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Malaleb posted:That's very noble of you, I guess, but buying used books is no different than buying used anything else in that regard.
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# ? Apr 2, 2011 09:20 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 05:14 |
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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:Yeah, it's just a personal quirk that I started thinking about recently, but I probably came off as a douchebag with that post. I doubt that content creators care all that much since used media brings in new fans and makes it possible to get things that are out of print. A lot of people do come off as douchebags with the "well I'm a billionaire so I prefer that the author get some money from my purchase " thing but you seem to be aware of that and avoided it ok. That said - if they're popular enough to sell used books in any appreciable amount, they're doing very very well as far as writing books goes. And also their books are probably in every library system in the country anyway.
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# ? Apr 2, 2011 12:15 |
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I bought my new kindle today. Haven't read anything yet but so far I'm impressed. I love the light in the cover. I just hope I don't regret wifi only. My kindle 2 international had a lot of not at home book buying, but I think that was just because it could rather than something I'll actively miss.
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# ? Apr 2, 2011 22:19 |
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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:Yeah, it's just a personal quirk that I started thinking about recently, but I probably came off as a douchebag with that post. I doubt that content creators care all that much since used media brings in new fans and makes it possible to get things that are out of print. quote:I bought my new kindle today. Haven't read anything yet but so far I'm impressed. I love the light in the cover. Besides that, I've had my kindle work at the hotels I've stayed at.
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# ? Apr 2, 2011 22:35 |
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I got my kindle for xmas and it was the 3g model, I would have gotten the wifi model myself and really all my purchases are over wifi. The 3g has only come in handy when I need a really, really, cheesy webbrowser in a deadzone.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 00:24 |
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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:Yeah, it's just a personal quirk that I started thinking about recently, but I probably came off as a douchebag with that post. I doubt that content creators care all that much since used media brings in new fans and makes it possible to get things that are out of print. I don't want to be part of a huge derail but when I saw this quoted below I had to comment anyway. I'm a content creator, Video Games specifically. When I see the number of studios who do good work but just don't sell enough and have to close after releasing a game (or even before sometimes.) and then see Game Stop have another record quarter with a huge percent of their revenue from their used sales, it gets to me. Now this isn't quite analogous to eBooks mostly because there isn't one huge chain that makes up the used book sales, but your wording of content creators struck a slight nerve. De-Rail over.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 14:42 |
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I'm looking for an e-reader to keep me occupied while I'm in the suck this summer. Some key features I'm looking for are: 1.) MUST WORK IN EUROPE. Being stationed in Germany means I'll need to buy a U.S. localized reader but I want to make absolute sure I can buy an e-book from an e-book vendor and it will work on whatever e-reader I get. 2.) Compatibility. I'd like an e-reader that will read all e-book formats without any hassles. I guess Calibre more than less handles this for me according to my understanding. Does Calibre will auto-convert a non-supported e-book format to a format your reader supports? 3.) Illuminated readers would be nice. It doesn't need to be backlit screens, but perhaps in integrated light? 4.) Storage. I really don't see myself buying 4 gigs worth of books but I want the security to know that if I did I would be hosed by a finite, non-expandable device. 5.) Battery life. This is probably my least ranked concern as most of these readers should get at least 10+ hours of battery life with the wifi turned off and only being used as a reader. I'm leaning towards the Kindle because it's aesthetically pleasing, but I need to start shopping for things based on features I want, and the features I want are location compatability, e-book format compatability, light sources, storage, and battery life.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 16:19 |
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Yes, Calibre will convert ebooks into the format that your reader uses. Kindle doesn't handle most pdf's well, but I get around that by using Adobe Reader to save the pdf as a txt file, and then sending that to the Kindle via Calibre.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 20:05 |
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It seems like a Sony reader is what I'd want for features. Sure they don't have wifi but I don't need that on a dedicated reader. I like how Sony declares they are trying to remain 'open-source' and allow as many formats as possible, but their loving prices for the four year old PRS-505 are still in the mid 200s! Get real!
