Kindle Is Making It Harder to Switch to Rival eReader Brands.
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I resisted eBooks for years, preferring physical books from the library or new/second hand stores. I got gifted a Kindle from a well meaning relative a few years ago and I have a small collection on there, mainly built up when I was commuting.
This news came just as I am backing up my own data, moving off of the big name Cloud services and going back to open source software. (In confession the convenience of M365 etc won me over so the last 10 or so years I fell into the trap!)
Anyway needless to say my 40(ish) Kindle books quickly got downloaded and archived this week. Thanks to Calibre I've also fixed the covers to a book series that suddenly got updated to an awful 'new hip' version!
I'm now intrigued about repurposing the Kindle hardware as it still works and I don't want it to go to waste, but with this and other recent events I'm done personally proving data or money to these big corporate companies as much as I possibly can.
ebooks have managed to pull the same scam that game developers pulled on gamers 20 years ago.
"ebooks will be cheaper! and with the fact that we wont have to pay for printing, shipping, storage, etc, You'll pay a lower price while the author/publisher still receive more money than they would have from the physical book! its a win/win for everyone!"
aaaand then as soon as they were accepted ebook prices became the same (or near enough) price as the physical version, and in a few rare cases, even more expensive. Resulting in the massive promised profits for publishers, and maybe authors, but no gain but lots of demerits (like obnoxious drm, and shit like amazon going onto your device to delete it cause they lost the rights or something, which has happened) for end users/readers
And thats first party, brand new books.
There is no second hand market for ebooks, like there is from physical. Si theres no browsing a place like Half Price Booked or whatever to find something that isnt in your normal wheel house but thanks to being pre-owed, its cheap enough to roll the dice on.
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According to their site and a couple others, they have recently started selling again and with what looks to be some variant of Debian on it.
I just went to pine64.org and I still see the PineNote community version being out of stock on the EU store. Is it available elsewhere?
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I am sorry, what?
Turn on PC or phone. Download ebook from torrent site. Enjoy.
It's not difficult to switch?
Undernet and #bookz for me somehow turned out to be easier than more popular styles of piracy.
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I am sorry, what?
Turn on PC or phone. Download ebook from torrent site. Enjoy.
It's not difficult to switch?
Try explaining how to do that to your non-techie relatives, especially the older ones who like reading. Yes, this makes is more difficult to switch.
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It is very easy to remove DRM from kindle Books.
i keep getting mixed msgs on this (then again, I could be misinterpreting) but it sounds like you can still download the ebook to your kindle (it will be in .kfx format), but if you plug the kindle into the computer and copy the .kfx file to it, that you should then be able to import it into calibre on your computer and the kfx plugin should strip the DRM.
i haven't tested this to be sure yet (my kindle library is already downloaded and i've just been buying ebooks from Kobo since the Amazon announcement)
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i keep getting mixed msgs on this (then again, I could be misinterpreting) but it sounds like you can still download the ebook to your kindle (it will be in .kfx format), but if you plug the kindle into the computer and copy the .kfx file to it, that you should then be able to import it into calibre on your computer and the kfx plugin should strip the DRM.
i haven't tested this to be sure yet (my kindle library is already downloaded and i've just been buying ebooks from Kobo since the Amazon announcement)
Starting February 26, 2025, the option «Download and transfer via USB» will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the «Deliver or remove from device» option.»
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Undernet and #bookz for me somehow turned out to be easier than more popular styles of piracy.
#bookz is fantastic!
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Starting February 26, 2025, the option «Download and transfer via USB» will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the «Deliver or remove from device» option.»
That's where I'm getting conflicting info: I understand you won't be able to "download and transfer via USB" from the Amazon website but when you download a book from the Kindle over wifi it's still a file on your kindle that can be browsed to if you connect your Kindle to a computer via USB
Then you copy that downloaded ebook (.kfx) to your computer and import into Calibre and use the Kindle plugin that strips DRM from .kfx files.
I'm going to try that today and see if it actually works...
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Subscription lock
I'd love to see them put that on the big black dildo I purchase each year. Try me!
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That's where I'm getting conflicting info: I understand you won't be able to "download and transfer via USB" from the Amazon website but when you download a book from the Kindle over wifi it's still a file on your kindle that can be browsed to if you connect your Kindle to a computer via USB
Then you copy that downloaded ebook (.kfx) to your computer and import into Calibre and use the Kindle plugin that strips DRM from .kfx files.
I'm going to try that today and see if it actually works...
It is pretty obvious why they are doing this though, but it also means you don't own them, you are renting them.
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On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.
In the meantime, hackers have just released a new jailbreak and made it a more open platform than ever :^)
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I am sorry, what?
Turn on PC or phone. Download ebook from torrent site. Enjoy.
It's not difficult to switch?
Oddly enough, pirated ebooks are a malware minefield. And hard to find.
That said, I have about 8000.
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unfortunately though, due to the same issues there isn't a very large second hand market of those either. Like the cheapest remarkable second hand I could find was still 300$ and the cheapest pine note was 270$ for preowns.
when you compare it to the kindle which has preowns starting at 40$ it's a hard buy
I got a secondhand Kobo on eBay for less than $100, almost in new condition (the seller just forgot to include the charging cable, but luckily I had plenty of spare micro-USB cables). It's a 2018 model, but it has 8 GB of storage, plenty for most people, and a nice 6" 300 PPI screen with warm light and dark mode. It's more than sufficient.
Point being, alternatives are out there.
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On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.
i buy most ebooks from a small local bookstore. for the rest there's still zlib
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I'd love to see them put that on the big black dildo I purchase each year. Try me!
Lol
sorry vibrating/heating function locked until daily dues are paid.
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On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.
That was amusingly well timed:
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I love how hackable Kobos are. I put KOReader on mine and it's honestly just the best experience I could ask for.
That and the upgradeable storage... as soon as I can figure out how to solve my partition issues.
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On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued "Download and Transfer via USB" feature to archive your Kindle library.
To all the people who are saying "I'll just pirate books," you are aware you can buy eBooks from places that Amazon, right?
Have a look at https://bookshop.org/ebooks
You can buy books/eBooks and support local bookstores that aren't Barnes & Nobles or Amazon.I'd suggest you download/archive your Kindle books and then buy your eBooks from elsewhere. You can still load those onto your Kindle.
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It is pretty obvious why they are doing this though, but it also means you don't own them, you are renting them.
no doubt
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To all the people who are saying "I'll just pirate books," you are aware you can buy eBooks from places that Amazon, right?
Have a look at https://bookshop.org/ebooks
You can buy books/eBooks and support local bookstores that aren't Barnes & Nobles or Amazon.I'd suggest you download/archive your Kindle books and then buy your eBooks from elsewhere. You can still load those onto your Kindle.
Does that provide epub when baught? Or does it lock you in with their DRM app?
