Thinking of switching from Kobo to Kindle

[ficbot]

I read a lot on my Kindle but mostly buy from the Kobo store (and liberate). I am thinking of switching to Kindle store though. I just downloaded the iPad app and it has a two-page spread like iBooks does. I also like the idea of being able to synchronize between the Kindle, iPad and iPod Touch. It interests me to be able to start reading on the Kindle device at home, sneak in a little reading on the iPad while on a break at work, and then come home, sync up the Kindle again and continue reading where I left off.

If the book is a best-seller, the price difference between the Kobo store and Kindle store will be non-existent. And thanks to Apprentice Alf, it seems I can liberate my Kindle purchases for backup and Calibre manipulation. I tested it on a book which turned out to be Topaz and lost some of the formatting (it turned it into HTML) but I am guessing a mobo book will just turn to plain mobi, is that right? And I can convert that to epub later if I need to switch devices?

I think the synccing between Kindle and iPad does not work on non-Kindle sideloaded items, is this correct?

Anyway, not sure if there are any issues I am missing here. But it sounds like switching my purchases from Kobo to Kindle will give me better options. Am I missing anything here?

[ATDrake]

For what it's worth, it looks like you can sync the reading position only (no notes or highlights) between sideloaded non-Amazon books between Kindles and Kindle for devices using the ASIN metadata trick.

See this thread here for someone who describes how she sideloads her books onto her iPhone and other people's comments regarding changes because of firmware updates.

Here's the really long thread in which the trick was originally discovered.

Here's a thread with a utility to help automate the process.

And here's the MR wiki page on it which collects most of the useful info.

Hope this helps.

[ficbot]

Thanks for the info! I checked the threads you mention and did not see any info on doing this with a Mac. Any ideas?

[ATDrake]

You can install Mobi2Mobi (non-gui), whose metadata manipulation is really the key to all of it, from scratch using the instructions on the wiki. It's a bit of a hassle to get properly working at first, but once it's set up, it's pretty easy to use.

After that, just set the ASIN using the Terminal (wiki instructions for using Mobi2Mobi on a Mac) which you can alias or maybe even make an AppleScript to help speed up batch processing, and sideload your tweaked books onto the iDevice in the usual manner, and you should be good to go.

ETA: You'll want to be following the second set of instructions in the Mobi2Mobi usage guide, on setting the metadata using the --exthtype option.

The EXTH.pm file that comes in the Mobi2Mobi folder gives you a list of the types that you can use and what to call them in the command.

[kranu]

I think Calibre automatically adds the ASIN to the Mobi file if it is not detected (and it is configured for Amazon Kindle). I'm not sure of the exact settings, but when I sideload books, the synchronization of position (not annotations) works perfectly.