Quote:
Originally Posted by speedlever
That's what I thought. But Jon's response implied that one may wish to do so. I am curious why that would be? (I have much to learn about the ebook world).
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I took Jon's comment to suggest that most big publishers will put out their ebooks DRMed -- let's ignore for the moment that effective DRM is delusional thinking by the big publishers. If you wish to purchase a book from the big publishers, with a Kindle you have no choice but to purchase from Amazon, as the same big publishers won't release a book in a format not protected by DRM, and the Kindle doesn't support EPUB. If a big publisher wants to access the largest slice of the ebook market share in North America, they have no choice but to sell through Amazon or to sell an unprotected ebook. Any unprotected MOBIs you purchase will most likely be cheap classics, indie works, or works put out by smaller publishers. (Why
did Amazon decide to do away with an already existing DRM encryption for MOBI in order to implement their unique DRM for AZW/MOBI, anyway?) In the end, there
is a lack of choice and competition to benefit the user, that not it necessarily matters for most people, considering the current range and competitiveness of the Kindle store.
I can understand that it can be frustrating to hear people point out constantly that the Kindle is very restricted and locked-down, when your own experiences may differ. That said, the user that knows how to strip DRM and format shift is not the average user, and honestly, it
is disingenuous to claim that the Kindle doesn't try to lock-in its users, and that Kindle is as open a hardware platform as other readers. It uses a proprietary format based on a DRM scheme exclusive to Amazon, and supports no other formats with DRM schemes that would conceivably be used by most commercial publishers, thus ensuring most commercially available books for the Kindle are obtainable through one store only. Even if you don't feel that constrained by the hardware and software, Amazon's intent is surely for a form of vendor lock-in.
And there ends my teal deer.
To answer the original post, based on the bolded I'd suggest a Sony first. The price is a bit more than you're looking for (unless you opt for the often overlooked 350
), but it nails your criteria perfectly, including probably the best PDF support out of the four ereaders. KoboBooks
does have some Canadian-exclusive titles, despite what was said about geographic restrictions earlier, so a Sony Reader + EPUBs from KoboBooks sounds like a good idea. The Kobo is okay, if not as good as the other two, but for a Canadian, I wouldn't even bother with the Nook.
EDIT: Cross-posted with rhadin. I'm too slow a typer.