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I remember a WSJ article from a while back that cited the higher cost of ebooks as a hedge against the decreased profitability of hardcovers. Essentially, as ebooks take up a larger segment of the market, the economy of scale at work with their hardcover editions starts to break down, such that the cost per unit starts to become prohibitive. Since they want to maintain this section of the industry, largely because it appeals to their most dedicated customers, they're trying to make that money back on ebooks. Obviously, while this cites a very real aspect of running a business, the claim of a cause and effect in this case seems somewhat specious. I much prefer the view that they are resisting price drops for the sake of resisting, and that trying to deal profitably with digital media still scares the ever-loving poo poo out of them. For once, having a megacorp as a seller works out to an advantage for customers, because publishers really can't afford to piss Amazon off, since they're a major part of the print market as well. Apple and Google are letting off some of the pressure there, but the $9.99 standard is Amazon's doing.
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Nov 22, 2010 23:56
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Satire Forum Mom posted:The OP only mentioned Gutenberg and Feedbooks as places to get free eBooks. Is there anywhere else? [Illegal site] was great, but he had to pull everything down due to expense. e: fair nuff! Chad Sexington fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Dec 2, 2010 |
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Dec 2, 2010 22:51
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Short answer for me: Amazon > B&N > Apple. YMMV. Amazon has the biggest selection of books to purchase. I think a big chunk of BN's stated number are public domain stuff they got through Google Books. I still prefer the Kindle to the iPad for eReader stuff though, despite the selection of different bookstores on offer. It's just not a great form factor for it. (Though I do love it as couch-browser, game machine, movies-in-the-kitchen device.)
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Dec 21, 2010 20:20
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lilbean posted:To be fair though, that's from just the Amazon store. On the Kindle you can only buy books from Amazon - on an IOS device you can buy books from Amazon, Kobo, Apple, etc., get books from your public library via Overdrive, and so on. Even on my Sony Reader I can get books from basically every non-Amazon bookseller on the web that supports Adobe ePUBs. So it's not really about the Amazon bookstore quantity versus the Apple bookstore quantity, it's Amazon versus the sum total of all the available stores on your device. Right, but iOS devices are less than ideal reading platforms. I've read a few things on my iPad, mostly because the Amazon pdf conversion garbled them and they looked better native, but eInk is still miles ahead in terms of eye strain. And of course, with Calibre and a passing knowledge of torrent sites, the lines between the stores disappear altogether.
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Dec 22, 2010 22:17
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neurotech posted:I'm considering getting either a Kobo Clara HD or a Kobo Libra H2O. The thing that's stopping me from my making my decision is how each one feels to operate/turn pages on. I just got a Clara and I've had basically every generation of Kindle to this point, most recently the Paperwhite. It's not as satisfying, not going to lie. I still haven't totally deprogrammed myself from the Paperwhite either. That didn't have physical buttons either, but you could tap the center of the screen to progress a page or swipe. With the Clara, you can swipe or tap... but you have to tap the side of the page to turn. To the left to go back and the right to go forward. Tapping the center brings up the menu overlay. It's a little thing, but my brain hasn't adjusted yet. That said, the backlight on the Clara is really nice. I don't know how much I buy the science of blue light keeping people awake, but I like that it adjusts the color to a more pleasant yellow shade close to bed time.
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Aug 16, 2020 20:53
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Elsje posted:You can change the tapping area in the 'reading settings'. Bless you.
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Aug 16, 2020 22:00
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