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$50 Fire Tablet With High-capacity SDXC Slot Doesn't See E-books On the SD Card

Robotech_Master writes: For all that the $50 Fire tablet has a 128 GB capable SDXC card slot that outclasses every other tablet in its price range, and it evolved out of Amazon's flagship e-book reader, it strangely lacks the ability to index e-books on that card. This seems like a strange oversight, given that every other media app on the tablet uses that card for downloading and storage, and its 5 GB usable internal memory isn't a lot for people who have a large library of picture-heavy e-books—especially if they want to install other apps, too.

104 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Sure to get fixed soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...since they fired the Fire team.

    1. Re:Sure to get fixed soon by halivar · · Score: 2, Informative

      That was a the Fire Phone team.

    2. Re:Sure to get fixed soon by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      When in middle of a blaze, one fire team looks like any other fire team.

  2. what's the problem? by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud. why would they be on the SD card?

    1. Re:what's the problem? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sure this is Amazon's response, that you don't need all the extra storage because it's all in the cloud, to be retrieved whenever.

      I know some people feel like they have to have their entire library on the physical device, but really? If there are 5GB of system memory, and say half of it you want to reserve for ebooks, you've still got massive amounts of space. 90% or so of unillustrated ePub books are going to be less than 5MB in size.

      I know, someone will come along and say "But I keep 5,000 picture books on my reader for my kids, and I want them all on the device at once". Well, that's not really a typical use case.

    2. Re:what's the problem? by PRMan · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Sorry. All Fire products are off my list until Amazon starts selling Chromecast and AppleTV again.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    3. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How about, "I have hundreds of books that I didn't purchase through Amazon, and therefore aren't in the Amazon cloud."

    4. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, that's not really a typical use case.

      But reading on a bus or plane or other places without Internet access is a very common use case.

    5. Re:what's the problem? by cdrudge · · Score: 2

      So when will Google and Apple be selling Fire products in their respective stores?

    6. Re:what's the problem? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then I suppose a bargain basement tablet in a semi-walled garden ecosystem isn't what you've been using, or what you'd ever consider using.

    7. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You can load books not purchased through Amazon into your Kindle and they are also stored in the Amazon cloud.

    8. Re:what's the problem? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

      I'm guessing Amazon thinks most people can survive with only 1000 books to choose from until they get to an internet connection next.

    9. Re:what's the problem? by sexconker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actual numbers indicate that typical usage (not cherry-picked, theoretical 'typical' usage) puts average storage use at ~7GB on the iPhone, meaning that roughly half of people use roughly half or less of the available space on a 16GB model, but people still claim that having the entry-level iPhone start with 16GB is a huge error.

      Could it be that people are forced to modify their habits because of the limited storage space?
      I like to store my blu ray rips on my phone. If I had a phone that didn't have external storage, I wouldn't be able to, and the storage usage on that phone would be really low.
      Change blu ray rips to videos of any sort, music, apps, photos, whatever. People won't keep in on their device if they feel restricted by the storage space.

      I'm not going to keep SOME of my shit on my phone and ALL of it somewhere else. I'm going to keep ALL of it on my phone or NONE of it on my phone (and all of it somewhere else).
      The fact that lots of people use 50% instead of 100% doesn't mean they don't need more space, it may mean that they don't have enough space to do what they want so they don't do it.

    10. Re:what's the problem? by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

      Even though they offered just such a feature to get you to do so. Then fucked you royally after they got your money.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    11. Re:what's the problem? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      If you want more space on an iPhone, pay for the privilege. I keep a minimal amount of data on my 16GB iPhone and have 10GB free, as I use it for reading emails, ebooks and the Wall Street Journal while taking public transit. My roommate has a 128GB iPhone to watch movies while at work. Different strokes for different folks.

    12. Re:what's the problem? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud. why would they be on the SD card?

      Because when I'm in the Out Back and want to read, there isn't a cell tower around? Because my carrier has a shitty data plan, I'm poor, and want to access the items I presumably purchased?

