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Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

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Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#331

Post by aendruk »

BSOhealth wrote: post #251
Lio wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not Kindle's only disadvantage. Kobo had distinct features I wanted that no Kindle offered at the time I last purchased. Like a screen big enough to comfortably read PDFs. 10.3" on Kobo Elipsa vs 7" on Kindle. IMHO that makes the Kindle only really useful for fiction. There's also Pocket support for reading offline web articles. Overdrive support so I can borrow books from my local library for free. Free Dropb…

Libraries are very important, and Kindle supports borrowing from them (for free): https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/0431.html

This was the primary reason I chose a Kobo. You can use the pubic library entirely on the reader.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#332

Post by Keyframe »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #325
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 * Insane…

I love my Oasis. Only major issue I have is with leather cover I bought with it.. when cover is open and behind the kindle itself.. you cannot easily grip on it anymore since there's no rised edge anymore. If that's the only thing bothering me, I'm good. The only other is there's no direct O Reilly support, so I have to go through shady motions in order to read a book from my O'Reilly sub on my kindle.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#333

Post by swyx »

moffkalast wrote: post #330
swyx wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the devil is in the details. try getting formatting/images/code displays right on all 3 platforms when the test/iteration cycle is minutes. not saying this is the biggest problem in the world, just explaining why even if amazon discontinues mobi i still have to support mobi.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#335

Post by ergo14 »

levesque wrote: post #252
maratc wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Kindle is inexpensive, has great support, has a huge library (open to non-US people with non-US credit cards), and you could just email a MOBI to it (which is great if the Kindle owner is your parent). It's only disadvantage was that it did not support ePub and so one had to go through Calibre. Now that Kindle is supporting ePUB and no Calibre-tion is needed, I don't even see what the Kobo value prop is.

Kobo appears to be an inferior device on most accounts. Both of my Kobo readers have had glitches, required reboots, and at times had a suspiciously low battery life. The first even just stopped working all of a sudden. But all of it was worth it knowing I wouldn't have to support Amazon's walled garden. Now it's mostly down to "do you support Amazon?", and I'm still not sure if I want a Kindle. I'll keep my Kobo H2O…

I have Kobo H2O and it works great till this day. I charge it very rarly - maybe every 2-3 months. It reads everything I like. And it was one of the first with IP68 certification.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#336

Post by maratc »

coder543 wrote: post #321
maratc wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just checked — they indeed still have one model (not counting special editions in pink) after a hiatus of four years. Without an SD card, sideloading is an issue though.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#337

Post by philistine »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #325
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 * Insane…

A point that you're forgetting, which is extremely important for a lot of people, is access to a public library's collection of ebooks. In Canada, Kobo is overwhelmingly capable of connecting with a public library, while Kindle cannot. It is, in my experience, the number one reason why people around me choose a Kobo over a Kindle.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#338

Post by WorldMaker »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #298

I have a very old Kindle (3rd gen, ~12 years old) and I am unsure how it will be impacted by this. My understanding was that Kindles didn't support EPUB files. It seems that Amazon now intend to roll out support for EPUB, but I highly doubt a model as old as mine will get an update. So it seems that for now, while Amazon are just converting EPUBs to MOBI behind the scenes, everything will continue working. But if dow…

My understanding is that Amazon already crossed into that "mixed" state you are worried about: after a certain OS version Kindles natively understand EPUB (and can be sideloaded via USB, not just emailed). This was rolled out relatively quietly and the Send to Kindle tools have been taking a lot longer to update to support the .epub file extension even when the devices support it. We have something of an idea of when it rolled out in that it is noticeable the current "modern" KFX (?) format is a light tweak of EPUB.

But there are indications that there are probably still active kindle devices which Amazon is converting AZW3, KFX, and EPUB behind the scenes still. I still have a 3rd gen kindle keyboard myself that I use rarely and the outward differences between its OS and the OS on my other two more recent kindles are growing increasingly stark (and not entirely for the better, Amazon's recent cover focus even in list views have made the device's library a much bigger chore to navigate with no more than 6 books displayed at a time in either grid or list views). Easy to imagine nearly as many inward differences, including format support, between the OS versions.

So far, Amazon seems to want to support any active kindles for the long haul and I would be surprised if any behind the scenes converters get "turned off" without notice, but because they don't tell us where the exact lines are in which devices support which OS versions and which OS versions introduce which feature support, it's a strange gamble with not enough information.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#339

Post by Finnucane »

Lio wrote: post #267
utucuro wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Palm Pilot 1000 was launched in 1996, the Rocket, 2 years later in 1998.

I can remember reading Project Gutenberg books on a Psion Series 3[1] in the early 90s but not sure exactly when that was, '92 maybe. I'll bet someone must have tried something similar, earlier, using one of the little Tandy portables. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3

There was the Sony Data Discman in '92, which failed because books had to be distributed on a proprietary disc format, and there were not many.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#340

Post by WorldMaker »

atlgator wrote: post #334

My understanding is that Amazon supports conversions of EPUB to MOBI through their "email to your kindle" feature. Is there a firmware update planned for Kindles to support EPUB natively?

My understanding is that there was OS version years back that added EPUB native support, but Amazon never properly announced it, it just quietly happened. It's taken a while longer for the Send to Kindle tool to update to add .epub file format support, but people have been sideloading EPUBs over USB for some time now.
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