Quote:
Originally Posted by Dru
Non-monopolies interest me more. Breadth of selection from multiple sources... look at what happened with the Yahoo music store.
To be fair, it doesn't seem like with any of the readers, friends and family can give you a DRM'd ebook.
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Dru, you hit upon one reason why the choice is so difficult - DRM.
Readers are not cheap but if truth were told many of us could probably afford to replace/upgrade a reader in the same way most of us do with our phones. Given that, while a mistaken choice may be an ‘ouch’, it’s not terminal. Unlike phones, however, we fear being locked into a single reader product line by DRM – especially when there’s a possibility that product line and its associated DRM format may become redundant.
For that reason it’s worth considering preparing for your new reader by becoming familiar with the way material can be shifted from one format to another and even, if you feel it’s justifiable, how DRM can be removed from material to allow such shifting. Many ebook users – including many in these forums - deliberately buy material in formats which are unrelated to their actual reader hardware but which are easily unchained and translated into other formats.
Anyone who is confident that they can shift formats is free to consider the best hardware/firmware for their needs in a new way. I have a Cybook and I’m delighted with it but if Cybook (or even Mobipocket) disappeared tomorrow, my library would be happily nestling in new hardware within a few days, none the worse for the experience.
Anyway, enjoy whatever you finally decide upon.