Dell magazines like Asimov's

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I can't believe that folks are wiling to pay in order to endure such frustration.
Cancel your subs, tell their customer services why, and what they need to do to get your custom back, then get from *other* sources until they come to their senses.
Seems like only a boycott will get their attention.
If the authors represented are in blissful ignorance, look for a way to message them also.

Yes, I am starting to come around to this view as well. I wrote Analog about this well before Christmas and did not receive any response. I would have thought that a magazine with such a small circulation would take their few readers rather more seriously than they do.

I have been a reader for almost 40 years now; I remember, almost as if it were yesterday, picking up the June 1973 issue in a shop in Edmonton after school one day and being completely enthralled by it when I started reading it. It depresses me to think I may stop reading this magazine but it's getting to be not worth the effort. It's not as if I don't have enough to read.

It is rather ironic that an SF magazine would be unable to really get to grips with the digital age... sigh.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Graham

I can't try getting the March 2013 issue through Nook for PC, unfortunately, as I've just installed that and it's only for the US .com accounts.

I am using Nook for PC successfully from the UK to subscribe to Asimov's. I now have Jan, Feb and March issues downloaded to my PC and side loaded to my Kobo. Nook for PC only shows the cover for the Jan issue, and nothing for the other two, but all three have in fact downloaded to my PC hard disk.

[Graham]

The Nook March issue's now been fixed for me. It's downloading correctly now.

Graham

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A chat conversation with technical support confirmed that Analog and Asimov's are only available for Kindle on iPad or iPod Touch and nothing else not even Kindle on iPhone.

This has now been fixed. Subscriptions to Dell Magazines (well, certainly Analog and Asimov's) can now be delivered to Kindel for iOS on iPhones, as well as on iPod Touches and iPads.

So since (though a legacy option no loner available) I can removed the DRM from books sent to my iPhone, I've cancelled my trial subscription at nook.co.uk, and I'll be keeping my Amazon one.

Especially as I've been able to get the two previous issues through Amazon as well.


The Amazon issues are HUGE. And looking more closely, it's because they also (apart from the HTML text) include massive 300dpi images of every page of the print magazine!

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Amazon issues are HUGE. And looking more closely, it's because they also (apart from the HTML text) include massive 300dpi images of every page of the print magazine!

Ouch! That hasn't been my experience with my Analog issues for Kindle...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Ouch! That hasn't been my experience with my Analog issues for Kindle...

I don't mean that the reading experience is of bitmapped pages. The Kindle app seems to be displaying the text in the XHTML as I'd expect.

I don't know why they're there, but in the three issues of each that I have so far, the images are there, making the files 40 to 80MB in size. (The 80MB one is the double issue Jan/Feb Analog.)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I don't mean that the reading experience is of bitmapped pages. The Kindle app seems to be displaying the text in the XHTML as I'd expect.

I don't know why they're there, but in the three issues of each that I have so far, the images are there, making the files 40 to 80MB in size. (The 80MB one is the double issue Jan/Feb Analog.)

Yeah, I understood. I meant that my Analogs are normal. April 2013 is 277.008 bytes in size...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Yeah, I understood. I meant that my Analogs are normal. April 2013 is 277.008 bytes in size...

Fascinating. I shall try to reproduce what I found.

Ah. Found it. They have now enabled download to my Kindle as well as to iPhone (& iPad and iPod Touch). When I download it with my Kindle as the target, it comes down without the large images included, and is indeed 277,008 bytes long. For the iPhone, the issue is 47,248,088 bytes long!

[ozron]

OK so I'm a bit slow here... I picked up the last editions of both Analog and Asimov's from FW at the end of last year. Was planning to start a subscription elsewhere but forgot and lost track of it due to serious personal and family dilemma's at the time. Only just remembered this week that I haven't picked up any this year. No problems I thought, I can start a new subscription and pick up the older issues at the same time. Ha! Not so easy...

First up. So it seems the only way to get back issues is through the iBookstore onto my iPad's Newsstand. And of course it's DRM'd. There are ways to copy the contents onto my Mac for backup purposes, but I hate DRM and am very cross with myself about ending up in this situation! Is there any other way of obtaining back issues I've missed?

Now regarding a subscription, apparently you can subscribe from B&N US or UK stores, but I'm in Australia. It won't let me subscribe and is insisting on a credit card, presumably which will need a US address. So I don't seem to be able to do the dodgy trick I use with Amazon where I purchase gift cards and send to my Amazon US account for Kindle purchases. So I'm unable to purchase the subscription I'm after to get non-DRM'd epub's. Has anyone here found a work around for this? Haven't considered the Amazon subscription method as they're also DRM'd, although I do have a Kindle.

At this stage I'm now very very cross and am writing a very rude email to the publishers about their ridiculous and unnecessary insistence on market restrictions and DRM. I have money and want to buy their product, but I b###dy well can't. Bugger!!!

Does anyone else have any suggestions? It's rubbish like this which leads people to pirate. The music industry finally got it. Why are the publishers so damn stupid? Grr...

