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http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/pr_burningquestion_ebooks/ In brief: ebooks are still new enough that there are legal and technological costs, paper copies of books aren't that expensive to make so the savings is minimal and yes, publishers still price them higher "because they’re concerned about devaluing people’s perception of books.” That last bit sounds strange to with Borders etc. selling Top 10 books for $3 two months later, but whatever. So they are overcharging, but they aren't complete bastards all of the time.
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Nov 22, 2010 20:37
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Sporadic posted:No, there really is. Can't talk about them here but there are a ton of places with a ton of ebooks (both available and unavailable in the ebook stores). Off topic: I remember a tutorial online years ago (<2000) for making comic book TPB (bookz? All illegal files had z's back then) "filez". It involved sneaking them into the book store bathroom, sitting on the handicap toilet, putting it on the floor between your feet and taking pictures with a newfangled "digital" camera. The author advised multiple trips to get all the images so it wouldn't be suspicious and had step by step photos of cropping out his feet and the bathroom tile, rotating the images to level them, etc. "Back in my day if you wanted to steal music you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself..." Hope this doesn't count as  , just historical perspective. If anyone does the above to steal novels it's tantamount to retyping it themselves and I say "Shine on you crazy diamonds."
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Nov 24, 2010 15:43
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Got my wife a Kindle for our anniversary because Audible.com worked fine for me until last night when I was listening to The Devil You Know and had no idea what a "zarastanie greatcoat" was. Previewed the first few pages on Amazon.com, realized it was "czarist army greatcoat". Bought the book on the Kindle immediately, read four chapters, bought myself a Kindle (which I get tomorrow). I used to be a novel or two a week guy from elementary through high school, mostly scifi or western or mystery pulp, but some great classics as well. A college degree in English ruined reading for me for a while and I'm just starting to pick up steam again. Since the new Kindle will be mine, and I'm a hopeless tinkerer, I'll jailbreak it. Are there any font suggestions, or should I stick with what this ridiculously well-produced font personality test tells me? (stupid, but fun and the fonts are gorgeous) http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/
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Nov 30, 2010 23:01
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A little late, but I just got mine today. Some screensavers I made.          If you like the idea of ye olde EX LIBRIS bookplates on yer newfangled electronic book device, I have ~4,500 for your perusal (formatting up to you): http://picasaweb.google.com/JeremiahBritt (Don't hate me for the papyrus font, it was the closest I could find on my computer to the original.)
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Dec 2, 2010 04:16
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Duckman2008 posted:These are loving awesome, especially the beer one. Please more people post their screen savers, i suck at photoshop myself. Don't have to be good at photoshop; as a proof of concept I went to Wordle, pasted the complete text of The Yellow Wallpaper (it's in the public domain) and-- after resizing it slightly in XnView Portable--got this:  Or you could just search for typographic art.
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Dec 2, 2010 17:45
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Don't know about the best, but if you go to the Kindle store and look for free books, you'll have to wade past pages and pages of romance novels. Roll them dice for Kindle screensavers. Also, the only good arguments for paper books (or color ebook readers): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Dec 3, 2010 02:19
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My Kindle's been freezing and/or rebooting itself fairly regularly. Thought I had a bad unit, but apparently it's the official leather (nonlighted) case that may be the culprit. I'm going to try it with it off and see if I keep having the issue, but considering--if that is the problem--that it's been shorting out repeatedly for three days, I may exchange it anyway. Anyone else have issues?
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Dec 3, 2010 20:02
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RockSmart posted:The hinges are used to provide power to the light in the cover with the built in lamp. Are the hinges in yours conductive? Yeah, that seems to be the issue. The non-lit cover still has metal hinges (painted black), but they only barely come in contact when the cover is closed or in rare occasions when it is open. The cover still has >1,000 5-star reviews, so either my cover or the Kindle itself is the odd man out. Just an FYI if anyone else is having issues; some of the people on the Amazon discussion had exchanged their units 3 or more times.
