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Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

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Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#321

Post by coder543 »

maratc wrote: post #283
phpisthebest wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I don't even see what the Kobo value prop is. It is not amazon encumbered. That is a huge value to many

I had three readers from Sony (until they exited the business) and one from B&N (until they exited the business), because I didn't want to deal with conversion. Of these still in the business, Amazon looks the least-like to exit soon, and now there's no need to deal with conversion. As most of the books I read are out of copyright anyway, I'm not "encumbering" myself with Amazon in any way, except for buying hardware…

> one from B&N (until they exited the business)

Did they exit the business? It looks like the Nook Glowlight 4 was released less than a year ago.

I don't know a single person in real life with an e-reader other than a Kindle, including myself, so I had to google to see how B&N Nook was doing when you said that, but it still seems to be a thing.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#322

Post by coder543 »

dkarl wrote: post #320
vageli wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad-supported model allows people to buy the kindle for less than the non-ad-supported model. AFAIK you can pay a one-time fee and remove them, or buy the non-ad-supported version in the first place.

There wasn't a choice when I bought mine.

> There wasn't a choice when I bought mine.

Ad-supported or not has always been a choice for as long as Amazon has offered ad-supported kindles. I remember making this choice about 10 years ago, and I made this choice about a month ago when I bought my most recent Kindle.

If you bought it used or from a reseller, I don't know what to tell you, but Amazon gave you a choice if you bought it from them.

As a source, here is an Engadget article from the time when this option was introduced: https://www.engadget.com/2011-04-11-amazon-releases-ad-suppo...

You can clearly see that Amazon offered the "with Special Offers" version alongside the versions without "Special Offers". The ad-supported version was discounted by $25 back then. Nowadays, it appears to be a $20 difference on the Paperwhite.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#323

Post by unethical_ban »

huimang wrote: post #82
wyldfire wrote: post #37

Aside: what's the best e-reader device (ignoring cost)? I'd like to invest in one soon, something robust and durable, good contrast. I kinda like the idea of running open source software on an ereader but I'd probably consider it merely nice-to-have.

I love my kobo. It's more open than kindles (you just mount it and shlep books over), and I like the kobo bookstore. That said, I had a kindle paperwhite and it was nice as well. If you want to run android apps then check out Boox. I immediately bought one after playing around with one in person. But that's more of a tablet that can be used for reading than just an ereader.

Can you use Calibre to strip the DRM off Kobo e-books?

Being able to own my books outright is the only reason I went with Kindle over Kobo in 2014.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#324

Post by unethical_ban »

varispeed wrote: post #294

On topic, how does the eReader world look today? I tried one a couple of years ago, and as a person with ADHD I was constantly frustrated how bad the experience was in terms of responsiveness. I can see it could work for a book that you access linearly, but for technical books, where you often need to switch between pages it was a chore and I couldn't focus my attention on reading. So I still buy paper books, because…

I have a 2014 model an I only use it for narrative reading. I'm not sure the UX has caught up with the need to quickly go between different areas of a book. But I hear the new Kindle Paperwhite has a really fast refresh.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#325

Post by filmgirlcw »

Thorentis wrote: post #25

I very consciously did not buy a Kindle when choosing an Ereader about a year ago. The Kobo H2O is incredible and has served me very well. The format support is wonderful, and the stock OS does more than I need (though there is a whole community of custom OSes that also look cool). Combined with Calibre, I don't even see what the Kindle value prop is.

As others have said, I think the value for the Kindle is pretty damn high.

* Works in lots and lots of countries

* Great iOS and Android apps to supplement reading on Eink

* Well-priced devices, even if you pay to remove ads, that offer years and years of software support and are extremely durable/reliable

* Great hacking community and ability to use things like DeDRM to bring your purchases to other devices

* Insanely robust library that is far more consistent than other services.

* Ability to easily side-load other content via the Send to Kindle feature

* Audible integration/sync/discounts

If you prefer Kobo, that’s fine. But I’ve always seen it as the second-rate alternative owned by the second-rate Amazon (Rakuten). If I’m going to get tied into any ecosystem, I’d prefer for it to be the biggest/most active. But that’s just me.

