I've got a 3rd generation Kindle. It's over a decade old, but it works flawlessly except that it can't authenticate with Amazon anymore, due to changes in their whatsits. So, it's not possible for me to legally buy books from them, which (according to me) gives me license to just pirate everything I want. Nobody will believe this, but I do buy physical copies of about 90% of the books I steal, if only used copies. But Amazon doesn't get a dime from me anymore.
I bring this up to mention how incredibly easy it is to sideload books into a Kindle (an old one at least; can't speak to the new ones).
Bookshop.org sells ebooks now. There is DRM based on publisher specifications unfortunately. For DRM free books, I ship physical copies for scanning to get a PDF, which is not great unfortunately.
IMO this is worse because the DRM books are limited to their app, and so completely locked away in their control. No possibility of reading on eink devices.
> So, it's not possible for me to legally buy books from them
Lol of course it is, you just convinced yourself that stealing was a better option.
Get on with Amazon support and tell them that you’ve been a loyal customer for a decade and have a Kindle that no longer authenticates but want to continue buying books from them.
If they don’t offer you a free Kindle, tell them you want one for free. I’ve done this a few times successfully when a Kindle broke outside of the warranty period.
This is insane... we should not be throwing away good tech because of planned obsolescence and relying on groveling to customer service to use tech that we bought...
No, it's really not possible anymore. Even if you upgrade the firmware as far as possible, which I've done, you still can't log into the Kindle store on the device. For a while there was a trick you could do involving requesting a one-time password, but even that just doesn't work anymore, even on devices newer than mine. They stopped supporting the device, end of story.
The changes to their whatsits are likely certificate expiration related.
For the longest time the rumor was that backward compatibility was mandated (through certificate gymnastics) by Jeff because Mackenzie had a 1st gen Kindle that she adored. I reckon nobody any longer gives a shit about that.
I am weary of corporations still trying to own everything they already sold me. Additionally sick of them trying to control speech and thought based on whatever ludicrous corporate nanny culture is in vogue.
The people censoring books with “inappropriate language” have no understanding of precedent, history, or art. 1/100th as talented as the authors whose work they “update”. Their life’s greatest accomplishment is making something actually impressive slightly worse.
Coincidentally I was already looking at a Kobo Libra Color or a Supernote Nomad, this just sealed that decision.
I don't have a problem with changing the language in older works, but I have a massive problem with hiding the change or the previous versions. Sell a perpetual, transferable license to the work and make newer (aka "improved") versions of the document available after the sale. I will appreciate better layout, fixed typos, timestamps to match up with audio books etc, but if you try to whitewash history and erase notes taken on the old versions you deserve to drown in the shitstorm.
Oh you just wanted to change the deal and turn a book sale into a prepaid rent you can cancel or modify to maximise profits? Get fucked Amazon! Such short sighted greed will drive readers to put in the effort and actively search out pirated content instead of paying exorbitant unearned margins to you. That's how you sustain a pirate community you damn fools.
I switched to the Kobo store specifically because its DRM is so trivially breakable. They've gotten hundreds of dollars from me, and I switched to independent book sellers for physical copies of things. I order a few, and next time I'm in the suburb with my favorite indie store, I pick them up there.
This renders my kindle gen 2 useless, as its only connectivity is/was via cellular network which doesn’t work anymore (2g or something). I’ve been having to download and then transfer via usb for years.
I recommend complaining to support if this ends up affecting you. It wouldn't surprise me if they can turn it back on for you (idk if it's likely, but I feel like it's worth a try.)
I'm a heavy use of this feature so I'm pissed. Can anyone recommend alternatives? I need to be able to load any books I buy into Calibre so I can convert to whatever format I need.
My Kobo Libra Colour combined with Kavita (a much saner organization than the mess that is calibre), Tailscale (OPDS access to Kavita from anywhere) , and KoReader (power user reader for the perfect reading experience that supports every format I have tried) has transformed my reading. I only use Calibre now for initially adding the metadata.
I haven't read and completed so many books since I was a kid with unlimited free time. The color is perfectly fine for books that are mostly text with the occasional image. Sadly I just feel like I'd be missing out if I started putting color manga, books with a focus on photography, etc. Those still go to my iPad pro but I find it a lot less convenient to read on there.
It works - amazing - with Calibre actually. I set up Calibre-Web-Automated last week and setup my Kobo Libra 2 to sync with my Calibre server (swapping one url in a config file), and now my Kobo acts like my self hosted Calibre server is the actual Kobo Store, meaning I can browse and download all of my books. I think it syncs reading progress too.
Readit News
I bring this up to mention how incredibly easy it is to sideload books into a Kindle (an old one at least; can't speak to the new ones).
https://bookshop.org/info/ebooks
Lol of course it is, you just convinced yourself that stealing was a better option.
Get on with Amazon support and tell them that you’ve been a loyal customer for a decade and have a Kindle that no longer authenticates but want to continue buying books from them.
If they don’t offer you a free Kindle, tell them you want one for free. I’ve done this a few times successfully when a Kindle broke outside of the warranty period.
For the longest time the rumor was that backward compatibility was mandated (through certificate gymnastics) by Jeff because Mackenzie had a 1st gen Kindle that she adored. I reckon nobody any longer gives a shit about that.
The people censoring books with “inappropriate language” have no understanding of precedent, history, or art. 1/100th as talented as the authors whose work they “update”. Their life’s greatest accomplishment is making something actually impressive slightly worse.
Coincidentally I was already looking at a Kobo Libra Color or a Supernote Nomad, this just sealed that decision.
Oh you just wanted to change the deal and turn a book sale into a prepaid rent you can cancel or modify to maximise profits? Get fucked Amazon! Such short sighted greed will drive readers to put in the effort and actively search out pirated content instead of paying exorbitant unearned margins to you. That's how you sustain a pirate community you damn fools.
I haven't read and completed so many books since I was a kid with unlimited free time. The color is perfectly fine for books that are mostly text with the occasional image. Sadly I just feel like I'd be missing out if I started putting color manga, books with a focus on photography, etc. Those still go to my iPad pro but I find it a lot less convenient to read on there.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43046995
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43039924
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43041726
https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/169djct/kobo_bookstor...