big reader - thinking about reading ebooks... suggestions? [Archive]

disconnected

02-20-2005, 07:14 PM

When I got me first PPC in 2000, reading ebooks was way, way down the list of things I wanted it for, even though I've always read a lot, and never went anywhere without having a book with me. I downloaded a couple of books in MSLit format, just because I could :) , read a couple of pages, decided it was kind of strange, and forgot all about them. Several months later I was on a plane at night, and my overhead light didn't work. I finally remembered the ebooks, and started reading. Because I was a captive audience at the time, I ignored the strangeness of it all, and kept reading. It only took about fifteen minutes to totally forget the medium, and become absorbed in the content. Since then I've been hooked. It's true that you do have to be somewhat aware of battery usage, so I do carry a spare with me, although I've rarely had to use it. I always leave the PPC plugged in overnight (have an extra cord right by my bed). It's great to be able to always have lots of books with me, and to be able to read in places that aren't well lit.

As far as readers go, my preference is ereader, not so much for the app itself, but because the DRM is the least intrusive. Because it's tied to a credit card number, I don't have to worry about how many devices I go through, and although I wouldn't give my credit card number to a lot of people, I can at least share books with my husband.

zilla31

02-20-2005, 07:18 PM

can mobipocket and ereader be installed on a storage card (so i don't feel bad installing both?).

ps this is exactly the kind of testimony i was hoping to get - thanks!

zilla31

02-20-2005, 08:29 PM

also - does a VGA screen make a huge difference for reading ebooks?

JD Silver

02-20-2005, 09:46 PM

I've been reading ebooks for several years and really enjoy the medium. There are several advantages...

1. Pick your font size.
2. No external light required at night, so my spouse sleeps better!
3. Use a built in dictionary to look up words that you may normally not bother to check.
4. Use the 'net (ask.com or wikepedia) to obtain deeper explainations as desired.
5. No bookshelf space required to store the book.
6. Books are always with me, since my Pocket PC Phone and I are inseparable.

Battery power is a limiting factor, but I usually reduce my processor speed while reading, since the reader doesn't need it. My favorite reader is Mobipocket, which is always installed on an expansion card with the library. The Pro version includes a PC based news clipping service that works MUCH FASTER than AvantGo.

I tried to use MS Reader at first, but the page formatting speed when you open a book drove me nuts.

surur

02-20-2005, 11:21 PM

Ebooks are the best. The real beauty of e-books is having your library with you wherever you are. If you spend any time travelling or waiting in a queue, you can read a page or two. Its amazing how quickly a book flies by like this.

The other advantages have already been mentioned, but being able to easily read in bed without disturbing your partner is invaluable. Also PDA's are actually lighter than most books, especially hard cover books.

It sounds as if you have not decided on a PDA yet. A jog dial is also very useful to turn pages (although e-reader has an auto-scroll thing which is quite useful).

I have not found battery life to be a big problem. At night you can only read a few hours in any case, and most pda's will last 8-12 hours with low backlight and no wireless. I would not recommend reading more than this in one session in any case ;-)

http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/image/vga-comparing/battery-s.png
http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/vga-comparing-en.shtml

Surur

zilla31

02-21-2005, 12:36 AM

ok you all are being so helpful i thought i'd ask one more question: what's the deal w/ all these formats to choose from? most make sense - like mobipocket etc., but what is "secure" mobipocket etc.?

surur

02-21-2005, 01:29 AM

I dont use mobi-pocket, I use e-reader, but I assume secure means some Digital Restrictions Management, to make sure you dont resell or redistribute the book on P2P networks. You should read their terms and conditions, where Im sure the restrictions are explained.

ereader is thought to have the best DRM of the lot, being tied to a highly personal number (your Credit card number) and not your device or a "passport".

Surur

zilla31

02-21-2005, 02:24 AM

Mona13

02-21-2005, 02:32 AM

I usually have about 4-6 new e-books on my PPC. I used to buy from several places, but now I stick with ereader. As said above, the DRM is much easier to deal with. I also like their bookshelf that stores all of my previously purchased books. It can be sorted different ways.

I purchased around $70 of MSReader books (it was a really good sale) and I wasn't able to read them for about a week because of the re-activation process. I haven't bought a MSReader book since. But, I'm not saying I won't. If there as an book or author that is only available in Reader and I want to read the book, I might re-activate it on my new PPC, but it's been 3 or 4 PPC's back since I had it active.

