[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Amazon Kindle Question (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 11/5/2009 3:01:29 PM EDT
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I was talking about it today with the local librarian. She tells me that any books Ive bought the hard copy of off of Amazon entitles you to download it for free. I cant find that anywhere on Amazon. Any truth to it? |
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Quoted: Doubtful. But who knows, you are really just renting the Ebooks on a kindle anyway. exactly, they can delete them off your kindle like *THAT* happened with copies of 1984/animal farm that they claimed at first that the publishers changed their minds about having a kindle version. then later amazon said they were unauthorized copies |
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Quoted: Quoted: Doubtful. But who knows, you are really just renting the Ebooks on a kindle anyway. exactly, they can delete them off your kindle like *THAT* happened with copies of 1984/animal farm that they claimed at first that the publishers changed their minds about having a kindle version. then later amazon said they were unauthorized copies Yeah, and they got their asses sued off for that to. |
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Quoted: I have been researching the Kindle for the wife, no where have I seen mention of a free Kindle version with each deadtree version. However, if you buy a book that comes with a PDF copy it is very cheap or free to get it converted to Kindle. I'm looking at the new Barnes and Noble Nook. I really like the looks of that. |
| I am loving the iPhone version of the Kindle. I take the iPhone with me everywhere due to it being my work phone. I am finding times where sitting in a doctors office waiting area etc, that I can whip it out and finish a chapter of a book I am reading. I have read 3 books and have 2 more in the queue. The screen is not huge. But it is perfect for me. I had thought of getting the kindle. But now I don't need it. I have not seen any way to transfer paper books purchased to the Kindle. I highly doubt it is a feature. |
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I am loving the iPhone version of the Kindle. I take the iPhone with me everywhere due to it being my work phone. I am finding times where sitting in a doctors office waiting area etc, that I can whip it out and finish a chapter of a book I am reading. I have read 3 books and have 2 more in the queue. The screen is not huge. But it is perfect for me. I had thought of getting the kindle. But now I don't need it. I have not seen any way to transfer paper books purchased to the Kindle. I highly doubt it is a feature. Yeah, the Iphone is freaking awesome. |
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Per Amazon.com new books are $10ish for the kindle. For a $200 buy in, and you figure to buy and ship a real book is ~$20, you are saving ~$10 a book. Therefore, it will pay for itself in about 20 books, all Amazon Shenanigans aside. I have not decided if I want one. Its hard to build an impressive library with everything on kindle. |
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Quoted: Per Amazon.com new books are $10ish for the kindle. For a $200 buy in, and you figure to buy and ship a real book is ~$20, you are saving ~$10 a book. Therefore, it will pay for itself in about 20 books, all Amazon Shenanigans aside. I have not decided if I want one. Its hard to build an impressive library with everything on kindle. Of course, within a year of release, you can buy a used hardcover for $5, so... Not saying the kindle isn't cool. However, I don't know how much of a "bargain" it is.
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| The problem I have with the Kindle is that the device costs $300 before you even put any books on it! If I did that, and then tried to put all the books I have on it, it would probably cost me over $1000 dollars. I don't see the point. Plus, if you piss off Amazon for some reason, all you have is an expensive paperweight. |
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Doubtful. But who knows, you are really just renting the Ebooks on a kindle anyway. exactly, they can delete them off your kindle like *THAT* happened with copies of 1984/animal farm that they claimed at first that the publishers changed their minds about having a kindle version. then later amazon said they were unauthorized copies The were unauthorized. And people got a refund right away. The whole issue has been blown out of proportion, mostly by people that read something and know nothing else about it. I got one of those, it was full of formatting and other errors, as well as being unauthorized. You can also get a refund for books that have errors and you are dissatisfied with. For instance, I got an organic chemistry book and the molecule diagrams did not translate correctly, so I got a refund. There is a kindle forum where you can find out stuff from people that actually own kindles. I love mine, but electronic books aren't good for some things, like referance material and such. |
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The problem I have with the Kindle is that the device costs $300 before you even put any books on it! If I did that, and then tried to put all the books I have on it, it would probably cost me over $1000 dollars. I don't see the point. Plus, if you piss off Amazon for some reason, all you have is an expensive paperweight. I dont' think it's good for people on a budget. I got mine for the convienience, and it lets me read a lot more with my crappy old eyes. I have since found a lot of free or cheap books that were very good. I see it as an addition to regular books and reading, not a replacement. You can back your stuff up on your computer and put them on and off your kindle from there. You neednt turn on the wireless feature at all, in fact some people can't because they don't have whispernet in their area. |
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You can download any book you have procured through Amazon for you Kindle again if you want to. Your Amazon account keeps the list. If you delete a book or get a new kindle, you can go back and download it again.
