I recently realized the majority of people that complain about Kindles aren’t using them the way Amazon intended. They want to use them to sideload ebooks or comics obtained elsewhere, or they want to be able to backup their Kindle ebook files on a computer, for fear that Amazon is going to take them away at some point in the future, even though that only ever happened once with the 1984 fiasco all the way back in 2009.
Kindles are simple devices designed primarily to read ebooks purchased or borrowed from Amazon. That’s it in a nutshell. Yes, they can be used in other ways, but that’s not how Amazon designed them to be used. If you want to do more with your reading device, there are other brands better suited for that purpose. Get a Kobo or a Pocketbook or an Android ereader instead.
It would be great if Kindles were geared more toward being multipurpose reading devices instead of shameless ebook selling machines, but the fact is their primary purpose for existence is to display ebooks obtained from Amazon, so that’s something we have to expect going in. At this point you also have to accept the fact that you’re probably never going to be able to get your purchased ebooks away from the Kindle platform. If that’s a problem, simply buy your ebooks from Kobo or Google or other ebookstore where the DRM is still easily removable, and get a device with good sideloading support.
Kindles Aren’t Good for Sideloading
Don’t buy a Kindle if you prefer to sideload your ebooks via USB. Kindles are unequivocally the worst option for sideloading, especially considering the fact Amazon will delete all your sideloaded ebooks if you keep your Kindle in airplane mode for too long. It’s totally ridiculous and it should never be allowed to happen, but it’s been a “bug” for over half a decade now so we should all assume it’s the intended behavior at this point.
Amazon provides a workaround for sideloading in the form of Send-to-Kindle that actually works great and is something that other ereaders brands don’t offer. But some people still refuse to use it, and then they complain that book covers aren’t working for sideloaded books, or some advanced formatting options are unavailable, and then they’re furious when all their sideloaded books get deleted. Yeah, it’s a total jerk move by Amazon, but if people would just use Send-to-Kindle as Amazon intended this wouldn’t be a problem.
I can understand back in the day when there weren’t very many devices to choose from outside of Kindles, but now there are a lot of alternatives so why are people still buying Kindles and expecting them to be more than they are?
For example, there are a lot of complaints about sideloaded manga not displaying properly on Kindles now after a recent software update. Yeah, that’s annoying for manga users, but anyone choosing to buy a Kindle to sideload manga in the first place is just asking for a headache. There are much better options for that, like Boox devices that support comic formats natively. It’s like buying a sports car and then complaining that it’s not good in the snow.
Jailbreaking Kindles is Overrated
If you have an old Kindle laying around that you want to add some extra functionality to, then it might make sense to jailbreak it and install KOReader to read EPUBs natively. But whenever I see posts online with people wanting to jailbreak current-gen Kindles, I wonder why these people chose to buy a Kindle in the first place. You can install KOReader on Kobos, PocketBooks, and Android devices without extra “jailbreaking” hassles, and you don’t have to worry about software updates breaking the jailbreak every couple of months. And most Android devices are far more capable out of the box than jailbroken Kindles.
Part of the problem is people expect too much from Kindles. Kindles are best suited for reading ebooks from Amazon. That’s it. Buying them for any other reason and expecting them to be good at that isn’t a realistic expectation.
Yes you have hit a home run. You are absolutely right. I love the Kindle because I read mostly the Kindle Unlimited books. If I wanted to side load books I will get a genetic e-ink reader.
Couldn’t agree more.
I love the enclosed environment of Kindle. It kind of makes me feel closer to the story I’m reading, like nothing outside can pop the bubble of the story I’m currently in.
Publisher fonts and embedded fonts (usually used for chapter headings) are still broken after update 5.19.2 5.19.3 5.19.3.0.1
This is for both side loaded and Kindle store books.
