Which e-reader do you use?

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  • Anika HansonAnika Hanson Posts: 15,629
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    noise747 wrote: »

    Amazon uses their own system and as poplar as Kindle is, a lot of other stores just don't offer ebooks in the kindle format

    Waterstones, their e-books is in Epub format
    Sainsburys ebooks are in Epub format.

    No doubt there are others, but I have not really looked into it.

    sites that offer free books and just because they are free, don't mean they are rubbish, most of them are in epub.

    but that is not the reason I did not get the Kindle, i just did not think it was the right reader for me and i did not want to be stuck with a non-standard format that only one company supports.


    All of these free public domain books can also be obtained in mobi format just as easily as they can be in ePub format. Also you speak about the kindle format like it is some kind of obscure format, but it's not really like that. Other companies apart from Amazon do sell it, although not as many as ePub. However amazon are not an obscure company at all. They are the most popular (sales) eink device and ebook vendor, not just in the UK but also in other countries. Also if you buy from another store which is not kobo (if you have a kobo) or not B &N (nook) you need to use adobe Digital editions and your computer to get books onto your device. To me that's just as time consuming as converting books in calibre.

    People talk about this great advantage of using the ePub format due to its openness but I just don't see it myself. The first ereader I owned was a Sony PRS-300 and I still own a nook simple touch now. I don't really see the advantages of having all those other stores to buy from when most of the time they are more expensive than amazon or at best the same price. Some of them like waterstones are considerably more expensive. Amazon are very good at price matching too. If on the rare occasion I find that a book is cheaper on another site, within a few hours amazon have usually price matched it. Amazon are still cheaper overall for me and before agency pricing came into play the difference in prices was been greater I find it much more convenient to simply visit the kindle store on my kindle and buy the books that I want. Than to trawl around a ton of ePub stores, find the book that I want and then have to turn on my laptop and connect the device up and run adobe digital editions.
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    The only advantage of EPUB is that anybody can sell you a DRM-ed book, because there's a unified public way to do it. This allows for a separation of a device and content provider. I'd say device manufactures might be tempted to go for Amazon model and be both, but none of them is such an imperium like Amazon, which also had a head start and is now where it is because of it. Amazon is the only one that can legally provide DRM-ed content for Kindles. There are places where you can buy non-DRM content for Kindle, so they rely on kindness of their customers not to share their books with other people.
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,692
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    Epub is not an Adobe format at all. It's an extension of the open ebook format. Amazon purchased the Mobi format a while ago and used that as the basis for the Kindle format. Whether Amazon charge others to use their format or not, I dunno.
    Oh, ok, fair enough. I thought that since Adobe have digital editions, it was a Adobe format. Even better news.

    My Kobo touch can read mobi, but I don't think any of their newer readers do.
    As someone who has created and edited ebooks in both formats, epub is the easier to work with.

    I have no idea, I take your word on that :)
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,692
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    All of these free public domain books can also be obtained in mobi format just as easily as they can be in ePub format.

    Not all, there are some that are not in Mobi format. a site a lad goes to at work don't use mobi. no idea what site it is mind you.
    Also you speak about the kindle format like it is some kind of obscure format, but it's not really like that. Other companies apart from Amazon do sell it, although not as many as ePub.

    But it is a format that one company got control over. Just like MS office and their formats or apple with their format for music.
    However amazon are not an obscure company at all. They are the most popular (sales) eink device and ebook vendor, not just in the UK but also in other countries.

    Maybe so, but how many other companies have they stepped on to be where they are? Ok a lot of larger companies have done the same thing. also what about the tax they don't pay?

    Just because they are popular, it don't mean that we all got to use it. that is what is good about choice, even if some people, governments, and companies don't want us to have it.

    Also if you buy from another store which is not kobo (if you have a kobo) or not B &N (nook) you need to use adobe Digital editions and your computer to get books onto your device. To me that's just as time consuming as converting books in calibre.

    I have never said it was not time consuming, it is just another choice. I have only used Digital editions once, I used Calibre a couple of times to convert two books from Mobi as my old Kobo could not read them.
    People talk about this great advantage of using the ePub format due to its openness but I just don't see it myself. The first ereader I owned was a Sony PRS-300 and I still own a nook simple touch now. I don't really see the advantages of having all those other stores to buy from when most of the time they are more expensive than amazon or at best the same price. Some of them like waterstones are considerably more expensive.

