Transferring downloaded ebooks to new kindle color

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

The article says that if you have a 2024 Kindle registered to your account, D&T will not be available. Does this mean you lose D&T on old Kindle models if you buy a 2024 Kindle and register it to your account, i.e. the only way to keep D&T on old Kindles is to never buy/use a 2024 model?

The only person I know who has a 2024 Paperwhite is keeping their PW4 since it still shows and works as a D&T target. They were just a trifle upset when they found their new Paperwhite was not showing as a target. This is with Amazon.ca.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

The article says that if you have a 2024 Kindle registered to your account, D&T will not be available. Does this mean you lose D&T on old Kindle models if you buy a 2024 Kindle and register it to your account, i.e. the only way to keep D&T on old Kindles is to never buy/use a 2024 model?

You can keep your old models registered to your account, even if you no longer use them.

[tomsem]

There is one benefit to hiding the thumbnails folder: MTP clients typically download a list of all files/folders when connecting before they can do anything else. The thumbnails folder on my Kindles typically contain well over half of the files on the accessible storage. So now this initial load is much faster.

OpenMTP tends to crash when attempting to list the contents of thumbnails for my Scribe. Calibre retrieves its device directory listing MUCH faster for Colorsoft than for Scribe.

But is it true the other 2024 Kindles still show /system/thumbnails?

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can keep your old models registered to your account, even if you no longer use them.

So D&T will show up as long as you have at least one pre-2024 Kindle registered? That's good to know. The article made it sound like registering a 2024 Kindle might cause D&T to disappear, even if you had a pre-2024 Kindle registered to your account.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

So D&T will show up as long as you have at least one pre-2024 Kindle registered? That's good to know. The article made it sound like registering a 2024 Kindle might cause D&T to disappear, even if you had a pre-2024 Kindle registered to your account.

I'm guessing that's not the case, or we would have heard about it by now.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'm guessing that's not the case, or we would have heard about it by now.

No need to guess, it does not remove the option for pre-2024 Kindles that are registered.

Scribe 2024 has not yet shipped so we do not know about it. It seems likely that it will not have D&T option, even though the change from the current model appears to be purely cosmetic.

[Quoth]

It's not removed from anything, just not added for the 2024 models. Which is stupid. It's not convenient for everyone to use WiFi.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not removed from anything, just not added for the 2024 models. Which is stupid. It's not convenient for everyone to use WiFi.

It's 2024. It's more likely for people not to have a PC/Mac than WiFi.

And doesn't the Kindle Desktop App let you sync books over USB too?

It's not great that it was removed but how many people were seriously using that feature because it's the only way they have to get books to the device?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

It's 2024. It's more likely for people not to have a PC/Mac than WiFi.

And doesn't the Kindle Desktop App let you sync books over USB too?

It's not great that it was removed but how many people were seriously using that feature because it's the only way they have to get books to the device?

And most people are carrying around a mobile hotspot (smartphone).

The desktop apps do not sync books over USB. You may be thinking about the Send to Kindle app for Mac, which now includes a 'USB File Manager' that replaces Android File Transfer as a way of side loading content to Amazon's MTP Kindles (2024 Kindles and Scribe). (for some reason it does not work with Fire tablets, but they're pretty useless without WiFi)

Few people need to use D&T, and Amazon surely has usage metrics to prove this.

But it is more that they want to keep customers tied to the Kindle ecosystem. That probably suits the interests of publishers as well, since Amazon sells the majority of their books, is a relentless marketer, and that's unlikely to ever change. Maybe it also saves a little money if D&T usage declines.

As long as D&T is still available for older Kindles, I don't have much reason to start purchasing books from Kobo or Google (except for those in Print Replica format, which are not being made available for Kindles and D&T even though any of those still getting updates can read this format).

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

There is one benefit to hiding the thumbnails folder: MTP clients typically download a list of all files/folders when connecting before they can do anything else. The thumbnails folder on my Kindles typically contain well over half of the files on the accessible storage. So now this initial load is much faster.

OpenMTP tends to crash when attempting to list the contents of thumbnails for my Scribe. Calibre retrieves its device directory listing MUCH faster for Colorsoft than for Scribe.

So people that keep hundreds or thousands of books on their 2024 kindles will encounter this?

I wonder whether amazon decided to hide thumbnails because of this.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by tomsem

And most people are carrying around a mobile hotspot (smartphone).

Can't afford to use data on my phone. I only use WiFi for data. I have plenty of WiFi, but wouldn't use it with any ereader. I only even turn it on on the phone or tablet when needing it.

Lots of kids are not allowed WiFi or smartphones.

My dad had PC, broadband, Kindle, but never managed to figure out WiFi. He used the shop to register.

Plenty of people rely on downloads in work or at a friend's house.

Everyone is in at different situation. This is a dreadful way to treat new customers. Arrogant.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Can't afford to use data on my phone. I only use WiFi for data. I have plenty of WiFi, but wouldn't use it with any ereader. I only even turn it on on the phone or tablet when needing it.

