New Kindle with WiFi announced

[EowynCarter]

It's over now for ePub (much to my disappointment), but I'm not bitter.

It's used by sony, b&n, borders, kobo. Almost everyone but amazon and ePub have lost ?

ePub is the main format here in France, in lots of other country.
F2b rules in Russia, Ukraine.

Format war, much to my annoyance, isn't over ...

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

I think that might be a bit premature. Not prepared to call it just yet.

I wish it was, I REALLY wish it was, but this is just another betamax vs VHS war. Betamax was technologically superior, but VHS had the functionality that everybody wanted. Amazon is doing everything that the customer wants, from price point to availability (it's also winning over more and more authors). Do I want ePub to be sidelined? Of course not, but the reality is that it will become increasingly marginalised as the market moves towards Amazon's way of doing things.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Fbone

According to the USA Today interview with Jeff Bezos the kindles won't have epub support because they are moving too fast tech-wise and can't wait for 3rd party standards to catch up.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/20...zon29_VA_N.htm

Whispersync could easily work with ePub. Heck, if Apple can do it with iBooks, Amazon could do it with ePub. What Jeff said is rather a lame excuse with lots of BS in for good measure.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kevin2960

Now I just need money Anyone want to adopt a British son and buy him a Christmas present

Will you mow the lawn once a week year-round and take out the trash regularly?

[RyanMWilliams]

I think this will probably be the version my wife ends up getting. She's slowly been getting more interested in the whole ebook idea — a more affordable wifi Kindle is just the thing to do the trick! What would really make it even better would be support for epub/Adobe editions ebooks so that she could easily use it to check out books from the library.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Pre-ordered. Amazon won the format war and are now the de facto standard. It's over now for ePub (much to my disappointment), but I'm not bitter. Well played Amazon, well played.

Sorry, but you are so WRONG! If ePub was the losing format, then Overdrive would not be supporting ePub and instead supporting AZW. The problem is that people by the Kindle and then want to borrow library eBooks and can't. Can't even borrow PDF. I'm not talking people who know how to strip DRM and format convert, but the average person who has no idea about DRM stripping/converting. For the people who want to borrow library eBooks, the Kindle is the wrong choice of reader.

Amazon should do something about that. But they won't because Jeff would have to give up control of the format of eBooks and allow content (with DRM) to be able to be purchased away from Amazon and he won't do that. Jeff's saying that the technology is changing too much to have ePub is pure BS. All of the enhancements Amazon has made to Mobipocket (aka AZW) they can make to ePub.

[Josieb1]

If anything Amazons lack of support for epub will turn customers away. I am tempted but with 100's of epubs I would rather spend more money on another Sony or an Ipad, a Kindle, while cheap, is no use to me

And I don't know anything about DRM or changing format, the most advanced I do is using Calibre to change a RTF to epub for my iphone!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

It's used by sony, b&n, borders, kobo. Almost everyone but amazon and ePub have lost ?

ePub is the main format here in France, in lots of other country.
F2b rules in Russia, Ukraine.

Format war, much to my annoyance, isn't over ...

Amazon have control over a vast portion of the ebook market (and an ever growing portion of readership across the board).

They're about to release an eBook reader that comes with 4gb Memory, an improved screen, wi-fi and 3g all tied into an internationally branded store that is easy to navigate and for the vast majority of people one of the mainstays of their book-buying experience. They've done all this for £109 (£149 with 3G)

Doesn't matter that I like ePub, that I think it's a far superior format, that I'd rather have open than closed systems (and Sony, Kobo, B&N are all closed by the by). Amazon have done enough to own the ebook market and within six months you'll see Amazon become the standard across Europe and not long after the rest of the world (mainly because people are lazy and Amazon is just the easiest option across the board. Also, no business will be stupid enough to ignore the market that Amazon provides them).

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

If anything Amazons lack of support for epub will turn customers away. I am tempted but with 100's of epubs I would rather spend more money on another Sony or an Ipad, a Kindle, while cheap, is not use to me

If your ePubs have Adobe DRM and you don't want to strip it then I'm not sure you can yet read them on an iPad without jailbreaking it (someone please correct me if things have moved on!)

If you are happy to strip DRM, or your books are free of DRM, then you can convert all your books in one batch quickly and easily to Mobi format for free using Calibre and use them on a Kindle.

So for the purpose of reading your current ePubs the Kindle is just as viable as the iPad.

Graham

[JSWolf]

If B&N or Sony or Kobo can come out with a reader to compete with the K3, then the game is on. And we know Sony comes out with new readers in October. So I'm looking to see what the others do later this year before maybe spending any money. Yes, Amazon will have the hardware at a good price for now. But we will see what we will see later this year. I do think that Amazon's lower prices and new hardware are going to hurt existing readers until existing readers catch up (hardware wise).

[Kumabjorn]

I checked Amazon and I can return my Kindle 2i until Aug 12. I'm sorely tempted, but probably won't do it, because it just seems wrong, since I'm happy with what I received and impressed with the way I received it (3 days after order). At the same time the K3 does look a lot nicer, and I'm thinking that if I buy it from Amazon UK, more books will be available, books that today isn't sold to European Kindle owners due to publishing rights. Anyone heard anything about availability of books from UK store?

[Josieb1]

Amazon have control over a vast portion of the ebook market (and an ever growing portion of readership across the board).

They're about to release an eBook reader that comes with 4gb Memory, an improved screen, wi-fi and 3g all tied into an internationally branded store that is easy to navigate and for the vast majority of people one of the mainstays of their book-buying experience. They've done all this for £109 (£149 with 3G)

Doesn't matter that I like ePub, that I think it's a far superior format, that I'd rather have open than closed systems (and Sony, Kobo, B&N are all closed by the by). Amazon have done enough to own the ebook market and within six months you'll see Amazon become the standard across Europe and not long after the rest of the world (mainly because people are lazy and Amazon is just the easiest option across the board. Also, no business will be stupid enough to ignore the market that Amazon provides them).

Well I hope you are wrong, because if that's the case i will buy an ipad. A lot more money, but more use to me than a Kindle. If Sony change format, or pull out of the market I will have to pay Apples prices as at least they support epub

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

... And I don't know anything about DRM or changing format, the most advanced I do is using Calibre to change a RTF to epub for my iphone!

You ninja'd me with your edit!

If you can convert RTF to ePub with Calibre, you can convert ePub to Mobi for the Kindle.

Graham

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Graham

If your ePubs have Adobe DRM and you don't want to strip it then I'm not sure you can yet read them on an iPad without jailbreaking it (someone please correct me if things have moved on!)

If you are happy to strip DRM, or your books are free of DRM, then you can convert all your books in one batch quickly and easily to Mobi format for free using Calibre and use them on a Kindle.

So for the purpose of reading your current ePubs the Kindle is just as viable as the iPad.

Graham

On an iPad, you could use the txtr app. But that won't do very well as it's written for the iPhone screen. So you'd have to 2x the screen or read very small. Not a satisfying solution. Overdrive is supposed to be working on a reading app for the iPad/iPhone. So when that comes out and if it can sideload content, then that will be the iPad solution.

But if you have can strip the DRM of ePub, you can convert to Mobi for use on the K3. And you can convert DRM free content to Mobi as well.

[TheJohnNewton]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Pre-ordered. Amazon won the format war and are now the de facto standard. It's over now for ePub (much to my disappointment), but I'm not bitter. Well played Amazon, well played.

How do you figure? Kindle drm books are only sold by one vendor.