It is the Worst of Times for Reading EBooks

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I keep waiting for the publishers to drop DRM at the non Amazon ebook stores like the music industry did when they wanted Amazon to provide some competition to the iTunes store.

DRM is per the publisher demand, rather than Amazon. When you buy a DRM-free book, they say "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied."

So I don't see it going away any time soon.

The publishing industry is in more denial than the music industry was and the success of agency pricing allows them to be that way.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

It bugs the heck out me when I try to use the Kindle app and it goes off into lala land while it's busy doing all the internal download things that Amazon want it to do rather than let me read the frigging book.

Can't say as I've noticed any of that when using the Kindle App on various devices. I buy book/read book with it quite regularly.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The EPUB3 spec is inherently backward compatible with EPUB2 reading systems

No, it is not. EPUB3 is linked to Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not use Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not support HTML5 or CSS3.

Most of e-books today are created in Kindle format, which uses proprietary serialized markup. EPUB3 is pretty much dead.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

No, it is not. EPUB3 is linked to Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not use Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not support HTML5 or CSS3.

Most of e-books today are created in Kindle format, which uses proprietary serialized markup. EPUB3 is pretty much dead.

Sorry. But you quite obviously do not know what you're talking about. At all. There is no "link" between Epub3 and webkit. And anyone who thinks EPUB3 is "pretty much dead" is simply not in touch with reality. You should stick to to things you actually know about (whatever those might be).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

No, it is not. EPUB3 is linked to Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not use Webkit. EPUB2 rendering systems do not support HTML5 or CSS3.

Most of e-books today are created in Kindle format, which uses proprietary serialized markup. EPUB3 is pretty much dead.

Manure

Some of us simply choose to not upgrade (devices) to EPUB3 because EPUB2 meets our needs for our style of reading.
Other kinds of reading DO USE, and benefit, from EPUB3.

(?how can someone without a MOBILE reading device, come here and make such a blanket statement??)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

DRM is per the publisher demand, rather than Amazon. When you buy a DRM-free book, they say "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied."

So I don't see it going away any time soon.

The publishing industry is in more denial than the music industry was and the success of agency pricing allows them to be that way.

If you remember, the music industry didn't like the fact that most digital music was sold via the iTunes store, so they allowed music to be sold DRM free from Amazon while forcing Apple to use DRM in the iTunes store. They also didn't like the tiered pricing scheme in the iTunes store. The ploy didn't work all that well, and after a year or so, Apple forced them to start selling music DRM free at the iTunes store as well. Eventually, it was subscription music and a change of whole business model in the music industry that challenged the iTunes market share.

The big difference is that Amazon, once they had built up their market share, stopped caring about pricing. Agency pricing was just fine with them. Of course, most readers don't really care about DRM. I don't know that the publishers are in denial. I suspect that it's more that the predicted revolution never came.

I can imagine a number of possible events that could cause a massive change in the publishing business model, but I doubt it will be DRM driven.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

There is no "link" between Epub3 and webkit.

Of course there is such a link, it is called HTML5, MathML, SVG, and CSS3. It is absolutely unfeasible to create a rendering engine that supports all those without relying on third-party browser engines (like ADE using its custom renderer for EPUB 2 but falling back to a web browser for EPUB 3).

Also, is there a site I can get an EPUB3 file from, right today?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

Also, is there a site I can get an EPUB3 file from, right today?

Sure. Kobo B&N and Google Play books sell tons of epubs in the EPUB3 format. You'll have to do your own homework to find a specific title, though. Mainly because it's quite clear to me that you could benefit from some homework where EPUB3 and EPUB2/3 rendering is concerned.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Can't say as I've noticed any of that when using the Kindle App on various devices. I buy book/read book with it quite regularly.

Hum. I timed it this morning when I opened the app up. 31 seconds from the time I opened the app until I was able to open a book with wifi on. It's practically instantaneous when I put it in airplane mode.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Hum. I timed it this morning when I opened the app up. 31 seconds from the time I opened the app until I was able to open a book with wifi on. It's practically instantaneous when I put it in airplane mode.

Wow! Glad I don't have to deal with that on any of my Android devices. It opens right to the last book I was reading whether wifi is enabled or not.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Wow! Glad I don't have to deal with that on any of my Android devices. It opens right to the last book I was reading whether wifi is enabled or not.

Somethings wrong...never had that kind of slowness with the Kindle app on any of my iOS devices

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Hum. I timed it this morning when I opened the app up. 31 seconds from the time I opened the app until I was able to open a book with wifi on. It's practically instantaneous when I put it in airplane mode.

There’s something seriously amiss there. I use the Kindle App a lot on my iPad Pro and it starts up virtually instantaneously.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There’s something seriously amiss there. I use the Kindle App a lot on my iPad Pro and it starts up virtually instantaneously.

Probably tied to the fact that I like to keep all my books downloaded on to my iPad, so it's doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff. The time is consistent on both my iPad pro and my iPad mini. My guess is that like the Apple books/iBook app, it's simply not designed for that situation, it's designed for everything to be in the cloud and only a handful of books to actually be downloaded on the device.

[amgoforth]

Originally Posted by patrickt

What does a pen have to do with reading? Writing, sure, but reading. And, what does color have to do with reading? My first Kindle cost over $400, a DX, and I just bought a far superior PW4 for less than a third of that. Anyone who says innovation has stopped hasn't been keeping up. Sure, the books being flagged as "read" is long overdue but it's here. I can remember when it was like Henry Ford giving buyers a choice of colors as long as it was black and Kindle giving a choice of fonts as long as it was the one.

Amazon Kindle has made some missteps, such as the Voyage and it's silly cover, but overall the progress has been impressive and affordable.

And, if I wanted to read on a tablet with color I certainly can but I don't. I want m ereader to closely match reading a paper book.

I like everything about the Voyage except the amount of storage, so I bout the new Paperwhite.

[amgoforth]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

This. Kindles have come a LONG way since my first K2. I love reading on my Oasis or new Paperwhite. The only thing on the Oasis that needs improvement is the battery life, and it would be lovely to be able to control the light by sliding a finger up/down like you can on the Kobo.

I don't need a large format e-ink device with pen input. I need a good device for reading, and Kindles fill this need.

I wanted to love the Osasis, but I hate the shape of it.