Quote:
Originally Posted by Genre fan
What is all this Cr@p of moving to all backlit devices anyway? Arghh!!! Am I the only one left in the world who doesn't want to spend my time looking at a backlit screen?
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I'm not defending Kobo. So far I've never bought anything from them as I really don't want to use (or haven't learned how to use) coupons and their prices aren't very competitive without them. I have, however, tried them out by downloading free books and have converted my small Sony library to Kobo. If it were me I would call Customer Service again and demand a refund for the books you can't read on you Sony Readers. The "check for Blackberry" thing is pure idiocy and I don't see why they would use that dodge, especially with an obviously good customer. Kobo took on Sony and Sony devices, they
must specifically start indicating "yes" or "no" on Sony device support. Anything else is is just pure stupidity.
That said, there are still non-frontlit eReaders available. Kobo still sells the Touch and Amazon still sells their Kindle Basic. I know it's not the ideal situation, but for the cost of a few books, you could buy a used Kobo Touch to read the books that won't work on the Sony readers. It would also enable you to bypass the Kobo Desktop, and allow you to use Calibre and Uncle Alf to convert the books to standard ePub for your Sony readers.
And speaking of Sony readers, I think you can still find replacement batteries for your Sony Readers so, so as long as they're functional, you shouldn't have to say goodbye to them any time soon.
As other(s) have mentioned, you can also buy from Amazon and, using Calibre and Uncle Alf, convert to ePub for your Sony Readers. And there are some independent ePub sellers, plus (I think) Google has a big library of ePubs for sale. (I assume these can still be loaded on Sony Readers.)
First thing I would do is call Kobo back, demand a refund for the books that won't work -- and perhaps let them know how many books you've bought from them in the last few months. Then I would go to Google and see if the books were available in straight ePub DRM. But I would also look at my other options, especially the Calibre/Uncle Alf option. (It's fantastic to be able to read your book on whatever device you want to read it on.)