E-Book reader for a Mac OS X (10.5), but a PowerPC? (mother-in-law emergency)

SpenceA2 · 06-26-2011, 08:03 AM

My wife and I both use Kindles for our e-book reading and I recently bought a second-hand mac laptop to bring my mother-in-law into the e-book fold.

As you all can guess, I immediately ran into the problem of the Kindle desktop application not being able to run on a PowerPC.

Can anyone recommend an e-book desktop reader for her - preferably one that supports Kindle formatted books? Is there an older version of Kindle out there that supports PowerPC? If not, is Calibre the best option?

Any help is greatly appreciated and will go towards scoring bonus points with my mother-in-law.

mwheinz · 06-26-2011, 10:56 AM

Older versions of calibre support ppc. In addition, Sony's reader app supports ppc and will read any epub.

pidgeon92 · 06-26-2011, 11:35 AM

If she wants to read DRMd Kindle books, you're kinda hosed unless you want to undertake the project of installing Calibre and finding the DRM removal plugins.

ATDrake · 07-02-2011, 03:06 PM

There's never been a version of Kindle for Mac which supported PowerPC. Similarly, B&N's NookStudy/Nook for Mac has always been Intel-only (though the older B&N eReader did support PPC but is now no longer available from them; but you can still open B&N PDBs using the even older app from eReader.com).

As mentioned, the Sony Reader Library app will do ADE DRM-ed ePubs and she can use that to read e-books from the library, Sony, and Kobo as well as the DRM-free stuff.

The alternative for Kindle use on a PPC Mac is to have a hardware Kindle and strip using the tools we don't talk about on MR, at which point she can read the liberated Mobi books on the laptop with an older version of Calibre.

Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!

06-26-2011, 08:03 AM	#1
SpenceA2 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	E-Book reader for a Mac OS X (10.5), but a PowerPC? (mother-in-law emergency) My wife and I both use Kindles for our e-book reading and I recently bought a second-hand mac laptop to bring my mother-in-law into the e-book fold. As you all can guess, I immediately ran into the problem of the Kindle desktop application not being able to run on a PowerPC. Can anyone recommend an e-book desktop reader for her - preferably one that supports Kindle formatted books? Is there an older version of Kindle out there that supports PowerPC? If not, is Calibre the best option? Any help is greatly appreciated and will go towards scoring bonus points with my mother-in-law.

06-26-2011, 11:35 AM	#3
pidgeon92 Wizard Posts: 3,144 Karma: 8426142 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Chicago, IL Device: Kindle PW2, Kindle Voyage, Kindle DXG, Boox M90, Kobo Aura HD	If she wants to read DRMd Kindle books, you're kinda hosed unless you want to undertake the project of installing Calibre and finding the DRM removal plugins. Last edited by pidgeon92; 06-26-2011 at 11:37 AM.

07-02-2011, 03:06 PM	#4
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	There's never been a version of Kindle for Mac which supported PowerPC. Similarly, B&N's NookStudy/Nook for Mac has always been Intel-only (though the older B&N eReader did support PPC but is now no longer available from them; but you can still open B&N PDBs using the even older app from eReader.com). As mentioned, the Sony Reader Library app will do ADE DRM-ed ePubs and she can use that to read e-books from the library, Sony, and Kobo as well as the DRM-free stuff. The alternative for Kindle use on a PPC Mac is to have a hardware Kindle and strip using the tools we don't talk about on MR, at which point she can read the liberated Mobi books on the laptop with an older version of Calibre. Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead! Last edited by ATDrake; 07-02-2011 at 03:09 PM. Reason: Add eReader info & welcome.

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06-26-2011, 10:56 AM	#2
mwheinz award-winning bozo Posts: 258 Karma: 172703 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Philadelphia Device: Kobo Libra 2	Older versions of calibre support ppc. In addition, Sony's reader app supports ppc and will read any epub.

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