E Readers

mttylad

If it was spent then yes, but it wasnt

StephenM_2

Yolina wrote: »

lol. well, given that all you can do is read books on it,

You can read other things besides books. Using Calibre I download a newspaper on to it every morning, free of charge.

Yolina

Yeah I know but I don't want to My gym has a good selection of daily papers so I usually have a look while I'm there (6 days a week)

Quenastoise

My boss showed me her Kindle but I am not overwhelmed yet.

For one thing, the look - greyish - is unappealing (yes, you can call me shallow).

Secondly, I get either my books free from the local library or second-hand for next to nothing.

And although Amazon have a large selection, it seems to me that my local libraries can beat them for choice. For instance, I like reading Scandinavian fiction and I don't seem to find much of that on Amazon.

I do see the appeal in terms of portability, though.

Am I missing other points ? And how do elibrairies work ?

Thank you

AnonymousForObviousReason

I got the Sony 505 on its release 2 and a bit years ago as an impulse buy. It is really well made, battery life is in the weeks not hours (like all dedicated e-readers), you can read in any light you can a book (although touch screen readers may be more reflective). As good as the day I got it.

The Sony is far better compared to the Kindle (build quality, formats, menu/book selection, Amazon not having control over books purchased through them) but it's not £70 extra better, price of Kindle is amazing - difficult to recommend something else for the money (not that I'd get one for same moral reason I won't buy apple).

Books Vs E-Book: Well nothing will ever rival a book, the smell, the flicking of the page, how you emerge yourself, it's the experiences isn't it? ... actually turns out a bad book (lost symbol) is still painful and a good book still keeps me up till 3 in the morning, as I do just one last chapter. For first few weeks I even used to occasionally flip the e-reader over like a page with really engrossing reads.

E-book Price is still too much for not having a physical object at end of the day (that can after all be easily downloaded from other places). Also I don't mind VAT for the device but a book is a book no matter the format, having said that the prices are starting to come down. You do also have the free books and I love old adventure/SF so lots of stuff available.

I'm also a chain series reader, so happy to read a trilogy as one book (worst self controlled run was 10 books), there is no interruption now or planning to carry two books for the end of one and start of another.

DRM really is optional for technical users (e.g. ineptepub.pyw). No electronic file I've purchased has ever remained crippled by DRM for long.

So e-readers are perfect? Well no. PDFs are painful on devices because they are designed to represent printed (A4 or American version) pages and e-reader screens are smaller than paperbacks. Also for technical/reference books where you have loads of jumping in and out it just doesn't work very well.

KiwiCrazy wrote: »

Best way to go is by far a Tablet...

Loads of people keep saying this and as said this would be a horrible experience after a few hours, with your eyes getting tired and dried out just like with a computer screen.
However, newer tablets are starting to get a new screen called Pixle Qi (pronounced Chee) which has an option to turn the screen into a e-book reader type (with benefits of battery life). Although as these are touch sensitive you'll get more reflection than a standard ebook but apparently still very good. The first one I've seen and like is called the Adam but is definitely for tech heads as only released last month from a small (but growing) start up.


Sorry for the length of post.

debitcardmayhem

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

.......Snipped


Sorry for the length of post.

No probs I put the rest on my PRS505 so I could read it at 02:00 today
Couldn't agree much more:D

edit : Mind you Kindle is ok as far as I can tell

AnonymousForObviousReason

23n1th - your argument is fine for technical users but falls down when talking about the vast majority of consumers.

23n1th wrote: »

None of the books on my Kindle are on my amazon account and I am still able to read them. Amazon dont know or have control of anything on my kindle. So no need for another reader.

I think you are a little paranoid and don't understand the technology properly.

So you don't have any of your books on your Amazon account? Why is that I wonder? Amazon quite rightly came into a lot of flack for deleting books from Kindles that had been purchased through the store which is the way books are designed to be purchased (ironically it was 1984). Yes there was copyright issues but spending the time and money to develop this 'feature' is a little worrying. If you think this doesn't effect you then you've not looked at the travesty of the Digital Economy bill - you need some paranoia so read that.

23n1th wrote: »

There is not standard file format for ebooks. Epub is just more common. Last I checked you can get them in epub (various drm implementations), mobi, lit, rtf, pdf.

Epub is popular because it's open unlike Amazons. It's called a standard because the majority of manufacturers support it, so a book purchased from one shop will work on any supporting device. Amazon books will only work on Amazon devices (until you rip the DRM which most people can't and shouldn't have to do).

23n1th wrote: »

Amazon are in the business of making money from selling books whether you like it or not. They have their own file format and like apple want to tie you to they hardware and software. Apparently nothing wrong with apple doing it, but amazon, how dare you!

