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Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

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Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#351

Post by SXX »

agentdrtran wrote: post #343
philistine wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can get library books on your kindle, you just need to use a phone app

Why would you need a phone app? You can just email them to special Amazon email address and they'll be converted and uploaded to Kindle.

PS: Yeah that wouldn't work for books with DRM. So might be its the problem.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#352

Post by WorldMaker »

hollandheese wrote: post #347
WorldMaker wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No Kindles actually support reading ePub. All that's happening is Amazon is retiring MOBI support. Since Send to Kindle only supported MOBI, they are transitioning Send to Kindle to support receiving ePub which then gets converted to AZW3. So the only Kindles losing support for the Send to Kindle stuff is the Kindle 1, Kindle 2, and Kindle DX. Since those ones never got AZW3 support.

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.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#353

Post by filmgirlcw »

philistine wrote: post #337
filmgirlcw wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 service for you. But since Kindle does work with many, many library systems (and its arrangements with libraries predates Kobo’s existence), I think that’s more regional edge case and not a blanket reason to use one over the other, which is what OP was saying.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#354

Post by AlanYx »

RuggedPineapple wrote: post #278
gwbas1c wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really only have three minor gripes about the Kindle ecosystem... (Which is why I like it so much.) 1: The desktop applications don't auto-sync. (I really like reading books on my laptop because it holds the screen at a comfortable angle. This is especially the case when reading while eating or doing something else with my hands.) 2: Sometimes the Android app is buggy, requiring that I reinstall. When I reinstall,…

My biggest issue is Kobo doesn't actually support epub, or at least the modern incarnation. Their reader software is woefully out of date and has terrible epub handling, so to get the features you expect you're back to the Calibre->reader loop you're on with kindle, only instead of converting to AZW3 or KFX you're converting to KePub, Kobo's homegrown version of epub they did instead. You can fix that by installing K…

Kobos do support modern epubs, but for some inexplicable reason, they use their old epub2 renderer licensed from Adobe for all .epub files. You can just rename .epub files to .kepub and force Kobos to use the modern reader code. This gets you a lot better formatting. The catch is that location bookmarking becomes imprecise if you do this rather than use kepubify. It's super weird that they don't just offer the option to run kepubify locally on the device, behind the scenes.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#355

Post by brokenkebab2 »

appletrotter wrote: post #350
brokenkebab2 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Afterwards, Jeff Bezos apologised [...] It is therefore unlikely to happen again. If it's still technically possible (it is), it will happen again. It's implemented to be used, even if occasionally. And mere existence of this feature is a clear declaration, you don't own it, you rent it. Many people may find it acceptable, taking other circumstances, but it's a big bold minus.

Just pirate your books if you’re so concerned.

I'm concerned by the fact that Amazon can delete files from a device I bought. How is this related to your comment? I don't see

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#356

Post by TheNewsIsHere »

SXX wrote: post #351
agentdrtran wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get library books on your kindle, you just need to use a phone app

Why would you need a phone app? You can just email them to special Amazon email address and they'll be converted and uploaded to Kindle. PS: Yeah that wouldn't work for books with DRM. So might be its the problem.

Library books also work on Kindle ereaders. I’ve borrowed a few that way.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#357

Post by LeafItAlone »

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.

Where do you get your books from?

My main use for my Kindle ($99, early 2015 model) is from library systems that use Libby/Overdrive. It’s super easy to check out a book and have it delivered to my kindle. Kindle supports whatever DRM is used to return the book when the loan period is over. And I don’t have to feel guilty about bypassing DRM on the service.

What’s the process like for the Kobo?

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#358

Post by ta8903 »

maratc wrote: post #286
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.

There's no magic ASIC on the Kobo that transfers the stream of bytes into the stream of pixels; ePub support is in the Kobo software. Amazon now has this support in their software. The fact that the conversion software runs on Kindle servers (and not on the Kindle device) is insignificant to me - what's important is I can have an ePub and can read it on the Kindle.

Not sure what to make of this post. You know that you can drop files straight to your Kindle through a USB cable, right? As long as an epub loaded this way doesn't work I can't see how you can say Kindles support epub.

Yes, you can use Amazon's weird conversion service to convert them, but you could do that with Calibre (or just pandoc) anyways, and probably with less friction too.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#359

Post by levesque »

nanomonkey wrote: post #296
levesque wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Now it's mostly down to "do you support Amazon?" I don't know if this is still the case, but the Kindle used to be a loss leader. So in theory, by purchasing one, using Calibre only and never purchasing ebooks from Amazon, you are causing Amazon to bleed revenue.

Great point!

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#360

Post by LeafItAlone »

CallMeJim wrote: post #53

I wrote myself a tool to monitor the RSS feeds of a bunch of web serials, and send any new chapters to Kindle. Using Calibre CLI, adapting to send EPUBs instead of MOBIs was as easy as changing from: ebook-convert chapter.html chapter.mobi To: ebook-convert chapter.html chapter.epub Calibre is incredibly powerful.

I am interested in which web serials you follow and what you tool looks like, if you are willing to share!
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