E-book competition - Page 3

nekokami · 10-26-2007, 04:50 PM

I think you could set up a kiosk out of a cheap old laptop and linux (to avoid picking up viruses), then allow people to plug their USB drive in to get their files. It would be up to the customer to figure out how to transfer the file from their USB drive to their device. You can get USB-media converters for things like CF and SD, too.

NatCh · 10-26-2007, 04:53 PM

Those little "Business Card" CD's fascinate me. But I'm easily amused, so there you go.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-26-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Those little "Business Card" CD's fascinate me. But I'm easily amused, so there you go.

And me... but I've heard there are a lot of CD drives out there that can't read them because of their shape, so I defer to mini-CDs.

NatCh · 10-26-2007, 05:05 PM

Really? I hadn't heard that.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-26-2007, 09:14 PM

I understand it's mostly an issue with older CD players, and those that play CDs vertically (sideways), that can have problems. I honestly don't know how prevalent this is with most PCs... this is just what I've heard.

nekokami · 10-26-2007, 10:06 PM

I wonder if second hand bookstores could set up to get a discount of some kind on commercial ebooks, as a reseller? Then they could take the used p-books in trade, and sell the e-book for a reduced price. I suppose they could give the expected resale value of the used book, less turnover, as a discount anyway. Then instead of paying the customer, they'd be issuing a coupon to their ebook store, effectively. It could be viable for a while, at least until (if) ebooks really do take off.

This way, for books that are commercially available as e-books, they'd be supporting them, and then they could do the scan/proof/swap deal as described above for books not yet available as commercial ebooks. Perhaps that would help convince publishers to get more of their inventory available as ebooks.

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10-26-2007, 04:50 PM	#31
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I think you could set up a kiosk out of a cheap old laptop and linux (to avoid picking up viruses), then allow people to plug their USB drive in to get their files. It would be up to the customer to figure out how to transfer the file from their USB drive to their device. You can get USB-media converters for things like CF and SD, too.

10-26-2007, 04:53 PM	#32
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Those little "Business Card" CD's fascinate me. But I'm easily amused, so there you go.

10-26-2007, 05:05 PM	#34
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Really? I hadn't heard that.

10-26-2007, 09:14 PM	#35
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I understand it's mostly an issue with older CD players, and those that play CDs vertically (sideways), that can have problems. I honestly don't know how prevalent this is with most PCs... this is just what I've heard.

10-26-2007, 10:06 PM	#36
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I wonder if second hand bookstores could set up to get a discount of some kind on commercial ebooks, as a reseller? Then they could take the used p-books in trade, and sell the e-book for a reduced price. I suppose they could give the expected resale value of the used book, less turnover, as a discount anyway. Then instead of paying the customer, they'd be issuing a coupon to their ebook store, effectively. It could be viable for a while, at least until (if) ebooks really do take off. This way, for books that are commercially available as e-books, they'd be supporting them, and then they could do the scan/proof/swap deal as described above for books not yet available as commercial ebooks. Perhaps that would help convince publishers to get more of their inventory available as ebooks.