This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I have 5th gen PW and I never turned off Airplane mode. It's a damn good device: great backlight, simple UI, ridiculously good battery life...etc
But if this no usb nonsense continues, I'm never going to buy Kindle again.
Good thing is that Kindle lasts for decade. My previous Kindle served me well for 10 years.
edit: Nevermind, found this reddit post that it's just showing up as an MTP device and that Calibre works just fine.
any time you buy DRM'd content you're subject to revocation of rights to use it. So buying such content along with purchase of devices geared specifically for DRM-only content is doomed from the beginning.
Kobo, folks. I've been there through three generations of devices. No regrets. Fairly hackable, sideload friendly, competitively priced.
Which model?
Anyone have thoughts between Kobo and Boox or ReMarkable?
I've looked into those other brands but not recently enough to provide any meaningful comparison. (though I have this feeling that "remarkable is overpriced" is something I've heard a lot, but I could be wrong)
I've personally owned the Kobo Glo, Glo HD, and Libra 2.
For most of their devices (I can't speak for current models one way or the other) you can swap out key bits of the software and enhance functionality via various hacks/mods. A lot of that is documented here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223
You can also open them up and replace a standard SD card to boost storage capacity. (Again, I know this to be true at least through the Libra 2, I do not know about more recent models.)
The thing I got the most use from in the past was being able to swap out the sdcard on my Glo and Glo HD, but some folks really swear by the other various mods. I don't have any complaint with the default reader software on the Kobo, so haven't messed with swapping that out.
I have not messed with the SD card on the Libra 2 for two reasons - apparently doing so will mess up the waterproofing, and also because I've found 32GB to be sufficient for my purposes.
I'm using a Boox Leaf 2 myself, it's basically just an android tablet with an eink screen. I can load pretty much any eBook format, and you can put regular android apps from play store (or any other app store) on it as well if you want. And they have a microSD card slot available from the outside to expand storage.
All the hacks and mods people do to their kobo are not needed, because it's supported by default on my Leaf 2.
Comments on the article say that it's not true, and new Kindles work exactly the way old ones do.
Reminder: don't buy things from Amazon.
Like, anything.
"But fast shipping!" No. Stop. Most places now have pretty good shipping, often for free if you happen to buy a certain amount. It's OK if the thing comes in 3-5 days and not tomorrow. You will survive.*
*I know there's a couple of niche cases where some people do need things quick and Amazon serves that purpose. But 99.999% of things are not that.
One thing amazon does that's really useful is shipping to whole foods where you can pick up your item instead of it coming to your door which is really useful if you know someone will try to look through your mail
Sometimes there's an obscure item I need that I can't find anywhere else. That's what I usually buy on Amazon. Other times it's cheap Chineseum stuff that I want to be able to return without hassle or get refunded if I never receive the item.
But yeah, generally I try to buy directly from the seller, and especially try to buy locally if I can.
I totally get that. And I have had that same experience once or twice. I break my own rule on those rare occasions where somehow the thing is only there.
The last time I bought from Amazon that I remember was in 2021 when I was putting together a new keyboard. Somehow they were the only ones that had the key caps I wanted. The only other place I could find them was Alibaba, and the shipping there was going to be literally 2 months according to the site.
But for normal items, I go to the seller as much as possible.*
(*And I know for some sellers it's actually cheaper for them to use Amazon for shipping. I get it. But also, still, I don't want to give Bezos money so I avoid it if possible.)
B&H and Home Depot have been two solid services for things they sell. Former is computers and photography. Both of them ship pretty damn fast.
Honestly, what convinced me to start using them was how increasingly difficult it is to get quality items on Amazon. Sifting through garbage gets old fast.
I've owned two Kindle devices over the years, and the ability to directly load content, without involving a third-party service, was a big part of what made them usable for me. If that feature is gone, these devices will no longer be viable for my needs.
And the enshittification continues...
Sounds like time for some 3rd party bios flash...
Time to switch to lobo (supposed to be Kobo) when my current oasis dies
I know it's a typo, but the image of Lobo, DC's heavy metal space biker, reading books to someone while they lie in bed is hilarious.
Very user-hostile, but very unsurprising.
Kindle hardware can be very nice, but almost every software decision is designed to keep users within their walled garden.
No epub support, no third party app support, no ability to load non-store audio, and now this. What a waste. These things could be so much more useful than they are.
Calibre has always been a small price to pay, but if sideloading goes away, I'll certainly never "upgrade" again, and I'll trash my 11th gen Paperwhite if they somehow make it stop working. Usable e-ink ereaders are even doable as DIY projects now, and Kobo will probably stay less closed-off than Amazon for a good while.
That said, reading the comments and the article it seems like as long as your OS (or some app) supports MTP, everything should still work more or less as it has, which is to say kind of annoying and with Amazon pulling little microaggressions like deleting your cover thumbnails, but overall sideloading should still function.
I love love love the DIY electronics scene but for a device that's meant to be held....I dunno. Ergonomics are usually an afterthought if considered at all. I can't imagine a DIY e-reader being comfortable to use
Note: NOT shilling for Amazon here, I will never buy another Kindle
Specifically:
When you plug them into USB into your PC or MAC, they no longer appear as external drives.
For anyone else who's confused at the title
Glad I got a Kobo then.
Yep. Kobo is much better nowadays.