No apple is also wrong and any sensible technical user would shy away from iTunes/apple. Just because one popular (and restrictive) company gets away with it doesn't mean others should too. Not that Apple embedded the means to remove music it sold you like Amazon did.

23n1th wrote: »

I hardly think mobi is an obsolete file format, especially with over 810,000 non-public domain books in its catalogue (more added daily), not to mention the over 1 million public domain books.

I would imagine calibre by its very nature prevents books falling into "obsolete" formats what with the converting thing it does and being as it supports lots of file formats how exactly is it making them harder to handle.

Calibre won't convert DRM books unless you modify it or use external scripts. You can't expect the majority of users to do this, or expect them to understand that although they are purchasing something, it's really only a licence that ties them into a brand.

AnonymousForObviousReason

23n1th - To say consumers are mostly not technically minded in general is not the same as calling them stupid. Your insistence that people will Google everything is a little optimistic if not outright naive when it comes to the level of IT knowledge in the population (that, by the way darling, is me being condescending ).

People generally don't have the time, interest or know that they should be searching something like DRM removal and converting formats (People struggle with csv files and excel). If they were at that level then this forum would be a lot less busy.

I understand you are a Kindle fan but you shouldn't take people pointing out the failings of a device and its company as a personal insult, you only purchased it after all. (Yep still in condescending mode if you wondered, going to try and stop now ).

23n1th wrote: »

DRM'd epubs aren't open. Just because more people support it doesn't make it "the" standard. Its just one format in many. Not to mention it doesn't seem to be hampering sales of the kindle.

Open refers to the fact it's an "open standard" and this has nothing to do with if a file has DRM, rather it's that the specification for the file is available. It means that people can create hardware/software to support the format by reading the documentation, they are more likely to be tied into a vendor that uses a proprietary format.

Sales are high for kindle because it can't be beaten on price at the moment, it is very easy to use (no Googling required) and comes from a respected brand name.

Epub isn't perfect, not great for graphic novels, no standard for DRM implementation and others issues. But if someone buys an EPUB book there is a better chance it'll work on future devices wherever they go out of the box.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats
Scroll down to see Supporting Devices, to see this illustrated.

23n1th wrote: »

Surely the above only effects me if I'm infringing copyright, and am caught. Or are you suggesting I am infringing copyright????? Not sure what this has to do with the Kindle.

No the Digital Economy Bill would effect you because it's a rushed, atrociously written law that was pushed through at the behest of a rich lobbying group by a cash strapped political party in it's last days as a failing government.

It had to do with the kindle because I was talking about the ability of Amazon to remove books and although it may seem unthinkable for a government to pass laws to allow the control of our information, it has already been done.

Was I suggesting you've infringing copyright? well I wasn't but chances are that yes you have, from videoing TV, ripping your own CDs, converting e-book to different format, perhaps more but nothing that I care about.

23n1th wrote: »

External scripts as in - plugins? Which are easily found and installed with all the technical know how of a search on google.

Well yes Calibre plugins are basically (python) scripts but I meant plugins when I said modifying it.

I said external scripts as that's actually what I do, I don't use plugins for DRM removals because it doesn't suit my method of working. I have a library of scripts (python and bat) downloaded, some modified and a few written from scratch. These are used for DRM removal, conversion (to epub), finding and replacing typical errors from said conversions, formatting page orders (I like a cover page then prelude/first chapter right away, with any indexes, copyright, about, etc pages at the back) and finally links to applications used to edit my e-books - then I import, catalogue and transfer with Calibre. (Yes all with the help of Google).
No I wouldn't expect others to do the same unless they had a legacy of ebooks in numerous formats, with exacting high standards.

KiwiCrazy

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

Was I suggesting you've infringing copyright? well I wasn't but chances are that yes you have, from videoing TV, ripping your own CDs, converting e-book to different format, perhaps more but nothing that I care about.

Actually it is NOT illegal to rip your own CD's......it is within your right to make a backup copy in case the original gets damaged and unusable in anyway. It is only illegal if you share the rips with someone else.....

AnonymousForObviousReason

KiwiCrazy wrote: »

Actually it is NOT illegal to rip your own CD's......it is within your right to make a backup copy in case the original gets damaged and unusable in anyway. It is only illegal if you share the rips with someone else.....

That's good, when did they change the law on that one?

Edit:
Actually are you sure?
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-other-faq/c-other-faq-type/c-other-faq-type-mp3.htm
Can I copy a CD that I have purchased onto my MP3 Player?

No, this is not legal under UK law. There is no exception to copyright for the purpose of private copying. Permission would be needed from the copyright owner.

There are number of legal download websites available to the public that allow you to download music onto your MP3 player.