    Depends what you want at the end of the day, you got to remember that some of these companies are not huge like Amazon, they can't stamp their feet if they don't get what they want like amazon do.
    If a publishers refuses to lower thier price for Amazon, then could lose out big time, because of the size of amazon, but Kobo is far smaller, they don't have the amount of people buying, so they are not going to lose so much.
    Amazon are very good at price matching too. If on the rare occasion I find that a book is cheaper on another site, within a few hours amazon have usually price matched it. Amazon are still cheaper overall for me and before agency pricing came into play the difference in prices was been greater

    As i said above, that is because of it size, but a lot of publishers will not cut much of a eboook. I must admit, when I started to buy ebooks, I thought the prices would be lower because there is no physical book, so the cost is not there. But greed comes in and some books are the same price as a ebook as a physical book. Mainly from the publishers I may add, not the authors.
    Just like downloading a MP3 Album from Amazon can be more expensive than buying the Cd.


    I find it much more convenient to simply visit the kindle store on my kindle and buy the books that I want. Than to trawl around a ton of ePub stores, find the book that I want and then have to turn on my laptop and connect the device up and run adobe digital editions.

    I find it more convenient to visit the Kobo shop as well, either via the Kobo or via the computer. Computer is easier to browse. I don't need the computer to buy books. If I do buy from the kobo store using my computer, then my Kobo will sync and download the book via wi-fi.

    but I have got the choice if I see something I like elsewhere to get it.

    Kobo is still growing, but it have grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, it is good, we got a choice.
    People get very protective about their kindle, I have no idea why, just like people with Iphones. You do know that amazon did not produce the first e-reader? Technology have made the e-reader cheaper, slimmer, better screen quality and better battery life.

    You not employed by Amazon are you and a plant here to try and get people to buy Kindles? that was a joke by the way, but it is a thing that companies like Amazon would do. I think Amazon now have better competition and it is a good thing.

    I don't care what other people use to be honest, i will say what I think of a product and if they want to use it then that is up to them, I do have a joke with some mates who got Iphones, but it is their money and they can spend it as they wish.

    Like in the days of Amaigas and the Atari St, I got a a Amiga and a mate of mine got the Atari, we used to take the mick out of each other for our choice. But he knew that the Amiga was a better machine. He told me that a few years later.

    this have been going on for years, betamax v VHS, MP3 v any other format, blue-ray v HD DVD.

    Sorry, I went on a bit there, Waiting for the time to go, so i can get to work and back again :)
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,692
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    IvanIV wrote: »
    The only advantage of EPUB is that anybody can sell you a DRM-ed book, because there's a unified public way to do it. This allows for a separation of a device and content provider. I'd say device manufactures might be tempted to go for Amazon model and be both, but none of them is such an imperium like Amazon, which also had a head start and is now where it is because of it. Amazon is the only one that can legally provide DRM-ed content for Kindles. There are places where you can buy non-DRM content for Kindle, so they rely on kindness of their customers not to share their books with other people.

    I got The hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy last week for my Kobo and was surprised to see no DRM.
    i know it is a old book, but I have listened to the radio series, even got the books on tape, watched the TV series, watched the film, but I have never read the book.
  • HelenW82HelenW82 Posts: 178
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    I never factored in the cost of the books themselves - :blush:

    It's interesting to see that some people use different means to read at different times of day.

    I didn't even realise Sony done an E-reader.

    Thanks everyone for your responses :)
  • LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,623
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    After reading the smallprint for using a Kindle a few years back I used to be vehemently anti-Kindle but now I don't feel 'tied' to Amazon at all.

    I'm not bothered by being tied to Amazon either. I've never found a book that I wanted to read that they didn't stock and their prices always seem competitive. I just love the way that the Kindle Store works so easily.