As far as battery life, I have a Dell x50v. I also have a power cable by my bed and a spare battery although even on a heavy reading day I haven't had to use it more than a couple of times. I bought the car charger too, but I haven't had to use it either, and I read alot.

I haven't bought a paper book since my first PPC, when the 3600 first came out.

Convenience, weight, not having to have a light on, and having quite a few books available when I finish one, I love it!

Mona

zilla31

02-21-2005, 02:38 AM

mona - don't you find the selection a bit lacking though in available ebooks? i can't imagine being able to totally give up the paper - until every new book (or at least most) comes out electronically when they hit the stores... thanks so much though.

about your x50v though - do you think the VGA screen makes a big difference in reading ebooks? i have a 4150.

uzetaab

02-21-2005, 04:21 AM

I'm a fairly recent ebook convert. Yeah, the main problem I'm having is when a book is not available electronically. At the moment I'm reading a paperback for that reason. but I really miss reading on my PDA when it's on paper. Three things that always annoyed me with paper were having to turn pages & that curve near the spine of the book & how a book will not stay open if you don't hold it.

So switching to PDA, you can do it one handed. you don't need your other hand to change pages, the pages don't flip over if you don't hold it, & the screen is flat.

As for the books not being available, When you do all your book shopping on an ebook website, you won't notice when a book is not available. As for having to use different readers, I haven't worried about it much because most books are released in more than one format & if they aren't, the readers don't take up much room, so you could have all of the ones available instastalled without haveing to sacrifice anything else, like music files.

One drawback that hasn't been mentioned is reading in the sun. I'm sure I don't need to explain why it's inconvienient, but I will mention that I do read my PDA in the sun & manage ok.

Battery life hasn't been a problem for me because the battery life when reading is really long. How often does anybody read for more than 8 hours in one sitting? If your still worried, when your reading, turn off infrared, wifi, bluetooth, turn your processor speed & contrast down, & stop any other running applications. Aside from that, as long as you charge your PDA at any opportunity, like you should, you shouldn't have any problems.

As for prices, Fictionwise have weekly discounts, any new release is on special for a week, buy a membership & you get discounts on every purchase, let them email the full weekly newsletter, you get a weekly chance to win a $100 gift voucher & finally they often do short surveys for a discount coupon. Add to that no more delivery charges, from amazon or where-ever & not having to go out of your way to visit a bookshop, which costs you time & money. All that adds up to a significant saving over a year.

Can I suggest that you just go buy yourself a couple of ebooks & see for yourself how you like it. If you decide to stick to paper, what did it cost you? 10 or 20 bucks?

Actually paying for the books should give you enough incentive to give ebooks a proper trial. & make sure you buy books in different formats so that you can see which reader you like best.

Oh yeah, & secured means what that other person thought, it's a licience. When you buy a book from fictionwise, the secured books will only available in the format you buyt it in. The un-secured books will be available in any format & you can re-download the books later if you need to. The secured in the same format the un-secured in any format.

Fictionwise also has a bookshelf that you can organise into catagories.

My prefired reader is Mobipocket & my prefired website is fictionwise.

SteveHoward999

02-21-2005, 06:34 AM

I have tried several different reader software, but prefer MS Reader over them all. I like the way it looks (font) and how it works compared to others. I love the linked-in dictionary.

DRM is a pain, but as mentioend in most of these threads you can de-DRM MS Reader books.

Fictionwise is a great site for books. www.baen.com has about 100 free books if you like to read sci-fi/fantasy. A great place to start if you want to dip your toe without spending any money.

keelinlee

02-21-2005, 11:49 AM

ok - so essentially i buy the book from fictionwise (just make sure it's in a format i have the reader for), and as long as i don't distribute it there's nothing special i have to do? it looks like it pays to have multiple readers - one author i looked up had some works in one reader and others in another... what a mess!

also - why are ebooks equally as expensive (save a dollar or so) as paperback counterparts? makes no sense! once the book is in electronic format it's essentially 100% profit for each sale at that point... i would have guessed ebooks would be half the cost... maybe some day :)

You seem to forget that the Publisher may do 100% profit, but not the retail website !!! If you add the fees for the electronic payment and for the reading system (the company producing the Reading software also sells the DRM technology), the VAT in some countries, the retail website maintenance (it's an independant company), the technical support... you cannot imagine an eBook will be sold few cents.

