Sick of Kindle inconsistency

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I must have explained about KF7 at least 5x. He didn't care if the book was crap on those devices--as if the people who use them are TOO STUPID or TOO POOR or TOO THIS to count. Very aggravating. I forced the issue (as that's part of my obligation to Amazon), but...ururururughghghghggggghhhh.

More and more, that's the way I feel. Why go to extra trouble for someone using a ten-year-old Kindle? A ten-year-old Honda has a lot of good remaining in it, but a ten-year-old e-reader? When it can be replaced for $49.99?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

More and more, that's the way I feel. Why go to extra trouble for someone using a ten-year-old Kindle? A ten-year-old Honda has a lot of good remaining in it, but a ten-year-old e-reader? When it can be replaced for $49.99?

Ask Amazon why they still support Mobi. I was hoping by now Mobi would have been dumped.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

More and more, that's the way I feel. Why go to extra trouble for someone using a ten-year-old Kindle? A ten-year-old Honda has a lot of good remaining in it, but a ten-year-old e-reader? When it can be replaced for $49.99?

A ten year old EReader may well have a lot of good left in it. Some people could argue that you're being classist, NJ. I know better, of course. Nonetheless, that's your call. I don't have the luxury, as we all know.

Spoiler:

Instead, I get to dispense unpaid advice on the KForums, to the ungrateful, the spiteful and the rude. Along with ensuring that books work on the KF7 readers. BTW, thanks for your recent post on that topic.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Ask Amazon why they still support Mobi. I was hoping by now Mobi would have been dumped.

Very simply, because they are NOT Apple? Despite my moaning, I respect them (Amazon) for their support of the devices that they sell. I refuse to have another Apple device, of any kind, in my home or office, other than what's required for testing. And even then, I refuse to buy anything first-hand, because I don't want Apple to get my dough. Screw 'em. I can hold grudges like nobody's business, and I'm STILL pissed about their cavalier abandonment of the first-gen iPads, mere months after they were being actively sold by Apple. You want to discard/not-support a $25 device? Fine. A $1600 device? Kiss my fine @$$.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

What I don't get is why not dump Mobi and release firmware for the older devices that handle KF8 and not Mobi? Heck, Sony was able to fit ePub into the 500.I don't see why Amazon cannot fit KF8 in the older Kindles. If they have to remove Mobi, then all that needs to be done is the Amazon Mobi eBook be download again.

As for Apple, they did screw lots of people with the crappy 1st Gen iPad. Even when a lot of apps were compatible with whatever version iOS, they still didn't run properly. So how do you support iBooks from a 1st gen iPad and the current version iBooks at the same time with different issues/fixes/etc.?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I don't get is why not dump Mobi ...

I think there might be an international outcry. I have the impression MOBI is the format of choice for those whose No.1 Kindle feature is the email-own-books-to-Amazon-servers.

[Shad Plante]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I think there might be an international outcry. I have the impression MOBI is the format of choice for those whose No.1 Kindle feature is the email-own-books-to-Amazon-servers.

That could be fixed by allowing you to send an azw or kfx using send to kindle.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Shad Plante

That could be fixed by allowing you to send an azw or kfx using send to kindle.

It could indeed, but Amazon seem to have decided not to do so.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Shad Plante

That could be fixed by allowing you to send an azw or kfx using send to kindle.

Can't be KFX.Not all Kindles support this. The idea is to keep KF8 and dump Mobi.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I don't get is why not dump Mobi and release firmware for the older devices that handle KF8 and not Mobi? Heck, Sony was able to fit ePub into the 500.I don't see why Amazon cannot fit KF8 in the older Kindles. If they have to remove Mobi, then all that needs to be done is the Amazon Mobi eBook be download again.

If they could have, they would have. They retrofitted the earlier K3's, 4's, etc. Obviously, the K1/2 and the DX/Keyboard simply can't support it. I mean, c'mon, guys, the K1/2 were barely HTML 3.2, never mind ePUB3.0/KF8.

As for Apple, they did screw lots of people with the crappy 1st Gen iPad. Even when a lot of apps were compatible with whatever version iOS, they still didn't run properly. So how do you support iBooks from a 1st gen iPad and the current version iBooks at the same time with different issues/fixes/etc.?

