To read books from the kindle platform, it is not necessary to have the device that sells amazon for this purpose (although once you use it, it is very easy to fall for it). Amazon has created applications or programs for a wide range of devices that can be downloaded for free, which allow us not only to read books for kindle, but do it from any device where you have downloaded these applications.
So we can read them on any computer desktop, smartphone, tablet and even in your browser. Download and install the appropriate application in a simple process. Once we get the kindle app on multiple devices, we can read in any of them and amazon handles the synchronization of content. For example, we can start by reading a book on your phone and then continue on amazon tablet or PC and keep record of the page where you were.
This tutorial is part of a series which explains how to download the kindle app for various devices. Here we show how to download the kindle app for your PC or Mac. In general the process is very similar for either, except for differences imposed by each of the two platforms. I will illustrate how to do it from a Mac, but also to do so from a PC doesn’t have many differences. Once you see the tutorial, you’ll be able to complete the process for any of the two platforms without inconvenience.
Here is the video tutorial.
In case you have remaining questions, or prefer to read the written instructions, I explain them below.
How to download the kindle app
There are several ways to access the download of the application, some more direct than others. I will illustrate here the most generic, which will help you get the application to any device, although the focus of this article is about desktops. To illustrate it this way, you can access new applications amazon could create for new devices in the future.
1 Go to google.com using the browser of your choice, type “free Kindle reading apps” in the search box. Google will return the results, where you will find the entry entitled “Free Kindle reading apps – Amazon.com” as shown in the following picture and click on it.
2 Choose your device. I chose this method to reach the download site for the kindle app as here you can see any means or device from which you can read the books in the kindle platform. You may notice the wide range of devices for which a kindle app is available. Since the goal of this tutorial is to download the application to read books from the kindle platform in a desktop, either a PC or Mac, you will select the link called “Kindle for Mac”, which is highlighted in the picture. If your computer is a PC, you must choose “Kindle for PC“, but if you follow these steps you will see that both processes are very similar.
3 Access the download link. By selecting the link we will be directed to a page for the support for the kindle app for Mac. Here we choose the link that says “Download and install the latest version of Kindle for Mac“, as illustrated in the following picture (in the case of PC there’s an almost identical window, where you should select the first link too).
After selecting this link, we come to a screen asking us to go to “Kindle for Mac” to access the download. Select this link, as shown in the picture (in the case of PC, we reach to an almost identical screen, where we make the same selection, replacing Mac for PC).
By selecting the “Kindle for Mac” link, we will come to a page that will take us the Mac App Store, which is from where we will download. As I said before, this path is a little longer, but it serves to illustrate the process from where we can download the kindle app for any device. For the PC, the download is more direct, but the principle is the same. The link to be clicked is shown in the picture below.
We’re almost where the application is downloaded. The link above takes you to the preview page of the Mac App Store which is from where we will download. As I said before, this path is a little longer, but it serves to illustrate the process from where we can download the kindle app for any device. For the PC, the download is more direct, but the principle is the same. The following picture shows the screen where we select the link “View in Mac App Store“.
After selecting the link, the App Store window with the kindle app for Mac will open. Below the kindle icon, a blue button that says “Free” will appear as the application is free. Clicking on that button turns it green, and its label changes to “Install App” where we must click to download the kindle app to your Mac, which is illustrated in the following picture.
4 Go to the Mac applications store (Mac App Store). When you select the option to install the application, the store will ask you to enter your credentials, which you must have as they are required to upgrade almost anything on Mac, but if not, there is a button in the lower left portion which allows us to sign up in the store. Once we enter our Apple ID and password, we click the button labeled “Sign In“, as shown in the accompanying picture.
The download will start immediately, which we note as the button label changes to “Install App” to “Installing”. Once the download is complete, it will change to “Installed”, which ends the process of installing the application. In case you are installing the PC application, once the download is complete, you must install it, just like any other Windows application.
5 Register your kindle. With the application installed, the last step is to associate the application to our account on amazon.com so they can sync books you download. To do this, locate and run the application you just downloaded (search for kindle in the Finder or, if you’re on a PC, in the application search box). When you run, being the first time, the application will ask you to identify, as shown in the following picture.
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Here, you must enter the details of your account on amazon, starting with the email you used to create your account at amazon (in the field labeled “Amazon account e-mail address“) and the password associated with it in the field “Amazon account password“. Once this data is entered, click on the button labeled “Register” and the application will be associated with your account.
6 Enjoy your kindle. Once the application is registered, it’s ready for you to begin reading the books you download. The following picture shows a screenshot of it, where you can notice that it has been associated with the account and where three books that amazon has downloaded for you are. You can download all you want, in the language of your choice and download apps for other devices (phone, tablet, etc.) and enjoy all the books in any of them.
By clicking on any of the books found there, it will open for you to start reading it. In the following picture, one ready for you to interact with is shown, which serve to familiarize yourself with the application.
In the amazon.com website, you can choose, within the link “Your account“, the “Manage Content and Devices“, within which you can see how far the application is associated with your account, and from where you can manage it in the future.
This ends this tutorial on how to download the kindle app for your Mac or PC. I hope it had been helpful, and as always, I welcome your comments, questions or concerns.
