Kindle for Mac / ibooks

[JMLowman]

Right, I'm new to this and not particularly computer literate but I'm after answers I can't get from the Apple support desk. One of the many things I like to do with my ipad is read books. Last year I downloaded about a dozen books onto my mac and then from there onto my ipad, using the kindle for mac application. This all worked fine and these books are on my ipad. Last week I downloaded some more books using kindle for mac, but could find no way of getting them from my mac to my ipad. After a few calls to Apple, it appears that the kindle for mac app is no longer able to get books onto the ipad (they claim it never could but I have a dozen books saying otherwise). Given that the Amazon site makes lots of reference to ipads, can this really be true or re Apple just making it awkward to drive me to ibooks? On which, I downloaded ibooks and after a fair bit of faffing around I got the the ibookstore. Which is awful. I'm certainly not a member of the Booker prize judging panel, but I was expecting that they might have mainstream authors like Philip Roth, Ian McEwan or Martin Amis. I presume ibookstore doesn't currently have deals with their publishers. The actual reading experience using ibooks is also vastly inferior to the kindle application I have on my ipad - an intrusive book cover depiction in the background that doesn't add anything for example. Basically, I want to know if this is just the way of the Apple world and I'm being hopelessly naive to think I might be able to download content onto their lovely machines from non-apple sites, or if there's an easy and legal way of getting content from the much better Amazon library into my ipad. Any advice appreciated and I'm sure this has been discussed many times before.

 

[iPadCharlie]

You don't need to have Kindle running on your PC to get books. All you need is the Kindle app on your iPad. When you purchase books from Amazon on your iPad using the Kindle app, they will automatically appear on the Kindle app's home page. The books you purchase will also appear in the Kindle archive so you can download them to any other device capable of reading Kindle material.

Clear as mud, eh?

 

[JMLowman]

Thanks ...

... but will that mean that I can still have the books on my mac? I want to have the library on that as well in case I lose my ipad.

 

[iPadCharlie]

Whenever you purchase a book from Amazon, it will ALWAYS be in your archive at Amazon. This means that even if you delete a book, on purpose or accidentally on your iPad or PC or Kindle reader, you can download it again on any device as many times as you want. You only have to buy a book once and can read it on any device.

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

Yes, you can have all your Kindle books on multiple devices, as long as you are using the same Amazon account.

The Kindle ebooks are stored online, meaning that you can redownload them whenever onto whatever device, as long as the Kindle app runs on that device.

It is impossible to loose a Kindle ebook.

 

[tdmsu]

You should be able to access all your books from either device. On your iPad, open the Kindle app and look at the home page with the tree and reclining reader. From there, press the archive button, and that should show you all the books you have ever purchased from Amazon. Pressing one of them should download it to your iPad. If there is nothing in your archive, you may have to reauthorize your iPad with Amazon. If so, press the "i" button on the home page and follow the menus.

Good Luck!