Amazon Announcement inre: Kindle

[spynumber]

I just received this email from Amazon. I want to know how this might affect Calibre.

"Dear Kindle Customer,

Thank you for using the Send to Kindle service to send personal documents to your Kindle library. We wanted to let you know that starting August 2022, you’ll no longer be able to send MOBI (.mobi, .azw) files to your library. Any MOBI files already in your Kindle library will not be affected by this change.

MOBI is an older file format and won’t support the newest Kindle features for documents. Any existing MOBI files you want to read with our most up-to-date features for documents will need to be re-sent in a compatible file format.

Also, compatible formats now include EPUB (.epub), which you can send to your library using your Send to Kindle email address. We’ll also be adding EPUB support to the free Kindle app for iOS and Android devices and the Send to Kindle desktop app for PC and Mac.

If you have any questions, please visit our help page or contact our Customer Service team.

Regards,
The Kindle Team"

[kovidgoyal]

Doesnt affect calibre at all, calibre doesnt care what formats amazon accepts. If you are using calibre to send books via email to your kindle you will need to go to Preferences->sharing books by Email and change MOBI to EPUB for any kindle addresses.

[spynumber]

Thanks! I guess it only affects the Kindle when using the Amazon website.

[brocahantas]

Am I understanding this correctly in that the iOS app doesn't (yet) support EPUB?

I like using the "send to email" to get books on both the iOS app and my kindle. But it sounds like I should continue using mobi until the mobile app supports epub.

I also remember not being able to see bookcovers with epubs on Kindle. Is that still the case?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by brocahantas

Am I understanding this correctly in that the iOS app doesn't (yet) support EPUB?

I like using the "send to email" to get books on both the iOS app and my kindle. But it sounds like I should continue using mobi until the mobile app supports epub.

I also remember not being able to see bookcovers with epubs on Kindle. Is that still the case?

Nope. You will have to send ePub format eBooks to Amazon and not Mobi. Amazon will never support ePub with a Kindle. Amazon will convert the ePub to what you need when you download.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by brocahantas

Am I understanding this correctly in that the iOS app doesn't (yet) support EPUB?

The Kindle for iOS app has a send-to-kindle feature that currently accepts MOBI and a few other file formats. Starting in August it will no longer accept MOBI but it will support EPUB.

But that does not mean that the iOS app will be able to read EPUBs. What will happen is the EPUB will be sent to Amazon and converted to MOBI and KF8. It will then will be available to read on all of your Kindle apps and devices including the iOS app that originally sent it.

Originally Posted by brocahantas

I also remember not being able to see bookcovers with epubs on Kindle. Is that still the case?

Yes. EPUBs will be converted to KF8 format for transmission to Kindles. Kindles only show a generic cover image for personal documents in KF8 format. (The very oldest model Kindles and the iOS app do not support KF8 and so those will receive the book in MOBI format instead.)

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Doesnt affect calibre at all, calibre doesnt care what formats amazon accepts. If you are using calibre to send books via email to your kindle you will need to go to Preferences->sharing books by Email and change MOBI to EPUB for any kindle addresses.

Well, this will presumably break sending Calibre-generated periodicals by email, which is annoying: your Economist recipe and ebook-convert and the Economist turning up silently on my Kindle every Friday morning are one of the small joys of my life, and now I'll presumably have to revert to some more manual scheme involving using the built-in web browser to download the things by hand from my local web server instead (and something more complex when I'm away from home). Not the end of the world, but a definite example of anti-customer behaviour IMNSHO.

[kovidgoyal]

You should be able to download the news in epub format and send that, though lord knows what amazon will do to its formatting in converting it to wheir formats.

But in general, yes amazon have been ever so gradually trying to make using their devices outside their eco system more and more inconvenient. If you rely on anything dependent on amazons servers I would suggest looking into alternatives.

[oston]

Originally Posted by brocahantas

Am I understanding this correctly in that the iOS app doesn't (yet) support EPUB?

I like using the "send to email" to get books on both the iOS app and my kindle. But it sounds like I should continue using mobi until the mobile app supports epub.

I also remember not being able to see bookcovers with epubs on Kindle. Is that still the case?

