In the words of Jesse Vincent -
Savory is a native ebook conversion package for the Kindle 2. It lets you download and read PDFs and ePubs on the Kindle without a manual conversion step.
How Does Savory Work?
A little about how it works -
Savory installs a small program which runs on your Kindle and watches for new files in the ‘Documents’ directory with names ending in ‘.epub’ and ‘.pdf’. When the system notifies Savory that a document has shown up, it wakes up and runs an open-source file conversion program called Calibre. Savory also updates your Kindle2′s browser configuration file to tell it that the Kindle can now handle .pdf and .epub documents.
Jesse said he got his inspiration from Tim O’Reilly’s idea of making the Kindle platform open (open platform = let publishers like O’Reilly make a lot more money off the Kindle without giving Amazon a share).
In addition to the idea, Jesse used Igor’s work to create a Kindle 2 updater and built Savory using Kovid Goyal’s Calibre as the engine. Rather impressive that the unique parts of Savory are just 85 lines of shell script and 135 lines of Python.
What does this mean for Amazon?
Its really bad for Amazon – ePub and PDFs being readable on Kindle 2 means people can get their books from a lot of non Amazon sources.
And that’s not all – Savory also modifies the Kindle 2′s browser configuration file to allow download of pdf and epub documents. Basically, it allows another company to create a Kindle Store like Store accessible straight from the Kindle.
Closing Thoughts
This is a direct attack on Amazon’s revenue stream. See the recent reports on HUGE increases in ebook sales. Savory means that someone who hasn’t spent a ton of money developing an eBook reader can come in and sell ebooks dirt cheap and steal Amazon’s ebook sales.
The particularly contentious change is the one that lets the Kindle browser download epub and pdf files. That’s also the feature that will be a huge legal liability if a case happens.
My Prediction: Amazon monitors usage and if more than 1-2% of Kindle 2 owners start using Savory, then Amazon moves quickly to close down Savory.
Jesse has said on his blog that he’ll close down Savory if Amazon asks him to (and in my opinion they ought to, ASAP) . Here are Jesse’s words -
If the nice folks at Amazon contact me (you can find my email address at the bottom of this FAQ) and ask me to stop distributing Savory, I will do so. My goal isn’t to “hack” the Kindle, deprive Amazon of revenue or place an increased support burden on Amazon’s Kindle team. I just want to make the Kindle2 an even more useful reader than it already is.
There is no way in which anyone could see Savory as anything other than a huge threat to Amazon’s revenue stream and a violation of their rights to use their product as they see fit.
Filed under: evolution Tagged: | savory, savory kindle
Amazon’s “revenue stream” is under threat because their book catalog is too small and expensive. Additionally, there’s other kinds of pdf documents in this world than published books. And, as it says in the author’s blog,
It just makes some things that are a little cumbersome out of the box simple and transparent. It’s already possible to use desktop and web based services to transcode ePub and PDF documents into the Kindle-compatible Mobipocket format. Amazon also provides both free and for-pay email-based conversion services you can use.
The concept is great but I’m not personally needing this enough to risk my Kindle!
I don’t see where this opens up a revenue stream in competition that is not already there. Both formats can already be converted and read on the Kindle and are usually not sold as contemporary books like you can get at the Kindle store. For competition, you can already buy books at Fictionwise in .mobi format and email directly to your Kindle. Baen.com does the same thing. Amazon opened this up when they allowed non Amazon books on the kindle in the first place. Savory does not to DRM and so is unlikely to include books similar to those sold in the Kindle store
Developers of consumer electronics devices do not have a God-given right to be the only people who can sell media for use on their device. That business model might be how video game companies make consoles cheap, but it isn’t how iPods, CD players, or DVD players work. Society is best off when device makers and content distributors all compete, not when vertically-integrated monopolies get to make the rules. If Amazon can’t make a profit selling $350 Kindles, they should get out of the hardware business.
Your opinion of this is completely unreasonable. By what justification should I be prevented from reading PDF files on my Kindle?! I read papers from http://www.arxiv.org very frequently, and they are impossible to read on the Kindle with the piss-poor conversion programs available. Mathematical equations get destroyed by conversion programs and even the common greek characters used for variable names don’t come out right. This software is making the Kindle (why does this only work on the 2?) more useful to the people who purchased it. Amazon absolutely does not have ANY right to use “their product as they see fit”. They sold their product to me and *I* have the right to use it as *I* see fit. It is no longer Amazons property and they have no right to determine what I do and do not read on it any more than a car company has the right to dictate where you drive to. Even suggesting such a thing is shockingly offensive. Amazon specifically developed the Kindle to be able to read material not purchased from them, to be able to convert and display formats other than their own, etc. It is not a violation of any intent of theirs, as far as I can tell, to let people be able to read books in a better format. If they take some sort of action against Savory, I will never purchase another ebook from them. Why would you support them taking such a vindictive and consumer-hostile move? Would you defend WordPresses right to edit your blog because you’re using their product? I honestly cannot imagine a scenario in which your viewpoint would be logically consistent with any reasonable principles.
I need to read many medical articles that are in pdf format. Savory basically adds the final piece that will help me justify moving from the prs500 sony reader to the kindle 2.
“This is a direct attack on Amazon’s revenue stream. See the recent reports on HUGE increases in ebook sales. Savory means that someone who hasn’t spent a ton of money developing an eBook reader can come in and sell ebooks dirt cheap and steal Amazon’s ebook sales.”
Yes, and if they were selling subsidized Kindles and compensating with overpriced eBooks (ie the printer and ink pricing model) then I *might* have some sympathy (except then I’d rail against the pricing model
), but having paid what we did for the Kindles, they had damn well better not pull any stunts like this!
With more content available from Google, Gutenberg Project, and archive.org, as well as more competition from other readers such as Sony and Nook (nevermind vaporware tablets from CrunchGear and Apple), the Kindle will have to compete on more than just Amazon’s current ebook marketshare, especially with publishers lining up behind B&N.
In this regard, limiting the Kindle to Amazon’s DRM’d books makes just as much sense as limiting the Ipod to just DRM’d iTunes and ignoring the ubiquitous MP3.
Now that Kindle 2 has native PDF support this is even less of an issue. I still don’t get how the Gutenberg Project and Google books are considered a threat to Amazon Kindle. Most of the books on there are very old books, the classics, and some freebies that nobody would pay for anyway. Do people really think those books are what Amazon was ever making money on? Amazon has a great catalog of books at great prices. The Nook has some serious issues to overcome with both their software (slow, buggy, etc) and catalog of books. I think Nook could take some market share away from the Kindle if they straighten out their problems. I think with both the Kindle and Nook being able to browse for books and download from the device itself is a bigger deal than most people realize.
The New Kindle basicly has Savory built in
I am very surprised, especially with the last sentence. “A violation of their rights to use their product as they see fit,” really? I think you are confusing the creator of the product with the customers who purchase it.
Amazon isn’t giving these away for free.
Even before Amazon built pdf viewing into the Kindle with the update, I’d only use it when Amazon didn’t carry a book. It’s still more of a hassle than just buying things from Amazon, but now I can sideload my own content onto it. And if I couldn’t? Brother, the competition is not sitting still.
I’m glad Amazon had more sense, though; I like the design of the Kindle.