What would make Kobo surpass Kindle?

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I'm building an electronic reference library, much of it books I already have on paper. I have more and more problems with paper: the weight and volume (for my arthritic hands as well as for my walls), the degrading paper, the sensitivity to light, dryness, wetness, characters that are sometimes becoming difficult to read, the difficulty finding a book among thousands, a sentence in a book, are what first come to mind. And I back-up my books, several hard drives at home and at least one away. It is easy with at present under 10 Gb, unlike music or photos which run in the hundreds.

Of course I still have many paper books: art books, beautiful books, books that don't exist in electronic versions, manuals and such. And books do furnish a room, and I do have an attachment to many.

Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later??? It doesn't make sense. 20 years is under a quarter of a lifetime statistically and many people who read ebooks are not spring chickens. I guess if one is 10 years old and wants to read a book again when they are 30. But a ten year old is not thinking about such things and can re-buy the book when they are making their own money.

I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.

Now if you are doing it for the reasons you state, again I don't think it's a worry if you are older. Do you see yourself looking at your reference library 20 years plus from now?

Again people know the score when buying books on an ereader. They can disappear at any time and probably will disappear as technology advances into the future or companies fall. I for one do not want to continually diddle around with electronically storing old book files, or keeping older outdated devices to manage them. Just not worth my time. If I really really really want to keep a book for the future I will buy a hard copy of it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later??? It doesn't make sense. 20 years is under a quarter of a lifetime statistically and many people who read ebooks are not spring chickens. I guess if one is 10 years old and wants to read a book again when they are 30. But a ten year old is not thinking about such things and can re-buy the book when they are making their own money.

I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.

Now if you are doing it for the reasons you state, again I don't think it's a worry if you are older. Do you see yourself looking at your reference library 20 years plus from now?

Again people know the score when buying books on an ereader. They can disappear at any time and probably will disappear as technology advances into the future or companies fall. I for one do not want to continually diddle around with electronically storing old book files, or keeping older outdated devices to manage them. Just not worth my time. If I really really really want to keep a book for the future I will buy a hard copy of it.

That is one of the healthier attitudes I have seen. Logically, I agree with everything you say. Yet I still back up my books on multiple hard drives

I suppose it is often used as a justification for purchasing books faster than you can read them. "I'll buy the book now, while it's on sale and I'll have time to read it down the road."

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later??? It doesn't make sense. 20 years is under a quarter of a lifetime statistically and many people who read ebooks are not spring chickens. I guess if one is 10 years old and wants to read a book again when they are 30. But a ten year old is not thinking about such things and can re-buy the book when they are making their own money.

I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.

Now if you are doing it for the reasons you state, again I don't think it's a worry if you are older. Do you see yourself looking at your reference library 20 years plus from now?

Again people know the score when buying books on an ereader. They can disappear at any time and probably will disappear as technology advances into the future or companies fall. I for one do not want to continually diddle around with electronically storing old book files, or keeping older outdated devices to manage them. Just not worth my time. If I really really really want to keep a book for the future I will buy a hard copy of it.

I think I have the 1970s edition of Joy of Cooking in hard back, paper back (second copy, I wore the first copy out dragging it all over the country for 30 years), somewhere around here was a cd-rom and I think ebook.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later??? It doesn't make sense. 20 years is under a quarter of a lifetime statistically and many people who read ebooks are not spring chickens. I guess if one is 10 years old and wants to read a book again when they are 30. But a ten year old is not thinking about such things and can re-buy the book when they are making their own money.

I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.

Now if you are doing it for the reasons you state, again I don't think it's a worry if you are older. Do you see yourself looking at your reference library 20 years plus from now?

Again people know the score when buying books on an ereader. They can disappear at any time and probably will disappear as technology advances into the future or companies fall. I for one do not want to continually diddle around with electronically storing old book files, or keeping older outdated devices to manage them. Just not worth my time. If I really really really want to keep a book for the future I will buy a hard copy of it.

