29 ms·

Amazon is discontinuing Kindle for PC on June 30th

167 points by tech234a 6mo ago

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
elicash 6mo ago
> The company has disclosed to Good e-Reader that Amazon is developing a new Kindle for PC app, but it will only be compatible with Windows 11.
- WillAdams 6mo ago
  FWIW, I'm quite disappointed that they didn't continue in the vein of the Windows 8 app which was touch friendly and worked quite nicely w/ a stylus. I'm hoping that with the discontinuation of: https://read.amazon.com/kindle-notebook https://read.amazon.com/kindle-notebook that it will become possible to view Kindle Scribe notebooks in this new application as it is to view them in the Kindle App on Android (when it doesn't crash).
ravenstine 6mo ago
They're likely doing this because it's likely the only remaining loophole to their new DRM scheme. Too bad for them it's caused me to buy all my ebooks elsewhere.
- beej71 6mo ago
  If the book is readable, it can be pirated. Even the most labor-intensive piracy technique is not that difficult. And once a drm-free book is out there, it's out there.
  - cbdevidal 6mo ago
    Though sadly the new types of Kinds require a method of extracting Kindles to PDF which is an order of magnitude harder than the old Calibre DeDRM method. I had to boot Bluestacks and export license files and rub my tummy and pat my head and do the Hokey Pokey… but in the end, the books are now 100% mine. Edit: It’s been a while. Looks like the process is more streamlined, but still not what it used to be.
    - beej71 6mo ago
      Harder, for sure. But you just need one copy in the wild...
AdmiralAsshat 6mo ago
Combined with the announcement that they're killing the old Kindles as well...this is 100% about preventing people from liberating DRM from their books. Full stop. They are closing each and every remaining hole.
- echelon 6mo ago
  > they're killing the old Kindles as well Wait, what? What's the scope, and when does it happen?
  - sgiratch 6mo ago
    I got this April 8th: "Dear Customer, Thank you for being a longtime Kindle customer. We're glad our devices have served you well for as long as they have. Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here's what this means for you: You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date. If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way. Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation. To minimize any disruption, we're offering a promotional code for 20% off select new Kindle devices B4PT5XAJ74 as well as a $20 eBook credit that will be automatically added to your account after purchasing a new device (valid through June 20th, 2026, 11:59pm PST - Terms and Conditions apply). Our newer Kindle devices bring meaningful improvements in screen quality, performance and accessibility — and you'll have access to your complete Kindle library and the Kindle Store. You can also continue to read all your books on our free Kindle apps (Android, iOS, Mac, and PC) and Kindle for Web. If you have any questions or require assistance, please visit https://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/devicedeprecation https://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/devicedeprecation. Sincerely, The Kindle Team"
    - boneitis 6mo ago
      "or use these devices in any way"? My jailbroken Kindle has been sitting in a drawer for a while, but I do go into phases where I am using it heavily for months at a time. But, what I'm really getting at is, I don't find myself having to undertake the procedure to root a Kindle on a regular basis. Could someone clarify for me -- if I nab another secondhand device from eBay after May 20, will I be able to jailbreak it?
Multicomp 6mo ago
I never bought into Kindle because of this lockdown attitude. I buy audiobooks from audiobookstore and ebooks from google play books when lazy and itch and the other usual independent sites that sell drm free files when I'm not doing a jit in time purchase. I have a kindle I USB sideload or put files on sd card, because it has a physical keyboard. But with the state of digital goods disrepect for the customer and locking us in mustache twirling reasons, I have better ways to spend my income. Yes I am not above reading shadow copies of books at times, but I'd rather kindle sell all titles as DRM free on rootable devices and their convenient storefront would be enough for me to direct my business there more.
- Zanni 6mo ago
  I used to feel this way, but I reconsidered my threat model. You know what format is "locked in"? Physical books. Can only exist in one location at a time. If you loan it out, you can't read it until it's returned. Subject to theft, fire, rot, bugs or simply being lost. There are aspects of Kindle I don't love--the constantly changing cover art for books I've purchased--but I've never run into an actual problem. I've got 2,500 books on my Kindle devices, and I can access them anywhere in the world at any time on my dedicated readers, my phone, my laptop (via Kindle Cloud Reader). If DRM is the price I have to pay for a dead-simple ecosystem, multi-device support and free cloud storage, well, I guess I'm happy to pay it.
  - beej71 6mo ago
    > If DRM is the price I have to pay for a dead-simple ecosystem, multi-device support and free cloud storage, well, I guess I'm happy to pay it. That makes one of us. To each their own, I guess.
  - chocochunks 6mo ago
    You can get pretty much the same thing from Amazon's competitors. With less burdensome DRM.
  - stryan 6mo ago
    You can copy physical books for storage/otherwise personal use IIRC so it's not quite as locked down as a DRMd book. Not sure what the legal state of hand copying a book and then loaning it out as it probably doesn't come up much.
j45 6mo ago
Good thing I'm discontinuing Kindle for me.
wrxd 6mo ago
I’m so happy I downloaded all my Kindle books when I still had a chance and then moved to the Kobo ecosystem, which albeit not perfect is much much better
- cyberpunk 6mo ago
  I was kinda amazed to find out how hard it was to buy a kobo libra colour in .de -- apparently there's some kind of cartel thing going on where amazon somehow convince entire markets not to sell their competitors products. I had to order it from Hungary or something iirc.
  - MrGreenTea 6mo ago
    I don't know if that is Amazon in Germany. Here all the book stores sell Tolino devices, even my local libraries loan them out.
  - hollandheese 6mo ago
    That's because Kobo's sister company Tolino operates in Germany. It has nothing to do with Amazon.