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    13. Re: what's the problem? by slazzy · · Score: 1

      I love the 128 gig SD cards for movies on my d6633.

      --
      Website Just Down For Me? Find out
    14. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And you never wondered at the low, low pricetag?

      Yes, actually owning a device costs a little more, or the device pwns you.

    15. Re:what's the problem? by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud. why would they be on the SD card?

      You don't travel overseas much, do you?

    16. Re:what's the problem? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      All amazon has to do is add casting to it's amazon video app to allow cromecast to work with their content.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    17. Re:what's the problem? by TWX · · Score: 2

      Our destinations frequently have no Internet access. I shouldn't have to seek it out in order to read books that I've already paid for.

      The whole point of an e-book reader is that I don't need more than the single reader in order to read all of the books that I have. If I now have a barrier to reading my books then the device is not as worthwhile to me.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    18. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well if you didn't purchase it through Amazon it mustn't be a proper book after all, citizen.

    19. Re:what's the problem? by Renaissancing · · Score: 1

      Can you store non-kindle format in Amazon's Cloud? Amazon explicitly allows for several other formats (non/proprietary) as well, and if these can't be stored in the cloud, you've got a problem. As for myself, I have several, very large reference libraries of pdf's that I regularly access which I couldn't possibly store in the limited space of 5 GB and could easily have been handled by the larger storage capacity of a removable card.

    20. Re:what's the problem? by ooshna · · Score: 2

      Can you recommend anything comparable to the Paperwhite?

    21. Re:what's the problem? by ooshna · · Score: 1

      I agree. But that will uncut their own product which isn't too smart a move.

    22. Re:what's the problem? by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Funny

      How about, "I have hundreds of books that I didn't purchase through Amazon, and therefore aren't in the Amazon cloud."

      An Amazon drone strike is on its way to your location as we speak.

    23. Re:what's the problem? by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

      I want my books the most when I'm away from an Internet connection. When I'm somewhere that I have a good Internet connection I have plenty to read or watch or listen to.

      that, and there is no such thing as a cloud. It is just Amazon usurping that name and trying to confuse what it really is.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    24. Re:what's the problem? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > So when will Google and Apple be selling Fire products in their respective stores?

      Neither of those have ever made any pretense about being a general store. Amazon is a bit like an online Walmart and should be treated much the same. The fact that you may be a fan of Amazon is no excuse to let them off easy.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    25. Re:what's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Our destinations frequently have no Internet access. I shouldn't have to seek it out in order to read books that I've already paid for.

      The whole point of an e-book reader is that I don't need more than the single reader in order to read all of the books that I have. If I now have a barrier to reading my books then the device is not as worthwhile to me.

      How long are you going to be gone for that you can't do a little pre-planning and load up a few dozen or even a hundred books to last you until you have a stable internet connection again?

      This trend of needing to have full access to your entire digital collection of media (not just books) via 'the cloud' or locally or whatever at all times is baffling to me.

    26. Re:what's the problem? by safetyinnumbers · · Score: 2

      At least Amazon video lets you download videos for offline viewing, unlike most (all?) other streaming video services.

    27. Re:what's the problem? by war4peace · · Score: 2

      If I now have a barrier to reading my books then the device is not as worthwhile to me.

      No you don't.
      You have an inconvenience but not a barrier. You're not stopped from opening any book from your SD card, you only lack some functionality such as indexing the books stored there.
      TFA says you can manually navigate to the book location and tap it and it would load in the Kindle app just fine.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    28. Re: what's the problem? by Robotech_Master · · Score: 3, Informative

      You can open it, yes. But unlike for any book that is indexed, such as the books on an e-ink Kindle, it loses your place in a manually opened book from the SD card as soon as you close it. This eliminates one of the biggest advantages of an e-reader over paper--the ability to pick it up right where you left off without needing a bookmark.

      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
    29. Re:what's the problem? by Nate+the+greatest · · Score: 1

      Then why not upload them to Amazon's cloud and download them from there? I'm not faulting you for preferring the offline solution, but there is another option.