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Dec 4, 2010 00:25
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Mathlete posted:A recent article in the Wall Street Journal announces the imminent launch of a Google E-Book store called Google Editions: It's live-ish (the intro video is currently private?). http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/overview.html Supported devices: quote:Web browsers. You can read Google eBooks on any browser with JavaScript enabled. No Kindle,  . But hopefully soon. I would assume Amazon wouldn't want the competition, but B&N and Apple seem fine with it.The web reader is pretty nice, just as simple and clean as the rest of the Google aesthetic. The Aphasian fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Dec 6, 2010 |
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Dec 6, 2010 16:44
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subx posted:I think Amazon would prefer to have the book sales than even the Kindle sales. As indicated by their willingness to support things like iPad/Android tablets. I can't imagine they are making that much money off Kindle's ($130 can't be that much more than manufacturing cost), but it does get it out there so they sell more books. Mostly I'm hoping for compatibility with multiple stores to catch the odd book that's on one and not the other, as well as to take advantage of pricing differences/sales in the various markets. I purged our home library last night, getting rid of mass market paperbacks of public domain works and getting the Gutenberg versions. Only got rid of ~50 out of ~700 (kept the ones with pretty covers), but now I can actually get some of the books off the floor of our library room. I don't think being a book hoarder is a bad thing (will never recover because I will never admit I have problem), but we are looking to move in a year or two and those drat boxes get heavy.
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Dec 6, 2010 18:05
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Was getting frustrated with the clunky controls for adding things to collections on the Kindle itself, found Kindelabra. Simple and does what it says much easier, although it didn't add one book to a collection the first time I tried it (user error). "Very beta", but worth a look. Kindelabra can be found here. Other options, including "automatic" collection creation based on calibre metadata or Kindle file structure, can be found here (bottom of page). Last link also compiles links to all the major Kindle Hacks and may be useful in the op, with some kind of "you might break your kindle stupid (but not really)" disclaimer. The Aphasian fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Dec 23, 2010 |
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Dec 7, 2010 07:26
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Kaboobi posted:Oh hey I think my girlfriend might be having this problem, her kindle keeps freezing and losing what page she was on. I told her to remove the case and we'll see how it works after that. If it is that, just email customer support and link to the amazon discussion I posted. I now have this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042AM7JQ/ref=oss_product Here's another alternative, comes with extra cables, screen protector, wristband (???): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004289Z5W/ref=oss_product Circle Nine posted:I was thinking of buying an official lighted case for my kindle, are there any problems that are known with that one? I have seen some reports of this in my questionably useful internet research, but fewer than the unlit cover, which itself seems to be rare. So it's probably worth a gamble if you really like it, and you'll be forewarned in the rare case where you have issues. EDIT: Separate topic, but didn't want to double post my way into probation land. Amazon now has Kindle for the Web, which enables you to read book samples and previews in-browser. I'm hoping they expand it to allow you to read complete books you have purchased to compete with Google Books, but that's just blind optimism. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000579091&tag=gmgamzn-20 The Aphasian fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Dec 7, 2010 |
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Dec 7, 2010 20:26
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > YES (Your eReader Sucks) Have some Egon Schiele screen savers. I think they work on Nooks and Kindles.   
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Dec 9, 2010 06:51
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Do people that strip the library DRM really "return" the book after that?
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Dec 9, 2010 16:45
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I meant people that don't have an epub device that have to strip DRM to covert it.
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Dec 9, 2010 16:52
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I am a terrible person who does not write clearly. Do people who strip the DRM from library ebooks to convert for use on other readers follow the spirit of library loans and delete the files when they would have originally expired? I would try to, but historically I've had to wait weeks or months for audio or epub books from my library, and it always seems like More Embarrassing SciFi Adventures: Book II of the Virginity Quest comes in before Book I: Escape from the Basement. I understand the reasoning behind DRM (although I believe you should always make it easier for people to buy and use things legally than just pirate), but a limited number of digital copies at a publicly funded library never made sense to me.
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Dec 9, 2010 17:30
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Bottom Liner posted:Quoting this for hope of a solution. There is nothing that I know of, either through the vanilla options or a hack. You could register and suggest it on the MobileRead Kindle dev subforum. I do not see why it would be complicated to implement an on/off hotkey, just that it hasn't been a hack in high demand. Duckman2008 posted:I have a reserved post under the OP. Should I post people's screen saver's there? Yes please.
