Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I also didn't have the notice last night, but got it just now. I suspect a flurry of D&Ts on my part last night triggered it. I'd never used it before and I would likely have been one of the stealth removals.
I'd stopped downloading my Kindle books years ago and just direct downloaded. That will still be my method of choice to read Kindle books. However, since D&T is trivial I figured I might as well grab a portion of my library; it means I won't be forced into a Kindle purchase if (or when, of course) my two active devices go belly up.
I grabbed the low-hanging fruit (i.e. my most appealing books) last night, just in case. Now to decide what else. I won't bother with PD or books of low interest I'll never read again; I'm not sure about more academic titles where I think the likelihood of my ever reading them is low. The whole business could seem more onerous except that my major purveyor has been Kobo and I stopped buying Kindle books altogether in late 2023.
FWIW, the Kindle for PC method was still working last night, although I did have to redownload 1.17 after a forced upgrade. Obviously that can't be relied on going forward, but it's an option for those without a relevant Kindle for D&T.
We knew this was coming. I didn't understand myself why people didn't take their custom away from Amazon as soon as the writing was on the wall. Sometimes that's all you can do.
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Does Kindle4PC work on a Mac? If so, I'll download 1.17 as I don't have a Kindle that's old enough to download directly onto the device and then transfer to Calibre.
More generally, it's a real bummer that this is happening but I thought it was only a matter of time when the PW6 came without the D&T option. Thankfully, the vast majority of books I own are in Calibre, and the majority I am likely to want to read are available on Kobo's store anyway. However, there will be a few that I'll want to read which won't be. I can understand the logic from Amazon's POV: it keeps people within their walled garden, and most people now have broadband Wi-Fi, unlike in 2010/11 when Kindles really became big, so the proprietor and consumer logic is no longer there. Those like us who D&T to de-drm, upload to Calibre and edit are a tiny minority, so this wouldn't weigh in the decision.
Even so, I personally see this as yet another example of Doctorow's "ensh***ification of the internet" concept: websites and companies making things less open, flexible, and ultimately enjoyable just because they can and because they want to squeeze customers and users for every penny possible no matter the actual decline in user experience. This wouldn't be such a problem if Kindles were as customisable in their reading options as Kobos, regarding line height, L/R margins, and font sizes. If they were, I wouldn't have a problem being limited in this way to only being able to download onto the device. But because these options are still so ridiculously limited, the ability to tweak an ebook's look and feel in Calibre has been extremely useful for me. Ah well, things are as they are.