    30. Re:what's the problem? by dbIII · · Score: 2

      Dozens - from the Boox (ten inch screen) down. I think e-reader news would be the place to start.

    31. Re: what's the problem? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Well that sucks over Kobo and all the others.

    32. Re:what's the problem? by unixisc · · Score: 2

      all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud. why would they be on the SD card?

      Problem is that it's likely that the tablet is being used for things other than reading. In which case, the 5GB of internal memory is nowhere near enough - and I'm talking just for the apps. Never mind that most apps are incapable of recognizing the SD card and saving their data there instead of on the internal memory. My Ellipsis just had 8GB, and got close to full very easily, and to make things worse, Android Lollipop refused to allow me to write to the SD card (WTF do you even recognize it?) I'd be open to a kindle that has 64GB of main memory, and some SD card support. Looking at a budget within $100.

    33. Re: what's the problem? by iampiti · · Score: 2

      The problem is not that the scenario you mention is very common ; it isn't, the problem is that not being able to store books on the sd card is an artificial limitation put there solely for the benefit of Amazon

    34. Re:what's the problem? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      That not so much a trend as an habit some people might have.
      If you used your desktop PC 12 years ago to play music, you likely had all your digital music (say 20 to 40GB) in a folder on your PC, you thus had access to your entire collection every time (that you were at home and using the PC).
      A completely unremarkable PC was needed.

      Storing an entire book is as trivial as storing a song, thus people used to storing 5000-10000 songs on a low end or outdated PC may expect to store all of their e-books on an e-book - whether you have 12, 100 or 2500 ones.

    35. Re:what's the problem? by muridae · · Score: 1

      Does the paperwhite have some problem with calibre? I did a cursory glance at the calibre forums, and it seemed that .mobi books would show up in "my docs" or you could format shift the books to azw3 and have them show up on the main screen. Is there some more recent development?

      I ask because I'm trying to pawn off my kindle 3 to some family member or another to upgrade to the paperwhite or voyage. They just look so pretty, and my older model hasn't complained about a books source ever.

    36. Re:what's the problem? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I think, though, that Walmart treats their employees better than Amazon does.

    37. Re: what's the problem? by pdhenry · · Score: 1

      The solution is outlined in TFA. Load your books onto the SD card. Use the file manager to copy a title into device internal storage. Repeat for each book that you want to simultaneously save your place in. The review author says this is too much work.

    38. Re: what's the problem? by Mryll · · Score: 1

      I agree, even if it's not a complete show-stopper, it seems unnecessary and ought to be fixed.

    39. Re:what's the problem? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      Books that are just words take up little space. But books with illustrations can take up a lot of room. Graphic novels and modern textbooks are two common examples of types of books that will take up a lot of room on your Kindle; a single one of those can be 50MB or more.

    40. Re:what's the problem? by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Things are always limited, salesmen who say it's "unlimited" are lying though their teeth. Whether they know it or not.

      Maybe you just need a particular amount to do what you want and maybe you can find it. But you will tend to develop a need for more and you might as well realize that now so you are not surprised later.

      Unless you can pay for new devices every time you hit the limits, you need to make a plan for "staging" your stuff. Put that off for now, if you want, but at least consider it so it does not leave you lost later. 8-)

    41. Re:what's the problem? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud.

      NONE of my books (not that I have more than a couple of e-books, including the Kindle manual. Hundreds of thousands of PDFs of books, papers, etc ; but ... actually, that Kindle manual may be the only eBook I've ever owned that was designed as such rather than as a press-ready PDF.

      But still, here I am, at work. an hour's flight from the nearest cellphone service. And our satellite link has deteriorated to the point that the wired network (of business computers, IP telephone handsets, and a couple of social computers in the recreation room) is the only one that works. So, no wi-fi.

      I see absolutely no point to cloud storage.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    42. Re:what's the problem? by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      So because Amazon was originally a "general store" they must always be that first and foremost at the expense of developing their own brand's products?

