Older Kindles losing store access in August

[Quoth]

Why would you use MS clone of Chrome (Edge) on a phone? Or are you one of the few running Windows Phone?

[Barbara1955]

When the internet app built in crashed, I just put the app that the same as on my PC.
The built in the phone app updated so I since deleted the Edge app this was a few months ago. I still can't order anything on amazon on my phone.

[Quoth]

Try installing Firefox, Brave, Chrome (in that order). Not Opera or Opera mini, they are now appalling. Or for iOS use Safari.

Personally I'd NEVER order anything from anywhere on a phone or tablet. A phone is too easily lost or stolen and security is terrible.

I've two phones now:
1) For the Library only. It gets SMS messages to authorise some payments on desktop. It's PAYG, so all SMS authtication would be doomed if the phone was lost or stolen. If it dies I have a backup older phone that works with same SIM. Never had a SIM die in nearly 30 years.

2) One to take outside. The Google Account (with no payment details) was deleted after the desired basic free apps that don't need internet loaded (music, ebook, barcode scanner that just shows the text, notebook etc). It has no payment details, the SIM is anonymous (as is library mobile phone), no stored website passwords. All anyone gets if they steal it is less than €8 credit typically and the common phone numbers (with no addresses or landlines). Totally replaceable. Admittedly it has a 32 Gbyte SIM with some music and ebooks (copies). Any criminal can easily pirate alll that.

[Badcatalex]

Imagine if they release a new Kindle this year and it comes with a new store UI.

[Badcatalex]

Tomorrow is the EOL of Kindle Store access on these older models.

Gonna see if I can keep my K4B connected to it and browse until support ends.

Edit: I got some screenshots of the currently visible store support ending screen BTW.

[Notjohn]

I must admit that I'm pleased if this indeed comes about. After all these years, I'm still formatting my books with an eye to the limitations of those early Kindles. Be good not to have to think of that in the future.

[JSWolf]

Mobi is dead! Finally. I've been saying Mobi should go for a long time.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I must admit that I'm pleased if this indeed comes about. After all these years, I'm still formatting my books with an eye to the limitations of those early Kindles. Be good not to have to think of that in the future.

As far as I can tell from the various reports I've read, Amazon will still supply mobi format ebooks to those older Kindle devices. When I checked, Amazon is now requiring TLS 1.2 or higher for connecting to the store which is not supported by the older devices firmware. This is pretty much mandated by the PCI-DSS

To quote the Amazon email:

Can I still read on my Kindle? Yes. You can still access your existing library from your Kindle, deliver newly purchased or borrowed books to it, or download books from your “Archived Items.”

So you are still going to need to think about those older devices when formatting ebooks.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Mobi is dead! Finally. I've been saying Mobi should go for a long time.

It's not actually dead.

It's just you can't send it to Amazon (unless a fixed layout) and non-touch Kindles can't access the store. It hasn't been possible to upload reflowable mobi to KDP for ages. The epub is preferred with docx as 2nd choice. Fixed layout have different rules and are not true ebooks, but like PDF, replicas of a particular layout on a particular size "page".

But we have bought Amazon eBooks for years and never used the store via the Kindle.
Some titles even that are reflowable are still pre-KF8 (mobi) format even on a Paperwhite.
Ebooks can still be purchased and downloaded for pre-KF8 (mobi) format only Kindles in "mobi" format.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As far as I can tell from the various reports I've read, Amazon will still supply mobi format ebooks to those older Kindle devices. When I checked, Amazon is now requiring TLS 1.2 or higher for connecting to the store which is not supported by the older devices firmware. This is pretty much mandated by the PCI-DSS

To quote the Amazon email:



So you are still going to need to think about those older devices when formatting ebooks.

YES. OMG, I wish, wish wish that old-mobi were truly dead. I just tried to do a book with English-Hebrew and...oy vey. Now, to be fair, KF8 and all that worked pretty well, even going hog-wild and mixing RTL and LTR on the same line (yes, really!) but iBooks, aDE, etc. choked on it and I knew it would NEVAH work in KF7, KCR, the LIT and all that. (sigh). So, it's back to wee bitty images of Hebrew, embedded in lines of English (more sighing).

