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Daily Authority: šŸ“š Kindles and EPUBs

EPUB finally comes to the Amazon Kindle, first 240W USB-C cables, and Apple's lawsuit.
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ā€¢
May 3, 2022
Kindle Paperwhite 2021 placed on top of books showing book cover
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

šŸš€ Good morning ā€” check out the Rocket Labs rocket booster being caught by a helicopter, itā€™s really something.

Kindle ebooks get easier

Amazon Kindle Tips home page
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

Finally, finally, Amazon is going to make it easier to load your own books onto your Kindle.

In short:

  • Amazon will start accepting EPUB files onto Kindles by ā€œlate 2022ā€.
  • Itā€™s held out since 2007, as it tried to ensure the easiest way to read an e-book was just buying one through its own Kindle e-books store.

The details:

  • Owning a Kindle has been the default choice for millions: well-priced, capable, simple, and the standard for reading the latest thrillers to re-reading Lord Of The Rings or Twilight.
  • That said, as an e-reader, it was a bit of a walled garden: Amazon would happily let you upload files to a Kindle, but only if they were PDFs, or Word docs, or the old MOBI file type, which it has supported as a bit of relic since it bought Mobipocket in 2005.
  • Those restrictions meant if you wanted to buy some fun new or old sci-fi from some more ethical online store, you couldnā€™t use, quote ā€œbasically what everyone else in the world uses,ā€ which is EPUB.
  • Amazon has been using a proprietary AZW3 file type (sometimes known as KF8) as its standard, but is now opening up to EPUB, a rare pro-consumer move.
  • Or is it just anti-antitrust? At best, it seems like more of a begrudging move that Amazon doesnā€™t really want to talk about. Thereā€™s no announcement or blog post. Instead, TechCrunch notes an update to a support page, here, Amazonā€™s Help & Customer Service page.
  • With this, we can all just email ourselves EPUB files, and Amazon will do the rest.
  • Itā€™s not quite Apple allowing Android phones onto iMessage, but it is a big wall falling in the world of protected ecosystems.

How-to email yourself:

  • As an aside, for Kindle owners out there, you know you have a Kindle email address, right? And you can send stuff to it?
  • Hereā€™s Amazonā€™s support page for all the details, but essentially, you can just send an email with an attachment and after a few confirmations, itā€™ll load up on the Kindle.
  • It works well! And itā€™ll work much more quickly and easily when it comes to support for EPUB.
  • More Kindle tips and tricks here.

Roundup

šŸ“ø ā€œShould I buy the Google Pixel 6 or wait for the Pixel 7?ā€ (Android Authority).

āŒš Lawsuit alleges all Fitbit devices are prone to burning users (Android Authority).

šŸ¤ Latest Google Play system update makes file sharing easier between your devices (Android Authority).

šŸ‘‰ OnePlus Nord 3 appears on company website. Launch imminent? (Android Authority).

šŸ”Œ The first 240W USB-C cables just broke cover: No gadget supports 240W USB-C, yet, but the egg has come first. Or the chicken (The Verge).

šŸ Harley-Davidsonā€™s LiveWire teases electric motorcycle launch for next week (The Verge).

šŸ’³ Apple slammed by EU for denying Apple Pay rivals access to iPhoneā€™s NFC tech, but not much will change for the time being. Apparently, PayPal led the complaint (Ars Technica).

šŸŽ Apple sues RISC-V chip startup: Apple alleges theft of trade secrets related to the ā€œhiring of more than 40 Apple staffā€. Among other elements of the suit, Apple wants royalties (MacRumors).

šŸØ Google adds some useful features for finding flights and hotels: track flight prices between two cities, new overlays on neighborhoods, and such (blog.google).

šŸ˜¬ Mozilla has a bunch of alarming details on mental health apps like Better Help and Headspace, along with prayer apps. This is part of its ā€œPrivacy Not Includedā€ efforts weā€™ve previously covered before on IoT devices. Iā€™ve asked Mozilla directly for more details on the differences between iOS and Android apps but they said that may take a few weeks (Mozilla).

āš” VW and BP will install thousands of fast EV chargers at gas stations starting in the UK (Engadget).

šŸ”‹ This Chinese EV sells for about $5,000, so this team tried it out: ā€œIt costs less than adding CarPlay to a Ferrari ā€¦ and astonishingly, the company is reportedly making less than $14 profit on each car.ā€ (Wired).

šŸš€ Rocket Lab sent 34 satellites into space and tried to use a helicopter to catch the rocket booster to attempt to reuse it: The helicopter grab worked, but the pilot chose to drop the booster into the ocean, where it was then recovered. Hereā€™s a CNBC report, and brief footage from the helicopter.

šŸ“½ The first Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness reactions are here (it opens May 6), and it sounds like a wild ride (Gizmodo).

šŸ“ ā€œWhen I look in a mirror thatā€™s 3 feet away from me, am I seeing myself like Iā€™m standing 3ft away or 6ft away?ā€ (The answer is 6ft ā€” but the link is if you want to read peopleā€™s minds being blown.) (r/askreddit)

Chart Tuesday

Hereā€™s the state of Netflix mooching according to a survey of 2,209 US adults run by a firm called Morning Consult and turned into a chart by Statista:

  • In short, thereā€™s a pretty healthy cohort who share passwords and/or use someoneā€™s password.
  • As for 31% of people who donā€™t use Netflix, that base seems pretty rigid.
  • Hence, Netflix seems to eventually be targeting those who do use but without paying directly.
  • Some good news for Netflix not in this chart: Around one in three streaming subscribers would pay extra to legally share their password.
  • 10% of people in the survey said ā€œYes, definitely,ā€ and 20% said ā€œYes, probably,ā€ to paying more.

Warmly,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.