Kindle Kids Edition
amazon.com
amazon.com
My hopes for this Kindle reader wouldn't be high.
The tablet itself was grossly underpowered and not up to the task of just navigating around. While it did hold up to a kid, physically, it was not a great experience for anyone involved.
This problem could be resolved by Amazon. The devices could have "infinite" storage simply by using the on-device storage as FIFO buffer with the overflow in Amazon's cloud storage.
The risk for competitive ecosystems without these central controls, of course, is that people have a tendency to stick with the tools they know. And I am certain that these companies consider the stickiness of their ecosystem as kids transition into adulthood.
Personal docs don’t sync page progress
Library checkout process has a sign out button right next to the borrow button
It is all subtle nudges that feel designed to keep you in ecosystem.
Hmm, I never considered that because I mostly just send-to-kindle-by-email and then read those docs from only one kindle device. How many devices do you read on?
From what I recall (though I haven't used a Kindle in a few years), email-imported .mobi files show up in your library and sync progress just fine. It's just other filetypes that don't sync.
I think it is a liability issue. Amazon probably decided that someone might sue them if their servers were involved in helping the user read possibly pirated books.
Which is stupid, and I think no one should ever be sued for this, but the Amazon legal department probably had the final say in this.
But imagine the horror if your kids most sacred book gets removed from the offering by amazon and there is nothing you can do to fix this (besides buying the paper version, maybe). But would your kid know how to use it?
I have absolutely zero trust in Amazon to be fair or reasonable, so I pirate the ebook then buy the paperback.