Well, the first phase of my 5-year prediction happened today. Amazon releases Kindle App for iPad before the iPad's release. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10469894-37.html and this, similarly predicting the death of the Kindle: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7764 Obviously, when I said that mobs don't have vision, only individuals do, it bothered Kevin, but it is truly my view. The mob will follow, even if they kill the individual, because a mob does not think. Additionally, it is safer to be a pessimist than an optimist, because then if you're wrong, it's not bad. But how can pessimists ever be happy? I don't know. So, because I like to be happy, I have optimism about the iPad that I preordered. I have already closed up my old iBook, transfered everything to my iMac, and I'm ready for a smaller and even more portable device that is halfway between a laptop and a smartphone. I expect every part of this prediction to come true. eBook devices will fall out of use once Pads take over, because they are single-use items. eBooks will thrive on Pads. Other non-phone functions will migrate away from smartphones. Even cell phones will fall out of use as the calling functions move to Pads and the bluetooth earbud peripheral will make cell phones seem cumbersome. I have the Kindle app for my iPod and It is a good program. I switch it to white words on a black background and it's fine, even on the bus. I'm ready for my upgrade, Mr. Jobs! :-) Pete p.s. The iPad imitators have already started to appear. That was an easy prediction to make. The rest will all come true, too. You'll see. http://www.9to5mac.com/android_replica_3488999 http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/ipad-could-see-50-tablet-rivals-this-year/
Amazon will probably release a new Kindle in the next year or two which has all that stuff, like the Nook already does to a degree. To me it's a question of price. I can't afford the iPad, can't really afford the Kindle, but my Sony eReader just doesn't do what I want it to. If the eBook readers came down in price and the sellers sold the eBooks for less, they would do better. The truth is, everything moves forward and the Kindle will too.
Did you by Seven Deadly Sins? If so, how much did you pay for it? I bought it for $7-$8 in ePub and by getting such discounts, my Sony Reader PRS-505 has probably paid for itself. The Kindle is locked inot Amazon for eBooks with DRM so if you see a good sale at another eBookshop that sells Star Trek in ePub, then you are out of luck on the sale. What is it you want a reader to do?
^I want a reader with direct download capability that allows me to download a new book when I finish the old one without having to wait till I get home to download it onto my computer and then transfer it to the Sony. As far as I am aware, the Kindle and the Nook are the only ones with that capability, but they are both the same price. B&N could go out of business, but it is unlikely that Amazon will.
^ They may not go out of business but Amazon could decide one day to stop supporting their current format. It's happened before.
Hell, you don't have to look at Microsoft, but at Amazon themselves - c. 2004, they had been selling Microsoft Reader and Adobe PDF eBooks, then summarily dropped them with no redownload privileges.
That was because those formats would be competing for their proprietary format which they later introduced for the Kindle. I think it is entirely possible that eventually, the AZL format will be accepted on other media. It is already available through Kindle app. for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It's only a matter of time before it's available elsewhere. My hope is that there will end up being one eBook format accepted on all eReaders.
^ Unfortunately it wouldn't matter why they dropped support. For the end user the result is the same.
True, and I suppose that could be one reason why people are hesitant to go with a proprietary which may be dropped at any time, but Amazon is a stable business so I doubt they'll drop the format any time soon. IMO, it's more likely that the DRM nonsense will be dropped in favour of something better.
If there is, it won't be Amazon's format. They already showed that they have no interest in the native Kindle format* working on other ebook readers. (The format was already supported by a wide variety of readers, but Amazon chose to not allow Kindle device IDs to be used at other vendors - meaning Kindles can't read those books despite their being the exact same format - and to not allow using non-Kindle device IDs for purchases from Amazon.) At this point, ePub is looking like closest to carrying that crown, between the support from Sony and B&N on the hardware side, and... everyplace but Amazon on the software side. * I say this to distinguish from Topaz, which is as much an ebook format as PDF - which is to say, not at all.
You can download EPUBs and others onto your Kindle through Fictionwise.com, they have a page to update your Kindle email address. The Kindle supports AZW (Amazon proprietary), TXT, PDF (which could be a standard eBook format though it was not originally designed as such) and unsecured MOBI.
Fictionwise can send their "multiformat" books in the native Kindle format (or MobiPocket as it's generally called). But even if an ePub-only book didn't have DRM, you couldn't send it from Fictionwise if you wanted to. The Kindle simply doesn't support ePub.
MOBI and AZW are different formats, though both are owned by Amazon. MOBI is designed for the blackberry and other such phones. AZW is the native Kindle format. I think that 95% of the books I want to read are available on the Kindle anyway.
The difference is exactly one byte in the header - a flag that, if it isn't set, the Kindle will refuse to read the file. Amazon does this so that even if you find your Kindle's PID, you can't buy books from another vendor besides Amazon. There is no functional difference between the two formats.
The Sony Reader PRS-900 will talk to Sony's eBook store to purchase/download new eBooks via 3G. But, you don't really need that. All these eBook readers allow you to have many books on the device. So when you finish one eBook, you just go and start another that's already on the device.
AZW is Mobipocket with a slightly different DRM. If you have a DRM free Mobipocket format eBook, the Kindle will work with it.
I generally buy one book at a time, so I can't do that unless I spend more money than I have so I have another one on there. But the Kindle and Nook both allow direct download, and you say the PRS-900 does as well? I'll look into that and see if it's cheaper than the Kindle or Nook. Thanks. ETA: I'm keeping my Sony Reader, and the cheapest I've found Seven Deadly Sins for is $9.99 on B&N, but can I reformat it for the Sony or should I just get it from the next cheapest place (once i download the firmware update) which is the Sony Store for $11.20?? Is there anything else cheaper?