    I can't remember the last time I used the local library (over 15 years probably) so the lack of ability to borrow books isn't an issue. I've always thought that if a book is worth reading then it's worth buying.
  • DJW13DJW13 Posts: 4,274
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    I have had a Kindle for 3 years now and love it because it is so easy to use. I have become less fussy about what I read as I only download free books. I now have over 700 unread books. Of course not all of the free books are good, but I may have been lucky to find that most of them are quire readable. I do now only download ones that have received lots of good reviews from other readers.

    What I do miss is being able to borrow books from the library, so if I was buying an e-reader now, I would consider getting one specifically for this purpose. Admittedly the library does not have an enormous number of e-books so in practise it may be a bit frustrating to use.

    I have never been one for buying books so cannot comment on which system is best, or cheapest, for doing this, but certainly Amazon makes it very easy to download books.
  • Anika HansonAnika Hanson Posts: 15,629
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    noise747 wrote: »
    Not all, there are some that are not in Mobi format. a site a lad goes to at work don't use mobi. no idea what site it is mind you.



    But it is a format that one company got control over. Just like MS office and their formats or apple with their format for music.



    Maybe so, but how many other companies have they stepped on to be where they are? Ok a lot of larger companies have done the same thing. also what about the tax they don't pay?

    Just because they are popular, it don't mean that we all got to use it. that is what is good about choice, even if some people, governments, and companies don't want us to have it.



    I have never said it was not time consuming, it is just another choice. I have only used Digital editions once, I used Calibre a couple of times to convert two books from Mobi as my old Kobo could not read them.



    Depends what you want at the end of the day, you got to remember that some of these companies are not huge like Amazon, they can't stamp their feet if they don't get what they want like amazon do.
    If a publishers refuses to lower thier price for Amazon, then could lose out big time, because of the size of amazon, but Kobo is far smaller, they don't have the amount of people buying, so they are not going to lose so much.



    As i said above, that is because of it size, but a lot of publishers will not cut much of a eboook. I must admit, when I started to buy ebooks, I thought the prices would be lower because there is no physical book, so the cost is not there. But greed comes in and some books are the same price as a ebook as a physical book. Mainly from the publishers I may add, not the authors.
    Just like downloading a MP3 Album from Amazon can be more expensive than buying the Cd.





    I find it more convenient to visit the Kobo shop as well, either via the Kobo or via the computer. Computer is easier to browse. I don't need the computer to buy books. If I do buy from the kobo store using my computer, then my Kobo will sync and download the book via wi-fi.

    but I have got the choice if I see something I like elsewhere to get it.

    Kobo is still growing, but it have grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, it is good, we got a choice.
    People get very protective about their kindle, I have no idea why, just like people with Iphones. You do know that amazon did not produce the first e-reader? Technology have made the e-reader cheaper, slimmer, better screen quality and better battery life.

    You not employed by Amazon are you and a plant here to try and get people to buy Kindles? that was a joke by the way, but it is a thing that companies like Amazon would do. I think Amazon now have better competition and it is a good thing.

    I don't care what other people use to be honest, i will say what I think of a product and if they want to use it then that is up to them, I do have a joke with some mates who got Iphones, but it is their money and they can spend it as they wish.

    Like in the days of Amaigas and the Atari St, I got a a Amiga and a mate of mine got the Atari, we used to take the mick out of each other for our choice. But he knew that the Amiga was a better machine. He told me that a few years later.

    this have been going on for years, betamax v VHS, MP3 v any other format, blue-ray v HD DVD.

    Sorry, I went on a bit there, Waiting for the time to go, so i can get to work and back again :)

    Of course I know that amazon didn't invent the ebook reader. My first device wasn't a kindle but a Sony reader. I just want to provide an alternative opinion because I think you put amazon in a bad light lol. I have a kindle paper white because I feel that it is the best device on the market right now with the best store. I've owned a kobo glo and mini, as well as my old Sony PRS 300, current nook simple touch and several different kindles. I feel that I can make an informed decision as I've experienced all of the main brands on the market. However at the end of the day you don't need to be tied down to any book store. I have books on my kindle that I've bought from kobo and books on my nook that I've bought from amazon. I don't feel tied to amazon at all.
  • LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,623
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    DJW13 wrote: »
    I have had a Kindle for 3 years now and love it because it is so easy to use. I have become less fussy about what I read as I only download free books. I now have over 700 unread books. Of course not all of the free books are good, but I may have been lucky to find that most of them are quire readable. I do now only download ones that have received lots of good reviews from other readers.

