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Originally Posted by hannahi
I've been using the Kindle eink device and various Kindle apps since April 2010 and have found it to be a great reading experience. For reasons I can't totally explain, I don't want to buy books from Amazon any longer.
If you were in this situation would you keep the Kindle 3, buy books elsewhere and strip the drm to make them readable on the Kindle, or buy a different reader (for instance the Sony reader that will be released soon, which allows wireless downloading of library books/books from the Sony store) and transfer old books as needed from my Kindle archive? Because I pick up a lot of freebies and sale books, I have quite a collection in my Kindle archives--1,000+ books at this point. I suppose I could also keep both devices...I already have a Sony Pocket reader that I bought last fall when only epub books were available through libraries. I've read only a handful of books on the Sony since the screen is small and it's a pain to transfer books, plus the only computer that I have the reader software is a slow, ancient laptop (the others are running Linux).
I don't like the idea of DRM but at the same time, I like the convenience of having all my books stored in the cloud and synching across devices. I also understand that Amazon is releasing an update for the Kindle 3 that allows you to sync personal documents across devices which I think I could take advantage of if I stripped the DRM and converted books to .mobi format.
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There isn't any particular reason to get rid of your Kindle, though I'm sure you could get a pretty penny for it - but you do have plenty of great reasons to move to another e-reader.
And you don't need the Kindle to have a streamlined experience.
What you're getting at here, is that the Kindle attempts to put users in a "walled garden," preventing them from using any other file formats, any other device, or being able to do what they like with their own content.
With the Kindle this comes from a variety of places. The biggest is that they use a basically proprietary file format. It also comes somewhat from publishers and authors who use DRM.
Here's something to consider, though. Your "convenience" factor only applies for as long as the DRM company exists, or as long as the Kindle exists. As soon as either one of those things goes under, your content and/or your cloud service is suddenly unusable. This has happened before, and it will happen again. You don't own your books - they do. And they can take them away at any time.
Here's the deal though. There's no reason you can't have cloud service and easy syncing while at the same time not putting up with Kindle and DRM's attempts to limit your ownership and use of your own content.
If you want to get out of this cycle, I would not recommend the Sony. While it's true they do use the more common EPUB format, they also force DRM on authors and publishers who sell through their store. Even Kindle isn't that restrictive.
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Unfortunately, I had no such luck with Apple or Sony. True to my earlier experience with Apple’s iTunes store, Apple has a mandatory DRM requirement for books offered for sale for the iPad. I know many Apple fans believe that because Steve Jobs penned an open letter decrying DRM that the company must use DRM because they have no choice. But this simply isn’t true. Sony has the same deal.
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http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/c...sony-hold-out/
While it is true Sony will let you use EPUB's from other places, the ones from their store are still very restrictive, and what Sony is doing is a huge disservice to authors and readers alike.
There are plenty of other good ereaders that are fairly open-format, and whose stores are not so draconian.
If I were you, I would look into the PocketBook series, or the Kobo Touch. I got the Kobo Touch - it was more in my price range for the other things I wanted. They do have a Kobo store. They allow authors and publishers to choose to DRM or not (like Kindle and Nook do).
I didn't go for the Nook because although they do allow authors and publishers to choose whether or not they DRM, they refuse to tell the customer whether or not the book is DRM'ed. Basically, they won't tell you what you're buying.
But I've never used the Kobo store. I set up KT Desktop to get the reader set up, and then went straight to Calibre and never touched it again. I use Calibre as my only ebook library program. You can also use Calibre to shop many different stores at once for the best price, and it will tell you if a book is DRM'ed or not.
I also use Dropbox, which is a free cloud service up to 2gb, with plenty of ways to earn more free space. I can access my library on my computer, my smartphone, and my KT (which has wifi). It is just as convenient as what you're doing now if not moreso, and you don't need to rely on restrictive walled gardens to have that kind of convenience.
Once DRM is removed, you can convert all your MOBI's on Calibre - it will probably take a few minutes for 1000+ - and your problem is solved. It's worth the extra few minutes to own your content.