![]() |
#1 |
Guru
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 944
Karma: 1490348
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Norman, OK
Device: Sony PRS 350, 900, 950; Kindles (ALL of them!); Kobo Aura One
|
So, I got caught in this e-reading thing...
In truly did not expect to move to e-readers. I bought one, the SONY PRS900, because I wanted to get newspapers and magazine delivered on time. I tried reading books on it as well and never looked back. Ever since then, 4 years ago, I have read everything electronic. I have gone through 6 SONY readers, 2 kindles, and 2 iPads. Nowadays I read magazines on my iPad and everything else on a Kindle PW. Yet, I am increasingly disappointed. I'll try to keep it brief.
1) Quality. Everything digital seems to have more mistakes. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Financial Times (FT), but also every book. Typos, typos, typos. Then typos. I don't get it. I compare the WSJ on print and on my Kindle, and the Kindle version has plenty of errors not in print. Same for books. And not just old books - recent stuff, so not scanned. 2) Content. Why do many ebooks not have introductions or footnotes/endnotes otherwise present in print? I want the option to skip those, not someone else to make that choice... Why do digital subscriptions to newspapers and magazine not include special issues, weekend editions, etc? 3) Price. Despite all the promises, everything costs either the same, or more. Well, it might be a subjective issue, I'll admit. I work in academia. I have three libraries around me. With plenty of free print books. Almost no ebooks. This is a major university. The third one I am in over the last decade. Of the three, none had a useful ebook collection. They all had kindles to check-out. Go figure. I can get discounted subscriptions to most of the stuff I read. But even so... WSJ, FT, and The Economist cost the same in print as digital. Except that print has more content (see above) and that you can ALWAYS get some deal, some discount. Online, you pay the full price. Books... it's a mixed bag. Some cost less digital. Most cost more. Well, maybe not 'most'. But it is not savings... 4) It is a lot of work. Update firmware. Call customer support because something always goes wrong (at least, it did with every ereader I have owned). Install Calibre, manage plugins, edit metadata because the editor does not think it worth his/her time. Borrowing from libraries is a mess, with most readers. Including SONY. I learned, but it was not as smooth as walking into a library and asking for a book. Figure out how to backup stuff. Which includes figuring out how to strip off DRM. Then actually backup stuff every time you buy something. A print book, I buy, I read, I put on the shelf. 5) Availability. Actually what started this rant is the fact that I am down to the third book in a row I cannot find digital in the USA. Rebecca by duMaurier The Once and Future King by White Notwithstanding by DeBernieres Go figure, those were three in a row for my book club. All of them I had to go print or go pirate. But it really happens a lot lately. At least a dozen books I read this year are not available digitally in the US. For some reason, almost all are in the UK. Which goes back to (4). I can go VPN, make an account on Amazon UK, strip DRM, put on my US Kindle. All of which costs me time and money. Or I can get a free print book from the library, within 5 minutes (ok, ok, I am in a particular spot there, I realize...). 6) I just can't find an ebook reader I am truly happy with. My favorite was my PRS950. It died. Noone makes a similar product. I liked the 7" screen. And how light it was. And 3g. I use a paperwhite today, which is more like a paper-pink-green-spots. But it makes me cheerful. At least the screen has all sorts of relaxing, pastel-like shades. No, really. It's a decent reader. But small (I want a bigger screen). And it has no battery life. 7) Kind of related to (6), my biggest gripe is that no ebook reader seems to support an easy way to store, backup, and retrieve your annotations. Amazon gets closest, but only for Amazon content. It's tricky for side-loaded content. Plus Kindle don't allow free-hand annotations like SONYs. Really, SONY rocks for annotations. Especially if you want to lose them forever once the device fails and you find out that you backed up three of the folders scattered around your hard drive in which SONY decided to store your content, but you forgot the fourth, and anyways you can't restore them to the new version of their god-awful software. Is it just a technology destined for defeat? Are there just too few people really reading around the world to be worth a decent product? Is it too early, are we just the early-adopters dealing with the inevitable failures, or is it too late, because everyone is watching videos on tablets and no-one cares about black-and-white text? And, most importantly, should I go back to grading rather than rant? ![]() Last edited by vxf; 11-12-2012 at 08:23 PM. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 | |
Lunatic
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 1,691
Karma: 4386372
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Land of the Loonie
Device: Kindle Paperwhite and Keyboard, Kobo Aura, iPad mini, iPod Touch
