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Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

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Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#361

Post by LeafItAlone »

wink wrote: post #197
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.

The kindle's value prop is that it has existed for a while and I'm pretty sure my 8y old model would still work if I hadn't left it on a plane. So I bought a used one from a friend and that's been working for many years. I see no reason to upgrade e-readers all the time. I'm not telling you or anyone to buy a Kindle, but from a VERY quick look my Kindle cost half of what a Kobo costs (tolino seems to be available aro…

My 6th Gen Paperwhite (2015) is still used to this day! So yours almost certainly would be functional.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#362

Post by AlwaysRock »

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 ever spent on a device but getting books onto it, other than buying through the amazon kindle store, is the worst.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#363

Post by HelloMcFly »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #357
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?

Works the same on Kobo - full OverDrive integration.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#364

Post by hollandheese »

WorldMaker wrote: post #352
hollandheese wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#365

Post by wishfish »

unethical_ban wrote: post #323
huimang wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can. It's slightly more involved than the Kindle DRM stripping, but it's not bad. I was able to do it and I don't even own a Kobo. I found a book I wanted that was for sale on the Kobo store but not offered by Amazon.

For those who want to try this at home, you're looking for the Calibre Obok Plugin. I think it's usually part of the DeDRM package which you probably already have. I can't remember where I found instructions but this page seems more or less accurate:

https://www.epubor.com/calibre-kobo-drm-removal-plugin-obokp...

There is one simpler way of accomplishing the same thing: just go to LibGen and look for the book you bought. And download a fresh copy from there. That might be the best solution.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#366

Post by goosedragons »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #353
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.

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.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#367

Post by neves »

Would I be able to just copy a epub to my Kindle Paperwhite 7th Generation? Or it will work just using "Send to Kindle"?

I've just generated a personal e-book in epub and it was really annoying to convert it to Kindle to load in the device.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#369

Post by shuntress »

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 know you and everyone else reading knows this but this is by design.

Amazon wants it to be as difficult as possible (if not impossible) to buy _anything_ (not just digital books) from anywhere other than Amazon.

Re: Retirement of Amazon MOBI eBook file format

#370

Post by AlanYx »

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…

Full page refresh is still slow, but the interfaces have gotten better to mitigate that a little. I've never used a Kindle, but on Kobos there's a scrubbing interface that appears that shows pages about 1/8th size so you can flip through them visually a lot faster (due to partial refresh), and the page location scrollbar places enlarged dots around places you've been recently, so it's not hard to flip back and forth between a few places (e.g., your current reading location and an endnotes section).
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