Amazon removes Kindle app from Windows 10 store

[GlenBarrington]

Well, whenever any software is killed off, there will be people who are seriously inconvenienced by its death. But it does sound like Amazon never really put any effort into this, and maybe even only produced it to shut Microsoft's whining up!

Any Win 7 user who had to sit through the amount of nagging and sneaky behavior MS indulged in, to get them to 'upgrade' to Win 10 understands the conflict between the urge to just give in and the urge to start stalking MS executives! So Amazon putting something/anything out there to shut MS the hell up is completely understandable. We all have our weak moments.

But eventually, common sense must prevail.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

I've heard a lot of good things about Mint. I'm a KDE guy myself, so it doesn't interest me much, but I've heard a lot of good things..

Mint offers several different editions of its OS. KDE is one of those. Cinnamon, Mate, and Xfce are the others. They also have a "cutting-edge" rolling distribution edition (LMDE 2) that uses Debian as its package base.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

I
My main OS is actually FreeBSD (currently running 11.0-RELEASE). Everything pretty much just works.

On a desktop? Damn. That's die-hard. That's a niche of a niche.

[tomsem]

I don't think fate applies to Kindle for Windows Phone, which still exists in Microsoft Store as of today, and works with WM 10. I was hoping they'd replace Kindle for Windows 8 and Kindle for Windows Phone with a 'universal' app but that seems a low priority given that WM has not exactly taken off. Kindle Cloud Reader does not seem to work on my Windows Phone. I can open a book but cannot advance pages (the right-hand tap area is off-screen). This is something they should just fix, as it is just a matter of handling smaller screen (1280x800) properly. It does work with Edge browser (or Chrome, Firefox, I.E. etc.) on desktop systems.

Comixology pulled their Windows 10 app some months ago (for desktop & mobile). Their web reader works really well on desktop and also okay on my WPhone.

I don't use Windows to read very much and have no plans to 'upgrade' to Kindle for PC. The Windows 8 app works fine, given its relatively basic feature set.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by k4955

Amazon and Microsoft does not allow Kindle for PCs to be installed in Windows RT 8.1 such as Surface 1,2 and Nokia Lumia 2520. It is a shame they are boycotting the issue. The owners of those tablets paid hefty prices at the time of release.

Good post. Points out a real issue.

It does not pay for the buyer to deviate too much from the beaten path with the hardware to gain a little advantage right off, because the payment later can be disaster.

From a software support point of view, too many varieties can be a real pain. You lose the development and support people as time passes and no one wants to invest their career in learning material that has already been doomed.

You might ask "well, why did they offer the software on the machines in the first place?" Well truthfully "they" didn't know where the product was going.

Again, good post!

[NDJorgensen]

Just as a side note, Amazon has posted a job opening on Linkedin for a Sr Manager - Kindle Reader Engineering, and the posting specifically mentions technology solutions that allow customers to use their own personal documents within the Kindle reading experience.

So for those of us disappointed about the lack of support for personal documents in the kindle desktop version, maybe there's hope for improvement in the near future.

[johnnyb]

Great, now please Amazon, focus on improving the desktop apps...
How about you make them on par with the Android and iOS apps, that would be really neat!

[DiapDealer]

The number of customers reading with the desktop program can't be huge, can it? Surely they're just focussing their energies on their "bread & butter" platforms?

I guess there could be a bit of a Surface contingent using the desktop program, but I'm not seeing why they should invest a lot of time and money bringing their desktop programs in line with their mobile line (feature-wise).

I'm not dismissing people who read on desktops, just thinking of the cost effectiveness in trying to satisfy the niche of the niche.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The number of customers reading with the desktop program can't be huge, can it? Surely they're just focussing their energies on their "bread & butter" platforms?

I guess there could be a bit of a Surface contingent using the desktop program, but I'm not seeing why they should invest a lot of time and money bringing their desktop programs in line with their mobile line (feature-wise).

I'm not dismissing people who read on desktops, just thinking of the cost effectiveness in trying to satisfy the niche of the niche.

I think this mainly concerns readers like me who also work with books. Apple did a really great job making iBooks on the Mac work seamlessly with their iOS devices which allows readers to read books on their thingies and then review their annotations and notes on their computers, copy from books and upload books from there. Very important in the edu sector and for all sorts of professional readers.. but of course you are correct: perhaps this does not concern the majority of existing users...

[wodin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I guess there could be a bit of a Surface contingent using the desktop program, but I'm not seeing why they should invest a lot of time and money bringing their desktop programs in line with their mobile line (feature-wise).

Yes, I read extensively on my Surface Pro 3, and I found the Win8/10 experience much more pleasing, but the K4PC more feature rich. Then Jeff dumped the pleasing one in favor of the features one.

The better route, I think, would have been to converge them so that there would be one app to rule them both. But then I'm not paying programmers' salaries.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by wodin

The better route, I think, would have been to converge them so that there would be one app to rule them both.

You'll get no argument from me.

[tomsem]

No doubt Amazon was seeing more installs of K4PC than the Windows Store Kindle app, but that should have been taken to mean that the latter needed improvement, not that people actually preferred K4PC. "If you build it, they will come" except they didn't build it.

Maybe the Windows 8 app is a horrible mess of code and deserving of early retirement. But that does not obviate the need for a modern Kindle for Windows app that supports today's Windows, and its improving native accessibility features (for example).

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by cgsmom

I am a bit disappointed. I have a 7" Windows 8 tablet. The Kindle app works great. Kindle for PC is terrible using a touch interface.

I also have a Windows tablet (Win10, 8" Dell Venue Pro), and the article in the link pdurrant provided says we are good unless we delete the Kindle app:

If you already have the app installed on your PC and wish to keep using it, you can continue to download and read books as you do today. If you uninstall the Kindle for Windows 8 app, you won't be able to reinstall it from the Windows Store.

So we just have to have a couple of image backups just in case.

[radius]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

NB: Kindle for PC on my MAC doesn't support Personal Documents either.

Not sure if you've made a typo or if I'm misunderstanding you, but I am running Kindle for Mac (version 1.17.1) and I can read personal documents just fine. I find the book in the Finder, double click on it, and it opens up in Kindle for Mac.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by radius

Not sure if you've made a typo or if I'm misunderstanding you, but I am running Kindle for Mac (version 1.17.1) and I can read personal documents just fine. I find the book in the Finder, double click on it, and it opens up in Kindle for Mac.

I'm guessing that by not supporting personal docs what she means is they aren't supported from the Amazon cloud/personal docs service (syncing, etc.) like they are for the Android & iOS apps.