    - cyberpunk 6mo ago
      Ah that makes a little more sense. Do they jut rebrand kobo devices to tolino? I see they also have a colour e-reader but i can’t really tell if it’s the same device or not…
- vlod 6mo ago
  Would you mind elaborating on the problems you have with the Kobo? I'm thinking of getting one of these once my kindle dies.
  - lostlogin 6mo ago
    Im in NZ, no issues. Setting up syncing with a home library is a bit messy first time, but very doable. The only other e-reader I’ve owned is a Kindle Paperwhite and it’s similar.
wiether 6mo ago
It's funny that the top product recommendation on the website is the "Kobo Remote Control", which is the main thing that is making me think of going to Kobo once my Kindle Paperwhite is dead. Amazon abandoning +14yo products, I don't care. I'm surprised they kept them alive that long. And they'll still work, just not with the store. The DRM/Kindle for PC thing, I don't care. I'm perfectly aware that "buying" a digital good is actually a temporary license. I'm paying for the convenience, not to own "something". And since I've paid my fair share of "copie privée" tax, if I want to grab a persistent copy of an ebook I purchased on Amazon, I got it from the high seas.
lores 6mo ago
These convenient and cheap book/game/video platforms sure killed piracy. Now that piracy's gone forever, we can enshittify the whole thing again! At least I imagine that's how it went in the meeting of 35 year-old corporate suits.
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  > These convenient and cheap book/game/video platforms sure killed piracy. The first rule of fight club is that you don’t talk about fight club. Though don’t have to deny its existence.
shrubble 6mo ago
After Anthropic wholesale pirated millions of books, and got only a slap on the wrist and no jail time, and Meta did almost the same, I've decided that "Anna's" plus used physical books plus printed new books are the right combination.
- cbdevidal 6mo ago
  What are “Anna’s”?
  - hoppyhoppy2 6mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna's_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna's_Archive
- mainmailman 6mo ago
  What is Anna’s?
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - RamVasuthevan 6mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive
- embedding-shape 6mo ago
  > After Anthropic wholesale pirated millions of books It's so much worse, they've literally destroyed real physical books in the hopes of that helping them "workaround" copyright, which we "regular" citizens need to comply with: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-millions-of-print-books-to-build-its-ai-models/ https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-milli... I guess it depends by your definition of "worse", the process of buying books and destroying them was considered "transformative" enough to be considered legal, while Anthropic later did piracy and kind of legally undermined the whole book scanning operation.
nightski 6mo ago
I have a smattering of books on Kindle, mostly fiction/novels. But the vast majority of my book conllection consists of non-fiction/textbooks and I recently switched to Booklore on my NAS. I have over 900 textbooks and can access them anywhere via a WireGuard VPN. It's so slick! Booklore seems great, but I'll admit there may be even better options. However this is the future of books for me. I'd like to start replacing more and more of my physical books with pdf/epub copies. It's been hard because there is nothing I love more than sitting down with a physical book. But this is definitely far more convenient. I now want to start building up a research paper library in the same system.
- dml2135 6mo ago
  There was some whole blowup with Booklore over it being vibecoded by a single maintainer recently. I think the project has changed ownership since then, but be cautious. I use Calibre + Calibre Web. Definitely a bit old and clunky, but reliable.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - lostlogin 6mo ago
    Ditto for Calibre Web. Clunky, but effective. I wish there was a way to add books to a ‘shelf’ (a collection, which you can sync to a device) without having to open each book and add. I want to go Select + Select + Select > Add > Sync.
  - davkan 6mo ago
    Booklore was nuked by the maintainer after the blowup and no longer exists. Mostly it was not vibecoded, just the last few releases. The other contributors have since forked it as grimmory and have already done a first release that removes the telemetry etc. Grimmory is great imo and seems to be in good hands now.
ak217 6mo ago
I have my Kindle permanently in airplane mode to keep it away from Amazon's shenanigans and use Calibre to upload books to it, but if/when it breaks I have a feeling my next e-reader will be a Rakuten Kobo.
arikrahman 6mo ago
Everyday it's proven companies are their own worst enemy, from Blizzard to Amazon. Kobo should be paying Amazon for the free marketing.
gos9 6mo ago
Imagine paying for ebooks in 2026 lmao
rgovostes 6mo ago
A number of comments are along the lines of "people will just pirate books from Library Genesis / Anna's Archive". It seems obvious the motivation is cutting off the supply of new books to those sites.
- dmantis 6mo ago
  I don't see how their measures will help. It might have helped a few years ago, but one can literally ask to recreate the full book contents 1-to-1 with any local uncensored LLM just from a video of changing pages. You don't even need to break a DRM in a classical way. If I were them, I would rather respect my users than fight with windmills.
  - jasomill 6mo ago
    That's putting a lot of trust in the LLM to avoid transcription errors, especially in books that include equations and similar complicated formatting, books in languages not well-represented in the LLM's training set, etc. To say nothing of books with pictures. As an alternative, why not hack the Android Kindle app to spit out bit-perfect DRM-free copies, with or without the assistance of the same LLM?
themadturk 6mo ago
Glad to have gotten off Kindle and onto Kobo years ago. Enshittification continues on. Now, we just have to wait for the publishers to put the screws to Rakuten...
Bridged7756 6mo ago
FYI if you have an older kindle you possibly can jailbreak it and getting KoReader on in. Even newer Kindles can be jail broken, provided they're on the right version.
outlore 6mo ago
Get a kobo Libra color. Put Koreader on it. add the bookfusion or LocalSend plugin. Thank me later

