32gb Storage - Why

[HogDrvr]

For those of you with 32gb Kindles; what you use all that storage for? I have thousands of books in my library and all told, it's only about 7gb.

Also, doesn't having that many books slow it down?

[Deskisamess]

Manga is very popular, and takes up more space than regular books.

[lumpynose]

Yes it slows it down. I mostly notice it when calibre is updating metadata and whatnot on the ereader. Also after a book is added and the ereader updates its database.

My impression is that the 32gb is useful for those who read comics on them. The Oasis also lets you listen to audio books; could be helpful in that case as well.

The difference in size between kindle ebooks and epub ebooks is significant because epubs are compressed with zip while kindle ebooks are not. So it might be more helpful with kindle ebooks.

[Bookstooge]

Secret spy stuff. I can stuff the kindle's memory chock full of state or company secrets and get through security at the airport without a hassle. No one looks twice at an ereader any more...

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HogDrvr

For those of you with 32gb Kindles; what you use all that storage for? I have thousands of books in my library and all told, it's only about 7gb.

Also, doesn't having that many books slow it down?

It doesn't have to be a lot of books. It is more of a future proofing thing. Hopefully the 32gb will be enough until the device dies, even though I don't plan to read manga or listen to audiobooks or even fill it up with books, just because they fit. Who is to say that a next FW update includes new features that require more room? There could be an option for a full dictionary, not the abbreviated versions we have now (the complete OED used to barely fit on a CD, not sure if it is bigger nowadays). How about an encyclopedia with pictures, or an offline snapshot of relevant Wikipedia articles? As of right now the english text only wikipedia is 16gb, with pictures in 2015 it was over 50gb (could not find a current size with pictures). (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipe...e_of_Wikipedia)

[Tarana]

Manga and Audible audiobooks. Lots of us use Whispersync which allows switching between ebooks and audiobooks (using a bluetooth device).

[Barty]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The difference in size between kindle ebooks and epub ebooks is significant because epubs are compressed with zip while kindle ebooks are not. So it might be more helpful with kindle ebooks.

Really? I just tried zipping an azw3 file and it reduced the size by ~15%. Since it's mostly text and a few images I'd expect a bigger reduction if the original wasn't at least partly compressed.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Barty

Really? I just tried zipping an azw3 file and it reduced the size by ~15%. Since it's mostly text and a few images I'd expect a bigger reduction if the original wasn't at least partly compressed.

It is compressed, just not as efficiently as zip when it comes to file size. If it means better performance, then I take the slightly bigger azw3 over an epub any day. The only advantage of a drm-free epub is that you can simply open it with any unzip tool and then edit it. The azw3 does not look like a epub file internally. It looks like it when you open it with calibre, but all those "files" have to be generated. In an epub the files are physically there in the zip container.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Barty

Really? I just tried zipping an azw3 file and it reduced the size by ~15%. Since it's mostly text and a few images I'd expect a bigger reduction if the original wasn't at least partly compressed.

Last I know, Calibre uses DOC (PalmDOC) compression for MOBI/AZW3. huffdic results in smaller files but it takes much, much longer than PalmDOC to create.

Usage : kindlegen [filename.opf/.htm/.html/.epub/.zip or directory] [-c0 or -c1 or c2] [-verbose] [-western] [-o <file name>] 
Note: 
   zip formats are supported for XMDF and FB2 sources
   directory formats are supported for XMDF sources
Options: 
   -c0: no compression 
   -c1: standard DOC compression 
   -c2: Kindle huffdic compression

[93terp]

Originally Posted by HogDrvr

For those of you with 32gb Kindles; what you use all that storage for? I have thousands of books in my library and all told, it's only about 7gb.

Also, doesn't having that many books slow it down?

While your library, consisting of thousands of books, might only be "about 7GB" in size, you more than likely would not be able to fit your entire library on a 8GB Kindle. The operating system and other system files take up approximately 1.5GB, perhaps a little more.

I have a 32BG Kindle because I chose to give myself room to grow my library. YMMV.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

Secret spy stuff.

Very true. A good storage location for steganography/cryptography.

[Tony1988]

Manga as mentioned and some just want 32gb. I personally would never use it. Probably not even 8.....at my point in life I don't even know how many books are left in me. Maybe 200 tops....lol

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Last I know, Calibre uses DOC (PalmDOC) compression for MOBI/AZW3. huffdic results in smaller files but it takes much, much longer than PalmDOC to create.

Argh, I didn't know about the kindlegen -c flags. The last MOBI book I uploaded with no -c flags is 2,173 kb, with -c2 it's 1,480 kb, and the epub is 726 kb. The MOBIs I created are dual MOBIs but without the source (-dont_append_source flag used) so that makes it difficult to compare them since dual MOBI contains both the AZW3 and the old MOBI7.

I'm guessing that Project Gutenberg makes their kindle books without compression; the difference in sizes is noticeable there. Presumably theirs are dual MOBI since they don't offer AZW3 downloads.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

I'm guessing that Project Gutenberg makes their kindle books without compression; the difference in sizes is noticeable there. Presumably theirs are dual MOBI since they don't offer AZW3 downloads.

I would think for compatibility it would be old mobi, not dual.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

I'm guessing that Project Gutenberg makes their kindle books without compression; the difference in sizes is noticeable there. Presumably theirs are dual MOBI since they don't offer AZW3 downloads.

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I would think for compatibility it would be old mobi, not dual.

There's no need to guess or think

kindleunpack -s

reveals all.

My turn to be too lazy to check. I predict that even if newer files are dual MOBI, those that predate KF8 have not been updated to dual MOBI.