*waves* Prospective Kindle 3 buyer here

[wyndslash]

First I was confused about whether to buy the wifi or 3g version, but I finally decided on the wifi-only after thinking long and hard about it. Then, like any other good forum newbie, I drifted to the other forum sections and read up on news and stuff.

I just came from the news section where people were speculating over apple's next move with its app store. that thread got me depressed, actually. I'm now wondering whether I should get a kindle at all, except that I don't have any space for real books. I just don't want to lose my digital books due to format issues and how there seems to be so many formats!

I was wondering if there is any way to back up the books you buy? O: I'm really a newbie when it comes to this sort of tech, so friendly advice is appreciated

[rcuadro]

I would not worry ab out Apple and their subscription service. That affect only iDevices
eBooks you buy from Amazon are going to be available on your kindle and on your computer and Apple has no control over that. Besides, I read today that the DOJ is taking a look at this whole Apple ordeal. Nothing official but we will see how this goes. I personally thing that there are going to enough entities that will refuse to play by Apple's rules and Apple is going to have to retract their gouging techniques... or vendors will come up with creative ways to provide content on the iDevices by other methods. Maybe they will embrace the JailBreak community.

As for backing up your books, you will always have access to them from amazon but you also have the ability to download them into your computer at will

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

I just don't want to lose my digital books due to format issues and how there seems to be so many formats!

There are two main formats these days - ePub & Mobipocket. When you buy books from Amazon, they'll arrive as .azw files, which are Mobipocket with DRM.

Originally Posted by wyndslash

I was wondering if there is any way to back up the books you buy? O: I'm really a newbie when it comes to this sort of tech, so friendly advice is appreciated

Amazon keep a copy of your books for you to download later should you wish to, and you can copy them onto your computer via the USB cable.

However, books bought from Amazon that have DRM will only be readable on devices that are registered to your account. It is possible to remove the DRM, but forum rules mean that we can't tell you how to do that here. Googling for the Dark Reverser's blog should get you the information you need.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

...
I was wondering if there is any way to back up the books you buy? O: I'm really a newbie when it comes to this sort of tech, so friendly advice is appreciated

The Kindle makes this very easy. First, Amazon backsup the books you buy from them. If you delete one from your Kindle, you can download them again from Amazon's "Archive".

You can also backup your books, regardless of their source, by simply copying the Kindle's "\documents" folder to a folder on your computer's hard drive. All you have to do is connect the Kindle to your computer with the USB cable and copy the folder. Any book deleted from the Kindle later can be copied back.

Amazon's DRM (Digital Rights Management) locks their purchased books to a particular device. Any such books you backup to your computer can only be read by copying them back to the particular device where they originated. If you should loose a device and replace it, the new device would need to be registered to the same Amazon account as the lost original and the Amazon books would then need to be redownloaded from their "Archive". The new downloads will then be keyed to the new device.

[wyndslash]

thanks, guys!

that's a relief to know. looks like i'll still be pushing through with that purchase once i earn enough from amazon mechanical turk