Forgive my pessimism, but while this is the sort of thing that could sink a “normal” campaign, the cult of personality around Trump has been weathering stuff like this since 2016 or even earlier. I’ll believe that this is impacting voter sentiment when I see it reflected in the results after election day. Until then, it just feels like more wishful thinking.

As noted elsewhere in the thread, they do support MTP transport, so it’s definitely not as user-hostile as it first sounded. Things like Calibre will still work. However, the fact that Amazon also removed the ability to download ebooks in the browser for offline transfer suggests where things are heading. IIRC kobos have some anti features of their own, but I don’t recall the details. I wonder if something like the Daylight DC-1 could be even better. It’s not just a nice reader, but a proper computer. At least, if it actually exists.

I’ve owned two Kindle devices over the years, and the ability to directly load content, without involving a third-party service, was a big part of what made them usable for me. If that feature is gone, these devices will no longer be viable for my needs.

And the enshittification continues…