New Kindle with WiFi announced

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

desert grandma has a thread on here somewhere that fully explains the method to download a library book to your kindle

Sad but humorous how these people won't listen to what you are trying to tell them. I guess they are so wrapped up in their arguments that they have tunnel vision!

Thanks again!

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But you don't go to Overdrive's site to borrow eBooks. You go to your library's overdrive site to browse/borrow eBooks. But I do have to say that Overdrive's update of their site is not good.

Heh my librarys version of the overdrive sight is even more awful. It is simply od's crappy site, in my librarys frame. I assumed every one elses site was the same.

http://lib.williamson-tn.org/ (hit the r.e.a.d.s. link on the left)

[EowynCarter]

Bezos has said they're open to licensing it to others as long as they're willing to hook into whispernet/sync. True? Who knows...

So, what happened to "no mobi drm with an other drm" rule ?

It's not really about Amazon winning, it's about a choice being made that has to be made for ebooks to become mainstream. They cannot become mainstream with so many competing forms of DRM and wrappers (they're all pretty much HTML underneath it all anyway).

Quite true.

Early adopters see the technical merits of formats, mainstream adopters see only the convenience. Once Amazon becomes the clear winner, then we'll start seeing real competition and innovation between vendors.

But "amazon become the clear winner", is not something i see happening anytime soon.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by jswinden

If it is anything like they did with Android and tablets running Android, they will shoot themselves in the foot!

What does this mean? Android tablets may be the next big thing.

Besides they will run the kindle app.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

WOW!!!! will big letters help?

YOU CAN GET BOOKS FROM

PLACES OTHER THAN AMAZON!!!!!

Kindlekitten, please don't shout at me. First follow the thread and understand that my comment "Even if it means those publishers' books will only be available to you from a single vendor?" was in reply to jswinden's one about all publishers switching to the Amazon DRM.

That DRM system is currently only available from Amazon, a single vendor.

Yes, we're all perfectly aware that you can buy books in other formats from other vendors for your Kindle, but that's not what we were talking about.

Graham

[shootist]

Originally Posted by volwrath

If this new kindle had epub support, it would be gameover for sony. As it is I think I am going to ditch my PRS505 in favor of having whispernet ability for a kindle, kindle app for ipad, ipod touch, android phone, and finally for kindle4PC.

Anyone want to buy a PRS505?

I agree. I would buy a kindle in a heartbeat if it had epub support. Thats why I ended up with a nook.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

as I understand it, any audiobook can be downloaded and as it has the ability to play music, it obviously can play and recorded voice. the text to speech option is indeed robotic, but that is a seperate issue

You're mixing the two features. The poster asked about text to speech, which is the robot voice without pauses. Yes, separately, you can buy audiobooks and play them on Kindle, but you can buy audiobooks and play them on many devices, without buying a Kindle. I wouldn't even consider getting a Kindle for audiobook-playing. It holds only a few audiobooks at a time. There's not enough storage. Everybody and his brother owns an MP3 player. If you already have one of those, there's no point considering a Kindle for audiobooks. You might want the text to speech, despite the poor quality, but that's a separate issue. And iPad also has a VoiceOver feature to consider, as the poster is considering an iPad.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

WOW!!!! will big letters help?

YOU CAN GET BOOKS FROM

PLACES OTHER THAN AMAZON!!!!!

Most people are not able or willing to remove DRM and/or format shift. So, for those that want to read library ebooks a Kindle is not an option for the most part.

However, I'll say it a third time... people that buy Kindle's are people that were buying NEW books and never go to a library except perhaps to do research.

BOb

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

desertgrandma

So where has she been hiding lately?

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Possibly. However what about Apple. There is only one vender, Apple, to legally buy apps for iPhone, touch, and iPad.

Thats not true really. You can buy an app from Cydia as well, which I have done.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Possibly. However what about Apple. There is only one vender, Apple, to legally buy apps for iPhone, touch, and iPad. I don't see the Feds knocking on their doors, nor do I see the customer base complaining much. As long as customers get what they want and at a fair price they seem to be happy. I'll buy from whomever can get me what I need, when I need it, and in the format I need. If that place has a monopoly, then so be it. I suspect most consumers are like that.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. It is not legal to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad and thus you can use Cydia to buy apps there too legally.

