There is one small change that will happen in relation to Kindle e-books, as noticed recently by people purchasing a book who wish to download it as a file and later transfer it to their Kindle device via USB:

“Starting February 26, 2025, the “Download & Transfer via USB” option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the ‘Deliver or Remove from Device’ option.“

What will you be able to do starting with February 26:

  • Newly purchased books will be downloadable via Wi-Fi to your Kindle device, should you own one, which most certainly is Wi-Fi capable, because the only Kindle that lacked Wi-Fi was the original model launched in 2007.
  • Books that are already downloaded on your PC will still be transferable via USB to your Kindle device, should you own one.
  • Newly purchased books, as well as any other books in your digital library, will be downloadable to the Kindle app on your Android or iOS phone or tablet, should you be using such an app.
  • Newly purchased books, as well as any other books in your digital library, will be downloadable to the Kindle app on your Windows or macOS computer, should you be using such an app.
  • Newly purchased books, as well as any other books in your library, will be readable in your web browser with Kindle for Web.

Let’s get real:

● How many people really need to download via the web browser a purchased Kindle book as a .azw or .kf8 file, save it on the disk, then manually transfer such a file via USB to a Kindle device?

Probably 0.1-0.2%.

● How many Kindle owners know that they can transfer the book to their device in other ways than having it automatically delivered over the Internet?

Probably 10%.

Let me inform you that even when you purchase an ePub from Kobo, the download link is somewhat difficult to find on the Kobo website. The default option is to have it delivered to your device or app.

Kindle users are usually non-technical people. The kind of people who believe that:

  • “iPhone is the only decent smartphone.”
  • “Kindle is the only way to get e-books and the only e-book format.”
  • “MacBook is the only decent laptop.”
  • “Ubuntu is the only Linux distribution.”
  • “Toyota is the only good car.”

I’ll never believe that this change affects the habits of a significant number of Kindle users!

Or, rather, of owners of a Kindle device. That’s because, I’m sure, 99% of Kindle owners DON’T KNOW that they don’t need a Kindle device! With today’s large smartphones, they can as well use the Kindle app for Android or iOS!

I am not defending Amazon. I am defending the common sense, and I’m doing this because I hate stupidity! Here’s instances of people panicking and going into “DOWNLOAD YOUR BOOKS NOW OR YOU’RE GONNA LOSE THEM!” mode:

Allow me to say that such people are plain stupid. The only way they would NEED to download a Kindle book as a file were if they wanted to remove the DRM and keep it as a portable e-book that could also be converted to an ePub. 99.9% of Kindle customers NEVER DO THAT.

“Pirates” do that. Many people do that with ePub files, mostly because people who prefer the ePub format are typically more knowledgeable and abhor monopolies. And the usual way to download a DRM-ridden ePub on a computer is to download an .acsm file and let ADE download the actual file.

Here’s my collection of e-books, not including the PDFs:

  • Kindle library: 25 books (3 purchased because there was no ePub version; most of the others were free; a few were €0.99).
  • ePub collection: ~29,000 books, DRM-free.

This speaks volumes (sic!).

If the Kindle fans who are now claiming that they want to OWN their e-books really knew what all is about, they’d never had gone the Kindle way in the first place! Because the only way to OWN an e-book is to remove its DRM! Most Kindle owners don’t even know what DRM means.

I was always pro-choice (sic!), therefore I prefer the ePub format, which is sold by thousands of bookstores worldwide. Amazon is a monopoly for Kindle e-books. Besides, there are many physical readers for ePub files—and apps too!

The most popular physical readers include Kobo and Tolino. Both brands also offer apps, so you don’t need their devices. In Germany, Thalia, Hugendubel, Osiander, and buecher.de sell Tolino readers, and the first two also have their own reader apps. In France, Belgium, and Italy, Fnac sells Kobo. In France, the Vivlio (formerly Bookeen, but there are still some readers sold as Bookeen) readers are sold by the bookstores Cultura and Decitre; ePagine promotes inkBOOK readers. LaLibrairie.com (replacing immateriel.fr, Chapitre.com) offers the app Louise Reader. In Italy, there are many bookstores or online bookstores that sell ePub books and Kobo readers. Other well-known e-reader brands: PocketBook, Onyx Boox.

Most Android apps for ePub books only read DRM-free books (books with DRM require Kobo or other bookstore-backed apps). My favorites are eReader Prestigio and Lithium (now removed from the store, fuck you very much, Google!). Other apps you might like: ReadEra and PocketBook. Among the apps I do not like: Moon+, FBReader, Librera, eBoox, Reasily, Aquile Reader.

I don’t like the apps that force a font and disregard the fonts that might be embedded in an ePub. I want the choice to be mine. With eReader Prestigio, I can also add my fonts in a folder and use them; I can apply parts of the CSS settings selectively (one or more of: font family; text size; text alignment; margins). On the other hand, Lithium can only use the book’s fonts or one of its five fonts, but Arbutus Slab is rendered exceptionally well. (In Prestigio I usually prefer Bookerly, Bitter Medium, or Literata, which I added myself.)

I also detest the apps that cannot read a book in place, but make “a library” by copying all the found books in a different folder. What if I had 1 GB of books? Why should there be a copy of them? Whoever came with such a stupid design should die in pain!

Finally, I loathe the Google Play Books app. The shitheads who designed it made it unable to read a book that’s on the device. If you don’t read a book purchased from Google, then you must upload your book to Google and download it from there. Say, again, that I have 1 GB of books on my phone: why should I upload them to Google? And what if I’m during a flight? The only companies that I hate more than I hate Google are Apple and Microsoft.

Some articles on Amazon’s move: The Verge: Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books. Good E-Reader: Download and Transfer for Kindle books discontinued on Feb 26, and Amazon is not to be trusted anymore with their Kindle e-reader. LifeHacker: Download Your Kindle Books While You Still Can.

Two notes:

  1. If Amazon decides to delete a book that you have purchased, and you sideload it via USB, you’ll have to disconnect your device from Wi-Fi, or else Amazon would delete it from your device.
  2. Amazon’s books have DRM and can only be used on devices or in apps associated with your account. That is, unless you remove the DRM, which is illegal but doesn’t count as piracy as long as you don’t distribute the result.
  3. If you have your book sent to the Kindle for PC (Windows, macOS) app, it will still be on the disk, in a folder accessible to you! In Windows, the folder is called My Kindle Content.

Oh, boy, how much I hate stupidity!