Submitted 4 weeks ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to technology@lemmy.world
https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/new-kindle-e-readers-no-longer-appear-on-computers
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.
Sometimes there’s an obscure item I need that I can’t find anywhere else. That’s what I usually buy on Amazon. Other times it’s cheap Chineseum stuff that I want to be able to return without hassle or get refunded if I never receive the item.
But yeah, generally I try to buy directly from the seller, and especially try to buy locally if I can.
I totally get that. And I have had that same experience once or twice. I break my own rule on those rare occasions where somehow the thing is only there.
The last time I bought from Amazon that I remember was in 2021 when I was putting together a new keyboard. Somehow they were the only ones that had the key caps I wanted. The only other place I could find them was Alibaba, and the shipping there was going to be literally 2 months according to the site.
But for normal items, I go to the seller as much as possible.*
(*And I know for some sellers it’s actually cheaper for them to use Amazon for shipping. I get it. But also, still, I don’t want to give Bezos money so I avoid it if possible.)
B&H and Home Depot have been my two replacements for things they sell. Former is computer parts and photography. Even been getting boxes from them faster than from Amazon pretty regularly.
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.
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.
My kobo Libra 2 is way, way, WAY better than Amy of the Kindles or nooks I’ve owned. So good.
I never heard of Boox.
I might get the Palma to replace my nearly dead Sony Reader.
Thank you for bringing that brand to my attention.
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
Counter argument: no.
For sure Amazon is predatory. For sure the services are overpriced. For sure they are killing Mom and Pop stores.
But you know what? I shop there for the same reason I shop at a Meijer or a Target or a Payless. Everything I want, one place, unified customer service, and it just shows up at my door. Probably 80% of my purchases are grocery delivery from Meijer and Amazon for basically everything else. Returns are no questions asked, service is fast, and selection is great, I just try not to buy amazon basics if I can help it.
Shipt, Uber whatever, GrubHub, etc etc delivery services that are supposed to solve the same problem are all fucking garbage. For sure I’m a corporate sellout, but I have a shitload of time to spend with my kids and my wife instead of fucking around with other services or driving around town and I’m not sorry about it 🤷
“I am unwilling to do even the least of changes to my lifestyle to improve life on earth” is not the flex you think it is. It’s honestly sad.
Cut Amazon shopping and subscriptions out of my life years ago and haven’t regretted it.
Amazon is slower than pretty much everyone else in Germany, and it’s been like that for literal decades. To get almost universal next-day delivery nation-wide a shop needs to do exactly two things: Have the parcels ready by evening, and not be located in the absolute boondonks (which would mean two-day delivery).
Amazon, unless when ordering via premium shipping (included in prime but not worth it for that), takes days to even pack the parcel. Then they can spend a day or two sending it from one of their logistics centres to the other until handing it over to the actual parcel service.
What they do have going for them is the mindbogglingly huge selection. Pretty much the only upside, if you need five small things from what would be five different stores each having their order minimums for free shipping amazon is the sane choice.
Yeah, I try to avoid Amazon as well, and just cancelling Prime went a long way toward motivating me to shop elsewhere. But we still order from Amazon a fair amount, it just takes a bit longer.
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
I saw that, too. I haven’t had a lot of headaches with MTP using my Android devices, but I’m always surprised at how there always seems to be a plan to make my devices worse than they already are.
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.
No argument here. It is insane to me that if I want content that isn’t locked into a particular ecosystem, I have to seek out public domain material or pick from the small subset of books that is sold DRM-free books in an open format. For anything else, money can’t buy flexibility. For most books, the only options for digital are accepting the DRM, waiting until copyright expires (good luck with that one), or privateering with out a letter of marque.
Isn’t that pretty much how parents work already? They’re extensible, sure, but only up to 20 years total. Not only that but you’re forced to document it too.
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…
I’m in the same position as you. From what I gather you can still transfer files, I’m still buying a kobo when my voyage bites the dust.
