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New Kindle e-readers no longer appear on computers
(goodereader.com)
I’ve heard Costco has a better return policy
I like to rag on Amazon as much as the next guy here, but this article seems a tad misleading. They do still show up when you plug them in. The article even says they use MTP now instead of functioning as a direct USB mass storage drive, which means you can still plug them into your PC and transfer files though File Explorer. Android handles USB file transfers the same way, and that works fine.
So, basically the whole article is just a complete nothing-burger.
Sounds like a regular internet article to me.
Good call out. Clickbait article.
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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.
Kobo and Boox are better at making eReaders anyway.
My kobo Libra 2 is way, way, WAY better than any of the Kindles or nooks I've owned. So good.
Edit: idk who Amy is but she doesn't belong here.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Critically, while they wont appear as drives, they will appear as MTP devices (the same way Android phones do) and will still allow you to transfer files. The communication protocol is different, but "New Kindle e-readers no longer appear on computers" isn't true unless your OS of choice doesn't support MTP.
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Glad I got a Kobo then.
Yep. Kobo is much better nowadays.
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...
I'm in the same position as you. From what I gather you can still transfer files, I'm still buying a kobo when my voyage bites the dust.
As noted elsewhere in the thread, they do support MTP transport, so it's definitely not as user-hostile as it first sounded. Things like Calibre will still work. However, the fact that Amazon also removed the ability to download ebooks in the browser for offline transfer suggests where things are heading. IIRC kobos have some anti features of their own, but I don't recall the details. I wonder if something like the Daylight DC-1 could be even better. It's not just a nice reader, but a proper computer. At least, if it actually exists.
Comments on the article say that it's not true, and new Kindles work exactly the way old ones do.
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Kobo, folks. I've been there through three generations of devices. No regrets. Fairly hackable, sideload friendly, competitively priced.
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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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