Moreover, some eBooks (dictionaries, medical or reference guides) have more functionalities that the paper equivalent. They require time (and money) to be published. These eBooks should be more expensive than the paper book, but they are not.

Don't forget that the general litterature eBooks you read are totally re-typped by poor guys in India. Who here thinks the book content was digital ?
For those who don't know, most of the authors send word or PDF to their publishers, but the publishers send the files to the printers and then delete them !!! Some very few publisher now understand the profit they can do if they keep a copy of the digital file!!!

Just a few words about the so-called DRM for eReader...
This is not a DRM, this is a password based protection.
It does not work with the european widely used "electronic credit card". You ask your bank to generate you a temporary credit card number to purchase anything on the Internet, so that your real credit card number never appears on the web.
The main problem is that if you loose the CC number, nobody on earth will be able to give it back to you. Your book is lost.
Or you can share the eBook + the CC number on any IRC chat...
What a DRM !!!

juni

02-21-2005, 12:33 PM

I use the MS Reader (with the tweaks2k hack to make it work in VGA) and buy my books from fictionwise (without drm). I would use ereader.com but their reader doesn't support VGA devices...so until they fix it they'll lose money.

surur

02-21-2005, 12:39 PM

Just a few words about the so-called DRM for eReader...
This is not a DRM, this is a password based protection.
It does not work with the european widely used "electronic credit card". You ask your bank to generate you a temporary credit card number to purchase anything on the Internet, so that your real credit card number never appears on the web.
The main problem is that if you loose the CC number, nobody on earth will be able to give it back to you. Your book is lost.
Or you can share the eBook + the CC number on any IRC chat...
What a DRM !!!

This is clearly a special circumstance for some-one who is more cautious than most. Also I believe eReader allows you to change the credit card you use for authentification at their website to a new current CC. Their system always seemed fair to me. The beauty of the system is that you can give the number to some-one you trust (like your partner) to use on their PDA, so they can read the book even at the same time as you do. Seems fair enough to me.

The only real disadvantage vs a paper book is that you can not give books away to friends or people you dont realy trust, and you can not sell them on again. This may actually be a big deal if you have a very large library and like e-bay. Or it may not if you never do that in any case.

The real problem is that they may not always have the book you want available in electronic form. This is really irritating, as often if one e-store does not have it, all of them do not have it. You may actually be more likely to find a pirated electronic copy than the actual book on sale some times. At other times the ebook is actually on sale before the physical book (e.g. I believe the da vinci code). The high cost of many ebooks is also a problem, but they seem to get discounted quite deeply in a few months.

Surur

keelinlee

02-21-2005, 04:27 PM

I once purchased an eBook in eReader format (that was a long time ago), I wanted to change my CC number, and I am still waiting for the answer from Palm !!

Now, I switched to Mobipocket.
I download my eBooks for my PDA (Palm T5) and my smartphone (a Nokia 9500), and I don't care about anything else.

If a friend of mine wants to read the same eBook, I can give him/her my PDA (not my smarpthone, I need it too much 8) ) for a moment, and I advise him/her to go to the ebookwise website to lend the eBook for 3 weeks, or purchase a copy.

And I'm sure my CC number never appears on the Internet or in any config file on a PDA.

Islanti

02-21-2005, 06:51 PM

Another vote for Fictionwise and MSReader.

disconnected

02-21-2005, 08:29 PM

I use an older version of ereader -- 2.4.1. It works quite well with the tweaks2k2 hack. The bottom bar is very small, but everything else is fine.

I was under the impression that you could change your credit card and reset the code automatically, without human intervention, but I've never actually tried it. I can see that there would be a problem if this isn't the case, because the one unfortunate thing about ereader right now is that as far as I can see, there is nobody there that responds to emails. They have a "contact us" page, where you can ask questions, but they never get answered. In the old days before it was sold, it was Peanut Press and much more responsive. I'm not too optimistic about an official VGA version anytime soon.

Just by reading this thread it's easy to see why ebook sales aren't growing as fast as they could be. Incompatible formats, software not being updated for new devices, and inconvenient or incomprehensible DRM. And because of all that, not enough titles for those of us willing to buy them. If people here find this annoying, I can't even imagine total technophobes bothering with ebooks at all.