As noted elsewhere in the thread, they do support MTP transport, so it’s definitely not as user-hostile as it first sounded. Things like Calibre will still work. However, the fact that Amazon also removed the ability to download ebooks in the browser for offline transfer suggests where things are heading. IIRC kobos have some anti features of their own, but I don’t recall the details. I wonder if something like the Daylight DC-1 could be even better. It’s not just a nice reader, but a proper computer. At least, if it actually exists.
Kobo folks. I’ve been there through three generations of devices. No regrets. Fairly hackable, sideload friendly, competitively priced.
I’m considering a Clara BW, just waiting to see if it’ll go on sale for Black Friday.
Kobo can connect to libraries via apps like Libby (or others), right?
Overdrive is the one I usually hear about, but in googling Libby it seems they are related.
help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6251.htm
What are people’s go to eBook buying stores? Preferably DRM free.
I try to not buy Kindle books but I usually end up back there as it’s either much cheaper (not just slightly) or can only be found there.
I usually just borrow from my library, download as epub strip the DRM from the file so I can read it, and return the eBook to the library right away for the next person to borrow it.
I’m too lazy, I just borrow from the library and use them on the device. Stripping the DRM takes some level of effort, and I don’t intend to keep the books anyway, so I just let the DRM do its thing and turn off the wifi so they don’t disappear until I’m done w/ them.
Works fine on my SO’s Kindle, and I’m considering getting a Kobo and hope it’ll work there.
Sounds like time for some 3rd party bios flash…
Time to switch to lobo 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
Onyx Boox, Kobo, PocketBook. Did i miss one, which is custom content friendly?
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.
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.
Article says you cannot side load books on Apple Books. That is incorrect. You just send an epub to books via the share menu on Mac or iOS and it loads it. Also syncs it via iCloud if you want it to.
Perhaps the author meant you cannot download purchased books off of Apple Books.
Article is wrong about many things, seems poorly researched or the topic not fully understood by the author
Another reason to avoid kindle like the plague.
I’ve heard Costco has a better return policy
I checked my “content library” and I still have the option to download. Which is good, as I back everything up in Calibre. Maybe there are some regional factors here, or it may depend on which Kindle device(s) you own?
Many authors stipulate that their books must be sold on Amazon without DRM, so their readers can back up and use their books outside Amazon’s ecosystem. Does preventing users from accessing their files violate any conditions that were implied when people bought and sold books with that feature?
if you’re not opposed to using your already existing device, I suggest an app like ReadEra which uses multiple eBook formats.
if you’re uncomfortable using google play to download it, there are also fantastic libre readers on fdroid and independent sites that will also work beautifully.
i just like ReadEra cause it has so muvh customizability. and its one less device to take with me on long journies.
Of course this comes out after I just purchased 2. Fucking vultures. It’s never enough.
You can just send 'em back and buy something else. Amazon will take any damn fool thing back.
Wow that is outrageous. Hopefully there are still sideloading ereaders on the market by the time my current one dies, I don’t want to have to go search for one on ebay.
If I were buying an e-reader these days I’d look at something like the Boox devices that run Android. You could install the Kindle and Kobo apps and a good third-party reader app (I like ReadEra), and have pretty convenient access to ebooks from any source. They are overpriced though.
Possible windows fix here?
atocci@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I like to rag on Amazon as much as the next guy here, but this article seems a tad misleading. The article even says they use MTP now instead of functioning as a direct USB mass storage drive, but 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.
chaosCruiser@futurology.today 3 weeks ago
So, basically the whole article is just a complete nothign-burger.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds like a regular internet article to me.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Good call out. Clickbait article.
casmael@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
………. So is there any attempt by Amazon here to limit users transferring their ebooks to their computers?
atocci@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In short, no.
What’s changed here is now the Kindle and PC will actively communicate with each other during file transfers with MTP instead of the Kindle “pretending” to be a USB flash drive with USB mass storage. There are some important trade-off that come with the switch to MTP but nothing that will stop you from transferring ebooks to or from a computer.