That’s a very clear explanation of something that’s so obvious. I’d just add one nuance that we usually overlook. Most e-reader users use their devices with the original software. Users of Kobo or PocketBook, to name a few other brands, do exactly the same as Kindle users. They buy their books from their respective shops or borrow them from their public libraries, download them directly onto their e-readers and read them. In other words, they are not an alternative to the Kindle because they can easily install different reading software or modify their e-readers (which most do not do), or because they download their books to a computer, remove the DRM, make a backup, edit them and reload them onto their e-readers via USB (most Kobo or PocketBook users do not do that either). Only a minority who frequent e-reader forums do these things, but the average user of any brand simply buys their books, downloads them directly onto their e-reader and reads them. We’ve been so immersed in e-reader forums for years that we lose perspective and assume what we do is what everyone else does. And that’s not the case.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again. A PocketBook representative stated that over 90% of their users used their e-readers exactly as they bought them. The various customisation options available on their e-readers (changing key settings or on-screen gestures) were never used. Not even something as simple as adding fonts, let alone installing alternative reading apps.
So why should a Kindle user who buys their books on Amazon, downloads them directly to their e-reader and reads them, consider an alternative that will probably offer a more limited experience? The alternative to Amazon is going to remain as scarce for many years to come as it is now (no matter how much this blog or e-reader forums fill up with people furious with Amazon and enthusiastic about other brands).
Completely agree! I love my kindle because I am perfectly fine with being tied into the Amazon ebook ecosystem–it’s convenient for me, especially since I’ve had a Kindle and Kindle books since 2009. Yes, I do realize that I don’t actually “own” the ebooks I purchase from Amazon; I’m lucky enough that any ebook I truly love, I am perfectly happy to buy a hard copy of either new or used.
In the end, the Kindle is a really simple device…and a lot of people like the simplicity of it.
Yes, Jailbreaking kindness is overrated but there is an extension or plugin to disable OTA updates that renames the firmware update binary, on a kindle, so you don’t have to worry about a firmware update undoing your jailbreak. So, you are technically wrong on just that one point.
I complain because the way I used to use a Kindle, which Amazon allowed, has now been changed. Even though they obviously steered you towards their lock-in, they made it possible to sideload and downlaod. Once those were changed after the fact, I lost interest.
Since Amazon doesn’t allow to download the ebooks bought ont its store on a computer.,I just don’t buy any book from them. I use Send to Kindle to send ePub, from somewhere else, to my Kindle. I don’t have all the bells ands whistle of proprietary ebooks from Amazon, but that’s fine. At least I can read my ebooks, add a custom dictionary, add fonts, and synch my reading across my Kindle and my phone. Isn’t that great!
I started out with a Nook, then switched to Kobo, now I’m back to a Nook and still buying most books at Kobo. The only reason I ever had a Kindle was to more easily read Kindle books comfortably (Kindle Unlimited and the occasional purchase). But I don’t plan on ever getting another Kindle now — no real use for it.
But it was said Kindle Paperwhite has the best screen of ereaders
Where it was said? It might have been true 15 years ago, but that time is long past. Paperwhites have good screens, yes, but so do many other brands these days.
Yeah, the Kindle Paperwhite has an E Ink Carta 1300 screen, but so does the Kobo Clara BW and a lot of other (possibly cheaper) e-readers.
LOL It has one of the worst screens out there. The thick layer of plastic and the uneven lighting makes it really bad. So definitely not true. If you want the best you can have, definitely avoid flush screens.
You’re right, and I would use a different device, if it weren’t for the fact that the newest kindle paperwhite is my favourite e-reader hardware. Mine is jailbroken and I’m very happy with the way it works with koreader.
Just my two cents. I live in Poland, and I’ve been using Kindles since 2010, although there is still no Polish Kindle Store. But most Polish bookstores sell unprotected EPUB/MOBI, and support Send-to-Kindle via email. And the Kindle ecosystem is still very useful: first of all, synchronizing across all devices, so when I buy a new Kindle, I can download my favorite collections in a few clicks.
For me, calibre and its Kobo driver is far more useful. I tend to keep several thousand books on my ereaders; downloading all of them from a remote server when I get a new ereader would take forever. Transferring them via USB is a lot faster, and collection management is fully automatic between calibre and a Kobo ereader – the books sort themselves into collections on my Kobo without any manual input on my part. Ditto for series. Ditto for book synopsis. Ditto for reading progress. The Kindle ecosystem has nothing comparable, for me.
And then there’s this for older Kindles. 😀
https://matthealy.com/kindle
TL;DR, but I skimmed it, and even though my eyes glazed over, that sounds pretty cool. Thanks for the link, and I intend to look into it further.