|
Quote:
The convenience of a library at my fingertips trumps all the hassles for me. But I'm not very fussy about formatting or typos and I don't take notes, so I'm not a very demanding customer. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#3 | |
Grand Sorcerer
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 7,038
Karma: 39379388
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: near Philadelphia USA
Device: Kindle Kids Edition, Fire HD 10 (11th generation)
|
Quote:
Small-town US newspapers still often have these problems. It may have a lot to do with circulation. Where print still has the highest circulation, it will get the most proofreading attention. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#4 |
Wizard
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 1,531
Karma: 34583358
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Quincy, MA
Device: Samsung 54A, Kobo Libra H2O, Samsung S6 Lite
|
Sounds like you just need to go back to paper since you think it is so perfect. I would much rather have my imperfect ebooks that are still perfectly enjoyable to me. I have over 600 over them that fit easily on my reader, pc, sd card with tons more space for even more books. This trumps the perfection of paperbooks any day!
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#5 |
Guru
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 823
Karma: 1818344
Join Date: Apr 2011
Device: iPhone 5s
|
Hmm I haven't found any huge amount of errors in my books. Only had to deal with 1 firmware update and I have yet to call customer service about my ereader. I've also saved tons of money buying books on sale. Sorry your experiences suck but it's not the same one I've had and the people I know have had.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#6 |
Guru
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 944
Karma: 1490348
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Norman, OK
Device: Sony PRS 350, 900, 950; Kindles (ALL of them!); Kobo Aura One
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#7 | |
Readaholic
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 5,140
Karma: 90000000
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: South Georgia
Device: Surface Pro 6 / Galaxy Tab A 8"
|
Quote:
We ran a full page add about our Trunk Show. The paper ran it without proofing it with us. The advertisement they ran was for a Truck Show. Really, a truck show at a jewelry store. Then they wanted to run a 1/2 inch correction. ![]() This was not the only mistake they made. My wife claims you have to take and pass stupid test to work there. ![]() Apache |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#8 |
Zealot
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 107
Karma: 1053398
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Scotland
Device: Kobo Glo, Nook Touch
|
Yes we are to some extent early adopters and yes the technology is not yet mature.
Some of the e-books do indeed have more spelling and typesetting (if you can call them that) problems than paper books. But that may be because e-books are probably still perceived (by the publishers) as newfangled gimmicks that allow them to make a quick but uncertain buck with a minimum of expense. I have to admit that after 3 years of reading e-books I now take spelling mistakes and crazy paragraphs in my stride. As for annotations, I would think that the majority of readers would not do annotations (though from this forum I am aware of many that do) so the problems with annotations would not be considered vital by the manufacturers either. But it will get better. E-readers have evolved a lot in a short time. In just 3-4 years we saw the introduction of touch screens, front-lit screens, higher resolution screens, easy access SD-card slots and better looking eInk screens with all major manufacturers. The e-readers are faster, cheaper, with more features, smaller (for the same size of screen). Some features (notably sound support) have gone out and the bigger screens appear to have been dropped by the major players, these are probably due to low demand. I for one am quite optimistic about the future. I'm now waiting for colour eInk... |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#9 |
Wizard
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 2,100
Karma: 11315768
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch
|
I think the advantages of ebooks outweigh the disadvantages, but that doesn't mean I'm completely satisfied with them. I'd like to see them cleaned up to the same standard as the pbook, at least.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#10 |
Wizard
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 3,982
Karma: 38840460
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Minneapolis
Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos
|
I'm only going to comment on your primary rant - availability. I get it. You see, I can't read print due to vision damage. So, if it is not available in audio or ebook form, I don't get to read it at all. I don't have the option of getting it in a printed form. Book clubs can be great or a headache, depending on your preferences. I'm fortunate that besides MobileRead's book club, my other book club requires all selections to have either audio or ebook format available.