Also Kindle just came out with a Kindle for PC application. My understanding is that you can download the app for free to your PC and then download and read Kindle books on your PC if you want. So, I guess the librarian was right. Edited to add: I see no evidence that you can grab a book onto your Kindle for free that you have previously purchased in hard copy. |
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I was talking about it today with the local librarian. She tells me that any books Ive bought the hard copy of off of Amazon entitles you to download it for free. I cant find that anywhere on Amazon. Any truth to it?
Did she cite her source? Marian(ProveIt!)Librarian |
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Barnes & Noble settled on adobe pdf thing (same as sony) for their standardizing of ebooks. link Barnes & Noble embraces social digital rights management (DRM) and snubs Amazons proprietary AZW format. In the latest salvo in the escalating eBook wars, Barnes & Noble recently announced it was standardizing on the open ePub and PDF formats, embedded with “social” digital rights management (DRM) content protection. With this move, B&N is embracing the cross-platform Adobe solution accepted by nearly 100 providers, including Sony (announced in August it plans to convert its eBooks to the ePub format by the end of 2009). However, that group does not include market-leader Amazon, which debuted its popular Kindle 2 in early 2009. Kindle 2 eBooks are available in Amazon’s proprietary AZW format, as well as support for PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion. This running battle between Amazon and everyone else is driving down prices, fueling better retail distribution and drawing massive media attention-all factors cited when Forrester Research revised its 2009 sales projections last month on eReaders by a stunning 50 percent. Forrester now expects that three million eReaders will be sold in 2009 (the previous projection was two million), with 30 percent alone bouncing off the shelves during the holiday season. What’s more, for 2010, Forrester projects even more dramatic growth of eReader sales, of up to 10 million units. The ePub move makes sense for B&N to grab market share from powerhouse Amazon. Producing books under one standard already adopted by other eReader device manufacturers is attractive to consumers. For one, consumers can transfer eBook collections across various devices, important for preserving their purchases should their manufacturer discontinue support. And, by adding password-based content protection for ePub, Adobe addresses piracy concerns, but delivers a less onerous DRM option. Specifically, B&N is adopting the Adobe Content Server to copy-protect eBooks, and Adobe is integrating B&N’s eReader social content protection technology into Adobe Content Server and Adobe Reader Mobile SDK (software development kit). The announcement was part of a larger PR push to publicize B&N’s late October launch of its of wireless nook eReader, a $259 device featuring an electronic ink display and 3G wireless connectivity to its online bookstore. With this move, the nook now goes head-to-head with the entrenched Kindle. However, while it also competes for device sales with many other manufacturers, such as Sony, in terms of the actual eBooks, it does not force a Blu-Ray-versus-HD-DVD-format-type purchasing dilemma. The nook also features an ability to share books among friends, which Kindle does not. Users can lend some eBooks, but not all, to a friend’s nook/computer/mobile phone for up to 14 days. Comparatively speaking, based on its DRM system, not all Kindle books can be re-downloaded, a sticking point even with some fans. For those that can, all Kindle eBooks include limits on the number of re-downloads and those limits vary per book. In all fairness, publishers actually establish the DRM limitations for each book. Still, Amazon does stand to benefit when a Kindle user has to re-purchase an eBook. For its part, Sony is slated to release a new eBook reader in December, dubbed the Reader Daily Edition, the first Sony eReader with wireless 3G connectivity. About the ePub Format ePub (electronic publication) is a common file format for digital books developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). The xml-based format is meant to function as a single format that publishers and conversion houses can use in-house, as well as for distribution and sale. It