eBook Formats and Readers ?'s

[garoo1980]

I'm looking for a reader that uses e-ink, works with Adobe, Chapters/Amazon and ideally Overdrive for library books. It looks like that doesn't exist right now.

Yep. And it will probably never exist, either, unless Amazon throws out the ebook format they've invested in over the last five years. (Which I'd like to happen but don't expect.)

However, most ebook readers on the market (including the Nook) support everything you listed except Kindle content.

Well then I might have to give up on Amazon as a source then. That sounds like the easiest solution.

Do any of the readers support newspapers? I heard something about Kindle doing that

 

[JWolf]

I have been using my iPod as an eReader. I get my Star Trek books from Kobobooks which has a large selection at reasonable prices. I find it really convenient to use the iPod because I just keep it in my pocket and can read any time and anywhere whenever I have a few minutes.

Kobo has a real problem now. They seem to be using the Candian retail price for the Agency eBooks instead of the US price. Thus, Unspoken Truth is listed at $8.79 which is higher then the $7.99 it should be. Also, Kobo does not have The Needs of the Many in stock.

Also, I've seen prices all over the place for Star Trek eBooks these days for the places that have them. This agency pricing is just a nightmare and not good for the customer.

 

[JWolf]

I'm looking for a reader that uses e-ink, works with Adobe, Chapters/Amazon and ideally Overdrive for library books. It looks like that doesn't exist right now.

Yep. And it will probably never exist, either, unless Amazon throws out the ebook format they've invested in over the last five years. (Which I'd like to happen but don't expect.)

However, most ebook readers on the market (including the Nook) support everything you listed except Kindle content.

Well then I might have to give up on Amazon as a source then. That sounds like the easiest solution.

Do any of the readers support newspapers? I heard something about Kindle doing that

The Sony Reader PRS-900 (aka the Daily Edition) does support newspapers.

 

[garoo1980]

The Sony Reader PRS-900 (aka the Daily Edition) does support newspapers.

Thanks, that might be the perfect device for me. Now can you just it $150 instead? That would be great

 

[Judith Sisko]

Do any of the readers support newspapers? I heard something about Kindle doing that

You can subscribe to certain newspapers (and magazines) on nook. More importantly, nook now has a web browser, so I read my local newspaper on it that way.

ETA: You can try out nook at your local Best Buy now, as well as at Barnes & Noble.

 

[garoo1980]

Given all the problems with publishers setting prices have anyone discussed the possibility of CBS selling the books direct? Or direct through Amazon, etc? I suppose my question is, other than printing and distribution, what does the publisher do? Are the editors all employed by the publisher? Could/would CBS/Paramount want to do that stuff directly?

 

[Defcon]

Since Simon & Schuster is part of the CBS "family" they pretty much are publishing the books directly.

 

[JWolf]

Since Simon & Schuster is part of the CBS "family" they pretty much are publishing the books directly.

Before the Agency model, S&S used to have decent eBook prices. Now they don't. The prices are silly. Thanks Apple.

 

[garoo1980]

Since Simon & Schuster is part of the CBS "family" they pretty much are publishing the books directly.

Before the Agency model, S&S used to have decent eBook prices. Now they don't. The prices are silly. Thanks Apple.

No kidding. I can't find Children of Kings for LESS than the printed sticker price. How can distributing an ebook be as expensive as printing something? Printing and publishing must be a couple bucks of the $10 price right? So is that just pure profit on an ebook?

Oh and Apple apparently don't sell it online in Canada.

 

[ATimson]

How can distributing an ebook be as expensive as printing something? Printing and publishing must be a couple bucks of the $10 price right? So is that just pure profit on an ebook?

Basically. And worse, I can get a retailer to discount a print book - they aren't allowed to do that with an ebook anymore.

 

[Thrawn]

eBooks are a new market, though, and they're trying to figure out where the supply/demand curve is going to fall. It's possible that it'll turn out to be an economic reality that people are willing to pay a lot of money for out of print books, for instance, in electronic form, instead of having to buy them used. It's also possible that it'll turn out to be an economic reality that people are willing to pay the same amount for an eBook as for a novel. The problem is that no one knows yet, and so the publishers are trying to figure it out by (naturally) assuming total control over the process and jacking prices up to the highest possible amount, to see if that works first. Let us all hope that their numbers show that that reduces the profitability of eBook editions, or we're stuck with it for a while.