      Amazon made a business decision. They entered one market and made the ultimate decision not to continue to support direct competing products in that limited area. They aren't blocking all Google or Apple products and accessories. And both of those products are available at an abundant number of other online and brick & mortar retail outlets so it's not like it's crippling Google and Apple's retailing opportunities.

      I am a Prime subscriber and own a Fire TV stick. But I also own multiple other Google and Apple products. I have zero problem with what Amazon did because it's their store and they are hardly a monopoly in the particular area of streaming devices. And while they are a behemoth in ecommerce, Amazon is still third fiddle next to Apple and Google.

    43. Re:what's the problem? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Our destinations frequently have no Internet access. I shouldn't have to seek it out in order to read books that I've already paid for.

      Just curious, what did you do before e-readers?

    44. Re:what's the problem? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      i said, all of your ebooks will be stored on amazon's cloud. don't you listen?

    45. Re:what's the problem? by Superadnim · · Score: 1

      That makes sense. Seems a bit silly to save in the cloud otherwise?

    46. Re:what's the problem? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Makes me wonder why the wife brought me a Kindle. It's not very good for reading PDFs.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  3. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about when you don't have internet access?

  4. Obvious reason... by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because then it would be trivial for you to also read books that you *didn't* get from Amazon. And we can't have that, now can we?

    1. Re:Obvious reason... by caseih · · Score: 2

      Amazon already helpfully stores in the cloud any and all books and documents I send to my kindle via email. They show up in my archive along with all my Amazon-purchased books and I can retrieve them wirelessly on any kindle device or app. This could be a privacy concern for some. I'm not sure if kindle will sync reading position in these third party books. I kind of doubt it.

    2. Re:Obvious reason... by stephanruby · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Because then it would be trivial for you to also read books that you *didn't* get from Amazon. And we can't have that, now can we?

      No we can't. Not for $50 at least.

      If you want a $200 tablet for the price of $50, obviously something has to give. Amazon is not in the charity business.

      The same goes if Amazon suddenly rents you the tablet for 1 penny a month.

      Amazon has to recoup its hardware cost somehow.

    3. Re:Obvious reason... by Princeofcups · · Score: 1

      Because then it would be trivial for you to also read books that you *didn't* get from Amazon. And we can't have that, now can we?

      No, not for a $50 device that they are probably taking a loss on. It sounds like you think you are either entitled to take advantage of them, or else are smarter than them. You want a general use device? Pay for it. You have 100GB of books? Unless you are a public library, the odds are that they are pirated. I'm not defending the current corporate owned cultural system that we have gotten ourselves into, but yeah. They locked out the card. Go buy an iPad.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    4. Re:Obvious reason... by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2

      A TV analogy : what, you expected to get a cheap TV and change channels? If you want to change channels, you should expect that you have to get a high end TV, not a barrel scrapping one.

      Where that analogy fails : if there's a $200 Amazon tablet, you can bet the same software limitation is still in.

    5. Re:Obvious reason... by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      Crazy that a company would want to offer a best-in-class bargain reader that would encourage sales of its other services. Oh the HUMANITY.

      Next, you're going to tell me that shaver companies give away the handle but FORCE YOU to use their blades?

      --
      -Styopa
  5. "a large library of picture-heavy e-books" by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 1

    Pretty sure what you want is a CBR/CBZ reader. Also, paper.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
    1. Re:"a large library of picture-heavy e-books" by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure what you want is a CBR/CBZ reader. Also, paper.

      Or maybe a Desktop PC with a terabyte or so drive and a screen a foot or two across?
      Yeah, I know, paper is better... 8-)

  6. My Kobo is unplugged from the internet by catchblue22 · · Score: 2

    I bought a Kobo H2O. All of the books I have come from "other sources". The wifi is turned off so the device can't track what I read. It is as close to a paper book as I can get in electronic form. I would never buy a Kindle with always on 3G. I don't want to be tracked. All I want is the nice screen and water resistant device.

