Right here’s one thing that’s going to set off some conspiracy theories. As persons are getting the new Kindles that have been launched final week, they’re discovering out that the brand new fashions are mysteriously lacking the obtain and switch by way of USB possibility for bought ebooks from the content material web page at Amazon.
So now persons are leaping to the conclusion that Amazon is within the means of phasing out the obtain and switch possibility fully transferring ahead, and that may very properly be the case.
Contemplating the brand new Kindles have been simply launched 4 days in the past, it may additionally simply be a glitch or a bug that must be mounted. However there are some indicators that they have been deliberately omitted from the obtain and switch listing.
First off, the brand new Kindles do present up on the “ship to” listing, which is actually the identical generated listing on the identical web page because the switch by way of USB possibility.
There’s additionally the truth that the “new” primary Kindle isn’t actually new, not within the traditional sense. Amazon nonetheless lists it as an eleventh gen mannequin, the identical because the 2022 Kindle, and it nonetheless makes use of the identical ID quantity, so so far as Amazon’s system is worried it’s the identical Kindle. It simply has some minor {hardware} revisions, together with a brand new display screen, and it does look higher so at the least there’s that. However the truth is the 2022 eleventh gen Kindle reveals up on the listing and the 2024 eleventh gen Kindle doesn’t.
I’ve each the new Kindle for 2024 and a new Kindle Paperwhite 6, and I can affirm that neither are exhibiting up on the listing of gadgets to obtain and switch ebooks by way of USB.
Granted, this isn’t going to have an effect on that overwhelming majority of Kindle customers, however there’s a subset of those who wish to obtain their bought ebooks to make backups and to take away the DRM to learn the ebooks on different non-Kindle gadgets.
If Amazon phases out the obtain and switch possibility, it’s going to create issues for people who like to do this. Amazon already made it tougher to obtain books utilizing the Kindle for PC app final 12 months to dissuade individuals from backing up their bought ebooks, they usually additionally eliminated the obtain possibility for Kindle Limitless books final 12 months.
From Amazon’s perspective, I can see why they’d wish to get rid of the obtain and switch possibility altogether, nevertheless it’s going to tick off lots of people in the event that they do it.
The obtain and switch possibility goes manner again to the early days of Kindles when web entry wasn’t as widespread and WiFi wasn’t accessible nearly all over the place. Folks with out WiFi or a dependable web connection wanted a strategy to obtain and switch bought ebooks to Kindles utilizing a USB cable.
Now most individuals simply obtain their bought ebooks over WiFi and don’t ever use the obtain and switch possibility, however for people who do it’s going to trigger some issues if Amazon is certainly eradicating that possibility on newer Kindles, and it additionally creates extra of a walled backyard the place individuals can’t take their bought ebooks and depart for one more platform.
Thus far older Kindles nonetheless have the obtain and switch possibility so it’s solely a difficulty with the new Kindles. Hopefully it’s only a glitch that may get mounted quickly, however at this level it seems to be like an meant change for the way forward for Kindles.