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Dec 9, 2010 18:10
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tonelok posted:Libraries have to purchase individual copies of physical books, and the publishers aren't just going to let them buy one copy of a ebook and distribute to as many people as they want. Library sales aren't as big as Amazon or B&N, but they are still sales, and publishers are still going to get money from them. Makes sense in a way. Read a bit more of what I could find, and licensing is the biggest issue regarding ebooks (unlimited digital copies would require a pay per circulation model which would be untenable for any library; physical copies of popular books can be lent out 50 or more times a year, with turn-around time maximized by waiting lists and honest and prompt patrons). I also found out it is, and may be for some time, illegal for them to loan out ebook readers. The hardware is not an issue, but the software licenses prevent renting or lending. I do wish there was an easy way to donate ebook licenses, just as there is with the old board and paper variety. With no storage limitations, they would only be bound by whatever guidelines for quality and appropriateness they have in place. Apropos of nothing, here's an illuminated manuscript page from The C Writyng Langage (The C Programming Language). 
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Dec 10, 2010 16:51
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Craptacular! posted:I have a book in no-DRM PDF, except every chapter of the book is a separate PDF. Do this first? http://www.mergepdf.net/
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Dec 11, 2010 22:54
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I think it can tell what's plugged into it and will automatically convert when you send the files to the Kindle (no need to pre-convert). It did with me anyway. Otherwise click on Preferences>(Conversion)Common Options>Page Setup Choose Kindle in the top box. Calibre is extremely powerful, unfortunately it's GUI is terrible and some of the more useful functions have to be done via command window (calibredb catalog export.csv).
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Dec 15, 2010 20:56
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Guilty posted:Does anyone have a recommendation on how to make .doc files into .pdf? If this is for Calibre, RTF works as well.
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Dec 17, 2010 06:11
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I told you guys.  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20026116-1.html Cnet posted:Amazon promises to replace problem Kindle covers, look into issue
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Dec 20, 2010 05:16
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sirbeefalot posted:Is there a listing of different Kindle hacks out there somewhere? There's not really anything in particular that I want to do; I'm just curious as far as what can be done, really. I've done the custom screensaver hack, and I've seen font hacks, is that it? http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information I use Kindleabra to organize my ridiculous collection. SLOSifl posted:I kind of hope there aren't too many hacks for it. I love the screen on my Kindle, and the only reason I can sit down and actually use it for reading is that it's not a multi-function device. poo poo, I spent like 3 hours this week hacking and tweaking my phone just because I could. If I was trying to read a book, and could easily check my email, play some games, browse the web and hack the thing, I would never make it through a book in a reasonable amount of time. I am very easily distracted if the distractions are in my hand. Whoops.
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Dec 23, 2010 19:15
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Mnemosyne posted:Replying to a semi-old post, but where did you get all of these from? Some of these bookplates are kind of hosed up. Collected over the years, either from art websites or from digital collections various libraries have made available. Yeah, many of them are surreal, a lot have rather explicit nudity. Some are just hosed. I suppose having a woodcut nude in the front cover of your book would help remind people to return it to you when they were done borrowing it. Factory Ten posted:I do have the leather case. Does this create a problem?
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Dec 31, 2010 02:30
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If someone can find bigger versions of these images they would make great screensavers: http://www.grabink.com/ASP/gallery.asp?category=rel
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Jan 3, 2011 05:34
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Trig Discipline posted:People keep saying stuff like this, but I've read on my NC for hours at a time with no problem at all. Either I have positively herculean eyes, or this issue is way over-exaggerated. I assume it's like the difference between 500 and 750 thread count sheets. One is obviously softer than the other if you compare them side by side, but it's not like the coarser of two extremely soft sheets is going to sandpaper your skin off. And thanks SUPER IRAN-CONTRA, I'll load those up tonight.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:19
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njbeachbum posted:I have a kindle and my wife was sharing it. She put some books on there that she is still reading. She received a kindle as a gift. Is there anyway to transfer the books to her kindle or does she have to re-purchase them? As long as you register the new one to the same account you can go to "Manage Your Kindle" in the account section of Amazon.com and transfer them to the new kindle without rebuying. If you set up syncing it will even put her back on the pages she was reading.