Meh, I’m perfectly happy with my Kindle Scribe that I bought for under $200 years ago and have kept in airplane mode. The firmware it’s on works perfectly fine for me with no issues, including sideloading with Calibre. I know I’m not giving Amazon any additional money, so I’m not going to complain about them cutting off people like me. I wouldn’t expect anything else in the current climate of every single company tightening the screws on the consumer.
I’m unhappy using them as intended for a variety of reasons. That’s why I choose to jailbreak.
I’m the type who wants to remove the DRM and sideload everything via USB, exclusively, and so I ditched Kindles years ago when it was already apparent where Amazon wanted to go with their devices. No regrets. I do still buy some books from Amazon that aren’t sold elsewhere, as long as DRM can be removed, but they aren’t an important part of my reading material. So I could perfectly well live without having anything to do with Amazon at all.
I was a Kindle user for many years, but I strongly disliked the direction Amazon started to take their devices a few years ago, and I moved on. No, I don’t accept not “owning” my purchased ebooks and I don’t want to use Send to Kindle. Goodbye, Amazon. It was fun while it lasted, but now I use other devices that are more fun than Kindles, and suit me far better.
A concise synopsis of why I’ve never purchased a Kindle even though the announcement of the first Kindle was what sent me down the e-reader rabbit-hole.
Well, the Kindle hardware is pretty much among the best there is. Every review confirms the Kindles are more “responsive” compared to others like Kobo, and the system itself is easier and simpler than other brands (I for one don’t want Android ereaders because of the battery life).
Also, getting an Ads Free Kindle Basic for like 70 U$D (this was in Spain) was too good to pass up (otherwise I most likely would have gotten a Kobo Clara BW or Color).
And finally, my last ereader was a Kindle Basic 10th gen (first ereader ever bought right before the 11th gen was announced…) and didn’t want to overcomplicate my life relearning a device. Now once this Kindle bites the dust, I’ll see what’s available, no longer being a newbie I’ll be able to get something “better” for my use case.
Bought not even ONE book from Amazon since they don’t sell books, they sell licenses (even if DRM free like I setup my books).
Last week I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in Spain for €109 and a PocketBook Verse Pro for €84. I’m very happy with both of them. There are some deals you just have to snap up.
Umm… Can you please give an example of an eBook store that doesn’t sell licenses instead of books?
Do I like the limitations of poorer software and Amazon DRM shenanigans? Not at all.
Rather, I’ve bought a Paperwhite and Scribe for the price, (looking at you, Boox, Supernote, Remarkable) and physical hardware (looking at you Boox Note3 screen cracked without impact, and Nook, page turn buttons wore out).
Other people will have different needs and choices.
Kindles were the first ereaders with an affordable price, and at the same time the most accessible option for ereading. Then, when everyone was already locked in, Amazon decided to join Team Enshittification. They changed the terms after purchase, which is a pretty shitty move. It’s really unfair to blame people who’ve been using Kindles for years just because they want to read without stupid and completely unnecessary limitations. Now they may have to buy another reader, just because Amazon decided to make their devices shitty with an update. Do you think that’s okay? Yeah, just go buy another branded ereader and throw out the otherwise perfectly fine hardware, because we still don’t have enough e-waste everywhere already, right?
After all this, I wish Amazon would just leave Europe, at least the non-English speaking countries. We don’t need another American company just making everything worse.
Exactly. And who gets to say what’s wrong or right with how we use our ereaders, as the article implies? It’s not wrong to jailbreak, and not wrong to leave stock. I feel like the original post is pandering to Amazon; must be an affiliate of theirs.
Sometimes he’s accused of being against Amazon while being very pro-Kobo or pro-other brand.
Well, I’d say Nathan just wanted to post something spicy to make people comment. Worked it seems.
I don’t really disagree with the sentiment in the article, with the exception that you say to get another device if the Kindle doesn’t suit our needs. And I have done that, but thanks to Amazon’s manipulation and capture of certain genres, they’ve made it so that you can’t ignore their ecosystem if you want to read certain books. Hence the complaining.
If I could completely divorce myself from Amazon because I get my books elsewhere, I would. But I can’t, and that is Amazon’s fault. Given that, I think it’s only reasonable to expect some complaints.
