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Old 07-23-2014, 11:39 AM   #348
hardcastle
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Posts: 138
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Join Date: Dec 2013
Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Gray Kindle Basic
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady View Post
Here's the scenario I'm asking about. I don't have a Kindle. I'd be using an app on my phone. Wi-fi drains the battery, so I mostly turn it off. Say I read the book offline, then flip back to the cover. The next time I turn wi-fi on and return the book, how can Amazon know if I read it or not?

I'm not talking about gaming the system, I'm talking about how I would actually read borrowed books.
Amazon already generates an "estimated time to complete the chapter" metric, which must be based on the amount read versus time spent. Thus Amazon could be collecting some sort of metric on how much a book is actually read versus skimmed (because once you're under a certain ratio, the book was obviously not read - no one can read an entire novel in six seconds).

How do they use these metrics to decide if a reader "read" a book to a degree worthy of payment? We have no possible way of knowing how sophisticated their models are. There's a lot of unknowns about Kindle Unlimited still - which is likely why the service was rolled out without a massive library. It's even possible that Amazon themselves considers the service in-progress.
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