Amazon seems to be locking down the Kindle e-reader to try and curb piracy. The company recently disabled the USB File Transfer Tool, allowing people to back up their Kindle books locally. They also patched Kindle for PC to prevent backing up titles. A few years ago, they turned off the MOBI format from Send to Kindle, and only yesterday, they severely limited it further. The only format Kindle now supports is KFX, which launched in 2015 and is the only book format never to be cracked.
Buying a new Kindle today is just for people who want to buy and read e-books and, in some markets, purchase and listen to Audible audiobooks. The Kindle e-reader has software elements such as X-Ray, Goodreads, and one of the best internet browsers on a Linux device. Your reading progress can be synced with the Kindle app for Android and iOS. Send to Kinde is something most users don’t use, but it allows you to send EPUB, PDF files, or other comic formats to your Kindle. A Kindle is just for reading now; Amazon has severely limited all other things that attract hobbies.
However, a tiny subset of users use whatever jailbreak methods are popular then. Right now, the only solution that Amazon hasn’t patched is Winterbreak Jailbreak. It’s the only solution that works on old Kindles and the latest generation. However, it is only a matter of time before Amazon patches the loophole, as they have all the other methods.
Ultimately, the Kindle remains the most popular e-reader in the world. It has the best and most stable OS and features found nowhere else. Although Kobo is the second most popular brand, it seems obsessed with color e-paper. Nook is a distant third in the US but is even more locked down than Amazon.
What Kindle feature will Amazon kill next? We wrote a great article on it.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.