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Originally Posted by drofgnal
Yea, I'd consider Kobo, but for the fact that when I did a cursory search of the same title books on kobo and amazon, kobo seemed to be higher priced. Plus I look at amazon deals of the day and get some good ones that way, ultra cheap. I'm reading the omnibus edition of the first three books of Dragonriders of Peru I got for 1.99.
For all the DRM removal I've done of books I've purchased, I never really go back and load books from calibre that much. So maybe it's time to just delete calibre and those books and forget about it.
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In my experience outside of Amazon, you can still get a ton of free ebooks and discounts. I have long had a kindle, but it has never been my primary reader (I just got it for Amazon exclusives). Plus, I have had a far better experience with using my local library for ebooks on my ePub devices than my Kindle.
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Originally Posted by salamanderjuice
Kobo price matches with Amazon, you get credit back. They also have deals of the day and because publishers set the price it's often the exact same ones just maybe on a different day.
You can also buy books from other places like Google Play books with Kobo, you're not stuck with just their store like Amazon.
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Yup, I've bought very few books from Kobo. I usually hit up Google or B&N before I think to check Kobo, despite having a Kobo.
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Originally Posted by Sirtel
It's nothing to do with publishers. After all, Adobe DRM, which the epub stores use, is much simpler to remove than Amazon DRM. This is Amazon wanting to completely shut you in, so that they could data mine you.
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Bingo. The devices were never big earners for Amazon, it was always about the walled garden. I mean, why else would they put a stipulation in the license for their SDK that you couldn't support Amazon's DRM and any other DRM. That's why you don't see any non-Amazon eReader's that support Amazon.
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Originally Posted by JSWolf
It's just the Kindles without WiFi that won't be able to get any eBooks.
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But what non-wifi kindles are there? I can't remember if the first or second gen supported wifi alongside Whispernet, but I know from Gen 3 on, it had Wifi Support (I have 2 gen3s).
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Originally Posted by jhowell
Amazon has announced a hardware related event at 10AM ET on February 26, the same day as the Download and Transfer cutoff. Panos Panay, their new head of hardware development who came to Amazon from Microsoft, is supposed to be there to show off new products. Speculation is that they relate to Alexa.
However his department is also responsible for Kindles. There may also be news on that front, and I don't mean good news.
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Makes sense. New hardware that's more locked down, and I'd wager even something to surpass KFX.
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Originally Posted by Quoth
They might just simply end eink kindles, Mac app & Windows app. Only have iOS and Android apps. The Fire is basically Android, so a version of the Android app. Exactly the sort of thing beancounters and an ex Microsoft person would like.
There is nothing compelling new that can do with eink, and for Amazon, control is important. The Alexa division is under pressure to save money.
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The fire tablets are garbage though. I have two of the 10" ones, which were supposed to have better specs of the devices at the time, and from the very beginning it was extremely slow and would often be non-responsive. Unless they really step up their game, I don't see that happening. With an app, it is easier to leave the ecosystem, because you have less tying you to it. When you have hardware, there's an extra level holding you back. It is all about lock-in.
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Originally Posted by salamanderjuice
It could happen but they're not going to do it at an event unless they have something they think will replace them. And I don't think an $80 LCD Amazon Fire is going to be a good replacement for the basic Kindle for a lot of people.
Yes, ex-head of the Surface division at Microsoft, Panos Panay. The Surface line of devices are quite nice, although not the usual cheap stuff Amazon hardware peddles.
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This. They won't kill off something unless they have a really compelling replacement.
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Originally Posted by issybird
It's all sheerest speculation of course, but I wouldn't expect a discount upgrade on a KK since they already offered one in 2022. A you snooze, you lose scenario. The 20% trade-in upgrade would still be available.
I know it's popular to harsh on Amazon especially right now and I've never been a fangirl, but I tend to think Amazon's been generous in terms of support and upgrade discounts on ancient Kindles. No device lasts forever.
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How many were aware of that offer from 3 years ago? I mean, I wasn't, and I've always been fairly tuned in to the ebook industry and have 2 kindles. Even if you did know about it, the situation then wasn't quite the same as if they were killing off support for something. Much different not upgrading when your device still works well for you and not upgrading when your device has functions turned off because it is no longer supported (and being unable to buy books for it would be losing a function).