Steve Jordan

02-22-2005, 05:21 AM

Any thoughts about using Acrobat on PDAs? I've converted my own novels to tagged PDFs, and have had mixed success reading them (Acrobat tends to "jump" pages sometimes).

Jorgen

02-22-2005, 08:22 AM

Any thoughts about using Acrobat on PDAs?

No thanks. I don't bother downloading PDF novels - only stuff like technical articles and books that I would read on a PC anyway. PDF is a printer output format, not an ebooks format.

The ebooks I make for myself, I make in iSilo or Reader format.

Jorgen

zilla31

02-24-2005, 01:54 PM

ok i've been trying this out for a few days now and i'm starting to get the hang of it (and really like it for all the reasons you guys/gals stated). i have a question though - is reading better on a VGA screen? if so in what ways? just wondering if this is the final push i need to get an x50v :)

disconnected

02-24-2005, 04:24 PM

Yes and no. In theory, the print should be much smoother. In reality, I don't think any of the readers are yet optimized for VGA. I'm using the tweaks2k hi-res hack on an old version of ereader (2.4.1), but I don't think it works on the new version. I've tried the same hack on Mobipocket, but the print is too small for me, although I think it's possible to find larger fonts to install. I think the hack works on MSReader too, but I can't remember if I've tried it.

Since I use ereader constantly, it was worth the trouble, but I really wish that developers would start programming for VGA.

Islanti

02-24-2005, 06:22 PM

I can confirm the Tweaks2K2 VGA hack works with MSReader. It didn't change the font any, but the spacing and touchscreen reliability was much improved.

Steve Jordan

02-24-2005, 10:12 PM

I don't understand why Acrobat would be so undesireable for eBook formatting. Yes, it was originally designed for printing, but it has evolved into much more. It even reflows text, making it easy to read on a PDA. Acrobat doesn't need to be registered, Passported, credit-carded, etc. And it's one of the most ubiquitous formats out there.

Like Disconnected commented, too many formats and incompatible readers is only hurting this market... or keeping it from growing. It seems like Acrobat should be the runaway favorite here. But even Adobe doesn't seem to understand this fully.

Case in point: I've recently tried transferring a tagged PDF (which will reflow) from Acrobat 7 into my PPC 2002 PDA. The tags drop out, killing reflowing. Previous versions of Acrobat didn't have this problem.

I can't imagine how this field is ever going to develop like this. Am I wrong?

Jorgen

02-25-2005, 08:16 AM

too many formats and incompatible readers is only hurting this market

No, DRM is hurting the market as any kind of DRM will one day prevent you from reading your books in that format for whatever reason.

Many readers is not a problem. They don't take up much space and I find it nice to change once in a while - just like the different binding on pbooks gives a different feel to the reading. I read books on a Palm and on PPCs with iSilo as the main reader but I like MS Reader despite its many faults (somehow like a leatherbound book? clumsy, heavy but looks very nice? or am I overdoing it?) and I like eReader. I would probably also like MobiPocket if I started using it again.

Acrobat has no advantages at all, so why bother with it unless you are forced to.

Jorgen

zilla31

02-25-2005, 01:33 PM

i have been using isilo for a long while now to clip web pages (daily) - how do i use it to read ebooks? i guess i don't mean how do i use it (that's obvious) but where do you get books isilo can read (that aren't in a particular format etc.)??

Jorgen

02-26-2005, 08:25 AM

You can make iSilo books with iSiloX (free download from http://www.isilox.com). The ebook can be a text or html file on yout computer or web-pages on the Internet. If you want to make your "own" newspaper, get the index with hundreds of links at http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513.

Readymade iSilo (and many other formats) books can be downloaded free of charge from for example http://www.blackmask.com or http://www.memoware.com/. If you sign up with Fictionwise, they will give you some free ebooks, which you can get in for example iSilo format.

Jorgen

Steve Jordan

02-26-2005, 01:23 PM

Acrobat has no advantages at all, so why bother with it unless you are forced to.

What that says to me is, "I have 5 readers, so why do I need 6?" To me, that doesn't seem like much of an answer.

But how 'bout this: Acrobat doesn't use DRM. And the PDF format is already popular, established, platform-independent and used worldwide. I'd call that two pretty good advantages.