superseded the Open eBook standard. Meanwhile, DRM on some eReaders requesting credit card verification has been a sticking point, while other purists lament that any restriction literally violates the spirit of an open standard, such as ePub. Still, as with the music and film industries, publishers are concerned that selling content without DRM would leave the industry open to widespread piracy. “Through these standards, publishers will be able to protect ePub and PDF eBooks through either social password or identity-based authentication options, allowing their readers access to interoperable eBook content across diverse platforms,” says Doug Gottlieb, vice president of digital products for Barnes & Noble.com. “Standards are good for everyone. They enable more supported eReading devices from which to choose, and these options allow device manufacturers to focus on innovation and differentiation of their products to better serve their customers.” Format standardization is critical for long-term accessibility to eBook purchases for customers across the increasing universe of devices available for eBook reading, says Bob LiVolsi, president and CEO, BooksOnBoard, which was among the first retailer to offer ePUB standard eBooks from the major publishers in June 2008 when they were first available. “It’s reassuring to see validation of the standards from the large corporate players in the eBook space,” LiVolsi says. “Standards reduce costs to the publishers, allowing them to keep costs down for consumers and broaden selection. With fewer formats to create, an expensive investment for a publishing house, publishers can digitize more and more backlist titles, allowing for the digital dream of an infinite bookshelf where titles never go out of print. The ePUB standard also reduces consumer costs by allowing readers to read the same eBook on many devices without having to buy it again in another format. “They can easily share these books among friends and family, bringing sharing options that are device neutral,” Livosi says. “They can now spend the same or less on a netbook and have full computing power, full software suites and a backlight for eBook reading that fits in a large purse or small briefcase.” Livosi says many BooksOnBoard customers report crawling into bed with their netbooks from HP, Dell, Acer, ASUS and others, reading under the covers with a backlight. “They’re typically hooked up to their home wi-fi, downloading another book in seconds as soon as they finish one in the middle of the night,” Livosi says. “The ePub standard allows them to read that same book on their office computer the next day or on a dedicated eBook reader, which never has a backlight because of e-ink limitations, on their commute.” Adobe ePUB is also a big leap forward for B&N’s credibility in the space. “They still use the outdated eReader/Palm format – and will continue to do so until ePUB is deployed in their store – which requires users to enter their credit card number to unlock an eBook to read it,” Livosi says. “This is cumbersome, requires remembering what credit card was used to purchase a book in the distant past, causes customers to worry about the security of their credit card information, and is one of the reasons why almost 70 percent of BooksOnBoard customers choose the Adobe format, which uses a more secure, and shareable, activation system that requires disclosure of no private information.” Meanwhile, with hundreds of actual stores across the US, B&N has the advantage of putting its eReader physically in front of its customers. However, that becomes less of an advantage as more US retailers-now including Best Buy, Costco, Target and Walmart-stock eReaders. Not to mention, Amazon still has a sizeable head start, a popular product, and a strong following-market advantages that will not quickly evaporate, even if it does not adopt ePub. For now, though the Association of American Publishers cites eBook sales since June have gone up 149 percent for the year, throwing off some $14 million in sales every month, it represents a small fraction of the receding $25 billion publishing market. Still, a large portion of that is destined to migrate to the digital format. It is only a matter of time. |
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i have one, i love it. there are things you can do to the firmware to prevent "book loss", or you can turn the wireless off, or better yet- use the included USB cable to back your shit up!