    --
    This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
    1. Re:My Kobo is unplugged from the internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you high? Not all kindles have 3G and their Wifi can be turned off. You can upload books through USB.

    2. Re:My Kobo is unplugged from the internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      the whole point is i can go from my phones to my ipads to the cloud reader and sync my reading

    3. Re:My Kobo is unplugged from the internet by b0bby · · Score: 1

      I have a older nook (I think it's the first touch screen one). Do you like your Kobo? I think something with a built in light would be very nice, but I am not keen on buying into the whole Amazon ecosystem. Where did you buy your Kobo? I would think that since Rakuten owns Kobo, you could get them at rakuten.com, but it pretty much seems like the kobobooks.com site is the only place they have them.

  7. Flawed app by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    It isn't the tablet exactly, it is a flawed app in the tablet. Still, really a completely bullshit job on Amazon's part.

    This isn't the first time I've seen this though. When I got a new Android tablet I couldn't find any ebook app that I really liked. I previously had one that came with an older tablet that worked great, read epub files and did a good job of sorting and indexing things and letting you sort what you had as you wanted. Couldn't move that to the new tablet and couldn't find a copy of it on-line in any of the app stores that I use. I did find one that looked a lot like it (maybe the same product but a newer version and with a company name change), but it could only see the books on the Internal storage. I contacted the publisher and after some hemming and hawing they acknowledged there was no support for the external memory card and they claimed they were "working on that". It is now over a year later and as far as I know there is still no support for it.

    It would be useful to me and perhaps to others if readers here would state what app they like for Android for reading ebooks, why they like it, if it supports books stored on the external card, what formats it supports (in my case particularly epub) and so on.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:Flawed app by queazocotal · · Score: 1

      I recommend fbreader.

    2. Re:Flawed app by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

      I didn't ask what your religion was, and I'm sure whatever app anyone uses they will claim to be the one true religion. I asked why, and if it can read from the SD card, and if it supports epub. Sorry, my fault for thinking that anyone here could give any useful information in a response.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  8. Comic collector gripes about first world problems by Roarkk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Next stories: "Etch-a-sketch has poor error correction, limited pixel count" "Kindle Paperwhite web browsing experience sub-par, no Angry Birds"

  9. What? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    Can't make sense of the headline. I know something about a $50 fire tablet and a 128gb memory card. Can we get a Janit^H^H^H Editor on the headline?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re: What? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Read the first sentence out loud to yourself.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  10. It's probably just a bug by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    This seems more like a bug than a deliberate design feature, but with Amazon it's hard to know for sure.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  11. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can easily have 10-100 books on your fire

    This is one of the few things ebooks will never capture. Deleting ebooks will never match the pleasure of burning heretic literature.

  12. All your books... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    >all of your ebooks will be stored in amazon's cloud. why would they be on the SD card?

    So... like,

    Somebody set up us the Fire
    Main screen turn on.
    All your eBooks are now belong to Amazon
    You have no chance to survive make your time.
    Move to SD cards
    For great justice.

  13. Can you load Firefox? by Bruinwar · · Score: 1

    I've used Firefox to read ePubs. It seemed to work well for me but I don't have any experience with other applications. But if you CAN use Firefox, does it matter if some other ereader on the tablet fails to work? Or am I missing something here?

    --
    SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
  14. Alternatives? by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

    Are there alternative ebook reader apps you can load on the device that will index ebooks from the SD card? Do you have to root the device first to load other apps on it?

    1. Re:Alternatives? by stasike · · Score: 1

      Yes, there are plenty of alternatives.
      Yes, you can sideload apps.
      Yes, there are Moon+ Reader and FBReader and a dozen of other e-book apps available in Amazon Appstore (when viewed from my cheapo generic Android phone that I use as a mini-tablet and backup e-book reader (more portable than my e-ink device)). I haven't found Coolreader - my preferred e-book reading app.