The other possibility I see is that the publishers are still much more attached to print runs, and don't really understand eBooks yet, and are trying to prevent the eBook market from undercutting the print market before they figure out how to compensate. Which is bullshit, but what can you do?

 

[JWolf]

I see this new agency model driving more people to go to the darknet and downloading eBooks instead of buying them.

 

[garoo1980]

I'm waiting to see what our local library is going to do. They're already pretty up on the downloading content but they're following the ebook market to see what dominates. Hopefully we get a standard system this year that works with everything and that will let them supply the books I need until a descent commercial model arrives.

How can we pay $1 for a song and $10 for a book? That can't be fair.

But to undermine my own point, and completely back up Thrawn, people bitch about $1/song and happily pay $3.50 for a ringtone. Even after you point out that a ringtone is just a 15 sec clip of a song

 

[Thrawn]

^ Right. It hasn't and never will be about "fair", it's about what people are willing to pay, which is often a totally irrational process.

I'll tell you, right now, that I'm probably hurting the situation. I prefer to have the books on Kindle, because I carry that around everywhere, so I'm certainly willing to pay full price for the Kindle editions because they're more convenient than the paper ones. It pisses me off, but I have to admit, if most people are like me, then they probably should be charging the higher prices. I just hope most people aren't...

 

[garoo1980]

I might be the same Thrawn, we'll see when I get one of them fancy ebooks. I think I'd pay more for the convenience. Its too bad its not like a CD you can rip. Or like movies now when you get the digital edition for free. Maybe it will come in time

 

[BrotherBenny]

Borders have now started to advertise the Kobo, for $149. It's all greyscale and has similar features to the Sony eReader from the looks of things, SD slot, USB connection etc, though it does have bluetooth to sync with smartphones.

Wired have said it is a Kindle killer and while I doubt that, since it does not have wireless capabilities, I do agree that it is probably the cheapest eBook reader on the market.

What would be a Kindle killer is a cheap eBook reader with wireless capability, and only the Nook and Kindle have that and they are both too expensive, for my liking at least.

 

[garoo1980]

Borders have now started to advertise the Kobo, for $149. It's all greyscale and has similar features to the Sony eReader from the looks of things, SD slot, USB connection etc, though it does have bluetooth to sync with smartphones.

Wired have said it is a Kindle killer and while I doubt that, since it does not have wireless capabilities, I do agree that it is probably the cheapest eBook reader on the market.

What would be a Kindle killer is a cheap eBook reader with wireless capability, and only the Nook and Kindle have that and they are both too expensive, for my liking at least.

I was looking at the Kobo on the weekend. It does seem like a good device to me. The only drawback is exactly what you mentioned, the lack of wireless. You have to sync it to get any content to it. So in that way I guess its like an iPod, not a Touch. I would be happy with a Kobo I know it, but not if something came on the market that had wireless support and could read newspapers for the same price. But as we discussed earlier in the thread the Sony model is the only option but its $300.

It seems like 2011 will be a much better time to buy something. Some company will come up with a killer product

 

[BrotherBenny]

A Kindle/Nook killer is an eReader in that $150-200 range which has wireless capability and not necessarily all the bells and whistles that the Kindle and Nook do.

All I'm really asking for is a simple eReader with wireless capability. I'm not really bothered about whether it plays music, reads to me, allows me to make notes or look up words I don't know. Once I see one of those for the right price, I'm going to get it. Until then I'm sticking with my Sony 505 which does what I need it to for the most part.

 

[terpette]

I'm planning to get a new netbook and run the Kindle app for Windows on it to read ebooks. That's a free app, and netbooks are so small you can practically put them in your pockets these days.

Karen

 

[garoo1980]

I found a program called Calibre that seems really good. Its main use is to convert all the different ebook formats from one to another but as a perk it also downloads newspapers. I think this might make the Kobo the best option for me. Wireless newspaper support would be better but I can sync this thing in the morning before I leave for work, that's no big deal. And calibre is free