Trying to choose e-ink device (Canada)

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by inkyness

Gain access to Amazon you mean? Or to any ebook store? I do have a US passport (I was born in Seattle) but Google's store, at least, is blocking me because of my location.

Anyway, thanks SO much to everyone for all the great replies! Even after all of the other research I've done, I feel much more aware of my options after reading this thread.

At the moment I think I'm actually leaning toward the Kindle 3. It's one of the cheaper options, it has the pearl screen, and after doing a bunch of research yesterday I think it should be easy for me to convert epub files (from the library or from other ebook stores).

It's not perfect; I still really wish it used epub (because not all conversions seem to be formatted perfectly, and because of epub's support for embedded fonts - I love all the different fonts in my printed books)... but I think it may be the best option, since each of the other readers seem to have their own drawbacks for me.

If Amazon blocks you account you can contact them and send them a copy of your passport. They will then allow you to buy from them without using a blocker of any sort.

Remember that you have 30 days to try the Kindle. If you find you are not happy with it, you can return it to Amazon for a full refund. That should at least give you some peace of mind.

[montalex]

I live in Montreal, and have had a Kindle 2 for over a year. I've been very happy with it, and with Amazon service and book selection. I don't have a U.S. account (though I have switched back and forth from Canadian account to U.S. just by changing my address on the Amazon website -- probably not a great idea to do this very often). You will find that there are new books that are available in the U.S. which are not yet in Canada. This has nothing to do with Amazon -- you can check Barnes and Noble and Sony Books, and find the same situation with the same titles. I have gotten around this be setting up a U.S. account with B&N, which is very easy to do. There are now plugins for Calibre that remove DRM automatically, so buying from other sources is quite easy to do.

I love the free 3G on the Kindle -- when I travel I have the NYTimes delivered direct, as I did at Christmas time on the beach in the Dominican Republic.
I like the keyboard for notes, searching, etc. I'm not a fan of touch screens, which tend to lower display quality.
I have installed Duokan on my Kindle, which greatly improves pdf readability, and permits native epub reading (although I prefer to convert epub to mobi).

[wildstar]

You're welcome. If you get the Kindle, consider also getting the $35 leather cover too. I know it's a bit pricey, but it's well built. Real leather on top of hard covers, soft interior, folds all the way back, and has a clever elastic cord that keeps the cover shut when not in use, and can keep front cover folded back when being used. I found the Kindle was almost too thin and light to hold by itself. For me, it feels more comfortable in the cover. FYI, the Kindle also fits nicely in any of the sleeves they sell at Chapters for the Kobo.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by inkyness

Anyway, thanks SO much to everyone for all the great replies! Even after all of the other research I've done, I feel much more aware of my options after reading this thread.

At the moment I think I'm actually leaning toward the Kindle 3. It's one of the cheaper options, it has the pearl screen, and after doing a bunch of research yesterday I think it should be easy for me to convert epub files (from the library or from other ebook stores).

It's not perfect; I still really wish it used epub (because not all conversions seem to be formatted perfectly, and because of epub's support for embedded fonts - I love all the different fonts in my printed books)... but I think it may be the best option, since each of the other readers seem to have their own drawbacks for me.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by inkyness

Any idea how to set up a VPN IP proxy? A google search came up with some paid services, but it wouldn't be worth paying just to be able to use Google's ebook store. I have a Mac, if that makes any difference.

HotSpotShield works on the Mac, and it's a free app which takes care of everything for you. It's supported by ads (some of which can be rather obnoxious, but it's free and works on the Mac). Gives you a US IP only, and the service is sometimes prone to slowdowns and connection problems.

There are also low-cost pay-as-you-go services where instead of a monthly fee, there's a flat one-time charge of $ for # GB, which is slowly deducted from until you've run out of credit and can then "refill" your account with a fresh download limit.

These will give you access to extra countries (sometimes Amazon UK gets free books that Amazon US don't and I expect the same will happen if there are ever specialty Kindle stores for the Amazon FR/DE/JP websites) and allow you to shop at other stores in that area as well. It's the sort of thing which works out pretty well for people who don't download much, but want to be able to do so occasionally.

But you'd need to be able to set up the proxy info they give you on the Mac (easily enough done in either the Firefox or System Preferences panels).

[inkyness]

Awesome information once again. I installed HotSpotShield and there haven't been any problems so far. I may check out the pay-as-you-go services later on, but for now I think being able to use a US IP is enough.

Google's ebook store looks great, and even if I get a Kindle I'll probably end up buying more of my books from them than from Amazon and just converting them. (I don't really like some of Amazon's practices - i.e. the terms they demand from publishers, the closed format, their whole fight with Macmillan - and I think it's best for the publishing industry if Amazon's power shrinks.)

Anyway, one more question: any idea how safe it is to enter credit card information while using hotspotshield? Is there any reason why I might need to worry about that?

[ATDrake]

It's about as safe to enter your CC info under HotSpotShield as it would be for any other proxy, or for that matter, public computer (library, internet café). Make sure it's an https connection (URL should say so in the location bar of your browser window) and that you see the little "lock" icon that your browser should display for a secure page.

Secure traffic is supposed to be encrypted between the server and the client, so it's not like you'll be sending your passwords and such in plaintext, even if the HSS people bothered to keep track of everyone's usage in the hopes of picking up valuable personal data among all the overseas Hulu visits.

If you've any concerns and just want to feel safer, you can just set up the standard account info under HSS, turn it off and enter your billing & cc info under your regular connection, then only ever turn HSS back on to actually pick up, check out, and download items you've pre-selected.

That's what I do on the B&N site which sometimes blocks purchases if you don't have the right country IP during the checkout (although Canadians are supposed to be exempt from this). Of course, this only works on sites which save your CC info to begin with.

[ProfCrash]

Amazon's fight with Macmillan was to prevent Agency Pricing from becoming the standard. Had Amazon won that battle e-books would be less expensive because the distributors (Amazon, BN, Sony, Kobobooks) would have been the ones setting the price. Newly released books that Amazon was selling for $9.99 are not selling for $14.99.

All of the major e-reader bookstores (Sony, Amazon, BN, Kobobooks) use a closed format. Sony, Kobo, and BN use an Adobe DRM to read their books with BN has its own Adobe DRM that is different then Sony and BN.

What it comes down to is that all of the large e-reader bookstores have the same prices and use the same practices when it comes to DRM. Had Amazon won its fight with Macmillon, and not Apple, you would be paying less for your e-books.

[inkyness]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

It's about as safe to enter your CC info under HotSpotShield as it would be for any other proxy, or for that matter, public computer (library, internet café). Make sure it's an https connection (URL should say so in the location bar of your browser window) and that you see the little "lock" icon that your browser should display for a secure page.

Awesome! I think all my questions have finally been answered. Can't wait to try purchasing something and to get my ebook reader.

[Wordeater]

[QUOTE=ProfCrash;1320111]All of the major e-readers are supported by Calibre.

Nope....the Sonys are the only ones FULLY supported. This comes right from the Calibre website. The keyword being FULLY as I stated in my post.

WE

[ProfCrash]

And what exactly does that mean?

I know folks who mess around with metadata in Calibre for their Kindles and Nooks and Kobos and all sorts of e-readers.