167 points by tech234a 6mo ago

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

> The company has disclosed to Good e-Reader that Amazon is developing a new Kindle for PC app, but it will only be compatible with Windows 11.

WillAdams 6mo ago
FWIW, I'm quite disappointed that they didn't continue in the vein of the Windows 8 app which was touch friendly and worked quite nicely w/ a stylus. I'm hoping that with the discontinuation of: https://read.amazon.com/kindle-notebook https://read.amazon.com/kindle-notebook that it will become possible to view Kindle Scribe notebooks in this new application as it is to view them in the Kindle App on Android (when it doesn't crash).

ravenstine 6mo ago

They're likely doing this because it's likely the only remaining loophole to their new DRM scheme. Too bad for them it's caused me to buy all my ebooks elsewhere.

beej71 6mo ago
If the book is readable, it can be pirated. Even the most labor-intensive piracy technique is not that difficult. And once a drm-free book is out there, it's out there.
- cbdevidal 6mo ago
  Though sadly the new types of Kinds require a method of extracting Kindles to PDF which is an order of magnitude harder than the old Calibre DeDRM method. I had to boot Bluestacks and export license files and rub my tummy and pat my head and do the Hokey Pokey… but in the end, the books are now 100% mine. Edit: It’s been a while. Looks like the process is more streamlined, but still not what it used to be.
  - beej71 6mo ago
    Harder, for sure. But you just need one copy in the wild...

AdmiralAsshat 6mo ago

Combined with the announcement that they're killing the old Kindles as well...this is 100% about preventing people from liberating DRM from their books. Full stop. They are closing each and every remaining hole.

