Without any advance notice, Amazon has quietly unleashed its Kindle app for Mac. The 22MB file is for Intel-based machines only, OS X 10.5 and above.  Hit the image above for the download. 

Read Kindle Books on Your Mac

• Get the best reading experience available on your Mac. No Kindle required
• Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you
• Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
• Create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle

 Shop for Books in the Kindle Store

• Search and browse more than 450,000 books, including 101 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers. If you are a non-U.S. customer, book availability may vary
• Find New York Times Best Sellers and new releases for $9.99, unless marked otherwise
• Get free book samples - read the first chapter for free before you decide to buy
• Books you purchase can also be read on a Kindle
• Kindle newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not currently available for Kindle for Mac

System Requirements

• A Mac with a 500MHz Intel processor or faster
• At least 512MB of RAM
• Screen resolution of 800x600 or greater
• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
• 100MB of available disk space

I must admit that I love the Apple iTunes store. The ease of use and incredible library makes it hard not to like. But of course there are alternatives, and the best “other” store I have used is the Amazon MP3 store.

It used to be the less expensive option, but with the recent price increases, the Amazon MP3 store has raised it’s prices of new tracks to match Apple’s $1.29 price point.

The only reason I’d recommend the Amazon store over Apple, is for the great deals that they come out with on a daily basis. I purchased the “Who’s Next” album by the Who for $1.99 last month, and of course it was DRM free. Apple iTunes current price is $11.99.

Amazon.com offers 770 MP3 song downloads for free in its Amazon MP3 Store. Choose songs from artists such as Flight of the Conchords, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Beirut, The Aggrolites, and more. Amazon MP3 Downloader is required.