its like if your computer crashes, you lose those wonderul pics of your grandchildren, do you sue bill gates? no. you pull your backup DVD out of the gun safe and drive the fuck on. and dont even start with that "invasion of privacy" bs yeah, what amazon did might not be the smartest move they ever made, but they were looking at a lawsuit from the coyright holder of Animal Farm. someone had submitted the kindle version to amazon, thinking it was in the public domain. amazon distributed it, then they were informed that it was not public domain material. as for the "use your iphone" types- try staring at that screen for hours on end like you do with those "twilight" books you love so much and then tell me how bad your headace is afterward. i go through 2-5 books a week, and the e-ink lcd in the kindle (and other ebook readers) is designed to reduce eyestrain and look more like actual paper. if youre doing anything more than reading while you wait for your 'life partner' to finish with his anal bleaching appointment, you'll be grateful for the difference. |
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Per Amazon.com new books are $10ish for the kindle. For a $200 buy in, and you figure to buy and ship a real book is ~$20, you are saving ~$10 a book. Therefore, it will pay for itself in about 20 books, all Amazon Shenanigans aside. I have not decided if I want one. Its hard to build an impressive library with everything on kindle. I've downloaded around 50 books for FREE... including recent books by Don Brown. Go to the kindle store and search for most downloaded... chances are a good 50% of them are FREE downloads. |
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I like to read in bed, are they light enough to do that with? No, but I have a $10 LED book light from Barnes and Noble the clips onto the Kindle leather cover just fine and makes it very pleasant to read in bed. The screen on the kindle is a digital paper, it is not strongly backlit. Not designed to be read in the dark, it is designed to seem like paper to your eyes so no eye strain. |
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They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear.
I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. |
Though lit would have been nice too.|
Quoted: I like to read in bed, are they light enough to do that with? You talking about "light" as in weight? then they are about the same weight as a medium sized paperback. If you are talking about "light" as in electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum, then no, they need an separate light source, just like a regular book. |
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Quoted: They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. You wear a light on your head, in bed?  |
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Quoted: Quoted: I like to read in bed, are they light enough to do that with? You talking about "light" as in weight? then they are about the same weight as a medium sized paperback. If you are talking about "light" as in electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum, then no, they need an separate light source, just like a regular book. Thanks. |
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They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Edit, looks like release has been delayed, ship date for the Nook pushed back until 1-4-2010 and they are issuing holiday certificates for those who wanted to give them as gifts.  Way to drop the ball B&N!
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Quoted: Quoted: They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Looks like they're shipping Jan.4. |
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They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Looks like they're shipping Jan.4. Yup they fucked up, it was supposed to be this week... they are going to lose massive sales on this. |
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Quoted: Quoted: They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Edit, looks like release has been delayed, ship date for the Nook pushed back until 1-4-2010 and they are issuing holiday certificates for those who wanted to give them as gifts. Way to drop the ball B&N!Everybody that pre-ordered should get theirs. Sony is in the near the same boat. Both are way over sold. |
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They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Edit, looks like release has been delayed, ship date for the Nook pushed back until 1-4-2010 and they are issuing holiday certificates for those who wanted to give them as gifts. Way to drop the ball B&N!Everybody that pre-ordered should get theirs. Sony is in the near the same boat. Both are way over sold. Sony readers are available all over the place, I've seen them this week at Best Buy, Borders, Costco... I can walk in to one of those today and walk out with the Sony reader and have it under the tree for Christmas. Can't say that about the Nook. I seriously do not understand companies that release an "it" gift before the holidays without ample supply. Resellers get rich off hoarding them and listing them on eBay, but the original seller does not profit. Piss poor planning. Meanwhile you can get a Kindle by tomorrow morning by going to Amazon and ordering. B&N screwed the pooch. |