But for the majority of people, the app store is the only place there is.

[TheJohnNewton]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

A vendor which the vast majority of the public see as THE VENDOR for digital books. Listen, I'm not saying it's right, or it's fair even, but I know when I'm licked and Amazon have given ePub and the rest of the digital book market a damn good licking.

Amazon is certainly winning the ebook sales war, at least in the US, and probably have been for several years now. That's different than a format war though. To me the definition of a format "winning" would be that everyone is using it. It's the format, no others are used. Personally I'd love to see any format win, I don't care which one, because then consumers would no longer have to care about the format. You buy an ebook it just works no matter the device.

I don't think Amazon is currently even attempting to become a standard format/drm. In order to do so they would have to license or allow others to user their format/drm. As far as I know they do not allow this. Anyone can use non-secured mobi, which is in effect the format, but for commercial purposes you need the DRM too and Amazon is not sharing that.

Originally Posted by Truth

I think those declaring Amazon's victory are still forgetting something key: the older, nontechnical demographic. Shocking as it may be, there are still many people who actually walk into places commonly called "stores". In these "stores", they buy things, books for example. For the people who still shop in this manner, the Kindle is not the ereader they are likely to choose. Here in Canada, Chapters & Indigo have the Kobo ereader in stores to play with. In the States, B&N will have the same thing. Amazon lacks this presence, and I know that I am not the only person who doesn't want to buy an ereader until playing with one.

On another note, I work at a small college in one of Canada's largest cities, yet ereaders are still barely on most of my (voraciously reading) coworkers' radars. I have shown some of them the Kindle, and while they thought it was neat, they wanted to experience one before making a purchase. At least one of them has since bought a Kobo simply because it was available to touch, hold, and purchase immediately.

If the Kindle isn't on everyone's radar yet, how can the format wars be over?

Very valid points. I'm personally just speculating about what if Amazon wins the war. I personally just want the war over so we can move on to enjoying whatever reader in whatever universal format. And quite frankly, there might never be a clear winner--the worst case scenario.

Both Sony and Amazon fail miserably in having their readers available for the public to play with them in a brick and mortar store. Amazon especially since they don't have a brick and mortar presence. Sony because the retail brick and mortar stores that stock their readers tend to not know much about them and tend to not have them turned on. Best Buy in my area for example has Nooks on display and running, but their Sony Readers are not displayed like that. B&N obviously displays their Nooks, but even they didn't really seem to have many answers to my questions. They all need to improve in this area of public education.

[pilotbob]

Can someone please explain to me how the Kindle supporting ePub would be better.

Let's assume they decided to switch to the ePub format.

We know they will NOT license ADE just like Apple didn't. iBooks uses ePub however they use their proprietary FairPlay DRM. So, you can't buy [DRM protected] eBooks for iBook anywhere but from Apple.

If you are saying you want to read DRM free ePub on your kindle and can't my answer would be... any DRM free ePub you can get will also be available in Mobi format. If you get an ePub with DRM and remove the DRM it is only another 2 seconds to convert the ePub to Mobi via calibre. Anyone that is able to remove DRM is able to format shift.

So... given all the above,, if Kindle supported ePub with their own proprietary DRM and DRM free how would that be different than the Kindle store books being .mobi with their "own" DRM?

BOb

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Can someone please explain to me how the Kindle supporting ePub would be better.

Let's assume they decided to switch to the ePub format.

We know they will NOT license ADE just like Apple didn't. iBooks uses ePub however they use their proprietary FairPlay DRM. So, you can't buy eBooks for iBook anywhere but from Apple.

If you are saying you want to read DRM free ePub on your kindle and can't my answer would be... any DRM free ePub you can get will also be available in Mobi format. If you get an ePub with DRM and remove the DRM it is only another 2 seconds to convert the ePub to Mobi via calibre. Anyone that is able to remove DRM is able to format shift.

So... given all the above,, if Kindle supported ePub with their own proprietary DRM and DRM free how would that be different than the Kindle store books being .mobi with their "own" DRM?

BOb

I think ePub is a superior format for layout and images etc than mobi. Thats why I would want it. I also want amazon to whispersync even those books that they dont sell