Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[ownedbycats]

Amazon's CEO has changed since, maybe different. I'd be curious to know how timing coincides with the increasing lock-in.

[jpetts99]

Also, AZ tried to buy KG and Calibre with a metric fu*ktonne of money. I and everyone need to be so grateful he didn't sell out.

[ownedbycats]

Wait, really?

[jpetts99]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Amazon's CEO has changed since, maybe different. I'd be curious to know how timing coincides with the increasing lock-in.

My feeling is publishers are pushing AZ, thought they are not really pushing back.

An ex-colleague of mine says the device division is doing REALLY poorly*. Breaking old devices and pushing new hardware is a high priority, but both current Alexa and Kindles really do everything everyone wants.

Next big breakthrough for ereaders? Native (not overlay) colour support, plus bring back physical page turn buttons, please. Basically a Gen 1 Oasis with colour, or a colour Voyage. That's the sweet spot, IMHO.

Alexa - can't think of anything. Everyone I know uses alarms, timers, reminders, lights on/off, audiobooks. Virtually NOBODY uses it for buying.

[jpetts99]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Wait, really?

Really, according to an ex-colleague. I was in a different division when that happened.

Kovid can weigh in if I'm wrong.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jpetts99

It's a race condition. They can't/won't brick devices that use an extant tech. So until WiFi tech used by a device is dead it'll be supported. AZ need to keep trimming the trailing edge of the life window as quickly as they can. Unless they are willing to push out FW updates to older models, their hands are tied.

Like I said, keep those old devices!

There have apparently been some indications that Amazon is planning to disable downloading on some old models (it was discussed in the Amazon DRM thread in the Kindle forum).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jpetts99

My feeling is publishers are pushing AZ, thought they are not really pushing back.

It's almost certainly not publishers. It's Amazon wanting to stop people from taking Kindle books out of their ecosystem, so that they can record your data and show you ads to get you buy more stuff from them. They can't do it if you read their books on a non-Amazon device.

[jpetts99]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It's almost certainly not publishers. It's Amazon wanting to stop people from taking Kindle books out of their ecosystem, so that they can record your data and show you ads to get you buy more stuff from them. They can't do it if you read their books on a non-Amazon device.

Prolly true. AZ has never got on well with publishers. In 2016 there was a HUGE row over royalties with Hachette. I managed a team involved in the audit. It took something like 8 man years of effort on our side to prep for the audit. I had three people spend four months each in India prepping for it.

[ownedbycats]

Hachette were also the ones who sued the Internet Archive over their book-lending.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by jpetts99

Really, according to an ex-colleague. I was in a different division when that happened.

Kovid can weigh in if I'm wrong.

No, actually I have never received any offers from Amazon. I have had contact with Amazon only once, and that was somebody from their ebooks division about something technical in the MOBI format, cant recall who anymore.

I was in negotiations with SONY to buy calibre in the very early days, I even visited their HQ in California (I was at Caltech at the time), but nothing came of it. Buying open source software isn't really something must companies grok.

There was one other buyout offer but not from a company anyone is likely to have heard of, again in the early days.

[jpetts99]

Kovid - appreciate the correction. The colleague who told me that always wanted to put himself in the centre of attention. Apologies if people thought I was spreading misinformation to appear to be more connected than I am.

Again, though, I really appreciate what you do for us.

[jpetts99]

BTW, another really important player in the US ebook market is LibraryExtension, a plugin for browsers. I have been married to Marian the Librarian (really!) for 25 years and think libraries are a dreadfully under-supported resource for our country.

Support your local public libraries - if you don't they'll die and they won't come back..

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jpetts99

BTW, another really important player in the US ebook market is LibraryExtension, a plugin for browsers. I have been married to Marian the Librarian (really!) for 25 years and think libraries are a dreadfully under-supported resource for our country.

Support your local public libraries - if you don't they'll die and they won't come back..

Mine won't, it's patronised by Albo - the Prime Minister of Oz.

[Sirtel]

I don't read library books. Ebooks from local libraries can only be read in a proprietary app or in a browser, not on a Kobo or a Kindle. So I don't read them.

[DahliaRose]

Yes hi, new here. So I sadly cannot stop using Kindle, most books I get are with kindle unlimited and I just searched for the latest handful I tried borrowing and none were on Kobo. So sadly I'm stuck with Amazon...

So I used to have an old kindle device, but for the life of me I have no idea what happened to it. Been searching for days with no luck. So I figure I'll just buy another one, what generation of paperwhite would most of you recommend I get to use for all this? I don't want to buy one that's too old or too new and not be able to break the drm from it...