Slow death of Kindle?

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Tolino allows uploading to the cloud, Pocketbook allows uploading to the cloud. EU regulation is not the problem.

It's clear that this isn't the problem.

I think it's great that some people prefer to use their e-readers without an internet connection and don't want or need to synchronise between devices. I prefer the opposite. I like being able to automatically synchronise the books I have on my Kindle e-readers, and I love using Send to Kindle to send the books I have in ePub format. Would I like to have a similar option on my Kobo e-readers for content outside their store? Yes, I would. And I'm sure many current Kobo users would too.

Kindle and Kobo have different e-readers with different features. I'm not exactly a big fan of Kobo (I like it just enough), but I recognise that it's suitable for certain people who use their e-readers in a very different way to me. Even if Kobo incorporated synchronisation for external content and sending files by email, I would still prefer Kindle for other reasons.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Are you discussing sideloaded books not purchased from Kobo? Or books purchased from Kobo and synced to their ereaders and apps? Books purchased from Kobo are able to sync reading progress, etc. between different devices and apps. Sideloaded books loaded on Kobo devices and apps are not able to do so since there is no cloud storage for the sync to be passed through. In Canada, if Kobo started keeping track of your sideloaded books, they would have to allow the user access to that information. For my purposes, I use calibre to transfer reading status information between my ereaders.

sideloaded books, see above

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by cellaris

I think it's great that some people prefer to use their e-readers without an internet connection and don't want or need to synchronise between devices.

Neither Tolino nor Pocketbook force you to upload your books. They give you the option to.

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Neither Tolino nor Pocketbook force you to upload your books. They give you the option to.

Indeed. You have to give your consent and actively participate in order to upload the books to the cloud. That's why I don't think the term "invasion" of privacy is the most appropriate.

[haertig]

The problem I see is that these providers that allow you to sync always want you to sync via THEIR cloud infrastructure. It would be trivial for them to allow you to sync to YOUR OWN infrastructure - like Moon+ Reader does - but yet, these providers do not allow this to my knowledge. True, most of their customers do not have the knowledge to integrate their own infrastructure (or even know what "infrastructure" means), so there's that. But it would be so trivial for providers who already have syncing capabilities to let you define your own server to sync to, for those customers who could make use of that capability. The customers who set up their own WebDAV, FTP, or whatever servers are not the customers who call into provider support phone numbers in bewilderment when a problem occurs. They would cause no additional load to the providers support system if allowed to sync on their own.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by haertig

The problem I see is that these providers that allow you to sync always want you to sync via THEIR cloud infrastructure. It would be trivial for them to allow you to sync to YOUR OWN infrastructure - like Moon+ Reader does - but yet, these providers do not allow this to my knowledge. True, most of their customers do not have the knowledge to integrate their own infrastructure (or even know what "infrastructure" means), so there's that. But it would be so trivial for providers who already have syncing capabilities to let you define your own server to sync to, for those customers who could make use of that capability. The customers who set up their own WebDAV, FTP, or whatever servers are not the customers who call into provider support phone numbers in bewilderment when a problem occurs. They would cause no additional load to the providers support system if allowed to sync on their own.

Wouldn’t it be more trivial to let users simply upload their books to the manufacturer’s servers. We’re talking book files which are usually in the single digit megabytes size wise. Impose file size limits if you must.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Tolino allows uploading to the cloud, Pocketbook allows uploading to the cloud. EU regulation is not the problem.

Exactly. If the reason for Kobo not allowing non-Kobo purchases to sync had anything to do with the privacy laws in either Canada or the EU, then none of the other devices companies would be allowed to do it either.

I have always thought this was a fairly silly argument as to the "why" of Kobo not allowing this, even more so now that so many other companies are doing it--including companies based in the EU.

Shari