echelon 6mo ago
> they're killing the old Kindles as well Wait, what? What's the scope, and when does it happen?
- sgiratch 6mo ago
  I got this April 8th: "Dear Customer, Thank you for being a longtime Kindle customer. We're glad our devices have served you well for as long as they have. Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here's what this means for you: You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date. If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way. Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation. To minimize any disruption, we're offering a promotional code for 20% off select new Kindle devices B4PT5XAJ74 as well as a $20 eBook credit that will be automatically added to your account after purchasing a new device (valid through June 20th, 2026, 11:59pm PST - Terms and Conditions apply). Our newer Kindle devices bring meaningful improvements in screen quality, performance and accessibility — and you'll have access to your complete Kindle library and the Kindle Store. You can also continue to read all your books on our free Kindle apps (Android, iOS, Mac, and PC) and Kindle for Web. If you have any questions or require assistance, please visit https://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/devicedeprecation https://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/devicedeprecation. Sincerely, The Kindle Team"
  - boneitis 6mo ago
    "or use these devices in any way"? My jailbroken Kindle has been sitting in a drawer for a while, but I do go into phases where I am using it heavily for months at a time. But, what I'm really getting at is, I don't find myself having to undertake the procedure to root a Kindle on a regular basis. Could someone clarify for me -- if I nab another secondhand device from eBay after May 20, will I be able to jailbreak it?

Multicomp 6mo ago

I never bought into Kindle because of this lockdown attitude. I buy audiobooks from audiobookstore and ebooks from google play books when lazy and itch and the other usual independent sites that sell drm free files when I'm not doing a jit in time purchase. I have a kindle I USB sideload or put files on sd card, because it has a physical keyboard. But with the state of digital goods disrepect for the customer and locking us in mustache twirling reasons, I have better ways to spend my income. Yes I am not above reading shadow copies of books at times, but I'd rather kindle sell all titles as DRM free on rootable devices and their convenient storefront would be enough for me to direct my business there more.

Zanni 6mo ago
I used to feel this way, but I reconsidered my threat model. You know what format is "locked in"? Physical books. Can only exist in one location at a time. If you loan it out, you can't read it until it's returned. Subject to theft, fire, rot, bugs or simply being lost. There are aspects of Kindle I don't love--the constantly changing cover art for books I've purchased--but I've never run into an actual problem. I've got 2,500 books on my Kindle devices, and I can access them anywhere in the world at any time on my dedicated readers, my phone, my laptop (via Kindle Cloud Reader). If DRM is the price I have to pay for a dead-simple ecosystem, multi-device support and free cloud storage, well, I guess I'm happy to pay it.
- beej71 6mo ago
  > If DRM is the price I have to pay for a dead-simple ecosystem, multi-device support and free cloud storage, well, I guess I'm happy to pay it. That makes one of us. To each their own, I guess.
- chocochunks 6mo ago
  You can get pretty much the same thing from Amazon's competitors. With less burdensome DRM.
- stryan 6mo ago
  You can copy physical books for storage/otherwise personal use IIRC so it's not quite as locked down as a DRMd book. Not sure what the legal state of hand copying a book and then loaning it out as it probably doesn't come up much.

j45 6mo ago

Good thing I'm discontinuing Kindle for me.

wrxd 6mo ago

I’m so happy I downloaded all my Kindle books when I still had a chance and then moved to the Kobo ecosystem, which albeit not perfect is much much better

cyberpunk 6mo ago
I was kinda amazed to find out how hard it was to buy a kobo libra colour in .de -- apparently there's some kind of cartel thing going on where amazon somehow convince entire markets not to sell their competitors products. I had to order it from Hungary or something iirc.
- MrGreenTea 6mo ago
  I don't know if that is Amazon in Germany. Here all the book stores sell Tolino devices, even my local libraries loan them out.
- hollandheese 6mo ago
  That's because Kobo's sister company Tolino operates in Germany. It has nothing to do with Amazon.
  - cyberpunk 6mo ago
    Ah that makes a little more sense. Do they jut rebrand kobo devices to tolino? I see they also have a colour e-reader but i can’t really tell if it’s the same device or not…
vlod 6mo ago
Would you mind elaborating on the problems you have with the Kobo? I'm thinking of getting one of these once my kindle dies.
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  Im in NZ, no issues. Setting up syncing with a home library is a bit messy first time, but very doable. The only other e-reader I’ve owned is a Kindle Paperwhite and it’s similar.

wiether 6mo ago

It's funny that the top product recommendation on the website is the "Kobo Remote Control", which is the main thing that is making me think of going to Kobo once my Kindle Paperwhite is dead. Amazon abandoning +14yo products, I don't care. I'm surprised they kept them alive that long. And they'll still work, just not with the store. The DRM/Kindle for PC thing, I don't care. I'm perfectly aware that "buying" a digital good is actually a temporary license. I'm paying for the convenience, not to own "something". And since I've paid my fair share of "copie privée" tax, if I want to grab a persistent copy of an ebook I purchased on Amazon, I got it from the high seas.