I just sent, as an email attachment, an epub file to both my Kindle Paperwhite (1oth Gen) and also to the Kindle App on my Ipad.

I use the email addresses for each of the devices and the epub just shows up in my Library, after being converted to KF8(AWZ3)

The Cover IS visible as a thumbnail in my Library on the Ipad, but not as a thumbnail on the Kindle. But when I open the book and navigate to the Cover in via the TOC, the cover IS visible on both devices.
HTH
Jim

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by oston

The Cover IS visible as a thumbnail in my Library on the Ipad, but not as a thumbnail on the Kindle. But when I open the book and navigate to the Cover in via the TOC, the cover IS visible on both devices.

That is pretty much the behaviour mentioned for any PDOCs. Eink Kindles do not show the cover thumbnails but Android/Fire/iOS/etc. apps do. Nothing like a little consistency...

[brocahantas]

Originally Posted by oston

I just sent, as an email attachment, an epub file to both my Kindle Paperwhite (1oth Gen) and also to the Kindle App on my Ipad.

I use the email addresses for each of the devices and the epub just shows up in my Library, after being converted to KF8(AWZ3)

The Cover IS visible as a thumbnail in my Library on the Ipad, but not as a thumbnail on the Kindle. But when I open the book and navigate to the Cover in via the TOC, the cover IS visible on both devices.
HTH
Jim

Interesting, I didn't even realize each device had it's own email address. I thought you just emailed to your "Kindle Library" and then it'd be accessible everywhere. I've just had Calibre set up to email MOBIs to my Kindle, and then they'd also show up in the app.

If you send to each address separately, will your reading progress sync up? Or are the treated as separate books?

Also, can you get page numbers to work when emailing epubs? I use the "Count Pages" plugin in Calibre but I don't think MOBIs support them, or at least I never found a way to get them to work on Kindle.

My perfect scenario is: ability to have progress sync on Kindle and iOS app, show cover art on both, and have ability to see page numbers. So far I've had to compromise on one or more of those things.

[un_pogaz]

So, in fact, Amazon seems to have abandoned this war of not supporting ePub on its Kindle, and they will be able to read natively ePub.
It may not be for everyone right away, but it's on its way

Sorry French link, but it's this article that made me discover it:
https://www.minimachines.net/actu/am...le-epub-108795

Well, they'll probably still sell exclusively in AZW, which is stupid, but no more conversion hassles.
(that won't stop me from continuing to boycott them, both for this heavy liability and for the current Amazon policy)

Also, abandoning the old formats is silly, especially since they are no longer evolving, but perhaps maintaining this support is a technical debt that the devs are sincerely happy to abandon.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by brocahantas

Interesting, I didn't even realize each device had it's own email address. I thought you just emailed to your "Kindle Library" and then it'd be accessible everywhere. I've just had Calibre set up to email MOBIs to my Kindle, and then they'd also show up in the app.

If you send to each address separately, will your reading progress sync up? Or are the treated as separate books?

You should only send each book once. The email address you choose will cause automatic delivery to that device. All other devices on the account will see it in the library and you can choose to download to them as needed.

If you send the same book more than once you will have multiple copies in your library that won't sync with each other.

Originally Posted by brocahantas

Also, can you get page numbers to work when emailing epubs? I use the "Count Pages" plugin in Calibre but I don't think MOBIs support them, or at least I never found a way to get them to work on Kindle.

It won't happen automatically.

It may be possible to write a program that generates an APNX file to add page numbers to a personal document on a Kindle after it has been downloaded to the device. I haven't tested this to know for sure and I am not interested in writing such a program myself.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

So, in fact, Amazon seems to have abandoned this war of not supporting ePub on its Kindle, and they will be able to read natively ePub.

That is not true. There is no evidence that Kindles are getting native EPUB support. EPUBs you send are converted by Amazon to Kindle formats.

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Sorry French link, but it's this article that made me discover it:
https://www.minimachines.net/actu/am...le-epub-108795

From that article: Source: goodereader.com

That explains the misinformation!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by jhowell

From that article: Source: goodereader.com

That explains the misinformation!

The surprise is when Michael Kozlowski manages to post anything that is not fundamentally inaccurate.