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Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

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Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#371

Post by WorldMaker »

hollandheese wrote: post #364
WorldMaker wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I have sideloaded via USB EPUBs and it works on two of my three kindles. Again, I don't know where the OS line in the sand is for EPUB support, but kindles seem to have quietly updated to directly support EPUBs. Amazon could do a much better job of communication here. I assume they aren't communicating this well because they don't want to encourage people to use non-Amazon bookstores.

If this is true you should report it to Mobileread, because this would be a giant story. I have never heard of that being possible, nor has anyone else there. Are you completely sure that you actually sideloaded the ePubs and not AZW3 or KFX files?

I feel somewhat certain I spotted people already doing it on a forum like Mobileread (or maybe it was Mobileread) and that is what encouraged me to try it as I was fiddling with something in Calibre conversion that wasn't working right and searched for "obvious solutions" one of which was a nonchalant "just try to copy the EPUB file over USB". I don't know what to tell you about why it isn't a bigger "story" other than "it seems to be intentionally quiet on Amazon's part" and I guess it is the sort of thing people just kind of do and don't think to talk about?

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#372

Post by ergo14 »

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…

Thing is Kobo doesn't tie you anywhere - I use it in europe - I never ever used their online store even once.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#373

Post by II2II »

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…

Yeap, I definitely prefer Kobo. I plug it into my PC to copy over public domain and DRM-free ePubs with ease, or DRMed ePubs via ADE. I am not tied to any ecosystem. As for the development community, I feel far more secure knowing my Kobo is not locked down. There are no cat-and-mouse games being played with encryption or other protection mechanisms. Modifying the software is a matter of creating a tarball or by popping out an internal SD card and inserting it into my PC (or using ssh, once some initial setup is done).

I don't have to say, imply, of even think that Amazon is "second-rate" to make myself feel secure about my decision. If anything I had to choose any word, it would be "monopolistic" or "vendor lock-in". But don't get me wrong: if Kobo changed their practices such that those words did apply, I would happily move elsewhere. (Kindle and Kobo are by no means the only companies out there.)

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#374

Post by deaddodo »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #362

God Mobi is so frustrating to deal with. I batch add books to my old kindle paperwhite once a year. It's a nightmare everytime. Sometimes emails to my kindle works. Sometimes it doesnt. Sometimes their official app works. Sometimes it doesnt. Sometimes Everything needs to be mobi. Sometimes other formats will be accepted but then look like shit. I love the hardware of my paperwhite and its by far the best ~$115 I've…

I’m confused, my Voyage just accepts PDF files, no issue. For anything non-Amazon purchased, that’s the format I use.

It is annoying that other common formats (epub, particularly) are unsupported though.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#375

Post by II2II »

nu11ptr wrote: post #264
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…

To borrow from the library on Kindle, just use the Libby app. Very painless and easy. You can send to your kindle as the last click of checkout. https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby

To borrow from the library on Kobo, just use your Kobo. There is no need to pull out a second device.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#376

Post by filmgirlcw »

goosedragons wrote: post #366
filmgirlcw wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t live in Canada and so I wasn’t aware of that because Kindle works in US library systems. My guess is that it doesn’t work in Canada because Kobo was a Canadian company before it was acquired and because Kobo’s owner used to own Overdrive (before it sold it to private equity a few years ago), but I could be wrong. Obviously, if a device doesn’t work with the services you engage with, it’s probably not the serv…

Kindles only work with libraries in the U.S. Nowhere else. That's the regional edge case. Overdrive also supported ePubs before Kindle including the original Kobo back in 2010 although you had to go through the whole Adobe Digital Editions rigamarole.

TIL. And yes, that’s definitely a larger edge case but I would still posit that for many users who are buying into an ecosystem, Kindle is going to be the most portable. But that’s an important distinction for anyone who wants to check books out from their local library.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#377

Post by drittich »

lizzard wrote: post #49
Barrin92 wrote: post #18

I'm extremely confused about this. I have an older Kindle Paperwhite (PW 3/ 7th gen I think?) and when I used the 'email sent' feature I got that mail about dropping mobi support in favor of epub, but when sending an actual epub I got an error for sending a wrong file, ostensibly because the Kindle only supports mobi. Are they going to ship a software update? Would be a shame if that service doesn't work any more in…

I had this happen as well and ran the epub through Calibre, converting epub to epub. That actually fixed it and the Kindle accepted the new file.

I converted a PDF to EPUB (v2) through Calibre, and Send to Kindle would not accept it.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#378

Post by Turing_Machine »

Hitton wrote: post #261
whyoh wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now that Kindle is supporting ePUB... Kindles do not support ePUB. But you can send ePUBs through the Amazon online conversion service now, which wasn't possible in the past.

And if you are lucky, Amazon will even be able to convert them. About week ago I wanted to test it, I tried it with bunch of epubs from various sources and only about half converted successfully.

Try using epubcheck on those to see where the finger really should be pointed.

There are a lot of really crap "epubs" out there.

https://www.w3.org/publishing/epubcheck/

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#379

Post by colomon »

acabal wrote: post #328
colomon wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"We wanted to let you know that starting August 2022, you’ll no longer be able to send MOBI (.mobi, .azw) files to your Kindle library."

That said, that was August 2nd and sending that file as MOBI did work.

(And the success e-mail message they sent me today said they did convert the Man and Superman EPUB to "Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy.azw3".)

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#380

Post by Turing_Machine »

gambiting wrote: post #156
Iolaum wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title that got removed was 1984, you can't make this stuff up https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...

Yeah, which is pretty incredible from PR perspective and I can't believe Amazon let that happen in the first place.

I don't think Amazon actually had a realistic choice there.

The edition of 1984 in question was pirated. Amazon could either remove it, or face a massive fine for distributing pirated material.

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