lores 6mo ago

These convenient and cheap book/game/video platforms sure killed piracy. Now that piracy's gone forever, we can enshittify the whole thing again! At least I imagine that's how it went in the meeting of 35 year-old corporate suits.

lostlogin 6mo ago
> These convenient and cheap book/game/video platforms sure killed piracy. The first rule of fight club is that you don’t talk about fight club. Though don’t have to deny its existence.

shrubble 6mo ago

After Anthropic wholesale pirated millions of books, and got only a slap on the wrist and no jail time, and Meta did almost the same, I've decided that "Anna's" plus used physical books plus printed new books are the right combination.

cbdevidal 6mo ago
What are “Anna’s”?
- hoppyhoppy2 6mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna's_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna's_Archive
mainmailman 6mo ago
What is Anna’s?
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- RamVasuthevan 6mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Archive
embedding-shape 6mo ago
> After Anthropic wholesale pirated millions of books It's so much worse, they've literally destroyed real physical books in the hopes of that helping them "workaround" copyright, which we "regular" citizens need to comply with: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-millions-of-print-books-to-build-its-ai-models/ https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-milli... I guess it depends by your definition of "worse", the process of buying books and destroying them was considered "transformative" enough to be considered legal, while Anthropic later did piracy and kind of legally undermined the whole book scanning operation.

nightski 6mo ago

I have a smattering of books on Kindle, mostly fiction/novels. But the vast majority of my book conllection consists of non-fiction/textbooks and I recently switched to Booklore on my NAS. I have over 900 textbooks and can access them anywhere via a WireGuard VPN. It's so slick! Booklore seems great, but I'll admit there may be even better options. However this is the future of books for me. I'd like to start replacing more and more of my physical books with pdf/epub copies. It's been hard because there is nothing I love more than sitting down with a physical book. But this is definitely far more convenient. I now want to start building up a research paper library in the same system.

dml2135 6mo ago
There was some whole blowup with Booklore over it being vibecoded by a single maintainer recently. I think the project has changed ownership since then, but be cautious. I use Calibre + Calibre Web. Definitely a bit old and clunky, but reliable.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  Ditto for Calibre Web. Clunky, but effective. I wish there was a way to add books to a ‘shelf’ (a collection, which you can sync to a device) without having to open each book and add. I want to go Select + Select + Select > Add > Sync.
- davkan 6mo ago
  Booklore was nuked by the maintainer after the blowup and no longer exists. Mostly it was not vibecoded, just the last few releases. The other contributors have since forked it as grimmory and have already done a first release that removes the telemetry etc. Grimmory is great imo and seems to be in good hands now.

ak217 6mo ago

I have my Kindle permanently in airplane mode to keep it away from Amazon's shenanigans and use Calibre to upload books to it, but if/when it breaks I have a feeling my next e-reader will be a Rakuten Kobo.

arikrahman 6mo ago

Everyday it's proven companies are their own worst enemy, from Blizzard to Amazon. Kobo should be paying Amazon for the free marketing.

gos9 6mo ago

Imagine paying for ebooks in 2026 lmao

rgovostes 6mo ago

A number of comments are along the lines of "people will just pirate books from Library Genesis / Anna's Archive". It seems obvious the motivation is cutting off the supply of new books to those sites.

dmantis 6mo ago
I don't see how their measures will help. It might have helped a few years ago, but one can literally ask to recreate the full book contents 1-to-1 with any local uncensored LLM just from a video of changing pages. You don't even need to break a DRM in a classical way. If I were them, I would rather respect my users than fight with windmills.
- jasomill 6mo ago
  That's putting a lot of trust in the LLM to avoid transcription errors, especially in books that include equations and similar complicated formatting, books in languages not well-represented in the LLM's training set, etc. To say nothing of books with pictures. As an alternative, why not hack the Android Kindle app to spit out bit-perfect DRM-free copies, with or without the assistance of the same LLM?

themadturk 6mo ago

Glad to have gotten off Kindle and onto Kobo years ago. Enshittification continues on. Now, we just have to wait for the publishers to put the screws to Rakuten...

Bridged7756 6mo ago

FYI if you have an older kindle you possibly can jailbreak it and getting KoReader on in. Even newer Kindles can be jail broken, provided they're on the right version.

outlore 6mo ago

Get a kobo Libra color. Put Koreader on it. add the bookfusion or LocalSend plugin. Thank me later