Edit: formatting

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#326

Post by colomon »

nicolas_t wrote: post #24

Has anyone had any success sending epub with send to kindle via email? So far since the announcement of them dropping support, I've tried but every time I get a message saying the epub I sent is not in the correct format.

It's worked about 90% of the time for me. Basically everything I've sent to kindle the last two months I've sent as EPUB, and most of it worked. A lot of them were the "Compatible EPUB" version from Standard EBooks. (Even though it says they're not for Kindle, that appears to be out-of-date.)

So I just tried Man and Superman this way -- https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw/man-an... -- and it worked just fine. I guess I don't know if the formatting is completely correct, but I haven't had any difficulty reading books loaded this way -- pretty sure they look significantly better than the Project Gutenberg equivalents.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#327

Post by unethical_ban »

Rufhfhs3747rhe7 wrote: post #93

~8" foldable phones have eliminated the need for a separate eReader in my opinion. OLED screens are comfortable enough to read on and open source apps on Android can open any format and integrate with any dictionary. And most importantly, it's already always with me.

I disagree that reading on OLED is the same as e-ink, and I disagree with the idea that I would want to read on my phone instead of on a dedicated device. For me, part of the experience is getting away from the phone.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#328

Post by acabal »

colomon wrote: post #326
nicolas_t wrote: post #24

Has anyone had any success sending epub with send to kindle via email? So far since the announcement of them dropping support, I've tried but every time I get a message saying the epub I sent is not in the correct format.

It's worked about 90% of the time for me. Basically everything I've sent to kindle the last two months I've sent as EPUB, and most of it worked. A lot of them were the "Compatible EPUB" version from Standard EBooks. (Even though it says they're not for Kindle, that appears to be out-of-date.) So I just tried Man and Superman this way -- https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw/man-an... -- and it worked…

AFAIK when you use "send to Kindle", Amazon takes your epub and runs it through Kindlegen (or whatever Amazon's current equivalent is) to create an azw3 on their end. They are not rendering the raw epub - it goes through a black-box conversion before you see it. Thus, all bets are off as to how the "epub" will look on your Kindle. (Indeed, Calibre does a better job converting to azw3 than Kindlegen! That's why we use Calibre when creating azw3 files at Standard Ebooks.)

I won't believe Kindle supports epub until I can transfer an epub via USB cable and have it available to for immediate reading. Anything else is Amazon "supporting" epub with very big air quotes.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#329

Post by amanaplanacanal »

scarygliders wrote: post #108
michaelmrose wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of this difficulty goes away if Grandma uses her phone or tablets browser to download unlimited free books from zlibrary and reads them on the same device. Honestly the grandma example is starting to feel dated. When I was born in 1980 a 50 year old grandma was born in 1930 and probably didn't own a TV until they were raising their own family. The same 50 year old today was born in 1972 and would have been 5 when…

Don't know why you're being downvoted. This born in '69 53 year old right here is programming backends and frontends for websites, and PySide5/6 Qt5/6 applications. I'm still sharp as a pin. Like you say, there has to be some point at which those younger than I stop thinking someone in their 50's isn't as hopeless with technology as they assume. Of course not everyone in my Gen X'er group will be like me, then again,…

Yeah. I was born in 1957 and took my first programming class in 1973, assembly language on a PDP-8. Admittedly I'm not a typical 65 year old.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#330

Post by moffkalast »

swyx wrote: post #279
moffkalast wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, given that Calibre can convert from anything to the reader's native format I couldn't care less what kind of format any eBook I get is in, as long as it's not PDF. Still it's a good thing to move to a common standard to simplify things.

as a self published book author, i have to worry about formats that my readers use to give them the least hassle. unfortunately kindle is 1/3 of my readership.

Well if you're selling you really ought to provide it in all available formats, especially with how easy it is to convert between them. Should take you a total of what, 10 mins?

Kind of like us devs that have to deploy code for various platforms, which is arguably an order of magnitude more complex in some cases. You're lucky that the Kindle doesn't support 3 OSes with each its own proprietary formats lol.

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