In a recent communication, Amazon has alerted Kindle users about significant changes set to take effect from next month. The notification pertains to the phasing out of support for sending MOBI (.mobi, .azw, .prc) files through the “Send to Kindle” feature, starting November 1, 2023. This change, as News18 pointed out, specifically impacts users attempting to send MOBI files via email and Kindle apps on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
Calibre + KFX plugin. That’s it.
KFX supports hyphenation and many more advanced features - the plugin exploits the official Amazon app for publishers to convert any open format into KFX, giving you all the features of Amazon store bought books for free.
Is this the plugin?
Yes!
I’ll have to try that KfX plugin. I also read somewhere someone was listing a stack he was using with Calibre but I can’t find it anymore…
lacking support for the latest Kindle features
What kind of support are they “lacking”? They do contain the text and basic formatting. What else would they need in a book?
I’d guess that those “lacking” features have something to do with user tracking or DRM.
Epub doesn’t natively have user tracking and DRM either. Mobi files are just ancient and there are better alternatives for them. Like bmp files vs jpg.
Epub is actually pretty good. And it’s been supported for a long time now. Hard agree.
The devices themselves still can’t process epub though so they still need conversion to … mobi.
They can use epubs for several months now. It’s been incredibly nice but to have to convert books anymore.
Older devices too? I still have a Kindle Voyage.
Several months seems like a really short time frame to go from “the format you must use” to “too old for our product.”
Once you go Kobo you never go back.
Gotta say, cannot complain about my kindle either. Thanks to calibre, I’m not bound to Amazon and can read whatever I want.
I’ll check them out. Thanks
They really are great.
I got myself a Remarkable. Expensive but omg so fucking useful compared to most e-readers.
How much are you missing out on if you choose not to have a subscription with it for the cloud features?
Nothing at all really. The cloud is just a convenient way to transfer documents and notes (but you can still do so over USB).
The only thing that really needs the cloud service is transfer from and to mobile devices, which is an understandable niche. The Remarkable does not act like a regular USB drive. Instead, when plugged in, it acts as a virtual network device, and you browse to it on a browser, uploading and downloading documents via a browser interface. This behaviour doesn’t seem to work properly on Android and Apple sure as hell don’t allow it on iOS.
If you really must have direct access to the files and OS, it allows for SSH access as root, and provides a surprisingly full featured Linux environment. If you’re the experimenting type, you can even put homebrew applications on the device, and it has a modest homebrew app community. Just…be really fucking careful not to bork the OS to the point SSH doesn’t work, else you’re fucked unless you wanna tinker at the hardware level. Also, direct access to the document files isn’t as useful as you’d think because their internal filesystem is confusing as shit. You’re always better off using the device or cloud web interfaces.
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If anyone knows of a good ebook reader that’s as easy on the eyes as a Kindle I’d love to know it. Everything I look at looks like a low spec tablet instead of a proper eink display.
Edit: thanks to a few comments in this thread I went with the Kobo Libra 2. I love this little device. Plenty of storage, a great display that’s really easy on the eyes even with the backlight (which is fully dimmable and has color temperature adjustment). Thanks for everyone for the recommendations!
I’ve used a kobo deluxe for several years and they’re great
If you can find an old Kindle Paperwhite that can be jailbroken, you can run KOReader on it and leave the Amazon ecosystem behind while still using the hardware.
I’ve had two readers made by Boox. They’ve been great. I broke the screen on the first one, but software-wise, I have no complaints.
Kobo Libra H2O, has hardware buttons and a cool design.
So I took your advice though I ended up settling on the Kobo Libra 2 and I absolutely love this thing. It has a couple hardware buttons, too. Thanks for the recommendation!
They’ve been notifying users for a while now, when sending mobi files.
Huh what ? They prevent people read .mobi because the format is old ? What about plain text ? .txt ?
I have never connected my kindle to the network. Always use calibre.
I keep hearing people praising Calibre
I thought they disabled sending mobi files last August? As in, August 2022? Did they postpone it?
Yeah I remember running into an issue when I tried updating my library last time. Not sure why this is making headlines now, because I haven’t been able to use mobi files in over a year.
Maybe different devices have different EOL dates?