I'm not worried about technology - I already went from 78 rpms to 45/33 to cds to mp3. I heard laments at the beginning of cds, but it gave us much more choice and convenience.
To go back to the start of your post: I'm 67 years old and I hope I'll have my reference library and my novels if I reach 87, which is statistically very possible, and electronics will allow me to have it even in an eventual retirement home (frankly that was a preoccupation before).
I'm a rereader, a species more common than you seem to think - I even have several books about rereading. And a reference library is not something I'll want to access in 20 or 30 years, it is something I access quite frequently, for instance a poem, a quote from Shakespeare or the bible, but also the beginning of a series or whatever.

The beauty of electronics is it gives us more choices and more answers for "paper" problems. I would hate if it eliminated paper - I do want the choice.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I'm not worried about technology - I already went from 78 rpms to 45/33 to cds to mp3. I heard laments at the beginning of cds, but it gave us much more choice and convenience.
To go back to the start of your post: I'm 67 years old and I hope I'll have my reference library and my novels if I reach 87, which is statistically very possible, and electronics will allow me to have it even in an eventual retirement home (frankly that was a preoccupation before).
I'm a rereader, a species more common than you seem to think - I even have several books about rereading. And a reference library is not something I'll want to access in 20 or 30 years, it is something I access quite frequently, for instance a poem, a quote from Shakespeare or the bible, but also the beginning of a series or whatever.

The beauty of electronics is it gives us more choices and more answers for "paper" problems. I would hate if it eliminated paper - I do want the choice.

Sure. But still if people do want a permanent copy of their stuff for I truly do not think an ereader is the answer. There is just too many variables between companies (at least for me) to deal with. It's mainly the reason I pretty much just read books for enjoyment. If I need to reference something I just look online for the info or go out and buy the manual. For example if I wanted to learn to play an instrument, paper would be the way to go. Also easier to read and music from paper. But again we all want if for various reasons I suppose. But I don't think people should get too wound up if they lose their books over time. Some have thousands on their ereaders. More than they could read in a lifetime.

Reminds me of when DVDs first came out. So many people started these HUGE collection. They felt they would last their whole lives. I had friends who bought so many they are still in shrink wrap today. Blu Ray came along yet DVDs still worked perfectly fine with the TV's and players. Now 4k is here and Blu rays play fine on the 4k TV's but standard DVDs look like crap. So those DVDs will be useless once everything goes 4k. Blu Ray will be next if we get 8k. So I guess the moral when it concerns tech is don't overdo it and realize most becomes obsolete eventually

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Sure. But still if people do want a permanent copy of their stuff for I truly do not think an ereader is the answer. There is just too many variables between companies (at least for me) to deal with. It's mainly the reason I pretty much just read books for enjoyment. If I need to reference something I just look online for the info or go out and buy the manual. For example if I wanted to learn to play an instrument, paper would be the way to go. Also easier to read and music from paper. But again we all want if for various reasons I suppose. But I don't think people should get too wound up if they lose their books over time. Some have thousands on their ereaders. More than they could read in a lifetime.

Reminds me of when DVDs first came out. So many people started these HUGE collection. They felt they would last their whole lives. I had friends who bought so many they are still in shrink wrap today. Blu Ray came along yet DVDs still worked perfectly fine with the TV's and players. Now 4k is here and Blu rays play fine on the 4k TV's but standard DVDs look like crap. So those DVDs will be useless once everything goes 4k. Blu Ray will be next if we get 8k. So I guess the moral when it concerns tech is don't overdo it and realize most becomes obsolete eventually

Tony,
Get out of my hall.
Do not have a 4k tv and DVDs look great on my tvs. Though we do mostly watch them while on vacation hence why some are still shrink wrapped.

Now did you need a cookbook?

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Tony,
Get out of my hall.
Do not have a 4k tv and DVDs look great on my tvs. Though we do mostly watch them while on vacation hence why some are still shrink wrapped.

Now did you need a cookbook?

Nope.lol.