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 20:45 |
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Packard Goose posted:I'm looking for an e-reader to keep me occupied while I'm in the suck this summer. The Kindle fails on almost every point, but should still come out on top. 1) The 3g version works great in Europe. The wifi version, well, anywhere with wifi really. BUT you can't just buy an ebook on any ebook store and know it will work. Format issues and DRM issues get in the way. That said, the Amazon store is probably the Kindle's #1 feature. 2) Other than DRM issues, Calibre sorts this out. DRM issues i'm clueless about personally as I tend to use amazon or DRM free options, but I have heard it's not THAT difficult to remove DRM on an ebook you buy, so... Any reader will be about the same here, so it won't separate them for you i'm afraid. 3) The Kindle 3's case is awesome here. The light is powered by the kindle itself! 4) Can't expand the memory, but come on. I once had over 30 pages of books on my kindle, and still hadn't nearly filled it. And that was a Kindle 2, not 3. The 3GB it gives you is more than enough, especially if you use it as a book reader and don't mess around trying to put audiobooks on it (why would you bother?) or anything. 3500 books sounds like a lot. In reality, 100 books is a lot. 3500 is an unimaginable number. Even with categories, you couldn't have them all easily accessible. Assuming you are a veracious reader, reading 2 books a week, it's still 35 years worth of books. I doubt many people alive have read 3500 full sized novels! So yeah, Kindle fails here, but it really doesn't matter in the real world. 5) They quote a month with the wifi/3g turned off. The claim on the Kindle 2 was around 2-3 weeks with everything turned off. I charged mine about once every 4-5 weeks, and I'm a heavy reader. So yeah, when it runs out of battery you'll be shocked. And feel dumb, seeing as it will have shown as low for a week at least! All e-ink readers have awesome batteries though, so this isn't a real issue unless one explicitly has a bad battery. Fire In The Disco posted:Yes, Calibre will convert ebooks into the format that your reader uses. As long as they are DRM free / DRM stripped.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 20:47 |
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Packard Goose posted:It seems like a Sony reader is what I'd want for features. Sure they don't have wifi but I don't need that on a dedicated reader. I like how Sony declares they are trying to remain 'open-source' and allow as many formats as possible, but their loving prices for the four year old PRS-505 are still in the mid 200s! Get real! Open source and tons of formats sounds nice, but ultimately there are a small number of stores you'll want to shop in. The Sony store will only work on Sonys, the B&N on Nook and the Amazon store on kindle. This is without DRM stripping or whatever. Those other stores out there? They will all tend to offer multiple formats, making sure that sony, kindle and nook readers can all get their stuff. They'd be silly not to really. Your best bet is to go on each of the 3 major device's main stores and having a browse through what's available. Most of your purchasing will almost certainly be through a device specific store.
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# ? Apr 3, 2011 20:49 |
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Aren't Sony and B+N purchases compatible with each other's readers, as well as a bunch of smaller stores? I haven't personally tried, most of mine are from B+N which has a pretty good selection (but incidentally tends to be a little pricier than Amazon). Anyway, if it doesn't work just strip the DRM and load it.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 01:48 |
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Memory doesn't matter on the Kindle since you can just delete books you're not reading and then redownload them anywhere you happen to be in a couple minutes whenever you feel like reading them.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 02:12 |
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Masonity posted:[re: calibre conversions] Calibre has plugins... Just saying.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 03:21 |
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maxnmona posted:Memory doesn't matter on the Kindle since you can just delete books you're not reading and then redownload them anywhere you happen to be in a couple minutes whenever you feel like reading them. Memory doesn't matter anyway since it can hold 3500 books. If you can read two per week that's 35 years of books. Hell, if you read a book per day that's 9 years of books.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 04:03 |
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http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13292040quote:J.K. Rowing's agent says the best-selling author is considering making the "Harry Potter" books available electronically. So who is going to write the bigger check to get these exclusively, Amazon, Apple, or B&Noble? I suppose they could come out for all formats, but with tons of money at stake I won't be surprised to see somebody pay for the rights. Didn't Apple write a huge check to get The Beatles on Itunes exclusively? Either way, her physical book sales must finally be hitting a plateau for her to consider the ebook market after having held out this long.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 17:42 |
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Cartoon Man posted:http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13292040 Maybe, but frankly I doubt she needs any more money. It's more likely that she's one of those people who really dislike the idea of an ebook and held out until she either was convinced of their benefits or was badgered by the business people who want to enter that market.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 17:51 |
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Cartoon Man posted:http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13292040 She's stupid to have held out this long. Most people who wanted her books on their ebook readers will already have them illegitimately by now. If she follows up a ban by going exclusive to one of the major players she'll be adding a second huge mistake to that first one. She's already refused to let people give her their money once. If she follows it by only letting a small sub section of people give her money then the woman quite frankly deserves to make nothing on ebook sales.
