Calibre News vs Amazon subscription

kennyc · 11-02-2009, 08:54 AM

Hmmmm..... Thought I would try an experiment. I purchased the current issue (November) of The Atlantic from Amazon for my Kindle2 (azw - just fyi) format for $1.49

I also just downloaded using Calibre News - The Atlantic.

I'm not really seeing any differences. In fact the Calibre version has images that were not included in the purchased version.

Clearly I'm missing something, right?

kovidgoyal · 11-02-2009, 09:08 AM

Not really, a lot of calibre produced news feeds are better than the Amazon ones. Some are worse, but all they need is a little love. The fundamental philosophy of the way calibre and Amazon go about it is different. IIRC, Amazon requires the news publishers to provide their content to it in a special XML format, which it then auto converts to MOBI.

calibre, being so much more powerful, just converts the existing web site of the news publisher. Since the calibre approach doesn't require any work from the publisher, it tends to usually end up with more features/formatting, since publishers generally put a lot of effort into their web sites.

kennyc · 11-02-2009, 09:16 AM

Thanks Kovid. In many more ways than just this reply!

So I guess if the publisher -- The Atlantic in this case only put, say the first few pages, of a story or article on line, then their would be a difference. I'm surprised they actually put the entire article on line as opposed to restricting it and charging for access. (I do know that some do exactly that)

11-02-2009, 08:54 AM	#1
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,872 Karma: 118716293 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	Calibre News vs Amazon subscription Hmmmm..... Thought I would try an experiment. I purchased the current issue (November) of The Atlantic from Amazon for my Kindle2 (azw - just fyi) format for $1.49 I also just downloaded using Calibre News - The Atlantic. I'm not really seeing any differences. In fact the Calibre version has images that were not included in the purchased version. Clearly I'm missing something, right?

11-02-2009, 09:16 AM	#3
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,872 Karma: 118716293 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	Thanks Kovid. In many more ways than just this reply! So I guess if the publisher -- The Atlantic in this case only put, say the first few pages, of a story or article on line, then their would be a difference. I'm surprised they actually put the entire article on line as opposed to restricting it and charging for access. (I do know that some do exactly that) Last edited by kennyc; 11-02-2009 at 09:19 AM.

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11-02-2009, 09:08 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,843 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Not really, a lot of calibre produced news feeds are better than the Amazon ones. Some are worse, but all they need is a little love. The fundamental philosophy of the way calibre and Amazon go about it is different. IIRC, Amazon requires the news publishers to provide their content to it in a special XML format, which it then auto converts to MOBI. calibre, being so much more powerful, just converts the existing web site of the news publisher. Since the calibre approach doesn't require any work from the publisher, it tends to usually end up with more features/formatting, since publishers generally put a lot of effort into their web sites.

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