Retiring the Send-to-Kindle Feature on 3/31
Comments
-
I really appreciated the ability to use that function, but have been wondering how the publishers would allow Logos to offer it. The files do not have any DRM protection and it is trivial to convert them to any other e-book format and read them on any device. I certainly do not think that DRM is a good thing, but it was strange that the publishers would allow Logos to do something that they wouldn't allow other booksellers to do.
0 -
-
I too am quite disappointed that this feature will disappear. We will have to use less convenient means of doing similar things such as using the Kindle printer or convert to PDFand then use the Amazon convert service...
This feature was the reason I bought a kindle, although in the last months, the nature of my work has made me use it less. I will keep on following with interest the thread on e-ink tablets in hope that at some point, a good one will be produced.
0 -
Very disappointing news. This was a great feature, and yes, a particular reason to purchase Logos 6. It will be hard to reproduce a feature that is that useful in future releases of Logos.
The good news is that purchasing books directly for Kindle will remain an attractive option.
0 -
Horrible news. This will mean most of my non-reference book purchases will be now be made at Amazon instead of Logos. I definitely prefer reading on an e-ink screen. Any hope we could see this return sometime in the future? This feature alone is worth paying for.
0 -
Whatever obstacles have led to this decision: I hope that FL is hearing what is being said here, business will be lost to the profit of Amazon.
0 -
The availability of the "Send To Kindle" function played a big part in my decision to purchase things like the C.S. Lewis collection, since I knew that I would enjoy reading those books on a Kindle.
This announcement from FL also sort of changes the way I feel about the Britannica Great Books of the Western World collection, as well. I don't really want to read Huck Finn or Cervantes inside of the Logos GUI, and other than the Syntopicon, I was imagining myself mainly using the Kindle to read many of those works.
[EDIT]: What's happening is sort of the reverse of a value add resulting from a new feature. Instead of a new feature of Logos ADDING utility to a resource in our libraries, this feature subtraction is actually making purchased resources LESS USEFUL than they were before. It could very well be removing utility which was present at the time of purchase of the resource.
Sometimes publishers will change licensing agreements with Logos, and as a result certain resources will no longer be available for sale on the Logos website. Anyone who owned the resource prior to the removal has, in the past, been "grandfathered", and has continued to have access to a resource that was rightfully purchased under an agreement which, for whatever reason, is no longer offered. Would Faithlife be able to "grandfather" the Send To Kindle function for folks who owned and/or purchased resources during the time window when Send to Kindle was available?
0 -
Francis said:
Whatever obstacles have led to this decision: I hope that FL is hearing what is being said here, business will be lost to the profit of Amazon.
If the decision is genuinely necessary, one way of mitigating the negatives would be for the Android app to better support e-Ink devices. Even simple changes like supporting hardware buttons, and an e-Ink colour scheme would help.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
0 -
Brian Losabia said:
Would Faithlife be able to "grandfather" the Send To Kindle function for folks who owned and/or purchased resources during the time window when Send to Kindle was available?
They've said that we can Send to Kindle until the end of the month, and anything that we send will continue to be available after the feature is switched off.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
0 -
Mark Barnes said:
one way of mitigating the negatives would be for the Android app to better support e-Ink devices. Even simple changes like supporting hardware buttons, and an e-Ink colour scheme would help.
[Y]
0 -
I'm disappointed but not choked the main reason I use it is on my kindle fire because then I can use the excellent text to speech function. Please bring text to speech to the Logos Android app and I'm happy. This is one of the top uservoice requests anyway.
גַּם־חֹשֶׁךְ֮ לֹֽא־יַחְשִׁ֪יךְ מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָ וְ֭לַיְלָה כַּיּ֣וֹם יָאִ֑יר כַּ֝חֲשֵׁיכָ֗ה כָּאוֹרָֽה
0 -
Will the Bible app still run on Kindle?
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB0 -
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
0 -
Disappointing, but not earth shattering. There is a very simple and FREE alternative.
- Open desired resource in Logos;
- Select Print/Export, and select the sections you wish to export to Kindle;
- Under Export (lower right panel) utilize either "Save as file - Rich Text Format" or "Send to new document: Microsoft Word."