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# ? Apr 4, 2011 17:52 |
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Well, here's something that might be a good sign for the Kobo, Borders or no Borders. A blogger just spotted a new brochure in the Best Buy e-reader section, and guess what's there instead of the Sony readers. At the other end of the link are a few other bad omens for the Sony line. Make of that what you will.
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# ? Apr 5, 2011 05:02 |
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Cartoon Man posted:So who is going to write the bigger check to get these exclusively, Amazon, Apple, or B&Noble? I suppose they could come out for all formats, but with tons of money at stake I won't be surprised to see somebody pay for the rights. Didn't Apple write a huge check to get The Beatles on Itunes exclusively? My bet's on Apple. They're having a pretty tough time competing in the eBook market, and mostly because of their own obstinance. This seems like the kind of thing they'd do.
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# ? Apr 5, 2011 20:11 |
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I was doing some eReader comparisons.. was looking to get one for awhile... I ruled out the Kobo and iPad almost immediately. DIdnt' like the lack of features the Kobo had, and didnt' like the price on the iPad. I do love Apple products and I'm a whore for their OS's... I just felt like the iPad was much too "fancy" for what I actually wanted... which was an eReader that had web capability... Which, in turn, threw the Kindle out... as I wanted some tablet properties. So... I bought the Nook Color yesterday. I've heard people complain about it's display giving you a headache, I was very happy so far , had my nose buried in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for the last few hours of the night, and most of the morning.. no eye fatigue/headache associated with it at this point. I was ont he web a little bit and really like how sleek it feels. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase, I'm sure now that I bought one, the "SUPER NOOK COLOR" will be released and I'll have to upgrade, but... oh well. I like this thing.
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# ? Apr 6, 2011 16:02 |
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Vertigo posted:
The Nook guy I talked to at B&N said that they have no plans on upgrading the hardware. They went with Android so they could update the software and make the NC better that way. Granted, that came from an employee but from what I've seen by rooting mine and what others have done, they don't need to upgrade the hardware.
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# ? Apr 6, 2011 18:20 |
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Devi posted:The Nook guy I talked to at B&N said that they have no plans on upgrading the hardware. They went with Android so they could update the software and make the NC better that way. Granted, that came from an employee but from what I've seen by rooting mine and what others have done, they don't need to upgrade the hardware. Well that's good to know. I really like what mine brings to the table, and I'm anxiously awaiting the android upgrade and app store.
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# ? Apr 6, 2011 18:40 |
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Vertigo posted:Well that's good to know. I really like what mine brings to the table, and I'm anxiously awaiting the android upgrade and app store. Is that a 100% sure thing? Or is it just a rumor at this point?
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# ? Apr 6, 2011 21:32 |
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Is that a 100% sure thing? Or is it just a rumor at this point? I've been told that the NC will update with Android. And the store is supposed to be out sometime soon. At first we were told it'd be available in Q1 but that got changed to "in the spring."
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# ? Apr 7, 2011 00:22 |
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Even if the NC DOESN"T upgrade with Android(and all 'net stuff says it will).... I'm still really happy with the limited net 'functionality that this thing has.
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# ? Apr 7, 2011 23:03 |
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Devi posted:I've been told that the NC will update with Android. And the store is supposed to be out sometime soon. At first we were told it'd be available in Q1 but that got changed to "in the spring." Talked to a friendly salesperson at BN for a bit, and according to him the app store/2.2 update is being referred to internally as "The April Update," so I imagine we'll be seeing it within the month. That's obviously no guarantee, though.
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# ? Apr 7, 2011 23:55 |
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I've heard crazy rumors that Amazon won't ship Kindles to APO/FPO addresses, which I cannot fathom being true. My last concern is, is if my Kindle store region is set up for the US, will I be able to download books while living in Germany? I live here because I'm stationed here and I'd *hate* to drop money on a Kindle and not be able to buy books because I'm not living in the US.
