About eBook prices in Germany:
For books in German language we have fixed book prices. It doesn’t matter where you buy a book - the price is always the same.
About library loans:
German library (Onleihe) lends epub books only.
Additional infos about Tolino readers:
They are bound to one shop of the Tolino alliance. The reader will be connected via Tolino cloud to this shop. But the cloud also can be connected to additional other shops of the Tolino alliance. So: every book bought from one of the cloud-connected shops will be automatically in the cloud and easily can be loaded to the reader.
The cloud works via wlan. Updates for the Tolinos are distributed the same way.
Epub eBooks in German language nowadays mostly are sold without hard DRM (no DRM or social DRM (watermark)), so epub books bought from other shops outside the Tolino alliance mostly easily can be sideloaded to the Tolino reader.
Technically the Tolinos are easily to handle. They don’t allow much tinkering around – perfect if someone is not tech savvy.
If your uncle needs more information or help: there are German forums about Tolino readers, for example:
https://www.e-reader-forum.de/ebook-...oard70-tolino/
Kindle readers:
No difference to other countries, except the fixed book price and no support for library loans (Onleihe).
eBook Shops:
ebook.de is one of the shops I buy most of my books from. Other shops of the Tolino alliance are: hugendubel.de, osiander.de, thalia.de. Hugendubel, Osiander and Thalia have establishments in various Cities in Germany. Maybe your uncle wants to visit one of these shops; most of them display Tolinos and the employees – hopefully – can answer questions.
Klecks