      I can't understand what the problem is here.
      Simply install alternative reader and use that instead of the default Kindle reader for your sideloaded books. Kindle reader is much less configurable than other free e-book reading apps.

  15. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Depending on length, I can easily consume a paperback novel or ebook in three days. During my dead-tree days, I used to buy 10 paperbacks every month. With the ebook reader, I try to limit myself to one per week and switch over to a non-fiction ebook if I get done sooner.

  16. This author clearly is a Google marketroid by bmo · · Score: 1

    In paragraph after paragraph he complains that the phone isn't integrated with Google's cloud. So what?

    >but I have to log in manually every time to each Google service.

    No you don't. Use a password manager. Duh. Keepass runs on Android.

    >he doesn't see any epub readers in the appstore that he finds familiar

    >used Calibre to put epub books on the sd card

    Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

    Calibre runs on Android!

    http://calibre-ebook.com/new-i...

    Lots has changed in calibre-land in the last year and a half.A beefed up e-book viewer. Support for Android phones and tablets. A new modern look for the calibre user interface. A portable version of calibre that you can carry around on a USB stick.

    Fuck this guy.

    It's a fucking 50 dollar computer. Remember OLPC and the effort to spread computers far and wide for the goal of 100 bux each? So it has some compromises because it's a 50 dollar computer. So did OLPC.

    --
    BMO

    1. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by bmo · · Score: 1

      It's not that the device won't recognize imported .epub files at all, just that the default kindle app doesn't handle them well.

      If I used my file system navigator of choice, ES File Manager, to navigate to the folder on the SD card and tapped on one of the e-book files, it would load just fine via the Kindle app. But it wouldnâ(TM)t be added to my library, and the Kindle app wouldnâ(TM)t remember my place in it for the next time I opened it again.

      So it does actually see them, in spite of what the headline here says.

      And...

      I was able to use Calibre to copy all my e-book files across, [to the sd card from a different device]

      I looked for EPUB readers in the Appstore but didnâ(TM)t see any app names I recognized and didnâ(TM)t feel like trying out any of the ones I didnâ(TM)t. Maybe Iâ(TM)ll check into that some other time.

      So let me get this straight...

      He used Calibre to copy the files over, something he clearly installed himself earlier on another device. The new device clearly sees the files on the SD card. But he can't be arsed to put Calibre on the fucking new device because he's lazy?

      I don't care. This guy is either trolling for clicks or he's a Google marketer. Considering the bashing he does earlier in the article for the fact that it's not fucking tied to Google by default (a feature if you ask me), it's the latter.

      --
      BMO

      P.S. It's 2015. Can we have unicode here, PLEASE!?

      No, I'm not fixing pastes anymore. Deal with it.

    2. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by chmod+a+x+mojo · · Score: 1

      Lots has changed in calibre-land in the last year and a half.A beefed up e-book viewer. Support for Android phones and tablets. A new modern look for the calibre user interface. A portable version of calibre that you can carry around on a USB stick.

      Fuck this guy.

      It's a fucking 50 dollar computer. Remember OLPC and the effort to spread computers far and wide for the goal of 100 bux each? So it has some compromises because it's a 50 dollar computer. So did OLPC.

      Seeing drivel like this come from someone with a relatively low UID is painful. I will try to spell it out for you in small words so you can understand:

      A beefed up e-book viewer.

      Windows ebook viewer. NOT Android ebook viewer.

      Support for Android phones and tablets.

      This is HOW THE OP PUT EBOOKS ON HIS _ANDROID TABLET SDCARD_

      It's a fucking 50 dollar computer. Remember OLPC and the effort to spread computers far and wide for the goal of 100 bux each? So it has some compromises because it's a 50 dollar computer. So did OLPC

      meaningless drivel that has nothing at all to do with the current topic thread.

      --
      To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
    3. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by bmo · · Score: 1

      [Calibre is a] Windows ebook viewer.

      No, Calibre is a cross platform viewer.