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Quoted: Quoted: They are not backlit at all, it looks like paper. The description is very clear. I use a small headlamp to read in bed with. Been doing that since before I got my kindle. I use either the petzel tikka plus or the princeton tec quad. My biggest gripe is lack of folders. After awhile the menu gets kind of big. There is no way to organize the books and stuff. It's a bigger pain than you would think. Agreed, lack of folders is my beef as well. I may pick up a Nook and see which I like better, list the loser on CL or the EE. Isn't the Nook being released this week? Edit, looks like release has been delayed, ship date for the Nook pushed back until 1-4-2010 and they are issuing holiday certificates for those who wanted to give them as gifts. Way to drop the ball B&N!Please do this (pick up a nook as well) I'm REALLY leaning towards a nook, but I like the backing of the kindle (as in, already has market share). I'd like a review of someone that has both.  |
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Quoted: Quoted: Everybody that pre-ordered should get theirs. Sony is in the near the same boat. Both are way over sold. Sony readers are available all over the place, I've seen them this week at Best Buy, Borders, Costco... I can walk in to one of those today and walk out with the Sony reader and have it under the tree for Christmas. Can't say that about the Nook. I seriously do not understand companies that release an "it" gift before the holidays without ample supply. Resellers get rich off hoarding them and listing them on eBay, but the original seller does not profit. Piss poor planning. Meanwhile you can get a Kindle by tomorrow morning by going to Amazon and ordering. B&N screwed the pooch. Sorry, I meant the "Daily Edition" which is Sony's ebook with wireless. It was supposed to be released in December, but (from what I gather) has been pushed back to January due to demand. |
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Everybody that pre-ordered should get theirs. Sony is in the near the same boat. Both are way over sold. Sony readers are available all over the place, I've seen them this week at Best Buy, Borders, Costco... I can walk in to one of those today and walk out with the Sony reader and have it under the tree for Christmas. Can't say that about the Nook. I seriously do not understand companies that release an "it" gift before the holidays without ample supply. Resellers get rich off hoarding them and listing them on eBay, but the original seller does not profit. Piss poor planning. Meanwhile you can get a Kindle by tomorrow morning by going to Amazon and ordering. B&N screwed the pooch. Sorry, I meant the "Daily Edition" which is Sony's ebook with wireless. It was supposed to be released in December, but (from what I gather) has been pushed back to January due to demand. Roger that, wasn't even aware Sony was offering a wireless edition... ARFCOM knows everything collectively 
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The Nook claims to have over 500K free ebooks available - that's pretty enticing for the price. Memory cards, that's good and cheap. keep in mind most free books are in the public domain and not recent sellers... a lot of Jane Austin and Tom Sawyer stuff. Nothing wrong with that, I enjoy classics as well. I am curious how many of those free Nook books are more current. I've paid for one book on my Kindle, Band of Brothers. The rest are free downloads. Kindle also allows you to take books from sites like baen.com and have them emailed to your Kindle for like 15 cents and formats it properly in the process. So you are not limited to just what is in the Kindle store. |
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Quoted: Yeah, I'd like to see a list of those free ebooks.Quoted: The Nook claims to have over 500K free ebooks available - that's pretty enticing for the price. Memory cards, that's good and cheap. keep in mind most free books are in the public domain and not recent sellers... a lot of Jane Austin and Tom Sawyer stuff. Nothing wrong with that, I enjoy classics as well. I am curious how many of those free Nook books are more current. I've paid for one book on my Kindle, Band of Brothers. The rest are free downloads. Kindle also allows you to take books from sites like baen.com and have them emailed to your Kindle for like 15 cents and formats it properly in the process. So you are not limited to just what is in the Kindle store. |
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Where I work we have 8 Kindle owners and 1 Sony Reader owner. The Sony person went with it because it came with free books and because it came in black (instead of white). I have a Kindle and bought a black skin for it. It tricks your eye and makes the e-ink screen appear lighter.
For me, the Kindle saves me money. I used to buy at least one paperback book a week. I do buy books on the kindle, but I'm usually using amazon gift cards that I earned on Swagbucks or from credit card reward points. Right now I have about 6 pages of free kindle books that I downloaded. Now I'm sure some of them are crap, but I can always stop reading them. Also, I have no patience to wait for a book when it has been released so the 10 dollars vs 25 dollars saves me money as well. You do not get a free kindle version for every hard copy that you buy. |
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I wouldn't think so. The bad thing about ebooks is just that. If you have a hard copy, you have to BUY the e-copy. You cannot easily GIVE that book to someone else once you've read it. Some of the ebook reader software suites allow you to 'loan' it to someone, but I'm not sure of the exact mechanisms. The Barnes & Noble Nook probably does it all online, so that a book you loan to someone gets sent to them over the 'net and then has a 14 day TTL.
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