Yeah my DVDs look great on a 1080p tv as well, running through a DVD player. But if you ever do upgrade to 4k most just will not, because they will have to upscale 5 times and not just 2 times like they did in a Blu-ray player. So the result is a washed out blurrier image. But as long as 1080 TV's exist and blu Ray players you are safe.lol.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Nope.lol.

Yeah my DVDs look great on a 1080p tv as well, running through a DVD player. But if you ever do upgrade to 4k most just will not, because they will have to upscale 5 times and not just 2 times like they did in a Blu-ray player. So the result is a washed out blurrier image. But as long as 1080 TV's exist and blu Ray players you are safe.lol.

Is that Nope, you aren't going to get out of my hall or nope you don't need a cookbook?
Our hall is where we keep the DVDs and Blu-rays.
We use a Playstation.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Is that Nope, you aren't going to get out of my hall or nope you don't need a cookbook?
Our hall is where we keep the DVDs and Blu-rays.
We use a Playstation.

Cookbook. I don't cook lol

[JSWolf]

1080p blu-ray looks ok on a 4k TV. I have a 55" 4k TV. Of course, true 4k HDR on my TV looks better.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Nope.lol.

Yeah my DVDs look great on a 1080p tv as well, running through a DVD player. But if you ever do upgrade to 4k most just will not, because they will have to upscale 5 times and not just 2 times like they did in a Blu-ray player. So the result is a washed out blurrier image. But as long as 1080 TV's exist and blu Ray players you are safe.lol.

Sounds like you have a poor scaler?

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by John F

Sounds like you have a poor scaler?

From what I hear I think DVDs will play ok through a PlayStation on a 4k tv. But for the most part they just don't look good through a Blu-ray player.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

From what I hear I think DVDs will play ok through a PlayStation on a 4k tv. But for the most part they just don't look good through a Blu-ray player.

So you don't have first hand knowledge of how they actually look, just something you read on the internet. Or hit up your nearest pawn shop for a Playstation.
I thought you owned a 4k tv and were inviting us all over for movie night.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Sure. But still if people do want a permanent copy of their stuff for I truly do not think an ereader is the answer. There is just too many variables between companies (at least for me) to deal with. It's mainly the reason I pretty much just read books for enjoyment. If I need to reference something I just look online for the info or go out and buy the manual. For example if I wanted to learn to play an instrument, paper would be the way to go. Also easier to read and music from paper. But again we all want if for various reasons I suppose. But I don't think people should get too wound up if they lose their books over time. Some have thousands on their ereaders. More than they could read in a lifetime.

Reminds me of when DVDs first came out. So many people started these HUGE collection. They felt they would last their whole lives. I had friends who bought so many they are still in shrink wrap today. Blu Ray came along yet DVDs still worked perfectly fine with the TV's and players. Now 4k is here and Blu rays play fine on the 4k TV's but standard DVDs look like crap. So those DVDs will be useless once everything goes 4k. Blu Ray will be next if we get 8k. So I guess the moral when it concerns tech is don't overdo it and realize most becomes obsolete eventually

I agree with you in general, but since ePub is an open source format, I'm not so worried about it becoming obsolete. Any reader worth its salt will continue to support the format. Plus, if some flashy new format comes along, the ePub can be converted.

These are books. It's not like some newly formatted version of Jekyll and Hyde will somehow make the ePub look like garbage.

Now, I do believe over the decades some misfortune or another (or just the inertia of time) will cause me to lose my collection. But it won't be because the ePub format has been lost to obsolesce.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

So you don't have first hand knowledge of how they actually look, just something you read on the internet. Or hit up your nearest pawn shop for a Playstation.
I thought you owned a 4k tv and were inviting us all over for movie night.

No I do. I had watched all the Hobbit films Blu ray on my 55" 4k tv a few weeks back and decided I hadn't seen the lotr in awhile and pulled out my old DVD copies. They looked like absolute crap. So I checked on the matter and DVDs do indeed look inferior on a 4k tv. I don't have a PlayStation so cannot check to see if they play better through that.