Amazon will remove the option to download/transfer Kindle e-books via USB by February 2025
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I have a sizable collection of legitimately procured ebooks, it's not that rare if you prioritize it.
But I agree, it's not about hardware. There are plenty of super premium eink displays these days. I don't even want integration with a eink reader at all. I'm happy reading off an OLED screen in a tablet. All I need is convenient library, management and display software that will handle both text and comic book formats.
Everybody seems to be trying to mimic the Kindle ecosystem with all its quirks and hardware dependencies when what I really want is book Plex.
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Yeah, it's been hit and miss with downloading from the Kindle. I mostly get books from the library and strip the DRM from there. I figure it's a win-win, because the library gets a record of the checkout, but then I get to read it at my leisure while the next person gets to read it.
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Wait, you guys were buying books from Amazon?
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I used my kindle for 10 years now, and I never bought one. I did buy ebooks 3rd party plenty.
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If you download your books, how do you read them in other hardware? Aren’t they all drm locked?
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I heavily depends on where you get them. Most ebook publishers actually DONT put DRM on them. And other software can very easily remove the DRM if it is on the books.
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Nice having your own library is the way to go!
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My point is what’s the point of downloading kindle ebooks if they can only be read after connecting to the cloud or whatever anyway?
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https://github.com/nodrm/DeDRM_tools is just the first one that pops up. Theres a LOT of software out there that does this. I would recommend getting a copy as GitHub has been going after "grey" repos for a bit once they are discovered (see switch emulation and the many fan games).
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Put it on airplane mode the day I bought it. Calibre is godsent
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No kidding. Really tried using it for a month. But it was just terrible interfacing with it.
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Well, feeling glad I already strip the DRM for my backups last month. Not buying anymore from em at all.
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Then use the library for the rest of the series if needed. :-).
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Yeah, some of us made that miskate years ago. I can transfer mp3 just fine, why can't I transfer a book file too?
Lots of people entire book libraries are being held hostage by Amazon.DRM ripping was a pain, I used some sketch program that had only worked with a specific old version of Kindle for PC to turn all my books into ebubs.
I love my kindle, but not buying books from Amazon anymore and next ereader won't be kindle.
Fun unrelated fact, kindle unlimited books could also be downloaded for USB transfer.
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So i won't be able to download my ebooks from amazon.com to my PC, right?
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My favorite Calibre thing was when the creator was interviewed and asked about the common complaint that Calibre is ugly and he was basically like “actually it’s not.”
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Correct. If you do it now, there’s a notice about this feature going away.
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Yeah it is strange. I have bought mp3s on Amazon and downloaded the DRM free mp3 to listen to on my preferred player of choice. But, why is the stance on books different?
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Amazon was originally a bookseller, so it was their main source of income. I don't know how much money they make from MP3s, but it probably isn't much. I don't think DRMing their music is worth it for them. Many people view music as a service now and don't even own any music. I keep expecting Amazon to switch over to streaming-only like Google did.
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I'd say what he actually did was deflect the question and refuse to acknowledge that it was about appearance at all. He just talked about function over form, and that it works well and is intuitive.
I actually agree with that, I like the big buttons, and context menus usually have whatever I'm looking for, but you can take the deflection as an admission he knows it's ugly and doesn't think it's even important enough to directly address.
I mean honestly just a beauty pass that softened the colour palette and gave it a less harsh appearance overall would make a big difference. He could even just create a skinning system, that's one way that this has been addressed in the past, and it's a job an engineer should be able to do just fine.
