Will K2PC 1.19 and KFX alter your ebook purchasing habits?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Tell that to my ADE installation. Which continually forgot about me (when I bought 2 books within one week, I had to again create a new account as it had logged me out of the first and promptly forgot about me).

Is there something wrong with your Windows install? I have had ADE on a laptop and a desktop for a good period of time with no trouble.

I have ADE now on a desktop, laptop, and Surface Pro 2 with no problem remaining registered. Are you using ADE 2.0.1? I am and never a problem.

[Pajamaman]

I find Amazon's standpoint on its walled-garden conflicted.

On one hand, they clearly are invested in their walled-garden. They have consistently used their own formats and deliberately excluded the open format epub.

On the other hand, they have left holes in the garden for those that wish to get their books out.

So it seems kind of pointless. Is Amazon slowly plugging the holes? I'm not sure. Or do they not care that much, but are setting up stronger forms of protection just in case or for the future? Only time will tell.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I find Amazon's standpoint on its walled-garden conflicted.

Just having proprietary formats already creates enough of a wall to keep almost all of their customers locked in to Amazon. Relatively few bother with DRM removal and format conversion. Certainly not enough to matter to their bottom line.

I think the creation of a new format was less about trying to achieve 100% absolute lock in and more about being able to add new features, even if the features that they add are not the ones their customers have been asking for. Additional lock in is just an added benefit to them.

As they say, "Idle programmers are the devil's workshop."

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I find Amazon's standpoint on its walled-garden conflicted.

On one hand, they clearly are invested in their walled-garden. They have consistently used their own formats and deliberately excluded the open format epub.

On the other hand, they have left holes in the garden for those that wish to get their books out.

So it seems kind of pointless. Is Amazon slowly plugging the holes? I'm not sure. Or do they not care that much, but are setting up stronger forms of protection just in case or for the future? Only time will tell.

It would be nice if Amazon just allowed you to download an eBook purchase in the format of your choosing. KFX for Kindles, ePubs for everyone else.

It would possibly alleviate fears of their encroaching monopoly and they could still use KFX's advanced features to pimp Kindles as the best device for reading.

It'll never happen. But as the Beach Boys sagely said: wouldn't it be nice?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

It would be nice if Amazon just allowed you to download an eBook purchase in the format of your choosing. KFX for Kindles, ePubs for everyone else.

Yes, but they REALLY want you using a Kindle device or app. For you it is a reading device. For them it is a book selling and data gathering tool.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I think the creation of a new format was less about trying to achieve 100% absolute lock in and more about being able to add new features, even if the features that they add are not the ones their customers have been asking for. Additional lock in is just an added benefit to them.

I thought the (main) added feature was hyphenation which didn't really need a new format at all. You say KFX allows new features to be added. Maybe that's the point of it. Though I'm not sure what features they would want to add.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

It would be nice if Amazon just allowed you to download an eBook purchase in the format of your choosing. KFX for Kindles, ePubs for everyone else.

It would possibly alleviate fears of their encroaching monopoly and they could still use KFX's advanced features to pimp Kindles as the best device for reading.

It'll never happen. But as the Beach Boys sagely said: wouldn't it be nice?

As it stands, and as I understand it, if you don't own a Kindle, the only way to purchase Amazon books is via K4PC. Once 1.19 becomes obligatory, and if KFX remains uncracked, then owners of non-Kindles will be stuffed (unless they read via the app). Ick. That would be a downer.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes, but they REALLY want you using a Kindle device or app. For you it is a reading device. For them it is a book selling and data gathering tool.

But if they get to the point where they only offer KFX, I will no longer purchase eBooks from Amazon and will then remove the Kindle apps from phone and tablet.

Though I'm also realistic enough to know that the problems of one little person doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But if they get to the point where they only offer KFX, I will no longer purchase eBooks from Amazon and will then remove the Kindle apps from phone and tablet.

Though I'm also realistic enough to know that the problems of one little person doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

How many people purchase books from Amazon who don't have a Kindle or don't read via the app? Not enough for Amazon to be that bothered, I'd guess. Just de-DRMing them and converting them is more than the vase majority of buyers understand or want to deal with.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I thought the (main) added feature was hyphenation which didn't really need a new format at all. You say KFX allows new features to be added. Maybe that's the point of it. Though I'm not sure what features they would want to add.

Better typography, including hyphenation, was the first new feature out of the gate. Since then there has been page flip (which works great on LCD devices), improved manga reading on e-ink devices, and Kindle in Motion (which allows new kinds of page layouts that are not possible with KF8 or ePub.) I have seen hints of future improvements relating to mixed LTR and RTL text that may be coming. Who knows what else?

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Ok, like the Pottermore books. Which for non-pirates is just like no DRM. What other stores do this?

DriveThru uses watermarking on PDFs. I their case the watermarking is obvious: purchaser's name and order number in tiny print in a lower corner of each page.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

As it stands, and as I understand it, if you don't own a Kindle, the only way to purchase Amazon books is via K4PC. Once 1.19 becomes obligatory, and if KFX remains uncracked, then owners of non-Kindles will be stuffed (unless they read via the app). Ick. That would be a downer.

Simply purchasing and reading the books isn't a problem you can even use the Kindle Cloud Reader which while having very minimal feature (no collections) works with all books.

The problem is for those of us who like having all of our books well organized in one central location, in whatever format we choose. And who would rather not depend on Amazon keeping our books available to us.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Ok, like the Pottermore books. Which for non-pirates is just like no DRM. What other stores do this?

I believe it's popular with some Dutch, German & Polish (& possibly other European) publishers and is used in those markets.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

How many people purchase books from Amazon who don't have a Kindle or don't read via the app? Not enough for Amazon to be that bothered, I'd guess. Just de-DRMing them and converting them is more than the vase majority of buyers understand or want to deal with.

Yes, yes. Hence the second half of my post.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Just having proprietary formats already creates enough of a wall to keep almost all of their customers locked in to Amazon. Relatively few bother with DRM removal and format conversion. Certainly not enough to matter to their bottom line.

I think the creation of a new format was less about trying to achieve 100% absolute lock in and more about being able to add new features, even if the features that they add are not the ones their customers have been asking for. Additional lock in is just an added benefit to them.

As they say, "Idle programmers are the devil's workshop."

Idle programmers read forums and then figure out how to stop the hacks.

For fun, I recommend the developers to see the time line between jailbreak and firmware updates.
They aren't automatically updating the firmware for fun.