

[petermillard]

The Kindle download did not go cleanly for me.

I went for the custom download on everything and refused all offers of add ons.

Then attempted to download a free book in google (edgar poe something or other and got nothing)

So uninstalled and wont bother again.

But thanks for your suggestions above.

Just to clarify; Kindle reader software is for reading books and docs in Amazon's Kindle format, and Kindle ebooks are protected by Amazon's DRM (Digital Rights Management). Books you can download online fro free/from the public domain e.g. Project Gutenberg, Google etc... are most likely to be in EPUB format (and, possibly, protected by another DRM scheme as well) so will not be compatible with Amazon's Kindle software.

HTH, Pete

 

[RogerP]

There are numerous sites for downloading books ln the Kindle format (.mobi) http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-books-kindle

Project Gutenberg offers most of its books as free kindle books too http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Free_Kindle_Books.

 

[AndyT]

Just to clarify; Kindle reader software is for reading books and docs in Amazon's Kindle format, and Kindle ebooks are protected by Amazon's DRM (Digital Rights Management). Books you can download online fro free/from the public domain e.g. Project Gutenberg, Google etc... are most likely to be in EPUB format (and, possibly, protected by another DRM scheme as well) so will not be compatible with Amazon's Kindle software.

HTH, Pete

Pete, while your first statement is right for books sold in the Amazon Kindle store, the situation is better than you say for public domain works.

With Project Gutenberg and with texts at the Internet Archive, the choice of download format now includes Amazon's Kindle format alongside other e-reader formats, with no DRM. (Indeed, you can browse these sites in the Kindle's built-in browser and download them directly.)

If you find DRM-free works elsewhere in other formats such as EPUB or Plucker which are not offered in Kindle format, you can use the Calibre software to convert them.

 

[petermillard]

With Project Gutenberg and with texts at the Internet Archive, the choice of download format now includes Amazon's Kindle format alongside other e-reader formats, with no DRM. (Indeed, you can browse these sites in the Kindle's built-in browser and download them directly.)

Guys, thanks for that - been a while since I trawled through PG looking for anything tbh, good to hear it's not ignoring Kindle owners - not sure I'd wish Kindle's built-in browser on anyone, mind you

Pretty sure that Google books (that DW referred to above) is only EPUB or PDF, though as you say, DRM-free ebooks are easily format-shifted.

Cheers, Pete

 

[RogerP]

...Pretty sure that Google books (that DW referred to above) is only EPUB or PDF, though as you say, DRM-free ebooks are easily format-shifted.
Cheers, Pete

Most of the Google books I've looked at have been very rough PDF scans. I'm sure they're not all but the particular ones I was after weren't worth the download and conversion.

 

[devonwoody]

OK, installed Calibre.

Went and asked for free Ken Follet book and got a hit.

I see its a torrent.

so are we back to the music copyright game again?

I can see there are plenty of out of date books available to download.

 

[RogerP]

OK, installed Calibre.

Went and asked for free Ken Follet book and got a hit.

I see its a torrent.

so are we back to the music copyright game again?

I can see there are plenty of out of date books available to download.

I've never downloaded a fiction book but I'm not surprised, the web is full of thieves.

 

[Lons]

OK, installed Calibre.

Went and asked for free Ken Follet book and got a hit.

I see its a torrent.

so are we back to the music copyright game again?

I can see there are plenty of out of date books available to download.

It's unlikely you're going to get anything else but pirated stuff if what you're asking for are FREE books from a top selling author. I doubt if the're giving the lsource of their income away for nowt.

I don't download fiction but would have thought that there are digital versions you can pay for. the beauty of calibre is that the format of the book is of less importance as you can convert to suit.

Bob

 

[sometimewoodworker]

OK, installed Calibre.

Went and asked for free Ken Follet book and got a hit.

I see its a torrent.

so are we back to the music copyright game again?

I can see there are plenty of out of date books available to download.

It's unlikely you're going to get anything else but pirated stuff if what you're asking for are FREE books from a top selling author. I doubt if the're giving the lsource of their income away for nowt.

I don't download fiction but would have thought that there are digital versions you can pay for. the beauty of calibre is that the format of the book is of less importance as you can convert to suit.

Bob

There are some truly free recent books available. I like to listen to books and Nathan Lowell is a excelent author and reader. He has many of his books on podiobooks.com. Podiobooks is an excelent site for free legal audio books.

 

[Eric The Viking]

FWIW (and that's not much to her), I tried to get the Kindle app working on the DC's iPad, without any success.
It would link to my Amazon account but stubbornly refused to allow transfers of books from the 'cloud' to the iPad.

She downloaded from the Apple store instead, before our summer holiday and I haven't bothered since.