Kindlerama

Today, Amazon released the long-awaited PC version of a Kindle reader, which means that now you can read Kindle books on your PC or laptop. It’s a huge expansion of the Kindle ecosystem–now you can read a Kindle store book practically anywhere you have access to a standard computer. (A Mac version is supposed to be coming soon.)

I installed the application today and took it for a test run to see how it works.

QUICK FACTS

• it’s free
• it currently runs on Windows PC only (sorry Mac owners!)
• it largely replicates functionality of iPhone app
        which means
• no newspapers
• no blogs
• same grayscale display as elsewhere in the Kindle ecosystem
• no dictionary
• no ability to take notes or highlight passages

But perhaps you want to know more, so here’s a visual tour of what it looks like, and how it works.

INSTALLATION AND START-UP

After you install the program, you’ll be asked to register with the same Amazon account you use for your Kindle and/or the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

It’s pretty painless, and after a few seconds, you’ll be shown the home screen. It’s empty!

By default, the app doesn’t download all of your purchased books. You’ll have to toggle from the Home screen to the Archived Items screen (see the two giant buttons in the upper left corner).

Here’s what my Archived Items screen looks like. To add one of your purchases to your Home screen, double-click it. It will be highlighted in blue.

READING

The interface is simplified and clutter-free. If you want to page through a book, you can use the arrow keys or your mouse.

One thing I noticed is Kindle books remain in the same grayscale that’s used for the device or the iPhone app. Don’t expect color covers or color images inside the books. Here’s what the book The Wreck of the Medusa looks like.

In addition to buttons for bookmarking pages or jumping around in the text, you can adjust font size and page width.

You can’t change the font face itself, but you can adjust the display of the pages to suit you.

There’s not a lot of extra stuff hidden away in the application’s settings–just an option to deregister your account if you want, and a checkbox to enable automatic updates.

And that’s about it.

As far as file formats go, the application isn’t downloading the .azw and .tpz files that are used on Kindle devices. Instead, it’s using .prc along with something called .mbp. PRC is a common format for Mobipocket books, but as you might imagine these files won’t open in anything except the Kindle applications. The files are stored by default in a folder in your “My Documents” directory named “My Kindle Content.”

NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Although the PC version will let you view any notes or highlights you’ve made in the book using a Kindle, you can’t actually perform these functions on your PC. It’s a pretty big missing feature and probably the most significant flaw of an otherwise solid application.

SHOPPING

Clicking the button to buy more books simply launches your web browser, if it’s not already running, and takes you to the Amazon Kindle store. The only difference you’ll see there is that you can now send samples and purchases to your PC as well as to any Kindle devices or iPhones and iPod Touches you may have registered.

You can download the application from Amazon.

Update: Teleread has published a detailed review of Kindle For PC and noted a few other things. On the negative side, no two-page layout, no ability to change background or font colors, and no word or phrase search. On the plus side, you can download books in Kindle-friendly formats (meaning .mobi or .prc) from other places on the web and they’ll display in the Kindle application.

Although really, if you’re looking for a good ebook reader for your computer, don’t rely on Kindle For PC. I would only recommend it for reading Kindle books that you can’t otherwise open. For everything else, use the free Calibre, which is far and away the better ebook application.