I have a series that I want to start. I have ebooks 2-8. Book 1 is owned by a different publisher who refuses to grant rights to anybody in the US, thus it is not available to anybody in the US. Very, very annoying. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#11 |
Guru
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 973
Karma: 4269175
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Europe
Device: Pocketbook Basic 613
|
Re: Availability. It might be my tastes, but usually (or at least quite, quite often) it's the other way round, i.e. we can't (legally) get stuff because it's US-only. Annoys the heck out of me, too; I think it's just stupid.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#12 |
Basculocolpic
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 4,356
Karma: 20181319
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sweden
Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1
|
I get where vxf is coming from. Few things annoy me as much as obvious typos in print (despite making them myself), yet I'm fairly acceptant when they appear in eBooks (probably OCRd in the Philippines, what can you expect). Obviously a dichotomy that shouldn't be accepted, and vxf has reached that stage, whereas I'm probably still enamored with the new technology, hence my acceptance threshold is for some irrational reason higher.
The whole deDRM process is fairly smooth, as soon as I purchase an eBook it goes into Calibre, yes it is a process but for me it is so ubiquitous that I no longer think about it. Then the Calibre library is automatically backed up to the cloud every fortnight and to an external HDD every other fortnight. Hence my backup is never more than a week old. Unless I've been on some splurge, I don't stand to lose more than one or two books, hopefully they will still be on my device. The annotation mess I completely understand. Working in academia the ability to take notes and refer back to them including citations is probably the most laborious part of research. Streamlining and digitalizing that part would be a tremendous efficiency booster, and not a single eReader producer seems to have understood the benefits available. As for some titles not being available in the US, all I can say is welcome to my (and the rest of the) world. Consider yourself lucky to be in America, you have more titles available than anywhere else. You can even buy foreign language versions from foreign countries without being geo-restricted, exactly the thing the rest of us non-native English speakers are trying to do when we look into VPN setups and pre/paid credit cards. The things we are willing to submit ourselves to for the love of reading, is now a little more clear, my dear vxf. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#13 |
Opsimath
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 12,344
Karma: 187123287
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
Device: Sony PRS-650, iPhone 5, Kobo Glo, Sony PRS-350, iPad, Samsung Galaxy
|
I'm a non-demanding e-book reader. I think in the past three years there's only been one e-book that was so poorly proofed that I couldn't get past the first chapter. I don't mind typos, I have no need to annotate, I don't need a dictionary... Once in a blue moon I come across a book that has all the apostrophes replaced with question marks. For some odd reason, that bothers me enough to put the book into a program with a 'search and replace' function, but then I'm good to go on. I read on a Sony 505 that has no touch screen, no backlight, just an old reliable e-book reader that I take with me where ever I go. I hope it lasts forever cuz I just hear waaaay too many problems with all the newer, better readers available today.
Stitchawl |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#14 | |
Wizard
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 2,951
Karma: 3000001
Join Date: Feb 2011
Device: Kindle 3 wifi, Kindle Fire
|
Quote:
Ouch ![]() That's all I'm going to say about it. ![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#15 |
Basculocolpic
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posts: 4,356
Karma: 20181319
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sweden
Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1
|
Sorry, I don't get it.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Seriously thoughtful New Money, The Smart thing or the Fun thing? | GlenBarrington | Lounge | 9 | 01-13-2012 01:47 PM |
Multiplying calendar entries -- a PE thing or an android thing | Tunney | enTourage eDGe | 5 | 10-21-2011 07:27 PM |
Caught in registration loop | sma | enTourage eDGe | 2 | 09-24-2011 11:48 AM |
Bus Driver Caught on Tape Reading Kindle While Driving | carld | News | 83 | 09-25-2010 06:31 AM |
Nick Hornby: "I'll never be caught reading an ebook" | grimo1re | News | 33 | 07-27-2008 04:14 AM |