    If you have over 700 unread books do you ever intend reading them?

    When I first got my Kindle I would download loads of free books such as the Classics "because I could" but then realised there was no point if I was never going to read them other than to be able to show off what a big library I had. I've got he complete works of Shakespeare on my Kindle but it has never been opened.
  • StuBStuB Posts: 538
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    I got a Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight for Christmas and it does a fantastic job, also its a very respectable price at £49:

    http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5011283.htm

    Definitely worth a look, also at the moment you can pick up covers from the nook website for a bargain £5:

    http://www.nook.com/gb/search?category_id=1025946&sort=SA&cmpid=em_uk_131228_NO_DGS_UK_RAPPS_EPD_NA&source_id=L000013026
  • DJW13DJW13 Posts: 4,274
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    LostFool wrote: »
    If you have over 700 unread books do you ever intend reading them?

    When I first got my Kindle I would download loads of free books such as the Classics "because I could" but then realised there was no point if I was never going to read them other than to be able to show off what a big library I had. I've got he complete works of Shakespeare on my Kindle but it has never been opened.

    My problem is that I signed up for daily e-mails showing the latest free books and keep downloading a few more each week. I do read as well, but at the moment download more than I read.

    I keep expecting the supply of new free books to dry up, but this does not seem to be happening. :confused:
  • wakeywakey Posts: 3,073
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    noise747 wrote: »
    The likely hood of kobo shutting down is pretty slim as well. there are larger companies than Amazon that have gone under and if they annoy customers too much by changing things people will go elsewhere.

    Epub is not KOBO format, it is a format by Adobe and is pretty well accepted, so DRM is not going tobe a issue even if Kobo did fail.

    This is where you are wrong. It doesn't matter who developed the container when it comes to DRM. What matters is the licence validation server. Infact Adobe while they have DRM provisions in the format leave it open for the retailer to select their own DRM format so DRM is all down to the retailer. If Kobo shut theirs off tomorrow then you couldn't validate your licence and you are done for.

    Its why there were problems in the early days of digital music when services were shutting down left right and centre as most choose to use WMA. This is a Microsoft format but when the services shut down it didn't matter. As soon as your licence expired and it had to renew it it couldn't access the licence validation server as it wasnt there and you were locked out.

    Its also why when the the Vdio, video spinoff of Rdio announced it was closing in December they gave everyone who had purchased content Amazon vouchers so they could rebuy their content.
    Amazon uses their own system and as poplar as Kindle is, a lot of other stores just don't offer ebooks in the kindle format

    Waterstones, their e-books is in Epub format
    Sainsburys ebooks are in Epub format.

    No doubt there are others, but I have not really looked into it.

    sites that offer free books and just because they are free, don't mean they are rubbish, most of them are in epub.

    Yes most services use ePub but i'm not sure why that matters?

    And who said Free books are rubbish? Most however are either amateur writers or are out of copyright and most of these kinds are also available in Kindle format, infact more often than not from Amazon themselves which isn't always the case with some of the default stores.

    But I am buying from the default store, not sure where you got the idea from I am not.

    Part of your point in your first post is you didn't want tied into Amazon's eco system so you choose a Kobo. Seeing as you were implying not being tied to a single eco system is a good thing then the fact that it takes pretty much the same effort to buy a book off say Sainsburys and put it on a Kindle or a Kobo ultimately defeats the myth about being tied into an eco system. If you can sideload books from other stores then you can open calibre and add it to your kindle with it converting it for you.

    You are simply no more tied into an eco system with a Kindle than you are any other ereader.
    I have grabbed some free books from other sources, but I normally stick them onto a SD card, try doing that with a kindle. sure there is more than enough space on the device itself, but the SD card slot is still useful,, i can stick a bus time table on there when I go visiting. i have not done it with the touch, but I done it with the old kobo.