[Graham]

Originally Posted by ozron

Now regarding a subscription, apparently you can subscribe from B&N US or UK stores, but I'm in Australia. It won't let me subscribe and is insisting on a credit card, presumably which will need a US address.

---

At this stage I'm now very very cross and am writing a very rude email to the publishers about their ridiculous and unnecessary insistence on market restrictions and DRM.

It's the territorial restrictions side of things that's harming you. B&N are actually delivering the magazine DRM-free. When I say delivering, though, I mean attempting to deliver. I've had an ongoing customer service discussion going with them since 26 June as the August 2013 issue of my subscription hasn't arrived.

I've actually just had to buy an additional copy from Amazon as I don't want to miss an issue and I see that B&N are now advertising the September 2013 issue (which also hasn't been delivered to my account).

I'm trying to like B&N, really I am, but they're not helping themselves.

Graham

[ozron]

Originally Posted by Graham

It's the territorial restrictions side of things that's harming you. B&N are actually delivering the magazine DRM-free. When I say delivering, though, I mean attempting to deliver. I've had an ongoing customer service discussion going with them since 26 June as the August 2013 issue of my subscription hasn't arrived.

I've actually just had to buy an additional copy from Amazon as I don't want to miss an issue and I see that B&N are now advertising the September 2013 issue (which also hasn't been delivered to my account).

I'm trying to like B&N, really I am, but they're not helping themselves.

Graham

Sorry to hear you're having issues actually receiving your issues, but at least B&N will let you subscribe in the UK. I'm dumbfounded that they allow subs in the US and UK but not Australia.

[ozron]

Well I was unable to get a subscription going with B&N. Appears you need a "US credit card" in addition to a US address and a US VPN connection. All attempts were rejected, presumably due to my Australian credit card.

So I tried a Kindle subscription with Analog and Asimov's - and they're .pobi format, which Calibre and the usual tools don't seem to be able to remove the drm from.

Updated:
Downloaded the latest version of Alf's tools v6.0.7, renamed the .pobi to .mobi, dragged it over to Calibre and bingo, all clean now. Woot!

[cybmole]

have you tried the obvious renames - to AZW3 and to MOBI- maybe the "tools" will kick in after a rename ?

goggle says that pobi is v similar to AZW3

that's probably all we are allowed to say here, within the rules

otherwise - well amazon are usually pretty good with refunds & the dark web probably has readable copies - stupid publishers shoot themselves in the foot again.

there is possibly yet another type of workround - the one that lets you watch BBC player from overseas - you use a DNS service like UNODNS which makes it seem that you are in the correct country for what you want to do - e.g. subscribe to a geo restricted service. I use UNO to watch USA netflix from UK . it's a paid for service but providers of these services usually do 7 days free, and maybe that's all you need to get the subscription setup.
A free trial of a VPN is probably better because UNO only intercepts specific sites/service requests, like iplayer, netflix, Hulu... With a VPN , B&N will see you as UK or USA based if that's what you setup.
You really should NOT have to jump through these hoops though. I would hack the thing on principle at this point.

[ozron]

Originally Posted by cybmole

have you tried the obvious renames - to AZW3 and to MOBI- maybe the "tools" will kick in after a rename ?

goggle says that pobi is v similar to AZW3

that's probably all we are allowed to say here, within the rules

otherwise - well amazon are usually pretty good with refunds & the dark web probably has readable copies - stupid publishers shoot themselves in the foot again.

there is possibly yet another type of workround - the one that lets you watch BBC player from overseas - you use a DNS service like UNODNS which makes it seem that you are in the correct country for what you want to do - e.g. subscribe to a geo restricted service. I use UNO to watch USA netflix from UK . it's a paid for service but providers of these services usually do 7 days free, and maybe that's all you need to get the subscription setup.
A free trial of a VPN is probably better because UNO only intercepts specific sites/service requests, like iplayer, netflix, Hulu... With a VPN , B&N will see you as UK or USA based if that's what you setup.
You really should NOT have to jump through these hoops though. I would hack the thing on principle at this point.

Thanks for the info, but check my update above - I got it working after updating the tools to the latest version.

And for the second part, yes I do that already, but the sticking point is the requirement for a "US credit card account". Obviously they can tell from the account numbers that it's overseas and not US.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by ozron

Thanks for the info, but check my update above - I got it working after updating the tools to the latest version.

And for the second part, yes I do that already, but the sticking point is the requirement for a "US credit card account". Obviously they can tell from the account numbers that it's overseas and not US.

you can get a virtual USA credit card account from anywhere - at a price
GIYF, or see this from Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/c...517-2jqg5.html
note the final paragraph of that article:
Whatever system works for you, don't load up your account or your card up with too much credit just in case things go pear-shaped. Foreign services are in a constant cat-and-mouse game with geododgers, so you never know when your workaround might stop working.

Whether or not you're breaking the law is open to debate, but you're certainly going against a shedload of terms and conditions at this point. You'll need to draw your own moral line in the sand.

How do you pay for US-only services?