- If you exported as an RTF file open it in Word and save as a Word file, or open the Word file you created to begin with;
- Open the free Calibre E-book management program which you have previously installed;
- Load the Word file which you created from your resource into Calibre (either by drag-and-drop or clicking "Add books") then click the "Convert books" button on the Calibre tool bar at the top, making sure to select DOCX as "input format" and MOBI or AZW3 as ouput format;
- Now you have your resource in a format which you can send to your Kindle by attaching it to an email which you send to your device (it will be located wherever your Calibre library is located);
It really is quite easy and straightforward, and as a bonus if there are any limitations to size, they can be overcome by simply cutting and pasting into a single DOCX document before exporting to Calibre / Kindle.
Hope this eases the pain. [:)]
0 -
Peter Bongers said:
There is a very simple and FREE alternative.
But:
- The 100 page limitation is a problem for most books.
- You don't get clickable Bible references (which is a huge plus over standard Kindle books).
PS — My preferred workaround for the time being is to use the "Send to Kindle" printer driver, and to set the page size to the absolute maximum allowed (to work around the 100 page limit). An A2 paper size with smallest margins and smallest text will export around 400 book pages to Kindle. That's generally the easiest work around, I think.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
0 -
I wonder if Send-to-Kindle was even used that much. No one seems terribly upset. Maybe Mark.
I tried it when it first came out. But the Logos books got in the way of my Kindle religious book reading. So, that was that.
I also wonder at the coincidence of Apple loosing its case last week. A big smile on Amazon's face.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
0 -
Mark:
The 100 page limit can easily be overcome by simply copying and pasting into the same Word doc before you save and import to Calibre (as I indicated in the last paragraph of my post above) and you DO get clickable Bible references. I just did a quick conversion, then hit Ctrl-right click on the referenced in the document which I converted into MOBI format, and my open bible in Logos went to those resources, although right now I am on my laptop and not my Kindle DX.
Peter
0 -
Put me on the list of people who bought a PaperWhite because of Send to Kindle. Pretty disappointed. It isn't a huge deal on its own because of the work-arounds, but combined with everything else which has happened in the last six months, it continues a steady erosion of trust.
Using Logos as a pastor, seminary professor, and Tyndale author
0 -
I for one will be very sad to see this go. The Kindle files that Logos & Verbum create are far superior even to the original Kindle files that Amazon sells, as they include the Bible references. I really appreciate being able to read on an e-ink screen, and may end up getting an Android e-reader because of that now to run the Android Verbum app on it.
Mark Barnes said:PS — My preferred workaround for the time being is to use the "Send to Kindle" printer driver, and to set the page size to the absolute maximum allowed (to work around the 100 page limit). An A2 paper size with smallest margins and smallest text will export around 400 book pages to Kindle. That's generally the easiest work around, I think.
Unfortunately, in the current version of the Send to Kindle PC driver, this will send an A2 size PDF to the Kindle, which is not very useful, at least if you "Send to Kindle" directly from the Print/Export screen.
Here are the easiest steps I know of at the moment.This will create a fully native Kindle document, with a native Kindle table of contents, and working footnotes. Unfortunately no BIble link references that work on a Kindle e-reader:
1. Make the font as small as possible. Choose Print/Export...
2. Change the paper size to A2, and the margins to Narrow. Save the A2 document as an RTF file.
3. Open the RTF in Word. Type Ctrl-A to select all. Then type Ctrl-Shift-F9 to remove all hyperlinks. The hyperlinks Logos and Verbum export won't work in the e-reader Kindle, so you should remove them to avoid problems and confusion.
4. In the RTF file, add in the Heading 1, 2, 3 styles as needed to create a Table of Contents.
5. At the very end of the document, insert a Table of Contents from the reference menu.
6. Save as DOCX.
7. Right click on the DOCX file, and "Send to Kindle" (having installed the "Send to Kindle" printer driver).
0 -
Yes, this is a major disappointment. I bought Logos books, paying more, knowing I could read them in the Logos app and on my Kindle.
0 -
Mark said:Mark Barnes said:
one way of mitigating the negatives would be for the Android app to better support e-Ink devices. Even simple changes like supporting hardware buttons, and an e-Ink colour scheme would help.
[Y]
The two most important changes I can think of that would be needed to better support Android e-reader devices would be:
1. In the Android app, add an option to disable page turn animations. For the iOS app this is unnecessary because all iOS devices are high-performance. Many lower and mid-range Android devices, and especially e-readers, however, could greatly benefit from this option. The code for this already exists, as the current "scroll" view in Android allows you to page turn with a tap with NO animations. It is EXTREMELY fast - far, far faster than the page turn with animations.
