03-28-2010, 07:59 AM | #1 |
Man Who Stares at Books
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Pbook + Ebook bundles
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. Has Amazon ever given their customers a discount for buying both formats at once? Before anyone questions my motivation for owning both formats, let me explain that I am still a traditional book buyer. There is a feeling of safety knowing that one holds a physical copy of a book which is (basically) always accessible. With ebooks, one worries about hardware availability, network up-time issues, and even Amazon's status two decades from now. Insurance value is also a concern. Any users ever experience a fire destroying their Kindle and downloaded books? 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?
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03-29-2010, 04:18 AM | #2 |
Wizard
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I only buy ebooks for entertainment... such a novels... Reference/history books I buy in paper...
I might be worth it to send your recommendation to Amazon... I'm sure a lot of people would love the option... |
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03-29-2010, 09:29 AM | #3 |
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I think that would be worth it... Kinda like buying a DVD/BluRay and getting the digital copy for free... though I think it would be something to be taken up with the publishers and not Amazon
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03-29-2010, 03:20 PM | #4 |
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Until the publishers come to some sort of an agreement, this probalby will not be realized.
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04-01-2010, 11:25 AM | #5 | ||||
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Quote:
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:
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:
Quote:
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04-06-2010, 03:40 AM | #6 |
Man Who Stares at Books
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Those in the scientific community need compelling reasons to switch to eReaders. Lack of "must have" publications in both ebook and pbook formats will delay the transition process. O'Reilly is to be commended for offering both formats now, but, in general, O'Reilly is not in the top tier of technical publishers. As certain Amazon reviewers have stated, the books are written in too chatty a manner. It would be nice to present a complex algorithm in its most simple terms, but O'Reilly's nutshell books just don't hack it, imho.
The second reason why I believe that today's eReaders are destined to remain in the periphery of reading devices for technical matter is the lack of good mobile pdf software and displays. Adobe Reader is the default application for reading pdf files. Yet, it looks as though most eReader manufacturers implement only a subset of the features that Adobe Reader provides. The iPad is not ready for prime time when it comes to pdf files. No application correctly renders a simple physics paper I cited in another thread. The Kindle 2 handles the paper properly (Einstein would be proud), but the only reading mode that is tolerable is landscape. K2 has problems with large pdf art books, and more often than not, you'll get a warning that not all elements of the page could be displayed. My conclusion after sampling the latest breed of eReaders is to keep your $750 laptops. They kill the eReaders in terms of value, on the vast number of technical documents in existence today. Who wants to read a document with missing or mangled elements? |
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