SteveHoward999

02-26-2005, 06:19 PM

But how 'bout this: Acrobat doesn't use DRM. And the PDF format is already popular, established, platform-independent and used worldwide. I'd call that two pretty good advantages.

Are you certain of this? I have seen secure Acrobat files on numerous occasions ... not that I have ever bought any. So they are secure but not DRMed?

I use Acrobat for reading research papers and that's about it. I find it awful for reading on PPC .... slow, clunky, don't like the font.

terrypin

02-26-2005, 07:48 PM

In my impatience to rant a bit about this subject earlier today I forgot about this specialised forum and posted in Software:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=37946

Apart from DRM/protection and incompatible proprietorial formats, and the hassle that can arise if you crash or change device or credit card, other factors that frustrate me are:

Inconsistent extensions I know what extensions like XLS, DOC, TXT, PDF, etc all mean. But what the heck is inside a PDB file, and accordingly what should I use to read it with?

Folder/file locations Some readers are highly restrictive as to where I can locate my ebooks, others moderately so, and a few seem to follow the obviously sound approach (that's been virtually universal for decades in most PC applications) of allowing complete flexibility.

Indifference to other programs One of my favourite ways of navigating and opening stuff on my PPC is with Resco Explorer. But that's quite difficult due to some programs' poor, non-standard book-opening facilities.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Steven Cedrone

02-26-2005, 07:59 PM

Jorgen

02-26-2005, 08:51 PM

Acrobat has no advantages at all, so why bother with it unless you are forced to.

What that says to me is, "I have 5 readers, so why do I need 6?" To me, that doesn't seem like much of an answer.

Oh, no - I like using different readers (even different PDAs) though I have my favourites.

PDF is paged according to a given size of paper and is therefore a very nice printer output format; real ebook readers are formatted for the screen you read it on. Some acrobat files can be reflowed, but this is a slow process and the tagging makes the file bigger. The PDF reader I use does not have booksmarks, a must for an ebook reader. The reader is BIG compared to other readers.

I use Acrobat for reading technical papers because that is the format they come in. However, if a novel come in PDF only, I very often don't bother to download it as I am unlikely to read it. If I really want to read a given novel and have an email address, I email the author and ask to get it in HTML or Word and usually get it.

Jorgen

Steve Jordan

02-27-2005, 03:47 AM

It's the reflowing that makes PDF files readable on a PPC... I've tried it, and it's not bad at all. The look of the pages obviously depends on the font in the PDF file, but as that's selectable when making the PDF, it's very flexible. And it's true they don't have bookmarks, but when you close Acrobat on a PPC, it reopens on the page you closed, so that's not so bad.

Acrobat also allows varied levels of security, restricting anything from simple printing, to copying and extracting. You can, for instance, set a PDF file to be opened only by a password. So you can enact a form of DRM if you desire, and you don't have to worry about the loss of a passport, or the reformatting of a hard drive (provided the document is backed up somewhere else, and you don't forget the password).

Most of my PDFs, including my novels, are created from Word files and tagged for reflowing. That makes them as easy to read as any other e-book on my PPC.

As far as not reading novels in undesirable formats... I don't download many novels at all, because dealing with the vast number of formats, seemingly one for every ebook publisher or kind of content, multiple incompatible readers, etc, is not worth my trouble. I don't need different kinds of gear to read paper novels by different publishers, and until ebooks are as efficient as that, the heck with it. One easy-to-use universal format is enough, and I can wait until there is one.

(Didn't mean to get preachy, but hey... I waste enough time with badly-designed computer hardware and software, and life's too short.)

Jorgen

02-27-2005, 08:43 AM

If you want only one format that is universal (and don't use DRM), go for Palm DOC format (PDB). It can be read on iSilo, eReader, MobiPocket, uBook etc. and read on Pocket-PC, Palm, Sharp, Psion, Franklin ... The disadvantage is that there is no fancy font but that is usually not important in novels.

Jorgen

PS. Most of your links from your novels are not working!

Steve Jordan

02-27-2005, 03:28 PM

PS. Most of your links from your novels are not working!

Yeah, I know... I'm in the process of making some changes to the site, including how the novels are presented. They should be back up soon.

And thanks for the format suggestions, that sounds like a step in the right direction.

uzetaab

02-27-2005, 04:31 PM

Hmm. People seem to have two main complaints about ebooks

DRM & format incompatabilities.