Kindle exclusive authors and books cannot be read on non-Kindle devices / apps, even if you could borrow a specific book from Libby. This kind of monopolistic practice pushes people towards piracy, imho.
I am very happy with the Amazon Kindle ecosystem. Yes, I previously would download and backup my Kindle ebook purchases, but it’s not the end of the world that I can no longer do so. The likelihood of my ebook purchases on Amazon disappearing before I do is infinitesimal so why sweat the small stuff.
Also, I’ve been extremely happy with Send to Kindle ever since Amazon started allowing you to upload documents in ePub format. Previously, I would side load ebooks to my Kindle, but that left me needing to use a third party app any time I wanted to read the same book on my iPhone. Between the fact that there hasn’t been a great third party eBook app since the demise of Marvin, and the fact that I would have to manually keep track of where I was in a book in two locations, it was always an imperfect solution to reading on both my Kindle and my iPhone. Now, with Send to Kindle, my ebooks sync perfectly between my Kindle and the Kindle app on my iPhone. Finally, as a bonus, my Send t0 Kindle ebooks always have a cover (so long as you actually download the ebook to your device), and my Send to Kindle ebook never disappear.
My primary reading device is a Kindle Voyage a friend gave me. Far’s I’m concerned Amazon hasn’t released an improvement on it yet, everything either loses the page turn buttons (right-handed but I read lefty so touch-to-turn is annoying and no turning an Oasis on its head isn’t good enough also they stopped making that too) and/or gets too big. Potentially years yet before they decide to kick my Voyage to the curb but my Voyage has trouble maintaining a stable wifi connection (and it’s persisted through a factory reset, so likely hardware issue); leaving wifi on chews through battery life and I have to try several times to get books to fully download sometimes. Zero effect on daily usage with the wifi off, but guess how I’ve been getting books onto it since Amazon nuked download & transfer? First-gen Paperwhite.
Zero interest in spending $$$ on a product with an inferior reading experience just to keep using a perfectly functional device with one minor issue. (Might end up poking eBay for some used mid-gen device but just thinking about having to resort to that pisses me off, so that’s a long-term maybe if/when I get sufficiently frustrated at being functionally locked out of Kindle Unlimited books including one author I’m related to.)
I strongly disagree. Kindles are the BEST for sideloading. If you read sideloaded books, for example Kobo won’t even sync them between devices, won’t save reading progress, you can’t send books to your reader wirelessly etc. With Kindle it’s extremely easy using Send-to-Kindle. And in Europe as it was already said here, you just buy a book and the book shop will deliver it to your Kindle, that’s how all book stores here work. And that’s also why almost everyone here uses Kindles, even though we don’t even have Amazon here (Czechia) and Amazon doesn’t sell books in our language. People buy Kindles even for their granparents because they know they will be the easiest to get sideloaded content to. Grandparents are easily able to buy books and have them delivered to Kindle or kids can send books to them.
I dislike the dated hardware and many hardware flaws Kindles have, but sideloading is not something I would ever complain about.
You can save your reading progress in calibre with a Kobo. And you can, in fact, send your books wirelessly – newer Kobos have Dropbox and Google Drive integration. About the only thing you can’t do is syncing reading progress between sideloaded books.
Kindles are good for sideloading if you use Send to Kindle. Not for USB transfer, which is how I prefer to load my books to my ereaders, and not if you want to use calibre. Kindles don’t have series information or book synopsis for sideloaded books – Kobos can have both.
I know, I have both Kindle and Kobo (and Onyx Boox and PocketBook and Viwoods) and I use Calibre. I catalogue the books in Calibre and send them to Kindle from Calibre via email. I have the book delivered to all my four Kindles and my Kindle app at the same time and the reading progress syncs over all the devices. Kobo simply can’t compete with this. Google Drive/Dropbox integration is nowhere near this and the lack of reading progress sync is a deal breaker for me and a reason why my Kobo Libra 2 mostly collects dust. Don’t get me wrong, I love my KL2 as a hardware and its software is great too. But it’s not meant for sideloaded books unlike Kindle.