Yes, they bloody well did. I paid something like $1600 for mine, and they didn't even support it a YEAR. Not even a year? Screw 'em. Maybe other people are so obsessed about something looking "cool" that they'll pay silly money for a phone, or a laptop, tablet, etc., and live with being treated like dirt, but I won't. Certainly not knowingly. As they say, "fool me once..."

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I think there might be an international outcry. I have the impression MOBI is the format of choice for those whose No.1 Kindle feature is the email-own-books-to-Amazon-servers.

Sorry? I don't follow what you mean.

Originally Posted by Shad Plante

That could be fixed by allowing you to send an azw or kfx using send to kindle.

Nope, it couldn't, and AFAIK, you can't use STK for AZW or KFX. It may well have changed, but the last time I looked, "Send to Kindle" was nothing more than using the dedicated email address, and not that long ago, it was STILL turning out KF7's, not KF8. Even if it was turning out KF8s now, that's NOT AZW or KFX.

Originally Posted by jackie_w

It could indeed, but Amazon seem to have decided not to do so.

I genuinely don't think that's it. There are millions of KF7 ebooks on Amazon, and at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of KF7 devices. I'm 99% sure that if they could be retrofitted remotely, Amazon would have done so. They did so for the early 3's and 4's, as I mentioned above.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can't be KFX.Not all Kindles support this. The idea is to keep KF8 and dump Mobi.

And..unless I'm mistaken, isn't KCR still MOBI, to this day, not KF8? No fonts, etc.? Anyone know? I freely admit I don't spend much time around KCR.

Regardless--at some point, sure, Amazon may choose to stop supporting the KF7's, but don't forget, they were selling the DX until what, 18 months or so ago? Why wouldn't they have tweaked the DX, if it was easily doable? Nyah...I suspect it's just not that simple.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

A ten year old EReader may well have a lot of good left in it. Some people could argue that you're being classist, NJ. I know better, of course. Nonetheless, that's your call. I don't have the luxury, as we all know.
Hitch

A $49.99 classist!

I can justify buying a $4 coffee at the Sundeck on Aspen Mountain because I instinctively move the decimal point one digit to the left, to wipe out the Great Inflation of the 1970s. So I think, well, forty cents, that's the price of the New England Boiled Dinner Special on Thursdays at the diner, but it's not totally unreasonable.

I paid something like $89 for a Smith Corona portable typewriter while I was working my way through college, which would equate to $890 in our much debauched greenbacks. So no, I have absolutely no sympathy for a reader unwilling to upgrade his klunky ten-year-old Kindle (which he paid $389 for and can now replace for $49.99!). Indeed, I hope the thing freezes on him, right at the point where Jack Reacher launches a head-butt at the first enemy in a phalanx of five.

Oh, and merry Christmas!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Sorry? I don't follow what you mean.

I mean that over the years many people on MR have said that the ability to email their own books (not bought from Amazon) to Amazon is their favourite Kindle feature, to the point of it being a 'must-have' feature. Presumably they wish to consolidate all ebooks in one place. Personally I don't understand why anyone wouldn't consider calibre to be a far more able and flexible central repository, but this is irrelevant to the point I was trying to make. Once again, based on what I read at MR, those who like emailing books seem to prefer to email MOBI rather than the MOBI/KF8 dual format Amazon also support.

As an aside, to speak personally, although I managed to successfully email a dual format MOBI/KF8 to Amazon, nothing I did persuaded the Amazon server to download the KF8 part to Kindle4Android on my phone. I must have been missing a vital incantation or ingredient (eye of newt, maybe). I gave up trying quite quickly, life's just easier with EPUB in my world.

Originally Posted by Hitch

I genuinely don't think that's it. There are millions of KF7 ebooks on Amazon, and at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of KF7 devices. I'm 99% sure that if they could be retrofitted remotely, Amazon would have done so. They did so for the early 3's and 4's, as I mentioned above.

You misunderstood my comment. I was not referring to retrofitting old devices I was referring to Amazon's decision not to allow KF8 to be emailed as a personal document. I suspect many more would have been weaned off the primitive MOBI format by now if Amazon had decided to do so. Obviously not everyone because some people hang onto their old devices until they give up the ghost.