Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Abe
My Kindle is just a few weeks old. I'd like to fill it with purchased ebooks, but wish to purchase the print book at the same time.
|
If you have a need for technical books, I would highly suggest the O'Reilly online bookstore.
http://oreilly.com/store/
Many of their books are available in both physical and digital form. You can buy a bundle with both versions for about $5 more then the physical book alone. Additionally, I was able to email customer support and receive an upgrade to the digital versions of books I previously owned for about $5 as well.
Their eBooks are DRM free and the purchase grants access to every format it's available in (typically PDF, ePub, and Mobi (which is the Kindle's native format)).
Quote:
|
Has Amazon ever given their customers a discount for buying both formats at once?
|
Not at once, but also bear in mind that they handle Digital/eBook and physical purchases differently. There is no Digital cart to toss in both physical and digital copies of things, though I have wanted one from time to time. That said, I have seen them offer bundles, not only the "Digital Copy" Disc that ships with some BluRays and DVD's, but a "Buy this DVD/BluRay and we'll grant you immediate access to stream the movie on Amazon On Demand. I seem to recall them doing that for the release of The Watchmen if I recall.
They also claim to offer upgrades from, physical to digital (online) books, but I've never much particularly useful with it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=110744011
Quote:
|
With ebooks, one worries about hardware availability, network up-time issues, and even Amazon's status two decades from now.
|
Bit rot is an issue with any digital media, but sadly DRM makes the problem that much worse (Remember the MSN Music Store? Google Video Store?...)
Quote:
|
Other than getting a settlement for the reader, what are the odds of obtaining compensation for the ebooks? Surely, you can re-download the books from Amazon (good point), but what if you didn't, and just wanted an insurance settlement?
|
In which case you would be guilty of insurance fraud since you would be trying to claim damages and loss (in this case the loss of the ebooks) that you did not actually sustain (since they are still theoretically available from Amazon for no additional charge, there was no actual "loss").