    May not have a SD Card reader (Might not be an issue with eBooks as they arent that big and doesn't require frequent read/writes but the whole 'no SD card' issue on phones and tablets is a red herring anyway as the read speed on an SD card doesn't really make it viable for anything but archiving items you don't access often) but you can email books, pdfs, text documents and the likes to your kindle email address and they show up within seconds

    Infact I haven't tried it but the service does convert some file types to Amazon format so it may even convert ePubs for you.

    But certainly it would take 30 seconds to put a bus timetable on a kindle.
    As for AMD processors, they do what I want to do and more, I prefer AMD and have done more or less since I came into the wolrd fo the PC from my amaiga, apart from the first PC, which was a cyrix. apart from my laptop I have never had a Intel machine and I am not starting now. If you think AMD chips are underpowered, then think again, they certainly are not.
    AMD chips have always been underpowered compared to Intel's. They just gave you more bang for your buck and like you I used to always choose AMD but since Intel launched the i Series they just haven't been able to keep up. They seem to be too focused on the Graphics Card side since buying ATI. So while their Graphic card benchmarks regularly beat nVidea's equivalent of the card and usually at a lower price you simply don't see that with the CPU's. The price difference simply hasn't been enough to justify AMD for a while now
    I do think Amazon have got too big and like google they are trying to get their feet into everything and trying to link it all together. look at Lovefilm, at the moment I am still using it for a couple of disks a month, everytime I log into the site they want me to link it with my Amazon account. Something I don't want to do, after all I joined Lovefilm as lovefilm, not Amazon. Ok that is not 100% true, I joined lovefilm as Sainsburys DVD rental, but Sainsburys dumped it and Lovefilm took over my account, because it was run by lovefims anyway
    I don't think its anywhere near as bad as Google. Google have moved into areas that there's no reason for them to. Amazon have moved into areas that extend their current business (or in the case of their 'hosting' services like S3, Glacier etc simply uses the spare server capacity they have). They want people to move their lovefilm logins because its easier to maintain a single login system than two separate ones. Also I would imagine they are getting ready for when they will close Lovefilm as Physical rentals are falling to bring Amazon.co.uk inline with Amazon.com by moving to a streaming only service that comes as part of your Amazon prime membership
    but that is not the reason I did not get the Kindle, i just did not think it was the right reader for me and i did not want to be stuck with a non-standard format that only one company supports.

    It is like the days when digital audio players had their own system, until MP3 became the norm, apart from Apple which still uses their own format.
    Digital Audio Players have supported MP3 since day 1. Infact the first ones such as the Diamond Rio or JazPiper (Which I still have somewhere) only played MP3's. And when DRM came in pretty much all the none Apple devices were using WMA

    Apples format succeeded where WMA failed because the world and his wife weren't using it. It was a format for a company that had a good userbase already for other products and that got in there first with desirable hardware and a store to sell content. Everyone responded with either hardware that missed the mark or with a content store that wasn't as good and as they were all sharing the same file format when one product failed and people lost their purchases it damaged them all. It was only because Apple started negotiating deals to drop DRM on its format which led to Amazon being able to do deals to sell MP3's (which can't be DRM'd) that saved the non-apple digital audio market

    And Amazon with ebooks are in the Apple position. Only difference is I could maybe see Amazon at some point licencing their format to other select partners. I fully expect DRM'd ePub to fail at some point when it takes too many knocks. It may just be that everyone moves to DRM Free ePubs but with the size of eBook files i'm sure the publishing industry will be even harder to persuade than the record companies
    I don't buy new books to be honest, books I buy are normally a few years old and I only buy when they come down in price.

    The difference in pricing is pretty minimal and no doubt I could go on both sites and find some books cheaper on Kobo than Amazon. I have no idea why you seem intent on making out that the Kindle is the better reader and you seem to not like people having other readers.

    Not really. Those 3 books alone are £2-3. Its all well and good only paying £30 for a device but read a book a month and you have spent between £24 and £36 extra on books. So for anyone trying to make their mind up thats a major issue to consider, if you are likely to buy a fair few books. And I can't find any evidence that there is any book on Kobos store thats cheaper. Going through their top20 selling books (which is a mixture of old and new, established authors and new self published ones) there wasn't a single one. Theres some that are the same price but from Amazon those 20 books cost £19.03 less so it really is a vital factor in people deciding.
    I have no idea why you seem intent on making out that the Kindle is the better reader and you seem to not like people having other readers.