2. Allow users to choose between some font options, and make sure at least one of them looks great on e-readers.
0 -
I suggested it sometime ago - perhaps LOGOS should create its own e-Ink device that can support LOGOS books in the standard format. It would not need to download the entire library, but only those books selected by the user. Perhaps it can overcome my biggest complaint about the LOGOS Android apps - speed. Page turning is tiringly slow compared to either Kindle or Nook. I prefer the tools that LOGOS provides for markup to those provided on Kindle and Nook, so perhaps those could be kept in some way.
Blessings,
FloydPastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
0 -
Justin Gatlin said:
Put me on the list of people who bought a PaperWhite because of Send to Kindle. Pretty disappointed. It isn't a huge deal on its own because of the work-arounds, but combined with everything else which has happened in the last six months, it continues a steady erosion of trust.
That trust could be strengthened by some better transparency - there was a day when something negative happened, we got the story. Not now, not transparent at all in this case . It's hard to feel good when all we get from the company when a useful feature is taken away is "it's gone." One of the shortest messages of bad news in memory.
0 -
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB0 -
BillS said:
To elaborate: A Kindle Fire is a modified Android App and, as such, runs the Android Mobile App. The "send to kindle" feature, although used by some users in creative ways, was always intended as a means to get resources on to the Kindle e-ink ("normal" kindle) devices.
0 -
BillS said:
Well, it depends on which Kindle Fire - those with green checkmarks are still supported:
0 -
Mark Barnes said:
Even simple changes like supporting hardware buttons, and an e-Ink colour scheme would help.
Interesting idea as, a priori, it does not seem too complicated: have "e-ink" as a fourth colour scheme along with sepia, normal, and night. Of course, this may not be ideal in that the "e-ink" mode would probably be best for use when reading during the day and the night colour scheme might still not be adequate for e-ink devices...
0 -
Brian Losabia said:
Would Faithlife be able to "grandfather" the Send To Kindle function for folks who owned and/or purchased resources during the time window when Send to Kindle was available?
Nice idea! If they don't then its time to get sending those books to kindle now!
גַּם־חֹשֶׁךְ֮ לֹֽא־יַחְשִׁ֪יךְ מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָ וְ֭לַיְלָה כַּיּ֣וֹם יָאִ֑יר כַּ֝חֲשֵׁיכָ֗ה כָּאוֹרָֽה
0 -
Mark Barnes said:
This is terrible news. I rely on that feature, and it keeps my buying Logos books instead of Kindle books.
Agreed.
It's also deeply upsetting that even though this feature hasn't been available for any new resources for the last 6 months, some Faithlife employees have publicly denied that it affected all products, and continued to promote a feature which was broken. (I'm not saying they knew they were giving out misinformation, but unintentionally or not that's what happened - and it shouldn't have been allowed to). See for example, Mark Ward's reply to my comment in January at the very bottom of this Logos Talk post - where he was confident enough to contradict a forum post by another Faithlife employee.
This lack of transparency conveniently resulted in 6 months extra sales for Logos 6 base packages and resources based on a key feature (many have stated elsewhere that this was the primary reason they upgraded) which didn't work as advertised.
In the last 6 months I personally have bought many books in Logos format rather than kindle format because Faithlife staff told us that the send-to-kindle engine was being updated.
0 -
Stephen Steele said:Mark Barnes said:
This is terrible news. I rely on that feature, and it keeps my buying Logos books instead of Kindle books.
Agreed.
It's also deeply upsetting that even though this feature hasn't been available for any new resources for the last 6 months, some Faithlife employees have publicly denied that it affected all products, and continued to promote a feature which was broken. (I'm not saying they knew they were giving out misinformation, but unintentionally or not that's what happened - and it shouldn't have been allowed to). See for example, Mark Ward's reply to my comment in January at the very bottom of this Logos Talk post - where he was confident enough to contradict a forum post by another Faithlife employee.
This lack of transparency conveniently resulted in 6 months extra sales for Logos 6 base packages and resources based on a key feature (many have stated elsewhere that this was the primary reason they upgraded) which didn't work as advertised.
In the last 6 months I personally have bought many books in Logos format rather than kindle format because Faithlife staff told us that the send-to-kindle engine was being updated.
I echo your frustration. Send-to-Kindle is an important feature for me as well.
(delete)
PCA Church
L4 Platinum, L5 Reformed Platinum, L6 Reformed Diamond, Reformed Studies XL, Platinum, Logos Now0