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not actually dead.

It's just you can't send it to Amazon (unless a fixed layout) and non-touch Kindles can't access the store. It hasn't been possible to upload reflowable mobi to KDP for ages. The epub is preferred with docx as 2nd choice. Fixed layout have different rules and are not true ebooks, but like PDF, replicas of a particular layout on a particular size "page".

But we have bought Amazon eBooks for years and never used the store via the Kindle.
Some titles even that are reflowable are still pre-KF8 (mobi) format even on a Paperwhite.
Ebooks can still be purchased and downloaded for pre-KF8 (mobi) format only Kindles in "mobi" format.

Yup. And therein lies the mobi, as Shakespeare said.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

YES. OMG, I wish, wish wish that old-mobi were truly dead. I just tried to do a book with English-Hebrew and...oy vey. Now, to be fair, KF8 and all that worked pretty well, even going hog-wild and mixing RTL and LTR on the same line (yes, really!) but iBooks, aDE, etc. choked on it and I knew it would NEVAH work in KF7, KCR, the LIT and all that. (sigh). So, it's back to wee bitty images of Hebrew, embedded in lines of English (more sighing).



Yup. And therein lies the mobi, as Shakespeare said.

Hitch

The solution (IMHO) is to make the eBooks read RTL and do the Hebrew so it can be read LTR.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Hitch

YES. OMG, I wish, wish wish that old-mobi were truly dead. I just tried to do a book with English-Hebrew and...oy vey. Now, to be fair, KF8 and all that worked pretty well, even going hog-wild and mixing RTL and LTR on the same line (yes, really!) but iBooks, aDE, etc. choked on it and I knew it would NEVAH work in KF7, KCR, the LIT and all that. (sigh). So, it's back to wee bitty images of Hebrew, embedded in lines of English (more sighing).

It's crazy, because RTL, Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic all solved issues even in DOS in 1980s.
By 1997, TEN YEARS before the 1st Amazon Kindle, EVERY common writing system working on Linux, which is what Kindle used. 2002 I switched email client because it was essentially 1979 internal format, to one that supported almost any language.

Amazon was behind, always.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's crazy, because RTL, Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic all solved issues even in DOS in 1980s.
By 1997, TEN YEARS before the 1st Amazon Kindle, EVERY common writing system working on Linux, which is what Kindle used. 2002 I switched email client because it was essentially 1979 internal format, to one that supported almost any language.

Amazon was behind, always.

Well, Hebrew in and of itself, or Arabic, etc.--they work fine. It's combining them on the same line that seems to make ADE and iBooks both barf. To be fair, I should note that my Fire handled it just fine. So...

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, Hebrew in and of itself, or Arabic, etc.--they work fine. It's combining them on the same line that seems to make ADE and iBooks both barf. To be fair, I should note that my Fire handled it just fine. So...

Hitch

And if there's even a chance an eBook with Hebrew is to be read in ePub and then on a Kobo, you will have problems as RMSDK on Kobo does not do LTR and graphic images of Hebrew will not do unless it's SVG.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And if there's even a chance an eBook with Hebrew is to be read in ePub and then on a Kobo, you will have problems as RMSDK on Kobo does not do LTR and graphic images of Hebrew will not do unless it's SVG.

Oh, yes, I know. But you know, Jon...when a customer comes to you with this sort of book, you have to at least try, in a sample. See how far the firmware has come or...whatever.

I would have bet money that putting both English and Hebrew on the same line would not have worked in Kindle--but it did. I would have thought I'd get further with iBooks on an iPad, than I would with Kindle, but I would have been wrong.

So, you gotta experiment and play with them. And yes, it's still an imaged world, for Hebrew and other RTL languages, mixed in with English (and other LTR tongues), but...still, we try. (I do want to note that if the Hebrew had been solely in its own paragraphs, it would have worked for KDP. And ADE and iBooks. It just couldn't, mixed in on the same line.)

Hitch