I can't say I've noticed many books that are only available in one format or another. Most of the books I've seen seem to be in at least 3 or 4 formats, which means that in most cases, you can get the book for your prefered reader, or 2nd favourite.

The other problem is DRM. I really don't see what the big deal is. How many people read a book more than once anyway? You might read a really good one a few times, but for me at least, there aren't many of those. So you read a DRM book & then if you change your PDA later(or whatever the cause is), & your DRM code changes. You don't need to re-unlock a book that you've already read. The only ones that are a problem are the book you are reading & the ones that you've already bought & not read yet. It's not a lot of effort to do that for a handful.

The other complaint people seem to have is with loaning them to friends. Personally I never liked doing that anyway, because lots of people either keep them for a really long time or never give them back at all.

I don't know the other readers very well, but with mobipocket, it's easy to 'loan' it to other peoplewho have PDAs.You have 3 devices listed for the DRM & can change the device code & re-download it as many times as you want. So I could add my friends DRM to my account, download it & then change it to another friend's & download it again. Now I have 2 files with different DRM codes on them. plus my PC & PPC thats four codes & I can keep changing the code until I run out of friends with PDAs/smartphones etc.

It seems to me that the pros far outweigh the cons for ebooks. The one true problem, in my opinion, is novels not being released in ebook format. but I have a couple of good arguments for that to. most new ideas take some time before they become a standard. DVDs took of like crazy but not so long ago there was only a small selection of movies available. As smartphones become more popular (because everyone has mobiles already), you will probably see a big jump in the number of ebooks available.
The other one is that just becuase you read ebooks doesn't mean you can't still read paper books too.

anyway, I babble on too much. I'll shut up now.

Steve Jordan

02-27-2005, 06:03 PM

How many people read a book more than once anyway?

Actually, I re-read a lot of my books, some as many as half a dozen times over the years. That's why I keep them after I read them, as opposed to throwing them away as soon as I'm done. Don't you know anyone who keeps their books?

I don't know the other readers very well, but with mobipocket, it's easy to 'loan' it to other peoplewho have PDAs.You have 3 devices listed for the DRM & can change the device code & re-download it as many times as you want. So I could add my friends DRM to my account, download it & then change it to another friend's & download it again. Now I have 2 files with different DRM codes on them. plus my PC & PPC thats four codes & I can keep changing the code until I run out of friends with PDAs/smartphones etc.

Man, I got dizzy just reading all that! Anyway, it's not loaning I'm concerned about (I never get my books back either), it's re-downloading or re-paying for a book if your PC or PDA changes. If I can't simply transfer the e-book I've purchased to another drive or reader, I don't want it.

I realize that's putting a lot of trust in people to not abuse the system, but libraries have operated on that same trust system for a few years. I think it's worth the risk to publishers to make e-books as easy to buy, use, and save, as humanly possible.

iTunes has demonstrated that making your product cheap enough to minimize the desire to "borrow" or "steal" them has proven to be a workable system. And there, we're also talking about 1 format that plays on all players. Maybe the e-book system should be looking at iTunes for inspiration as to making this a viable and healthy market.

surur

02-27-2005, 09:00 PM

iTunes has demonstrated that making your product cheap enough to minimise the desire to "borrow" or "steal" them has proven to be a workable system. And there, we're also talking about 1 format that plays on all players. Maybe the e-book system should be looking at iTunes for inspiration as to making this a viable and healthy market.

I was with you until you mentioned Itunes. Itunes is chock full of Digital Restrictions Management. A simple example: can you play your bought track on a pocketpc? The answer is no, and it not due to lack of horsepower or available codecs. Its just that Apple has restricted you to playing the song only on an Ipod when mobile. (Yes, I know you can burn and rip the song, but then you can take 500 screen shots of all the pages of an ebook and OCR it too, and it would be just as convenient).

About libraries, I dont see people being able to wander in and out at will being able to pick up books and return them when (if) they want. They have those gates at the checkout counter, and before they give you a card they want proof of ID and address.

Anyways, there is not much cost in having a variety of readers on your pocketpc. Its a general purpose computer, not a dedicated unit. The only reason i have bought a physical book in recent months was because the book has not come out in ebook version yet. That is the only real disadvantages of ebooks.

