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one benefit is that it can allow you to read epubs which is the universal standard for books. the fact that they don't support epubs natively is like having a m

one benefit is that it can allow you to read epubs which is the universal standard for books. the fact that they don't support epubs natively is like having a music player that doesn't support mp3's. the only reason they do it is for the sake of being anti-consumer and anti-competitive.

deleted 4y ago
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and0 4y ago
This sounds great, but still much more effort that dragging+dropping into an online epub->mobi converter and using the nice "email yourself a file" feature they support. Also, epub support is coming and mobi is being deprecated https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022 https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-s...
- Mindless2112 4y ago
  At the end of that article: > Update: It looks like Amazon is converting the uploaded EPUB to KF8 (AZW3). So, it looks like they might not support EPUB natively. So I'm not holding my breath. Which is not to say Amazon couldn't add native EPUB support. KF8/AZW3[1] (Amazon's proprietary ebook format) is basically EPUB in a MOBI shell. But they're moving away from KF8 to KFX[2] for books purchased from the Amazon store. [1] https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KF8 https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KF8 [2] https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KFX https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KFX
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > Which is not to say Amazon couldn't add native EPUB support. They've had it in the past; I know there have been Kindle models that included a web browser. Is that gone?
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      They still have a web browser but a web browser is not the same as EPUB support. No Kindle has ever supported epub natively.
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > but a web browser is not the same as EPUB support But a web browser is the same as epub support. If you have a web browser, you have epub support, because rendering HTML is all there is to supporting epub. An epub is nothing but a set of HTML documents.
        goosedragons 4y ago
        No it isn't. There's more to Epub than HTML and web browsers don't know by default how deal with the files or handle things like pagination or the table of contents. Mobi is also based on HTML too. Doesn't mean every web browser supports mobi either.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > and web browsers don't know by default how deal with the files or handle things like pagination or the table of contents. So? Safari and Chrome don't know by default how to handle pagination of documents. (Actually, they do; they handle it by scrolling.) But any browser that exists on a Kindle does. If you can use it to read a web page, you can also use it to read an epub.
        adamomada 4y ago
        I had to load a Firefox extension[0] to read ePub. I don’t think it can read them without it. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        Sure; the book is a website, not a webpage. The harness has to do three things: 1. Unzip the file. 2. Display the content root. 3. Handle the implicit transition from one chapter to the next. All of the work involved here is in step 2, writing the web renderer.
TillE 4y ago
Calibre automatically converts everything though. I'm sure there are some edge cases where the conversion isn't perfect, but how are you managing your Kindle where you'd care that the original file is an epub?
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  It's a mass storage device. You should be able to plug it in and copy files as normal.
- coconut08 4y ago
  i shouldn't be required to convert my books to a proprietary format in order to read them. i also have some epubs that have issues when being converted to mobi or azw3. issues as in they can't be read on the kindle after being converted even though they are read just fine in calibre. if they would just support epub then this wouldn't be an issue.
  - throwmeariver1 4y ago
    They are adding epub support this year https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022 https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-s...
    - coconut08 4y ago
      the article you linked to literally says that's not the case. the way it works is that you upload your epubs to amazon and then they convert them from epub to azw3 for you and then allows you to download them to your device. not only is this a rube goldberg machine that doesn't support epub, it's been unofficially possible for years already by changing the extension from epub to png to trick it into thinking it isn't an epub when it is.
    - MongooseMan 4y ago
      One important caveat in the article: > Update: It looks like Amazon is converting the uploaded EPUB to KF8 (AZW3). So, it looks like they might not support EPUB natively.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

and0 4y ago

This sounds great, but still much more effort that dragging+dropping into an online epub->mobi converter and using the nice "email yourself a file" feature they support. Also, epub support is coming and mobi is being deprecated https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022 https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-s...

Mindless2112 4y ago
At the end of that article: > Update: It looks like Amazon is converting the uploaded EPUB to KF8 (AZW3). So, it looks like they might not support EPUB natively. So I'm not holding my breath. Which is not to say Amazon couldn't add native EPUB support. KF8/AZW3[1] (Amazon's proprietary ebook format) is basically EPUB in a MOBI shell. But they're moving away from KF8 to KFX[2] for books purchased from the Amazon store. [1] https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KF8 https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KF8 [2] https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KFX https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KFX
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > Which is not to say Amazon couldn't add native EPUB support. They've had it in the past; I know there have been Kindle models that included a web browser. Is that gone?
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    They still have a web browser but a web browser is not the same as EPUB support. No Kindle has ever supported epub natively.
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      > but a web browser is not the same as EPUB support But a web browser is the same as epub support. If you have a web browser, you have epub support, because rendering HTML is all there is to supporting epub. An epub is nothing but a set of HTML documents.
      - goosedragons 4y ago
        No it isn't. There's more to Epub than HTML and web browsers don't know by default how deal with the files or handle things like pagination or the table of contents. Mobi is also based on HTML too. Doesn't mean every web browser supports mobi either.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > and web browsers don't know by default how deal with the files or handle things like pagination or the table of contents. So? Safari and Chrome don't know by default how to handle pagination of documents. (Actually, they do; they handle it by scrolling.) But any browser that exists on a Kindle does. If you can use it to read a web page, you can also use it to read an epub.
      - adamomada 4y ago
        I had to load a Firefox extension[0] to read ePub. I don’t think it can read them without it. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/epubreader/
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        Sure; the book is a website, not a webpage. The harness has to do three things: 1. Unzip the file. 2. Display the content root. 3. Handle the implicit transition from one chapter to the next. All of the work involved here is in step 2, writing the web renderer.

TillE 4y ago

Calibre automatically converts everything though. I'm sure there are some edge cases where the conversion isn't perfect, but how are you managing your Kindle where you'd care that the original file is an epub?

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
It's a mass storage device. You should be able to plug it in and copy files as normal.
coconut08 4y ago
i shouldn't be required to convert my books to a proprietary format in order to read them. i also have some epubs that have issues when being converted to mobi or azw3. issues as in they can't be read on the kindle after being converted even though they are read just fine in calibre. if they would just support epub then this wouldn't be an issue.
- throwmeariver1 4y ago
  They are adding epub support this year https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-support-epub-in-late-2022 https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/the-amazon-kindle-will-s...
  - coconut08 4y ago
    the article you linked to literally says that's not the case. the way it works is that you upload your epubs to amazon and then they convert them from epub to azw3 for you and then allows you to download them to your device. not only is this a rube goldberg machine that doesn't support epub, it's been unofficially possible for years already by changing the extension from epub to png to trick it into thinking it isn't an epub when it is.
  - MongooseMan 4y ago
    One important caveat in the article: > Update: It looks like Amazon is converting the uploaded EPUB to KF8 (AZW3). So, it looks like they might not support EPUB natively.