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Jan 18, 2011 17:33
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Kilometers Davis posted:I tried that but it still wouldn't let me past that screen. No big deal, it's fully charged now and that should last me a good 500 years. I've noticed it only works if I go to My Computer and eject it via the drives list, as fordan says. Calibre's eject doesn't work.
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Jan 25, 2011 15:34
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Has anyone here played text adventures on the Kindle (or other platform) yet? I still visit Baf's and Xyzzy semi-annually and rediscover one of my favorite game formats. I know some of the games can kind of be played online, but is there a z-code/tads interpreter for Kindle that anyone's discovered? Alternatively, does anyone understand any of the above paragraph?
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Feb 5, 2011 05:36
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Vertigus posted:You can give this a shot: http://adq.livejournal.com/108011.html Thanks, worked like a charm! Now I just need interpreters for the 30 other IF platforms that exist for some reason. This one plus books should keep me busy for a while though.
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Feb 6, 2011 16:27
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Kreeblah posted:Yeah, they probably won't. I'm surprised that even made it into a firmware update, though. Do people really expect e-books to match the same pages as another edition? And, if so, which one? It's not like hardbacks and paperbacks use the same numbering, either (barring trade paperbacks), and I don't think anybody really cares about it with those. One of my teacher friends discovered that it was cheaper to purchase a Kindle and the ebook versions of his textbooks than to purchase the physical textbooks, even used. Page numbers are often referenced instead of chapters or sections in college courses, especially in writing, pedagogy or literature courses (where a different edition can seriously screw you up).
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Feb 8, 2011 17:33
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00403MNSK?ie=UTF8&tag=blackga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00403MNSK Beer Is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing [Kindle Edition] free right now.
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Feb 13, 2011 19:04
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There's reportedly a working Kindle 3.1 jailbreak being tested.yifanlu on the MobileRead forums posted:
This is great because I didn't want to deal with the nightmare going through USBNetworking.
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Feb 22, 2011 17:56
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Gravy Jones posted:Can you buy Kindles from stores in the US? If so is it is it the sort of thing some tax/duty-free stores at airports might have? They have them at Target and Staples (and possibly other office supply stores).
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Feb 24, 2011 15:43
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withak posted:Who is picky enough to not want to shop for books at the airport but goes to the airport with nothing to read? People who have a layover and then get bumped to a flight four hours later than they were planning, or someone who scheduled a chauffeur or taxi service ahead of time and arrived at the airport to discover their flight was extremely delayed. I normally sleep on planes, but I'm way to paranoid to sleep in an airport and miss them switching gates or whatever.
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Feb 24, 2011 18:21
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Centipeed posted:Using paper books as a guide for how you make eBooks available is ridiculous. Amazon gives authors 70% royalties as long as the price of the ebook is between $2.99 and $9.99. I heard originally that it would also have to be 20% or more below the lowest price of a physical copy, but I can't find that on their site now. http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=393
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Feb 25, 2011 22:25
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I'm not sure how that would work, due to the oddness of where the numbers would be displayed depending on what your font size was.code:code:
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Mar 9, 2011 16:46
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Centipeed posted:Do you think there'd be enough interest / knowledge for a thread specifically devoted to cheap and decent books available on the Amazon and B&N book stores? Might want to combine a thread with a public Google spreadsheet so that people can quickly see reviewed books and sort by genre, quality, etc. Like the iPhone Jailbreaking "what apps work, what don't" sheet. (If only to make updating the OP easier.)
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Apr 6, 2011 02:18
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For SciFi nerds: Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas (first in the Culture series) is 99¢ this month for all ebook formats. http://www.orbitebooks.com/
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Apr 6, 2011 02:43
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Centipeed posted:Your post, and the Consider Phlebas deal being American only, has made me realise that I may not be the best person to start a thread for Kindle / Nook deals, since I'm in the UK and might not be able to verify a lot of them. Here's a good solution/resource (can set region, e.g. UK or USA): http://www.ereaderiq.com/ Via http://lifehacker.com/#!5790152/ereaderiq-is-a-complete-database-of-free-and-discounted-ebooks-on-amazon. Lifehacker posted:If you want to see a complete listing of Amazon's free Kindle books, eReaderIQ will do that for you and more. Don't know if there's something similar for Nook et al.
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Apr 8, 2011 16:18
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