The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Atasi posted:

Well it's either that or a sliding scale on eBooks to keep the price in parity with the current lowest priced physical copy, in which case people will complain about getting ripped off when they bought it x months ago.

Yea, what madprocess said. Why is this any different than essentially every other piece of media or technology that people buy every day? I don't get upset when a book I bought at the book store ends up in the bargain bin a few months later.

I might have a quick thought of "oh drat I should have just waited a few months to buy that" and then move on with my life. I can't imagine people get upset about this (maybe you do?).

# ¿ Nov 22, 2010 20:36

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:48

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

madprocess posted:

There's also actually no logical reason an ebook needs to be more expensive than a physical book, ever.

If publishers really "need" to have a strict pricing hiearchy, there's no reason it can't be, in order of expensive to cheap, hardback > paperback > ebook.

Since it's all fluid, you can sell the hardback for say $30 new and charge $9-$11 for the ebook. Later you release the paperback for around $9-$11 and leave the ebook as is, then as time progresses you drop the ebook to $4 or $5. Maybe you even do it when the paperback comes out right away.

Actually I don't even care if they are the same price as the current edition of the book. I'd be particularly happy if the savings they got from not having to produce a hardback (like $3-4) went to the author. Unfortunately it won't happen. I'm not sure of the price of a paperback (it has to at least be $1), but same idea there.

Mostly I don't the ebook to be more expensive than ANY physical copy. If there's a paperback out that cost $7, the ebook should be $7 (or less). I hate looking at a book and there's a paperback for $7 and ebook for $10.

gently caress that, and I won't even go buy the physical copy either. I choose to vote with my wallet, because it's the only way to get through to a publisher.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2010 20:49

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

movax posted:

Just how awful is Kindle 3 PDF support? I saw that Kindle 2 would be $90 tomorrow...then did some more research, and I figure it's about time I pull the trigger on a Kindle, it looks great.

But, my primary content would be PDFs (including some textbooks), which may or may not be just huge image after huge image, and if that falls apart entirely, not too interested then.

I guess my main question is: what reader should I choose for primarily viewing "medium" complexity PDFs? Please don't say netbook.

Honestly for PDF's that are image heavy you probably want a color LCD screen. I would think that's one of the advantages of the Nook Color, though some people are saying the support is currently a bit shoddy. iPads are really nice for PDF viewing, but obviously a lot more expensive.

The smaller Kindle's just aren't that great at PDF viewing. They are alright for mostly text type stuff on occasion, but it's still a bit slow. I've not used a DX so I can't comment on how those do. I love my Kindle, I read on it every day, but any time images are involved it's definitely kind of a "meh" experience.

subx fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Nov 26, 2010

# ¿ Nov 26, 2010 03:55

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

I converted some books to mobi but when I put them on the Kindle everything is bold (really heavy font). Also the font is different than normal books.

Any reason for this or way to fix it? Is it an option somewhere when you convert that I should have changed?

# ¿ Nov 27, 2010 04:14

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Duckman2008 posted:

Edit again: I would love to use my Kindle as an RSS reader, but am not about to pay $1 per blog a month just to get news "conveniently." Anyone know of an easier/cheaper way than using the web browser (or even just setting the web browser for mobile websites only)?

I know this was from a couple of days ago but there's a button in Calibre "fetch news" that is exactly that.

fishmech posted:

Well here's a fact: very few books that aren't for children or manchildren even have color pictures, or pictures in general in them!

Plenty of books have pictures in them... Maps, Illustrations, diagrams, etc etc

# ¿ Nov 30, 2010 08:59

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

fishmech posted:

Well if you get the previous text dark enough to make the other text illegible again, call Amazon., Having faint text that doesn't interfere with reading from the last page is common though.

I don't see any faint text on mine at all. I would imagine that would be pretty distracting. I'd say give support a call if its even remotely dark enough to make out actual letters.

Also mine (Kindle 3) seems to do a full refresh every time I turn the page.

Samurai Sanders posted:

In my defense I was asking about something that I hadn't seen mentioned yet, how highlighting worked for PDFs.

Also, why HAVE they been so slow to implement PDF support? It seems like the most natural thing in the world. Is Adobe developing their own portable PDF reader and trying to keep the others from beating them to the punch or something?

PDF is an open standard, Adobe isn't keeping anyone from implementing better support. Personally I think it's more just a matter of ereaders having a fairly slow processor and screen, and it makes PDF viewing (image heavy, especially) not so great. For something like the Nook Color with a faster processor and LCD screen there's not much excuse though.

subx fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Dec 1, 2010

# ¿ Dec 1, 2010 19:11

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 10:48

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

The Aphasian posted:

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.

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.

I don't forsee a "deal" coming. Unless Google prices are way cheaper and/or selection is more extensive, I'm not too concerned about it anyways.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2010 17:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada