UK Kindle ebook store Now Open - Page 2

Juliette · 08-05-2010, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by church mouse

Oh no, too late!!

Flub · 08-05-2010, 08:11 AM

I'm pretty disapointed actually. While it's nice we finally have a real UK store I'm amazed it's taken a year and the sci-fi selection is still identical to what we had when using Amazon.com (As in pretty rubbish).

Has anyone noticed an increase in books in other catagories?

dickon25 · 08-05-2010, 08:50 AM

Oh dear, I think my credit card is about to take another battering.....

Stupid question time though. I have a Sony and love it to bits. Can I buy ebooks from Amazon and format shift for the Sony?

Their prices look really good and it'll be heaven not to have the geographic restrictions thingy popping up all over my wishlist (thanks Fictionwise, BoB etc).

I hadn't really considered buying a Kindle but the Wi-Fi version at £109 looks a steal!!

TimMason · 08-05-2010, 08:58 AM

Kumabjorn, that is an excellent question. Other Uk eBook stores also impose restrictive practices, even though the EC is supposed to be an integrated market. I think this needs to be taken up by the European Commission. Why should there be an exception for eBoooks?

Ben Thornton · 08-05-2010, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dickon25

Oh dear, I think my credit card is about to take another battering.....

Stupid question time though. I have a Sony and love it to bits. Can I buy ebooks from Amazon and format shift for the Sony?

Their prices look really good and it'll be heaven not to have the geographic restrictions thingy popping up all over my wishlist (thanks Fictionwise, BoB etc).

I hadn't really considered buying a Kindle but the Wi-Fi version at £109 looks a steal!!

It is possible (although Not Allowed) to break the DRM on the Kindle books and format shift them, but in my experience there are often formatting issues etc. - the latest book that I tried this on was unreadable.

So, I've ordered a K3. Given that books are typically several pounds cheaper on Amazon than e.g. Waterstones, it will pay for itself in a year, and it will be instantly easier to buy books and get them on the device.

FlorenceArt · 08-05-2010, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dickon25

Oh dear, I think my credit card is about to take another battering.....

Stupid question time though. I have a Sony and love it to bits. Can I buy ebooks from Amazon and format shift for the Sony?

Their prices look really good and it'll be heaven not to have the geographic restrictions thingy popping up all over my wishlist (thanks Fictionwise, BoB etc).

I hadn't really considered buying a Kindle but the Wi-Fi version at £109 looks a steal!!

You can, if you're not afraid of a lot of work, some of it possibly illegal in your country. Basically, the steps would be:

- download and install the Kindle app for your OS
- find out the app's PID (the code that identifies it and allows it to read the books you will buy - I still haven't found how to get this PID for the Mac version of the app)
- remove the DRM (this is the part that may be illegal, depending on where you live)
- convert to ePub

It's a little too much for me, and I must admit, if Amazon doesn't want to sell me ebooks, I'm not going to jump through hoops to give them my money anyway. But it's a personal choice of course.

dickon25 · 08-05-2010, 09:17 AM

Thanks for that. I've crunched DRM (shhh) from other stores and had good results, but maybe this is a step too far......
I'll have a good trawl of the store this evening and see what their selection is like - I'm a bit concerned by Flub's assessment! Then, I may be clicking the Order button for a Wi-Fi model.......

Flub · 08-05-2010, 09:23 AM

Oh it's by no means terrible. It's a far, far better selection than when the store opened last year for us UK people and appears to be getting better by the week. I just expected something more from the launch than "Exactly the same as you had before but with a different currency"

Publisher progress just feels achingly slow

Sometimes it takes ages for books to appear too. The new Jeff Somers book came out yesterday. It took until today before it appeared in the Waterstones store and it still isn't in the Kindle store. It's like they don't want your money sometimes.

pdurrant · 08-05-2010, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dickon25

Stupid question time though. I have a Sony and love it to bits. Can I buy ebooks from Amazon and format shift for the Sony?

It's currently only possible to strip the DRM from Kindle ebooks using books downloaded to Kindle for Windows, so having a machine that runs Windows is currently essential.

Hopefully one of the clever reverse-engineering types will eventually work out a solution for the new Kindle firmware, or for Kindle for Macintosh.

Of course, there are some Kindle ebooks that don't have DRM, but mainly from small publishers.

Once free of DRM, conversion from Mobipocket to ePub should be easy and high quality using Calibre. Do watch out for Topaz format books though — they're a lot harder to convert.

Ben Thornton · 08-05-2010, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Once free of DRM, conversion from Mobipocket to ePub should be easy and high quality using Calibre.

This has not been my experience, I'm afraid. Text including "<" characters and other computerese can confuse the converters - this happened to me with "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" where she's talking online, for example. The latest Dawkins also came out a mess - not sure what was going on there. The bolding and paragraphs were all over the place.

All I'm saying is that one shouldn't underestimate the hassle factor in getting to a readable epub from an Amazon purchase. Now the K3 is so cheap and they have a UK store, I'm signing up to the evil empire

bevdeforges · 08-05-2010, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimMason

Kumabjorn, that is an excellent question. Other Uk eBook stores also impose restrictive practices, even though the EC is supposed to be an integrated market. I think this needs to be taken up by the European Commission. Why should there be an exception for eBoooks?

