Sony closes USA and Canada ebook store

[ReadTillYouBleed]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Yes, the dictionaries are great. I know I will miss then when someday my Sony reader dies and I have to get something else. Hopefully that won't happen for a long time.

My first Sony reader was T1, but I've since bought 650 and 350 as backup just for the dictionaries. Unfortunately, the North American T2 model came without the German and Italian dictionaries present in the earlier models - it only had the Spanish and French ones.

One worrysome possibility is the Adobe's new encryption scheme. A number of online ebook stores in Europe use Adobe DRM, so if some day it ceases to be compatible with these Sony readers, there may never be a substitute for those who want a good bilingual dictionary to read their books.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by ReadTillYouBleed

My first Sony reader was T1, but I've since bought 650 and 350 as backup just for the dictionaries. Unfortunately, the North American T2 model came without the German and Italian dictionaries present in the earlier models - it only had the Spanish and French ones.

One worrysome possibility is the Adobe's new encryption scheme. A number of online ebook stores in Europe use Adobe DRM, so if some day it ceases to be compatible with these Sony readers, there may never be a substitute for those who want a good bilingual dictionary to read their books.

I'm REALLY annoyed by all this talk that Adobe may put out a new DRM that makes it backwards incompatible. Inexcusable, especially considering the number of books out there that have been sold and the fact that there are new devices every year. People can't be expected to rebuy their entire library. A lot of customers aren't savvy enough to do any playing with files. And some of us don't WANT to have to do even if we can figure it out!

That 39 dollar deal someone mentioned above is very tempting for me. I don't yet have an epub reader, but have been eying the Kobo one for a while.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I'm REALLY annoyed by all this talk that Adobe may put out a new DRM that makes it backwards incompatible. Inexcusable, especially considering the number of books out there that have been sold and the fact that there are new devices every year. People can't be expected to rebuy their entire library. A lot of customers aren't savvy enough to do any playing with files. And some of us don't WANT to have to do even if we can figure it out!

To be fair to Adobe, the current change doesn't affect your already-purchased ebooks. You will continue to be able to read them on your existing devices and on any devices that use the new DRM. New devices using the new DRM with also still be able to read the older DRM.

Of course, this might not be the case after another five years.

What it will affect is newly purchased ebooks. At some point (undetermined, but probably withing the year), new ebooks will be forced to use the new DRM and will be unreadable on older devices, unless they get a firmware upgrade.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

. . . I don't yet have an epub reader, but have been eying the Kobo one for a while.

In addition to my Kindles. I have both a Kobo Mini and a Kobo Aura HD. You could not go wrong with either. If price is an issue, the Mini is a great ereader. It doesn't have a frontlight, though, so if that is important to you, you might want to stick with the Glo, Aura HD, or Aura.

[issybird]

For the first time, when I tethered my Sonys this morning, Reader Library didn't ask me to upgrade to Reader for PC and my 350s didn't ask if I wanted the device upgrade. End of an era. As an aside, I really like Reader Library; it does some things better than Calibre.

My X50s remain my favorite devices; I've seen nothing since I like as much. Long life to them! With this news, I was tempted to seek out a T3 for inventory, but that seems foolhardy in conjunction with the ADE news. No point in further investments in soon-to-be-defunct devices.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Yes, the dictionaries are great. I know I will miss then when someday my Sony reader dies and I have to get something else. Hopefully that won't happen for a long time.

I'm in the same boat. My first Sony was a 505 and had I not dropped it walking into the gym one day, I'd still be using it. Now have a T1 and am perfectly happy with that but I need to decide what to replace it with should I drop it like its predecessor.


Right now leaning towards a Kobo Glo or maybe switching to a Kindle Paperwhite.

What would you consider?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

To be fair to Adobe, the current change doesn't affect your already-purchased ebooks. You will continue to be able to read them on your existing devices and on any devices that use the new DRM. New devices using the new DRM with also still be able to read the older DRM.

Of course, this might not be the case after another five years.

What it will affect is newly purchased ebooks. At some point (undetermined, but probably withing the year), new ebooks will be forced to use the new DRM and will be unreadable on older devices, unless they get a firmware upgrade.

Yes, but doesn't that mean that I wouldn't be able to read the new books on my old device? Compelling me to get a new e-reader? (If I understand it correctly.)

[sharphamster]

If Kobo can apply their own DRM thru sync (My HD is not ADE activated) and they'll be upgrading their site/software to accommodate Sony devices, could they bypass ADE 3 and use their own?

*Disclaimer*
I have no clue if this is even possible/probable, or what would be involved on the software engineering side. Just woke up in an optimistic mood today.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by jersysman

In addition to my Kindles. I have both a Kobo Mini and a Kobo Aura HD. You could not go wrong with either. If price is an issue, the Mini is a great ereader. It doesn't have a frontlight, though, so if that is important to you, you might want to stick with the Glo, Aura HD, or Aura.

Thanks! I'm not sure I want a front light so that will probably play in the decision. Then again, my kindle doesn't have one, so perhaps I should get one...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Yes, but doesn't that mean that I wouldn't be able to read the new books on my old device? Compelling me to get a new e-reader? (If I understand it correctly.)

I expect if you get a new device that ADE would do the right thing.

[ReadTillYouBleed]

Originally Posted by benham

Amazon has some PRS-505 for $39! New. The battery kit is $25.

I've seen it said that batteries degrade over time even if a device is not used. If that were actually the case, even an unused PRS-505 could have a somewhat weakened battery, and then a newer battery might be a better choice.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I expect if you get a new device that ADE would do the right thing.

But that is what I meant--the new ones would work but the old ones would possibly start having trouble reading newer books. If I understand it correctly and it's possible I do not.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

But that is what I meant--the new ones would work but the old ones would possibly start having trouble reading newer books. If I understand it correctly and it's possible I do not.

My expectation is that ADE would still support the older version of the DRM and encrypt accordingly if you transfer a book to one of those devices using it.

I'm not 100% this is the case. Have they stated otherwise all legacy devices would no longer be supported? They expect all e reader makers to upgrade to the new version?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

My expectation is that ADE would still support the older version of the DRM and encrypt accordingly if you transfer a book to one of those devices using it.

I'm not 100% this is the case. Have they stated otherwise all legacy devices would no longer be supported? They expect all e reader makers to upgrade to the new version?

I don't know. PDurrant said:

What it will affect is newly purchased ebooks. At some point (undetermined, but probably withing the year), new ebooks will be forced to use the new DRM and will be unreadable on older devices, unless they get a firmware upgrade.

A firmware upgrade might work. I've read a couple of other articles on the subject and I guess the issue is that no one seems to know. Nate (the digital reader) linked to this article yesterday:

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/bl...up-your-books/

It's convoluted, but it just sounds like a big fat red mess.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

My expectation is that ADE would still support the older version of the DRM and encrypt accordingly if you transfer a book to one of those devices using it.

This is not so. If you download a book and it's encrypted using the new DRM scheme, that's it. You'll only have it available in the new DRM scheme. ADE 3.0 cannot convert it to the old DRM scheme for older devices.