Very user-hostile, but very unsurprising.
Kindle hardware can be very nice, but almost every software decision is designed to keep users within their walled garden.
No epub support, no third party app support, no ability to load non-store audio, and now this. What a waste. These things could be so much more useful than they are.
Calibre has always been a small price to pay, but if sideloading goes away, I’ll certainly never “upgrade” again, and I’ll trash my 11th gen Paperwhite if they somehow make it stop working. Usable e-ink ereaders are even doable as DIY projects now, and Kobo will probably stay less closed-off than Amazon for a good while.
That said, reading the comments and the article it seems like as long as your OS (or some app) supports MTP, everything should still work more or less as it has, which is to say kind of annoying and with Amazon pulling little microaggressions like deleting your cover thumbnails, but overall sideloading should still function.
I love love love the DIY electronics scene but for a device that’s meant to be held…I dunno. Ergonomics are usually an afterthought if considered at all. I can’t imagine a DIY e-reader being comfortable to use
Note: NOT shilling for Amazon here, I will never buy another Kindle
As much as the idea is cool, that display is also horrendous for reading. I could absolutely see it as “good enough” for a lot of projects, but not an ereader. 400x300 isn’t enough.
I bought 2 Kindle 4 and 2 Kindle keyboard on Ebay for $40 a couple years ago and couldn’t be happier.
Abolish patent law.
Maybe replace it with some very strict non-extensible protection, based on time since patent registration or profit made with it, maybe something else, whichever happens earlier.
Either that or get used to oligopoly in every area of economics affected by electronics and computers and even all scientific advancement.
That this takes time to happen, doesn’t change the fact.
Reminder: don’t buy things from Amazon.
Like, anything.
“But fast shipping!” No. Stop. Most places now have pretty good shipping, often for free if you happen to buy a certain amount. It’s OK if the thing comes in 3-5 days and not tomorrow. You will survive.*
*I know there’s a couple of niche cases where some people do need things quick and Amazon serves that purpose. But 99.999% of things are not that.
B&H and Home Depot have been two solid services for things they sell. Former is computers and photography. Both of them ship pretty damn fast.
Honestly, what convinced me to start using them was how increasingly difficult it is to get quality items on Amazon. Sifting through garbage gets old fast.
Shout out to B&H. I bought my drone from them, and they offered the same model bundle at a slightly lower price than Amazon and also offered next-day shipping for no charge.
They also have a physical retail store and real live people you can call if you have a question, unlike either winding up talking to a chatbot or being redirected to Mumbai after a 45 minute hold.
I don’t know these guys from a hole in the ground other than that, but they beat Amazon and that was good enough for me.
Agreed, and there’s also the bonus of much less likely to get a counterfeit item.
Kobo and Boox are better at making eReaders anyway.
One thing amazon does that’s really useful is shipping to whole foods where you can pick up your item instead of it coming to your door which is really useful if you know someone will try to look through your mail
Cut Amazon shopping and subscriptions out of my life years ago and haven’t regretted it.
Glad I got a Kobo then.
Yep. Kobo is much better nowadays.
I like to rag on Amazon as much as the next guy here, but this article seems a tad misleading. They do still show up when you plug them in. The article even says they use MTP now instead of functioning as a direct USB mass storage drive, which means you can still plug them into your PC and transfer files though File Explorer. Android handles USB file transfers the same way, and that works fine.
Good call out. Clickbait article.
So, basically the whole article is just a complete nothing-burger.
I’ve owned two Kindle devices over the years, and the ability to directly load content, without involving a third-party service, was a big part of what made them usable for me. If that feature is gone, these devices will no longer be viable for my needs.
And the enshittification continues…
Comments on the article say that it’s not true, and new Kindles work exactly the way old ones do.
Seems like they don’t work exactly the same as they used to, as they now use MTP instead of USB mass storage, but while annoying, it’s generally a pretty trivial fix and your OS may already use MTP devices with no trouble. It seems there may be some other knock-on effects with fonts not sideloading right and needing a Calibre plugin to make pagination work how it used to.
So yeah, it’s getting worse, but Amazon hasn’t figured out how to bring the hammer down yet.
Kobo, folks. I’ve been there through three generations of devices. No regrets. Fairly hackable, sideload friendly, competitively priced.
Which model?
Anyone have thoughts between Kobo and Boox or ReMarkable?
I’m using a Boox Leaf 2 myself, it’s basically just an android tablet with an eink screen. I can load pretty much any eBook format, and you can put regular android apps from play store (or any other app store) on it as well if you want. And they have a microSD card slot available from the outside to expand storage.
All the hacks and mods people do to their kobo are not needed, because it’s supported by default on my Leaf 2.
Well that does sound pretty cool, I might have to take a closer look when I’m ready for another purchase.
I’ve looked into those other brands but not recently enough to provide any meaningful comparison. (though I have this feeling that “remarkable is overpriced” is something I’ve heard a lot, but I could be wrong)
I’ve personally owned the Kobo Glo, Glo HD, and Libra 2.
For most of their devices (I can’t speak for current models one way or the other) you can swap out key bits of the software and enhance functionality via various hacks/mods. A lot of that is documented here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223
You can also open them up and replace a standard SD card to boost storage capacity. (Again, I know this to be true at least through the Libra 2, I do not know about more recent models.)
The thing I got the most use from in the past was being able to swap out the sdcard on my Glo and Glo HD, but some folks really swear by the other various mods. I don’t have any complaint with the default reader software on the Kobo, so haven’t messed with swapping that out.
I have not messed with the SD card on the Libra 2 for two reasons - apparently doing so will mess up the waterproofing, and also because I’ve found 32GB to be sufficient for my purposes.
Android is a massive value add. I can’t tolerate it for my actual phone, but it’s just an absolutely massive step up from the other ereader OSes.
I went with a Boox device recently and like it. Since it is just android you can load up all sorts of apps. I use it for various things other than reading books, for example with the Paprika app in the kitchen as a recipe display.
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Kobo can connect to libraries via apps like Libby (or others), right?
Sounds like time for some 3rd party bios flash…
I have 5th gen PW and I never turned off Airplane mode. It’s a damn good device: great backlight, simple UI, ridiculously good battery life…etc
But if this no usb nonsense continues, I’m never going to buy Kindle again.
Good thing is that Kindle lasts for decade. My previous Kindle served me well for 10 years.
edit: Nevermind, found this reddit post that it’s just showing up as an MTP device and that Calibre works just fine.
Another reason to avoid kindle like the plague.
YAR HAR FIDDLE-DEE-DEE 🎶 BEING A PIRATE IS ALRIGHT WITH ME 🎶
any time you buy DRM’d content you’re subject to revocation of rights to use it. So buying such content along with purchase of devices geared specifically for DRM-only content is doomed from the beginning.
Time to switch to lobo (supposed to be Kobo) when my current oasis dies
I know it’s a typo, but the image of Lobo, DC’s heavy metal space biker, reading books to someone while they lie in bed is hilarious.
Well now I have to leave the typo hahaha
Specifically:
When you plug them into USB into your PC or MAC, they no longer appear as external drives.
For anyone else who’s confused at the title
Critically, while they wont appear as drives, they will appear as MTP devices (the same way Android phones do) and will still allow you to transfer files. The communication protocol is different, but “New Kindle e-readers no longer appear on computers” isn’t true unless your OS of choice doesn’t support MTP.
Ok, but can you still transfer your own books through MTP?
Onyx Boox, Kobo, PocketBook. Did i miss a custom content friendly company?
Btw, PocketBook is my first pick in privacy and battery runtime.