Actually you can send books to a Kobo wirelessly through Calibre. It’s called Kobo Uncaged. Although it’s not the same like send-to-Kindle, but sideloading is much better on a Kobo. There is no sync out of the box, but there is a workaround for that if you install Koreader, you can have progress sync between Koreader devices.
At the same time you don’t even have to log in to Kobo services at all to have all the above.
It’s really not the same. Send-to-Kindle offers FREE unlimited cloud file storage for your Kindle books, even if you run out of space on your Kindle.
I personally have no need or desire to keep my ebooks on Amazon servers. I didn’t even when I still used Kindles.
My ereader can store around 10,000 books. I’m not sure I can read that many in the rest of my life. Or in anyone’s life. Not to mention that cloud storage is less reliable than storing books offline.
That is why I have my books both on my NAS server and on Amazon cloud. Is my apartment burns down, I have a copy at Amazon. The free cloud is a great thing, it’s really hard to make it look as a bad thing. Kobo is just behind Kindle with what matters. They really need to bring Send to Kindle.
They have it ready, but decided not to release it, that’s the biggest shame. What I mean is Rakuten owns two ereader brands: Kobo and Tolino. They both use the same hardware and software. The difference is Tolino has a free 25GB cloud and syncs sideloaded content, Kobo doesn’t. So with Kobo it’s a choice not to give this option to people. It’s just sad.
You just proved my point. Kobo clearly isn’t good for sideloaded content. You have to install multiple workarounds to make it work, while with Kindle you get the functionality out of the box. Which is what matters for most people. I same as you am capable of doing all this, but I still prefer Kindle, it’s just no hassle solution. Plus I really don’t like Koreader, even though I altered its code to look just the way I want. I don’t want to maintain that with each new version.
The article is about wether Kindle or Kobo is better for sideloaded books. With Kindle you can just sideload them and read on any Kindle. With Kobo you have to do a lot of work to sort of make it work. So Kindle is better, plain and simple. Plus Koreader is a solution you can use on both platforms, it’s not an advantage for Kobo.
Kindle is good for you and others, and Kobo is good for me and others. I don’t care about online services as I prefer to have everything available offline, especially nowadays. Even if Kobo had a service like Send to Kindle, I wouldn’t use it. First, I don’t want to depend on a fragile online service that can be taken down any time for any reason. Second, offline is more reliable, free forever and doesn’t need an internet connection. Third, I only read on one device. And yeah, if your apartment burns down, your destroyed ebooks will be the least of your problems… but in that case I still have several types of backups, on hard disks, SD cards, pendrives etc. all in different locations.
I don’t get why you say Kindle is any better for sideloading than Kobo, especially when Amazon sometimes deletes sideloaded content from Kindles, which is ridiculous. Kobo won’t touch any content on the device. I don’t use KOReader because I can customise the default reader enough on Kobo, while you can’t do the same on a Kindle. Which gets really annoying when updates remove previously available features. That won’t happen on a Kobo, and it can be used without an account. You can also do wireless transfers from Calibre with Kobo Uncaged, which isn’t difficult at all: just copy 2 files onto the device and reboot. None of this is possible on a Kindle, or maybe with KOReader if you can jailbreak your Kindle… if that’s even possible. Kobo needs no jailbreak, owners can use their ereader however they want.
The fact is Kobo is more open, and Kindles are getting more closed every day.
I know for a fact Amazon has taken multiple titles from me over the years. I only initially noticed from the titles being available on a device in airplane mode versus a new kindle I was setting up. I’m sure they have taken more than those I know of too, but once you’ve been buying kindle books for over 10 years, it’s too hard to remember them all. Really only comparing emailed receipts from your purchases with your content library would you get a true picture, but that would be too time consiming.
Appalling! So simple! Too bad the Amazoon marketing engine didn’t get the memo!
Why, I am sure that all those people, so upset now that the shameless leviathan is using its market share to enforce another bad faith move, they’re just mistaken!
I’m sure that if Amazon said, clearly and without doublespeak “This device is meant ONLY TO READ MATERIAL OBTAINED UNDER LICENSE FROM AMAZON, they’d still have had a hit….
Shortsighted. I and many others borrow from library and deliver automatically to kindle. Free and works great. Haven’t bought a book in a long time, read over 100 per year.