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

Posted by Soulskill on from the things-that-make-you-go-hmmm dept.

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.

31 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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."

    3. 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.

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

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

    5. 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.

    6. 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.

    7. 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.

    8. 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.

    9. 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
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Re:what's the problem? by ooshna · · Score: 2

      Can you recommend anything comparable to the Paperwhite?

    13. 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.

    14. 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.

    15. 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)
    16. 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
    17. 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.

    18. 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.

    19. 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

  2. Re:ebooks or kindle books? by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about when you don't have internet access?

  3. 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 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.

  4. 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)
  5. Re:Sure to get fixed soon by halivar · · Score: 2, Informative

    That was a the Fire Phone team.

  6. 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"

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.