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# ? Apr 10, 2011 15:00 |
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If your account is set up as United States, but you're buying from Germany just contact Amazon by phone (NOT EMAIL*). As long as you have a US passport you should be fine. *Amazon have great customer service, but for some reason this don't extend to their email service - which are generally cut n paste responses that you can't reply to.
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# ? Apr 10, 2011 15:21 |
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Packard Goose posted:I've heard crazy rumors that Amazon won't ship Kindles to APO/FPO addresses, which I cannot fathom being true. I bought my Kindle from the Amazon US webpage, had it shipped to a Japanese mailing address (not even an APO, so I think you'll be fine), have used it almost exclusively in Japan, bought books only from Japan, and never had a single problem, not even a "confirm you're American" thing. I'm using an old Amazon account that had lots of packages mailed to US addresses in the past and using my US credit card with my old US address. If you have a pre-existing Amazon account, they probably won't even hassle you about where you're connecting from. Actually it probably has more to do with using a US credit card. I set my default address as the same as my billing address in the US, although obviously they have my foreign address, too. Just remember to absolutely set your registered country for your Kindle as USA, not Germany. Contrast this to the absolute nightmare I've usually gotten with online purchases with a foreign credit card that lead to me sending profanity-laced emails to ebay support and boycotting them forever (they made me wait two weeks for a response about why I couldn't bid on anything and then told me that I was committing fraud and to send like 5 separate forms of ID including bank statements and my birth certificate) or just being outright unable to purchase things without trading tons of emails and identity verification. I love Amazon so, so much. Ara fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Apr 10, 2011 |
# ? Apr 10, 2011 17:18 |
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Anybody take the "Amazon is going to give away Kindles for free this xmas" rummors seriously? (Should I?)
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# ? Apr 11, 2011 16:42 |
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Anybody take the "Amazon is going to give away Kindles for free this xmas" rummors seriously? (Should I?) I've been hearing "Amazon is going to give away Kindles to [prime members | students | everyone] for at least a year now, so I wouldn't take it too seriously.
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# ? Apr 11, 2011 20:01 |
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Packard Goose posted:I've heard crazy rumors that Amazon won't ship Kindles to APO/FPO addresses, which I cannot fathom being true. I got my Kindle while stationed in England and evertything worked fine. I have the wifi 3g one
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# ? Apr 11, 2011 20:52 |
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Anybody take the "Amazon is going to give away Kindles for free this xmas" rummors seriously? (Should I?) I'd expect a price drop to $100, but I think free is pushing it. Edit: Just saw this. Interesting. Toebone fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Apr 11, 2011 |
# ? Apr 11, 2011 23:00 |
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Ah, so that's why they changed it so you can't change the screen savers on the latest generation.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 01:16 |
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Ahahahaha I just about flipped my poo poo when I saw that, thought it was a regular price drop. My Kindle has been delivered to my door and I've been itching to go home and try it all day. I wouldn't have gone for the ad-supported version anyway, so my breathing has returned to normal.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 02:24 |
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I want a kindle…and I'm a cheap-rear end…but $25 to see a poo poo load of ads seems like a bum deal really.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 02:24 |
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Arnold of Soissons posted:I want a kindle…and I'm a cheap-rear end…but $25 to see a poo poo load of ads seems like a bum deal really. You really wouldn't notice it. Those screens are just what it displays when it's "off". And 2 of the slides on the current Kindle are basically Amazon branding in the first place. I'm honestly not sure if I would have bought the ad version, but if I didn't it would only be on principle - the slides already on the Kindle aren't really to my liking anyway but like I said you barely notice them.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 02:32 |
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Ars: "noting that ads would display across the bottom of the screen and on the Kindle's screen saver" It's the 'across the bottom of the screen' bit that bothers me the most. Otherwise, I don't know. I have a borrowed kindle at the moment and I already feel like I'm staring at a loving Borders bag from 1995 when I turn the thing to sleep. But on the other hand I surf the web adblock'd to the hilt.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 02:37 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 05:14 |
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Oh I must have skimmed over that, gently caress that noise.
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# ? Apr 12, 2011 04:05 |