Surur

BTW, if you want to see tunes sold by a major artist in a standard format, with no DRM, and even available in lossless FLAC, check out Sarah Mclachlan website. I did a double take when I saw that, and went to her label's website to make sure it was not a scam of some kind.

https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/index.jsp

Jorgen

02-27-2005, 09:07 PM

Steve Jordan wrote:Actually, I re-read a lot of my books, some as many as half a dozen times over the years.

As do I with the best of them!

Jorgen
[/quote]

disconnected

02-27-2005, 10:31 PM

Once in a while I go back and reread some of my favorite authors, like Agatha Christie. I'm old enough now that I usually can't remember whodunnit. :) I donate most of my hardcopy books after I've read them, so I've probably bought three or four copies of most of the Christies. Now I'm buying all her ebooks as Perfectbound is releasing them, and I'm hoping that I'll still be able to read them several years from now.

Ebooks are kind of expensive, but I'm addicted. I too just wish that there were more of them. Probably less than twenty percent of the new books I want to read are available as ebooks. Given the choice, I'd like to buy more like eighty or ninety percent of my books as ebooks (still need paperbacks for when planes are taking off, etc.).

zilla31

02-28-2005, 01:20 AM

wow - who ever thought i'd kick off such a conversation :)

anyways - a few quick thoughts - i am really enjoying the experience w/ mobipocket so far. i think for a while i'll be kind of 50/50 w/ ebooks and paper - but it only took me one night of reading to really forget that i was reading on my PPC... i def recommend anyone thinking about switching def give it some time - for the first couple of hours i said to myself "this isn't going to work for me" about 10x :) but that went away for good.

a random thought about reading books over (e or not) - i really, really wish my memory served me better - i hate that i forget most of my favorite parts of my favorite books over the years because it's REALLY hard for me to go back to a book a second time - for the simple fact that i have SO many books i want to read (my listpro list usually adds 4-5 per subtraction) - i never feel good giving a current slot to a re-read when i'm usually so excited to read something new :(

uzetaab

02-28-2005, 04:57 AM

Actually, I re-read a lot of my books, some as many as half a dozen times over the years. That's why I keep them after I read them, as opposed to throwing them away as soon as I'm done. Don't you know anyone who keeps their books?

Man, I got dizzy just reading all that! Anyway, it's not loaning I'm concerned about (I never get my books back either), it's re-downloading or re-paying for a book if your PC or PDA changes. If I can't simply transfer the e-book I've purchased to another drive or reader, I don't want it.

iTunes has demonstrated that making your product cheap enough to minimize the desire to "borrow" or "steal" them has proven to be a workable system. And there, we're also talking about 1 format that plays on all players. Maybe the e-book system should be looking at iTunes for inspiration as to making this a viable and healthy market.

Yeah, I have over 500 books in the other room, but I have only re-read maybe 50 of them. If I re-read them all, I would never read anything new.

Yeah, I did make that sound more complicated than it is. Let me put it this way. if I buy a new PDA, I change the DRM code & re-download the book. It takes a couple of minutes tops. Fictionwise will build a zip file for you too, so if you wanna re-download 10 books, you just tag them & click zip & download. & you only have to change the DRM for your account, not each book. Another advantage to being able to re-download books is that if you had a fire, you wouldn't loose your library permanently.

I must say I agree with you there, it would be nice if they had a fairly standard format, like wma or mp3, but not aac. Itunes only play on ipod like someone said. but like they also said, the readers are free, & they aren't large programs, so the format really isn't a big deal.

Steve Jordan

03-01-2005, 02:23 AM

Okay, mea culpa, maybe iTunes wasn't the best of examples, because of their DRM and proprietary format. My point in mentioning iTunes was their ability to sell a song cheaply and easily enough to take the incentive out of "borrowing" songs for many people. In doing so, they dealt a serious blow to illegal downloading and sharing of music, and gave e-music a financial and PR shot in the arm.

Same thing applies to libraries: Sure, you have to get a library card; Sure, you have to check in and out; but the whole process is so cheap and easy, most people are honest about using their services, because it benefits them. Historically speaking, cheap and easy goes a long way towards making people honest.

My point, again, is that if eBooks are easy enough to buy and read on any reader (and BTW, if they are priced low enough), DRM will be less needed because the incentive to "borrow" books from others will be lessened.