    And I haven't been arguing that the Kindle is a better piece of hardware. I have barely commented on the Hardware and even said the Kobo is a good bit of kit. I've been commenting on your attempt (and others) to push this myth that by buying a Kindle you are locked into their eco system when you are no more locked into it than you are locked into any other ereaders eco system.
  • wakeywakey Posts: 3,073
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    I use a standard Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 to read ebooks and I configure it like this:

    Those of you who don’t happen to be productivity obsessives may have missed this one, but last night, Lifehacker posted a really simple trick that’ll give your tablet or smartphone screen an appearance similar to that of an E-Ink screen … sort of.
    http://www.teleread.com/e-ink/wishing-your-tablet-smartphone-had-e-ink-now-it-does/

    One of the advantages of a tablet is that it can also be used to play audiobooks as well, e.g. from Libraries West and Librivox.

    Unfortunately while it may visually look like eInk it doesn't result in the benefits that eInk because the screen is still backlit so is more prone to cause eye strain still and most importantly it shines light directly into the eyes which reduces the brains production of melatonin and impacts sleep

    IvanIV wrote: »
    The only advantage of EPUB is that anybody can sell you a DRM-ed book, because there's a unified public way to do it. This allows for a separation of a device and content provider. I'd say device manufactures might be tempted to go for Amazon model and be both, but none of them is such an imperium like Amazon, which also had a head start and is now where it is because of it. Amazon is the only one that can legally provide DRM-ed content for Kindles. There are places where you can buy non-DRM content for Kindle, so they rely on kindness of their customers not to share their books with other people.

    There isn't a unified way of doing DRM in the ePub format. The standard includes the provisions to bolt DRM into it but there isn't a set DRM technology as part of the standard. The retailer has to employ their own DRM system be it a commercial one or a custom one
  • StuBStuB Posts: 538
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    I've just seen in one of the other posts that library use was mentioned, this was also a consideration when I looked at the ereader I wanted.

    My local library service e-lending isn't supported on Kindle but it supported on a number of other devices (including Nook). A minor plus, but still a plus :)
  • wakeywakey Posts: 3,073
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    DJW13 wrote: »
    My problem is that I signed up for daily e-mails showing the latest free books and keep downloading a few more each week. I do read as well, but at the moment download more than I read.

    I keep expecting the supply of new free books to dry up, but this does not seem to be happening. :confused:

    It won't as everyone who considers themselves a potential writer is jumping on the bandwagon hoping that their free book is a hit and it gets them a publishing deal (which has happened for a number of people) or they get enough fans to start charging a small fee.

    Also some professional writers are using free books as publicity to increase sales of their other books.

    So I doubt it will ever dry up (not to mention new books fall out of copyright every single day)
  • MissliMissli Posts: 3,839
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    I've got a basic kindle, only because my sister gave me £30 towards one as a christmas present. Got a good deal including a free light, and leather case (using codes) for £49.

    I was going to get a different e-reader on principle, to stop their monopoly, but glad I didn't as It's very easy to download books from amazon store, and have had some great bargains.

    Now need time to read them all! :)
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    wakey wrote: »
    There isn't a unified way of doing DRM in the ePub format. The standard includes the provisions to bolt DRM into it but there isn't a set DRM technology as part of the standard. The retailer has to employ their own DRM system be it a commercial one or a custom one

    Okay, but there seems to be an agreement in epub world on how the DRM is done, or at least it was when I still had a Sony ereader. You got your AdobeID, set up your Adobe Digital Editions and your ereader with it and used the AdobeID when purchasing a book. If Adobe provides the encryption as a service or how it is done, I do not know, but the result is that regardless where you bought a book it is readable on your reader. Amazon's model is similar to Apple's app store, all (DRM-ed) content goes through them and there's no other way except not using DRM at all.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    If your budget runs to £150 you'd be be better off with a tablet running Aldiko or Moon+. The only reasons to get an ebook reader these days is because they're substantially cheaper than a tablet (like <£50) or you MUST have long battery life.
  • mred2000mred2000 Posts: 10,050
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    fenlander wrote: »
    If your budget runs to £150 you'd be be better off with a tablet running Aldiko or Moon+. The only reasons to get an ebook reader these days is because they're substantially cheaper than a tablet (like <£50) or you MUST have long battery life.