      Welcome to fizsh, the friendly interactive zshell
      Type man fizsh for instructions on how to use fizsh
      bmo@ubuntu ~> apt-cache search calibre
      calibre - e-book converter and library management
      calibre-bin - e-book converter and library management
      bmo@ubuntu ~> uname -a
      Linux ubuntu 3.13.0-65-lowlatency #105-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Mon Sep 21 20:49:52 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
      bmo@ubuntu ~>

      Fuck you.

      --
      BMO

    4. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by chmod+a+x+mojo · · Score: 1

      That still has shit-all to do with having the "calibre ebook reader" on Android like you originally claimed.

      Ya fucking idiot.

      --
      To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
    5. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Calibre application for android:
      https://play.google.com/store/...

    6. Re:This author clearly is a Google marketroid by Jiro · · Score: 1

      Support for Android phones and tablets.

      Read carefully. The support for Android means that it can connect to an Android device, not that it can be used on Android to view ebooks. (And to use even that functionality, you need a paid Calibre Companion app. This app cannot view ebooks either and needs to pass the ebooks to your own separate ebook viewer app.)

  17. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Actually, I can read a 300-page paperback novel in three hours. My current reading takes three days as I normally read a half-hour during the afternoon commute on public transit and a half-hour before going to bed.

  18. Re:what do you want for $50? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    The fact that something is cheap is no reason to put up with obviously bogus technical limitations.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  19. Re:Because they want you to buy ebooks not steal t by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    Neither are paid for Harry Potter books that have no DRM.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  20. Picture heavy ebooks? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    ... its 5 GB usable internal memory isn't a lot for people who have a large library of picture-heavy e-books

    The reason why I gave up on kindle reader is the fact they do a piss poor job on the charts, tables, maps and pictures. Resolution too poor to read the axis lables or the tick mark lables, legends too small, etc. Further navigating back and forth between a paragraph I am reading and referring back to the graph or map is real pain in the neck (some have a much lower opinion than that).

    If you are insane enough to accumulate 5GB worth of books in the ebook format, you have no right to complain about the insanity on the part of amazon.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  21. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Actually, I haven't watched TV in the last 25+ years. There are a handful of current TV shows that I do watch on Hulu.

  22. Nonsense by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    For all that the $50 Fire tablet has a 128 GB capable SDXC card slot that outclasses every other tablet in its price range, and it evolved out of Amazon's flagship e-book reader, it strangely lacks the ability to index e-books on that card.

    No, its internal reader lacks that ability. You don't want to use their reader to read books from third party sources, anyway. You want to sideload a better reader app, which you can actually do without even using ADB, because they let you install ES File Explorer from the official store. That's true even on the Fire TV Stick, let alone the Fire TV, as well as on the Fire tablets.

    It's a bit frustrating if the internal reader doesn't index media on the memory card, but it's hardly a show-stopper since you can install your own. It's also probably just a bug.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Nonsense by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Thanks. That is described in TFA but god knows who reads it.

      The frustration really is an annoyance because people will want to see it as a semi-dedicated device (small tablet that reads books) and for that they typically want to use the software that comes with it. Going online to install some software is some kind of a barrier.
      With smartphones most people use the default browser, the default music player, the default SMS software. If they install apps at all it's likely so as to actually do something else.

    2. Re:Nonsense by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      With smartphones most people use the default browser, the default music player, the default SMS software. If they install apps at all it's likely so as to actually do something else.

      The thing about that is that the included ebook reader doesn't handle many formats, so the avid sort of user who even bothers to install a SD card is probably going to want more formats than the included reader supports anyway, and the savvy user can slap a couple APKs on it before even slotting it into their tablet, then install ES File Explorer and install them from there. It's just not a big deal for anyone who would actually need more storage. Like I said, an annoyance, but a minor one. I'd want to be installing both a better PDF reader and something that handled CBZs.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  23. What's the screen size? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    First tablet review I'm skimming through without even knowing what the size of the thing is.
    Only on the very bottom of the page you get a hint about the size, in "related articles" : it's a 6". Even following the link, it's a mystery as what's the display resolution.