Lots of kids are not allowed WiFi or smartphones.

My dad had PC, broadband, Kindle, but never managed to figure out WiFi. He used the shop to register.

Plenty of people rely on downloads in work or at a friend's house.

Everyone is in at different situation. This is a dreadful way to treat new customers. Arrogant.

I have unlimited data ('low priority' but more than good enough for me) for about $30/month. I don't really need data, unless I'm traveling somewhere and need driving directions and some music streaming; coverage is spotty where I live, but I'm mostly only doing short excursions and so nearly all of my data and calling is over my broadband WiFi at home. It wasn't that long ago that plans cost more for much poorer services, relative to Europe. But I guess that's changed here because they have reached economies of scale after forcing smartphones on everybody and taking a cut on sales of those (mine is unlocked).

As I suggested in earlier post, Amazon will have a very good idea of how many of their Kindle customers use D&T and never use WiFi, and I'm guessing it is not a very large percentage, or they would hold off on doing this. The bean counters are looking for corners to cut and this is one of them. And also it is about building higher walls around the Kindle garden.

Kindles are probably even less popular with pre-adults than they are generally. I know many adults but I'm the only one I know with a Kindle (apart from my siblings and mom). I cannot even find anyone to give one to. Most are still reading print books as far as I can tell.

So this is a tempest in a teapot issue, as so many of the discussions we like to have here are (and nothing wrong with that, it counts as fun for me). I don't like that it is happening, but it will not inconvenience me at all.

In the end, Amazon exists to make a profit, make its shareholders happy, do what is required to maintain their customer base and market share(s), and make its shareholders happy some more. I would call it capitalism, not arrogance.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by tomsem

As I suggested in earlier post, Amazon will have a very good idea of how many of their Kindle customers use D&T and never use WiFi, and I'm guessing it is not a very large percentage, or they would hold off on doing this. The bean counters are looking for corners to cut and this is one of them. And also it is about building higher walls around the Kindle garden.

You maybe credit Amazon with too much thought. The entire Kindle ecosystem (inc all content) is down the sofa loose change for Amazon. The eink products are a minority of ebook consumers.

Also any one of Amazon's Fire Tablets probably outsells all kindles combined.

It could be lack of staff to implement it (Kindle HW is low on importance), or forgotten, or something else. Not adding it for the new models doesn't save any money at all except a small once off time cost to add the models to existing list.

[jlinear]

Originally Posted by tomsem

So this is a tempest in a teapot issue, as so many of the discussions we like to have here are (and nothing wrong with that, it counts as fun for me). I don't like that it is happening, but it will not inconvenience me at all.

In the end, Amazon exists to make a profit, make its shareholders happy, do what is required to maintain their customer base and market share(s), and make its shareholders happy some more. I would call it capitalism, not arrogance.

Seems to me you maintain your customer base by keeping your customers happy. And keeping your customers happy will encourage them to buy your products. And selling your products will keep your shareholders happy. I do agree that Amazon probably thinks this move will not upset many of their customers. And they are probably right. There seems not to be much outrage that Kindles have such limited formatting options (margin, line-height, etc). So why make the effort to change anything. Seems to me giving your customers more options may make more customers, sell more products and keep shareholders happy.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jlinear

Seems to me you maintain your customer base by keeping your customers happy. And keeping your customers happy will encourage them to buy your products. And selling your products will keep your shareholders happy. I do agree that Amazon probably thinks this move will not upset many of their customers. And they are probably right. There seems not to be much outrage that Kindles have such limited formatting options (margin, line-height, etc). So why make the effort to change anything. Seems to me giving your customers more options may make more customers, sell more products and keep shareholders happy.

I think 'satisfaction' is the only metric here. Happiness is more elusive, there's no formula to generate that. Amazon sends me frequent requests for feedback on this or that thing. That is at least a proxy for caring about whether I'm satisfied. Ordering is as convenient as it can be, and fulfillment is flawless, but finding the thing to order with the fire hose of duplicate offerings from multiple sellers with 'promotions' mixed in can be 'dissatisfying', and I'm often able to get the same thing elsewhere without so much noise.

As for providing more options being always better, it is not, It can be bewildering and frustrating and paralyzing to have more options and information to explore. The ideal is to have [I]good enough[/] choices to move on and accomplish the task at hand.

So limited formatting options is a good thing in my book. I want to read, not have to explore some vast landscape of micro adjustments that may or may not make reading more pleasant. I do not want to be a book designer, it just has to be good enough, pleasing enough. (I would like to be able to pin a theme or layout to individual books give them more 'personality' and lock in my preferred orientation for the content. But nobody does this.)

I pretty much hate KOReader because the default settings look ugly and the menus can be 2 or 3 levels deep, and everything is adjustable. I am not all that picky about layout but having so many options gets in the way of discovering a good enough one.