Amazon has removed Download & Transfer option

[Quoth]

The Electric Network people in Ireland wrote again asking if I'd take a "smart meter" and there was a number to ring.
Apparently the modem even on brand new ones doesn't do 4G, and the 3G is gone in many places, so it uses 2G-GSM-EDGE.
Also the same one works for any retailer of Electricity.

So does the Kindle DXG still work? Amazingly Amazon must be still paying for a SIM contract. It works.
On the Web Site you go to the library/content page and send a book, then select the DXG.
On the DXG you enable "Wireless" and then "Sync and Check for Content". Indeed pressing Menu to see connect mode always shows EDGE now (the high speed 245 k 2G GSM, regular GSM is 14.4 k). Then it downloads.

In calibre, unlike KFX which give a mono cover, the cover on the Mobi is colour. The particular mobi had cunning attempts to be like the epub / azw3. Amazon seems to replace the original SMALL CAPS chapter lead in <span> with a <samo> tag. I have also both azw3 (D&T) and KFX (whispernet) versions for a newer kindle.

How curious.

For many ordinary novels the epub from the mobi won't be much worse than KFX, and the spans & CSS can be edited as easily on the epub conversion. I must try an ebook with illustrations. The DXG still goes due to having the battery replaced.

They might cut it off either by cancelling the SIM contract or disabling basic mobi. We can only speculate. OTOH newer models might get a newer unreadable KFX.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you were limiting yourself to the go to the web page and download 1 at a time method, you might be right. OTOH, a little browsing on the Internet would have found a selection of ways to download all your collection at once.

Interesting. I had no idea there was a work-around for the 25-books-at-a-time download limit. If I'd known this earlier I definitely would have researched. But as things stand now, it would pointless now.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Interesting. I had no idea there was a work-around for the 25-books-at-a-time download limit. If I'd known this earlier I definitely would have researched. But as things stand now, it would pointless now.

To be fair... these scripts didn't draw a whole lot of attention until the recent "Download and Transfer" feature removal dustup.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

Interesting. I had no idea there was a work-around for the 25-books-at-a-time download limit. If I'd known this earlier I definitely would have researched. But as things stand now, it would pointless now.

Pretty much useless now. I was aware of them and played with some scripts just out of curiosity since I used D&T regularly for my few Amazon purchases. Once the news hit that D&T was going away, I did more testing just to see which scripts were the most useful (for example, did the script allow selecting a non-US Amazon site) and supported features such as sanitizing file names—quite a few scripts tried to write filenames with special characters such as : in them which Windows was not happy with.

[olderTechnology]

Thank you to everyone who posted helpful hints about switching to Kobo. I've bought 2 books and successfully added them to my Calibre with the help of the DeACSM plugin. And it's nice to get the straight EPUB right away instead of wondering whether the Calibre converter did something to it while converting from AZW3.

[drofgnal]

I took the first step toward Kobo. I downloaded the Kobo app on my phone and iPad mini. Somehow browsing books on their site is a bit more pleasing and easier as well.

[Lavender]

Does this mean that kindle ebooks will be harder to buy, and de-DRM in the future?

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Lavender

Does this mean that kindle ebooks will be harder to buy, and de-DRM in the future?

Right now there are a few Kindle ebooks which cannot be DeDRMed. At any time Amazon could start applying that not-figured-out DRM to all books.

[Lavender]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Right now there are a few Kindle ebooks which cannot be DeDRMed. At any time Amazon could start applying that not-figured-out DRM to all books.

Didn't know that. Surprising they aren't already using it for everything. I'm guessing it breaks legacy kindle device support, or something?

[John F]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Right now there are a few Kindle ebooks which cannot be DeDRMed. At any time Amazon could start applying that not-figured-out DRM to all books.

If they applied it today, which firmware/Kindles would it work with?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by John F

If they applied it today, which firmware/Kindles would it work with?

Kindle firmware 5.16.4 (released in 2023) and all more recent versions support a type of KFX DRM which the latest DeDRM plugin cannot handle.

[John F]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Kindle firmware 5.16.4 (released in 2023) and all more recent versions support a type of KFX DRM which the latest DeDRM plugin cannot handle.

So they would need to stop delivering to all firmwares before the above version if they wanted to plug the DRM removal holes?

For example, my PW3 is on 5.16.2.1.1, which I believe is on the most current firmware for the PW3.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by John F

So they would need to stop delivering to all firmwares before the above version if they wanted to plug the DRM removal holes?

For example, my PW3 is on 5.16.2.1.1, which I believe is on the most current firmware for the PW3.

I very much doubt that Amazon will ever plug all of the DRM holes, but they can close most of them fairly easily.

After the apparent defeat of all of the KFX DRM algorithms by DeDRM 10.0.9 in mid 2023, Amazon fairly quickly introduced additional algorithms but only deployed them for a small selection of books that they only make available with unbroken DRM. I suspect that may be due to a contractual obligation that they have with certain publishers like Pearson.

Since then they have gradually been rolling out a new set of DRM algorithms and deploying them for all books on the various Kindle apps. Currently DRM removal only works on outdated Kindle app versions. Eventually those will be blocked from being able to download books.

New DRM for all books has not yet happened with e-ink Kindles. Something seems to have delayed the release of new Kindle firmware recently. I suspect that Amazon is taking additional time to improve the security of the platform. When the next firmware finally comes out it will likely include new DRM for all books along with mitigation for WinterBreak and other potential jailbreaks.

After that only older Kindles will provide a means of DRM removal. Amazon may leave it at that or take further action.

We are now coming up on the ten year anniversary of the deployment of KFX format. Amazon could at any time stop making newly published books available in the older formats. That would provide incentive for owners of those devices to upgrade without preventing previously purchased books from being usable on them.

If that happens then Kindles new enough to support KFX but old enough to no longer receive firmware updates, like your PW3, may be the only workable solution left.

[John F]

Originally Posted by jhowell

...

We are now coming up on the ten year anniversary of the deployment of KFX format. Amazon could at any time stop making newly published books available in the older formats. That would provide incentive for owners of those devices to upgrade without preventing previously purchased books from being usable on them. ...

And piss off some customers and give them an incentive to switch to another platform.

... If that happens then Kindles new enough to support KFX but old enough to no longer receive firmware updates, like your PW3, may be the only workable solution left.

I'm not sure why there isn't a possibility that they will introduce a new firmware (and mandate firmware updates) and new DRM (similar to what is used in KFX) to older Kindles/formats for ANY new purchases. Does newer DRM require much more CPU?

It seems to me if people want to pirate, they will. They will go to whatever means necessary. If Amazon made their DRM 100% unbreakable, the only books that wouldn't be stripped would be Amazon exclusives.

[Lavender]

Originally Posted by John F

And piss off some customers and give them an incentive to switch to another platform.

I bought my first eReader this week, and chose the kobo clara bw. Before I did I saw a myriad of YouTube videos discussing the switch from kindle to kobo. Most were less than a year old.