  24. Kobo Glo + calibre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I converted all my ebooks to epub using Calibre and really like the Kobo Glo for reading.

  25. Re:Cut to the chase. by Robotech_Master · · Score: 1

    So far, the previous Fires haven't been too easily rootable, or so I understand.

    Note that if you want a $50 plain-vanilla Android tablet, there are plenty of choices in that price range on Amazon.The Fire's going to have better specs, but it's going to be locked to Amazon's ecosystem. You have to be aware of that going in.

    --
    Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  26. Re:what do you want for $50? by frnic · · Score: 1

    Yes, because Amazon shouldn't be allowed to pursue making a profit in anyway that you might disagree with.

  27. Re:Comic collector gripes about first world proble by radarskiy · · Score: 1

    Complaining about first-world problems is a first-world problem.

  28. Re:what do you want for $50? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    Remember the Game Boy? It did cost a bit more but it was cheap.
    Ebooks - the devices - are the closest things to the original Game Boy, i.e. black and white, made for prolonged offline use and a very long battery life for cheap. That's like an extension of 80s tech.

    Turns out I don't really need or want a science-fiction device, which comes with the wrong sort of science-fiction too (Brave New World, panopticon dystopia etc.)
    I would want to see a modern "game boy" with D-pad and buttons on the bottom, high res monochrome LCD with touch (black on amber) or OLED, such as 800x1280 or 768x1024 - 1200x1600 or 1280x1280 etc. and lastly fuck networking, do only USB file transfers (or SD) and Bluetooth 4.x. Have a bluetooth USB module included in the box, because Bluetooth is rare enough on PC.

    Less than $100, or less than $80 and give me a week battery life. A volume know instead of buttons because, let's have something different and nicer to use. The thing it is not is "app store" friendly. Why not sell software on carts (e.g. a non-action game collection, a map of a whole country or Europe, a scrabble game with multiple languages and dictionaries etc.)

  29. Re:what do you want for $50? by muridae · · Score: 1

    Pixels and brightness cost battery life, you just won't get a week's battery out of a 768x1024 OLED screen. The new AMOLED screen on the samsung g s6 uses more than 1/3W at 1nt.

    But with a slight limit in refresh rate, like the non-action games that the GameBoy was great for, e-ink might be the more realistic option.

  30. Typical lock-in move by biggaijin · · Score: 1

    I doubt we will be seeing Amazon fix this problem any time soon. They are forcing their customers to obtain e-books only from Amazon and locking out other sources. I have obtained nearly all of my ebooks from non-Amazon sources and plan to do so in the future. This is the reason that I considered buying an Amazon Fire only briefly. It's a great tablet in every other way than this, but I will never buy one.

  31. Re:what do you want for $50? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    Alright.
    By proposing monochrome, sub-pixels are no more so there is only a third as many physical "pixels".
    But even then the screen's power use is the biggest factor, in this though experiment.

  32. So maybe it's a feature? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    You can open it, yes. But unlike for any book that is indexed, such as the books on an e-ink Kindle, it loses your place in a manually opened book from the SD card as soon as you close it.

    So you CAN read the book. But it FORGETS WHERE YOU WERE LOOKING when you close it, because it doesn't run an "index feature".

    That sounds like the "index feature" consists of the tablet remembering:
      - What books you read.
      - Where you were reading them.
    even after you delete the books themselves - or remove the read-only media containing them.

    How convenient for government security agencies looking for readers of banned books, police looking at whether you read something about a technique that happened to be used in a crime near you, and so on.

    Seems to me that having your book reader NOT keep a record of what titles you've read is a feature, not a bug.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:So maybe it's a feature? by Robotech_Master · · Score: 1

      Seriously?

      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  33. Re:Comic collector gripes about first world proble by q4Fry · · Score: 1

    Making recursive jokes is an n - 1th world problem.

  34. Wait for the fix by JollySingh · · Score: 1

    Amazon Will Fix it Soon

    --
    The Jolly Singh