Good point - however, there is still hope. Until fairly recently, amazon.co.uk couldn't ship various items to France and other European countries. Mainly it was electronics, some health and beauty supplies and a few other categories. With any kind of luck, once they get going with their Kindle store, maybe they will expand their "shipping" area like they did with their other merchandise.

I have accounts at Amazon in the US, UK, France and Germany, but they are all pegged to my same home address in France. I really wonder why they want UK customers to "transfer" their accounts from *.com to *.co.uk?

In any event, I've had no trouble buying e-books from the UK vendors (Waterstones, WH Smith) in sterling (UK credit card), nor from Kobo (in US $ on a US credit card). Have noticed just recently, though, that book prices in the UK are really dropping - at least on novels. But then the Sony store has dropped several current best sellers to $9.99 recently. Something is up with the Agency pricing thing.

Crowl · 08-05-2010, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flub

I'm pretty disapointed actually. While it's nice we finally have a real UK store I'm amazed it's taken a year and the sci-fi selection is still identical to what we had when using Amazon.com (As in pretty rubbish).

Has anyone noticed an increase in books in other catagories?

I have definitely noticed a few books I was after were no there when they hadn't been on the .com site e.g. the latest from trudi canavan.

On the subject of the dictionary, it seems to be part of the last kindle for ipad/iphone update although it didn't download at that point for me. I actually emailed support telling them I hadn't ordered that book and wanting a refund if I had been wrongly charged for it.

Erinath · 08-05-2010, 02:06 PM

What a shame it won't let me buy anything for the Kindle I've got pre-ordered. Still, it's nice to see what will be available.

pdurrant · 08-05-2010, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

This has not been my experience, I'm afraid. Text including "<" characters and other computerese can confuse the converters - this happened to me with "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" where she's talking online, for example. The latest Dawkins also came out a mess - not sure what was going on there. The bolding and paragraphs were all over the place.

Oh - I guess there are bugs in the Calibre parsing of the Mobipocket HTML.

I admit to mostly going the other way (from ePub to Mobipocket), and for that I tend to use KindleGen.

dickon25 · 08-05-2010, 02:13 PM

Erinath, did they give you an estimated delivery date when you ordered?

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08-05-2010, 08:11 AM	#17
Flub Groupie Posts: 164 Karma: 70995 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: United Kingdom Device: iPhone, PRS-505, K2i, iPad 64GB+3G, K3, Nexus S	I'm pretty disapointed actually. While it's nice we finally have a real UK store I'm amazed it's taken a year and the sci-fi selection is still identical to what we had when using Amazon.com (As in pretty rubbish). Has anyone noticed an increase in books in other catagories?

08-05-2010, 08:50 AM	#18
dickon25 Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 818 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: UK Device: Sony PRS-505. Pocketbook Inkpad 840	Oh dear, I think my credit card is about to take another battering..... Stupid question time though. I have a Sony and love it to bits. Can I buy ebooks from Amazon and format shift for the Sony? Their prices look really good and it'll be heaven not to have the geographic restrictions thingy popping up all over my wishlist (thanks Fictionwise, BoB etc). I hadn't really considered buying a Kindle but the Wi-Fi version at £109 looks a steal!!

08-05-2010, 08:58 AM	#19
TimMason Big Ears Posts: 191 Karma: 2229 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Pontoise, France Device: Onyx Boox 60, iPad	Kumabjorn, that is an excellent question. Other Uk eBook stores also impose restrictive practices, even though the EC is supposed to be an integrated market. I think this needs to be taken up by the European Commission. Why should there be an exception for eBoooks?

08-05-2010, 09:17 AM	#22
dickon25 Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 818 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: UK Device: Sony PRS-505. Pocketbook Inkpad 840	Thanks for that. I've crunched DRM (shhh) from other stores and had good results, but maybe this is a step too far...... I'll have a good trawl of the store this evening and see what their selection is like - I'm a bit concerned by Flub's assessment! Then, I may be clicking the Order button for a Wi-Fi model.......

08-05-2010, 09:23 AM	#23
Flub Groupie Posts: 164 Karma: 70995 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: United Kingdom Device: iPhone, PRS-505, K2i, iPad 64GB+3G, K3, Nexus S	Oh it's by no means terrible. It's a far, far better selection than when the store opened last year for us UK people and appears to be getting better by the week. I just expected something more from the launch than "Exactly the same as you had before but with a different currency" Publisher progress just feels achingly slow Sometimes it takes ages for books to appear too. The new Jeff Somers book came out yesterday. It took until today before it appeared in the Waterstones store and it still isn't in the Kindle store. It's like they don't want your money sometimes.

08-05-2010, 02:06 PM	#28
Erinath Shy Philosopher Posts: 99 Karma: 10000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: England Device: Sony PRS-T1, Nook Simple Touch, Nook HD+ & Kindle Keyboard (wifi only)	What a shame it won't let me buy anything for the Kindle I've got pre-ordered. Still, it's nice to see what will be available.

08-05-2010, 02:13 PM	#30
dickon25 Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 818 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: UK Device: Sony PRS-505. Pocketbook Inkpad 840	Erinath, did they give you an estimated delivery date when you ordered?

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