Thread: Kindle to utilize epub format in late 2022
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Old 05-03-2022, 10:56 AM   #34
jhowell
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Location: Charlottesville, VA
Device: Kindles
Quote:
Originally Posted by NullNix View Post
They can't drop mobi because people have existing books, and if they suddenly make all those books unreadable there will be a public relations firestorm,
I believe that this change is all about trying to make the internal workings of the Kindle ecosystem into more of a black box. Standard formats such as EPUB, DOCX, and PDF go in and we are not supposed to think about what magic happens with them after that. The documents just appear on our devices ready for reading. This will give Amazon more flexibility to change their internally used formats behind the scenes going forward.

Despite their desires to hide it, there is no way that MOBI support is going to be removed from the Kindle ecosystem at any time in the foreseeable future. But sideloading is going to become the only option for some documents.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NullNix View Post
what do you think would happen if the entire content of libraries purchased before about 2012 started to vanish?
It is not just older books. Amazon only just stopped accepting books in reflowable MOBI format from publishers in August 2021.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NullNix View Post
Does this mean we can't email periodicals to our Kindles any more?
You can still email periodicals but I do not see any way of getting the special handling of MOBI periodical format without sideloading. There are two problems. First is the special TOC needed to enable the article view and the second is that it is effective only in MOBI format, not KF8.

The first problem can be solved by using proprietary enhancements to the NCX that kindlegen turns into the periodical TOC. It would be possible to change calibre to produce an EPUB with that instead of a MOBI file.

The second problem is tougher to solve. Anything newer than a K2 Kindle is going to get the converted periodical delivered in KF8 format. There is a command line option that causes kindlegen to only produce MOBI output, but I know of no way to induce that behavior for an emailed EPUB.
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