[Harp-L] harmonica Kindle for Mac upgrade

[philharpn@xxxxxxx]

Disregard if you have Mac OS X 10.9.5 or above. Otherwise, this may save you some aggravations -- if not time.


If you read your harmonica books on a Kindle for Mac on the iMac desktop or laptop, the Kindle app will cease on Sept. 15 unless you have a recent software upgrade on your computer. Otherwise, you will have to read your books on the Kindle Cloud Reader. 

I learned this by spending about 90 brief minutes yesterday being transferred from four different people and finally left hanging out to dry on the Kindle instant chatline -- before I used the phone line to finally clear this mess up.

There appears no quick and easy solution. It took me 90 minutes to solve the problem. 

I got the email, clicked on Download the Kindle Reading App and proceeded to install the update.

At NO POINT was there any information about needing the OS X 10.9.5 or above to operate the upgrade. NO information on the initial email from Amazon-Kindle nor on the Download page which allows the download of the upgrade.

ONLY when you discover your brand new upgrade fails to work would you look to Troubleshooting for Kindle for Mac. And when you click on that line from the original email, you can get to Unable to Download Kindle for Mac. Below that in large type is IS YOUR MAC COMPATIBLE?

BY THIS TIME, it is a little too late to discover that 1. the new upgrade will not work and 2. neither will the old one and 3. you are out of luck with no solution

The notice Amazon sent out Thursday Aug. 27 is misleading. It states "Kindle for Mac: Update required." It does not warn what version of the X operating system is needed to operate this update. Snow Leopard won't work. The workaround is accessing your Kindle account through the Amazon ""Kindle Cloud Reader." You need OS X 10.9.5 or higher. It is not compatible with PowerPC.

Apple's contract with Amazon expires Sept.15 for the old version and the old Kindle downloader will no longer work after that date.
{Sounds like a backdoor plot on the part of Apple to get everybody up upgrade their software if they want to continue using their favorite (Kindle Reader) }

Since I urged people to download Kindle books, I felt I had an obligation to send this heads-up about this Kindle Reader Upgrade.

I recently mentioned the FREE  George Goodman;\'s Harmonica Cheat Sheets  on the KINDLE platform. You don't need a Kindle brand device to read Kindle format books and singles. It's available for PC, as well as Apple platform: iPod, iPad, iPhones as well as Android. I regularly read harmonica books and materials on my iMac desktop with a Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X (10.6.8).


BTW: the Kindle Cloud Reader works fine. I put a link on my bookmark bar because the Kindle icon on the dock in kaput.

Background: I have had a Kindle 2 for several years now. It runs anywhere -- no wifi required. One of the advantages of of Kindle is you can scan your handouts and send them as attachments to your Kindle account and read them on your Kindle or phone or PC/Mac (except as noted above).