travelling with epub reader?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by issybird

Yes. My point is that he can purchase the book from his device and read immediately, so what's the issue? Isn't that what we've been saying? DRM is irrelevant in this hypothetical instance.

Sorry, I was confused by the word "already" in your post. Perhaps it's just a figure of speech that we don't use in the UK.

[mattrix]

DRM may not be a problem but connecting to wifi is!

I been trying what issy said, but no joy with the wifi.

Issy are you saying that if I have an .acsm file obtained from BooksOnBoard or where-ever on the koboglo, that the glo can download and decrypt the book over wireless.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry, I was confused by the word "already" in your post. Perhaps it's just a figure of speech that we don't use in the UK.

I realized that when I thought about it. "Already" in this context in the US has connotations of impatience, as in, "Stop stewing about DRM in your hypothetical internet cafe as it has no bearing on whether or not you can buy and read a book immediately."

[issybird]

Originally Posted by mattrix

DRM may not be a problem but connecting to wifi is!

I been trying what issy said, but no joy with the wifi.

Issy are you saying that if I have an .acsm file obtained from BooksOnBoard or where-ever on the koboglo, that the glo can download and decrypt the book over wireless.

Well, the problem as stated had the hapless traveler in an internet cafe.

I think you're overcomplicating this. On the Glo homepage, there's a link to Bookstore (i.e. Kobo). Connect to WiFi, shop from the device and start to read.

[faltradl]

Originally Posted by mattrix

OK, you're just starting a holiday trip. On the plane the person next to you starts talking about the newly published "abc" novel they are reading. They even let you read it while they are snoozing.

Learning that I mustn't need to have everything at once. That should be one of the differences between children and adults. And it saves a lot of money.

[mattrix]

I see.
The senario was that the book wasn't on the Kobo store.

I'm sure there must be books not available from kobo. Or is their some international agreement that distributors like Kobo,Amazon must be provided access to all epubs published anywhere.

[Yapyap]

If you don't have WiFi (and have to use an Internet café computer for the book purchase, without any way of using their WiFi for your device instead), you're out of luck, probably. I doubt you can buy a DRM-d file over a public computer; even if it had Adobe Digital Editions installed, it wouldn't be tied to your ADE account.

As long as you can get WiFi, you can buy the book directly from your reader via the bookshop affiliated with your reader, in this case Kobo (or, I assume, you can also buy from the Kobo shop and then download the file on the reader).

If there is absolutely no way to get WiFi, many smartphones allow one to create a temporary WiFi hotspot that a reader should manage to connect to.

If the book is not on Kobo, but is available, as a DRM-d file, from any other online shop, then you're out of luck (just like you'd be out of luck with only a Kindle and a book not available on Amazon in a similar situation). If it's available somewhere else DRM-free, you can probably buy it on a public computer and then sideload with USB cable.

I suppose the workaround for such a traveller would be to carry a personal laptop with ADE installed and do any spontaneous book-buying from the laptop, so that he can then transfer/sideload the book to the reader.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

If you don't have WiFi (and have to use an Internet café computer for the book purchase, without any way of using their WiFi for your device instead), you're out of luck, probably. I doubt you can buy a DRM-d file over a public computer; even if it had Adobe Digital Editions installed, it wouldn't be tied to your ADE account.

One benefit of the Kindle is that it does allow this kind of purchase: you can buy a book from the Amazon web site, select the device to deliver it to, and download a file you can copy onto your device via USB. No software needed on the PC (other than a web browser).

Of course, doing it via WiFi and buying a book directly on the device is much easier, and in most places it's not difficult to find WiFi these days.

[Froide]

There's usually more than one way to skin a cat (and obtain ebooks). Purchasing's one, as previous posters have already discussed; borrowing's another.

AFAIK, online access to public libraries (at least in the USA) is possible worldwide. Searching Worldcat.org will quickly reveal whether or not one's library carries a given ebook. (Some of us MobileReaders patronize multiple libraries.) Moreover, some digital bookstores (e.g., Kindle's and NOOK's) offer "lend me" options.

Therefore, if I were traveling out of state or abroad, had Internet access, and wanted to obtain a book I couldn't or didn't want to purchase while traveling, I'd try to borrow it. If I were unable to borrow the book, I'd add it to my "To read" list and then download a free sample from the NOOK Store, as a reminder to snag the book when I returned home.

[HarryT]

I should add to my previous posts that, given the fact that I have a little under 4000 ebooks on my current reading device, the chances of me having such a desperate urge to buy a book while I'm away that it couldn't wait until I'm at home again are fairly remote. I'm unlikely to run out of reading material.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by faltradl

Learning that I mustn't need to have everything at once. That should be one of the differences between children and adults. And it saves a lot of money.

And yet part of the sizzle used to lure adults into buying the Kindle steak is the ability to buy any book you like from wherever you are right from the Kindle. (With perhaps an asterisk as a clue that somewhere else on the page is a tiny slightly dark gray font on a very light gray background advisement on the temporal and geographic limitations on "whenever" and "wherever".) One of the consequences of tolerating puffery is dealing with those that take the puffery seriously.

On the other hand, I suspect some future poster will want to know why their device downloads fine anywhere on Earth and Mars, but not on the trip in between.

[HarryT]

Interestingly, geographical restrictions don't actually apply on the Kindle when travelling - at least not in the short term. My Amazon account is at Amazon UK, and I buy the majority of my books from the UK. However, I'm also doing a part-time degree in Egyptology, which means I spend about a month each winter or spring in Egypt. Even when I'm in Egypt, I can buy books as though I were in the UK, rather than in Egypt. They seem to look at where you spend most of your time, rather than where you are now.

The exception to that is video streaming, which does an IP check and won't work if I'm physically outside the UK.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Interestingly, geographical restrictions don't actually apply on the Kindle when travelling - at least not in the short term.

Geographic restrictions on distribution have nothing to do with geographic limitations of wireless coverage.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Geographic restrictions on distribution have nothing to do with geographic limitations of wireless coverage.

WiFi has no geographical limitations. It's the same wherever you are in the world.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by HarryT

WiFi has no geographical limitations. It's the same wherever you are in the world.

I am pretty sure that there are holes (some quite large) in wifi and cellular coverage all over the world. That is most certainly a limitation.