    e-ink vs backlit screen?
  • Anika HansonAnika Hanson Posts: 15,629
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    fenlander wrote: »
    If your budget runs to £150 you'd be be better off with a tablet running Aldiko or Moon+. The only reasons to get an ebook reader these days is because they're substantially cheaper than a tablet (like <£50) or you MUST have long battery life.

    My ebook reader cost £109. A lot of people prefer reading on ebook readers because of the screen. Many like myself find that they get eye strain after reading on an LCD display for long periods. I find it much more comfortable to read on eink screens. I also would spend £150 on a tablet.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    e-ink vs backlit screen?

    Just a question of adjusting brightness properly or setting up a theme that suits you. I can read comfortably in bed in the dark using a light on dark theme at 2% brightness as well as in the garden in full sunlight. And no issues with eye strain.

    I have a Sony reader but it hasn't been out of the drawer since I bought a tablet. I'm afraid that for me it's a no-brainer and I suspect the dedicated ereader will go the way of the netbook before too long.
  • IvanIVIvanIV Posts: 30,301
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    It's individual, I can't use LCD screen for reading for longer periods of time. I can read off e-Ink for hours.
  • wakeywakey Posts: 3,073
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    IvanIV wrote: »
    Okay, but there seems to be an agreement in epub world on how the DRM is done, or at least it was when I still had a Sony ereader. You got your AdobeID, set up your Adobe Digital Editions and your ereader with it and used the AdobeID when purchasing a book. If Adobe provides the encryption as a service or how it is done, I do not know, but the result is that regardless where you bought a book it is readable on your reader. Amazon's model is similar to Apple's app store, all (DRM-ed) content goes through them and there's no other way except not using DRM at all.

    I believe that the Adobe Digital Editions process only acts as a gatekeeper service and it passes the licence request onto the retailer, who then validate the request and if it passes send the licence back to Adobe to unlock your book. Until the licence needs renewed it will just check everytime you 'access' the file with Adobe but if the licence needs renewed it will call back to the retailer again and do the process.

    So its not really that different apart from the fact you have two potential fault points rather than one (If Adobe are down or the Retailers down (or pulls their service) you can't activate)


    I can actually see Amazons system becoming the 'Steam' of eBooks more than the ePub setup simply because Adobe as the gatekeepers of DRM ePub simply have no motivation to become more than just gatekeepers. They don't have any hardware or content to justify them becoming more involved. Amazon on the otherhand have already shown a willingness to let other retailers into their eco system once they have a foothold (Amazon Payments and Marketplace for example) so I can see them in the next 18months licencing their format to retailers (Waterstones would be the obvious first step with their partnership with Amazon to sell Kindles) and maybe even to hardware manufacturers so other devices can also use Kindle books (after all they have put the Kindle Reading app on pretty much every tablet platform)
  • wakeywakey Posts: 3,073
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    fenlander wrote: »
    Just a question of adjusting brightness properly or setting up a theme that suits you. I can read comfortably in bed in the dark using a light on dark theme at 2% brightness as well as in the garden in full sunlight. And no issues with eye strain.

    I have a Sony reader but it hasn't been out of the drawer since I bought a tablet. I'm afraid that for me it's a no-brainer and I suspect the dedicated ereader will go the way of the netbook before too long.

    No matter how you set it up backlit screens cause varying degrees of eyestrain. Its simply unavoidable.

    It also isn't good for our sleep patterns. Doctors advise that no form of backlit screen (Tablets, TV, Computer monitors, Phones) should be used within a few hours of going to sleep as the direct light source shining into the eyes reduces melatonin production which is needed for a good sleep. Its why lit eInk devices use front lit screens so the light isn't shining directly into the eyes (These still aren't perfect as you should probably have no light sources for the hours before going to bed but if you have the light down low as recommended when in the dark then its probably better than having a light on)
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