Has anyone switched from Kindle to another ereader? - Page 2

Laura81 · 10-02-2011, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

They won't, even if you leave the books on Amazon's servers. It's called fear-mongering.

Ah, thanks.

SmokeAndMirrors · 10-02-2011, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

They won't, even if you leave the books on Amazon's servers. It's called fear-mongering.

No, it isn't. It has happened before. DRM companies have gone out of business and taken their service with them, meaning your books are no longer supported. Any back-ups you have should be usable but you will lose your cloud service and your ability to recover any lost books. This has also happened in the music industry. And a lot of people did lose their content that they paid for. It's not fear-mongering if it has actually happened.

Since Amazon uses a proprietary format, if the Kindle ever goes down, so do all your books... unless you break the law by stripping the DRM and converting them. But again, if you rely on the cloud to maintain your collection, you will lose all of them. This is not outside the realm of possibility. It's not as though companies never fail. And if/when they fail, relying on a proprietary format means you lose your data.

Laura81 · 10-02-2011, 02:08 AM

^ Well if breaking the law means being able to keep the books I've already paid for rather than possibly lose them, I may have to look into it. Not being snarky, just saying. I get what you mean now though that if the only place you have your books is on Kindle you would lose them but if you've downloaded them to your computer, even if you haven't stripped DRM and converted them, they can't take them off your computer.

SmokeAndMirrors · 10-02-2011, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laura81

^ Well if breaking the law means being able to keep the books I've already paid for rather than possibly lose them, I may have to look into it. Not being snarky, just saying. I get what you mean now though that if the only place you have your books is on Kindle you would lose them but if you've downloaded them to your computer, even if you haven't stripped DRM and converted them, they can't take them off your computer.

Totally. I doubt there is a significant portion of media users of any stripe (music, movies, games, ebooks...) who haven't broken the law. It's almost impossible to avoid, if you simply want to be able to use your content the way you want to. I'm just making the point that if you want to actually own your content, they pretty much force you to break the law, and there's something wrong with that.

This is true, they can't. But what I'm saying is, at the very least, you should never rely on their cloud system or their DRM licenses. And ideally, you should have content in a universal format that you can take with you, and a device that can read it. If you don't, you're running risks with your content. Some of those risks may be smaller than others (i.e. in the short-to-mid-term, it is more likely a DRM company will go down than it is that Kindle will go down), but it's still a risk, and you deserve full ownership of the things you pay for without it being subject to the whimsy of a corporation's finances or moods.

pidgeon92 · 10-02-2011, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Since Amazon uses a proprietary format, if the Kindle ever goes down, so do all your books...

In the highly unlikely event that Amazon goes belly-up, we can be fairly certain that someone would take over the ebook side of the business.

Not that I'm not a proponent of making your own backups. I back up all of my data in multiple ways.

Kubizo · 10-02-2011, 01:39 PM

I have a Kindle 3 and a Cybook Gen.

I must say that the Cybook Gen is lighter, smaller and probably has a tiny little advantage in terms of screen contrast, but...

...the battery lasts very little and IT IS UNRELIABLE! It crashes very frequently. And when it does there is no way to fix. Just let the battery die and power it up again. Or, like I did, install a power-down switch, that kills the power when it crashes. Only way I manage to get something out of the Cybook Gen 3.

Ciao!

EowynCarter · 10-02-2011, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kubizo

I have a Kindle 3 and a Cybook Gen 3.

I must say that the Cybook Gen 3 is lighter, smaller and probably has a tiny little advantage in terms of screen contrast, but...

...the battery lasts very little and IT IS UNRELIABLE! It crashes very frequently. And when it does there is no way to fix. Just let the battery die and power it up again. Or, like I did, install a power-down switch, that kills the power when it crashes. Only way I manage to get something out of the Cybook Gen 3.

Ciao!

I'm pretty sure there is a reset button on the gen 3.

Kubizo · 10-02-2011, 03:21 PM

You mean the one you have to press with a ball-point-pen? I was scared that it would literally RESET it, meaning clear memory, all my settings, etc...

Or you mean the on-off one? That one did not work when the device was crashing...

Thanks for the tip, will look into the ball-point-pen one!

SmokeAndMirrors · 10-02-2011, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

In the highly unlikely event that Amazon goes belly-up, we can be fairly certain that someone would take over the ebook side of the business.

Not that I'm not a proponent of making your own backups. I back up all of my data in multiple ways.

That rests on the assumption that these corporations are always concerned with the loss of user data. History doesn't suggest that to be true. Also, I see no reason why Amazon wouldn't throw Kindle over the boat before anything else - despite its leadership in the ebook arena, the fact remains it isn't the biggest chunk of their sales and they lose a lot of money on Kindles. Kindle and MOBI would go down before Amazon would.

Why would anyone pick up the proprietary format of a (hypothetical) failed company? They won't even pick up other failed DRM's, let alone entire formats. What's in it for them? Nothing. Why would they bother when they can go into EPUB's instead, or make their own proprietary format and make everyone re-buy all their content?

pidgeon92 · 10-02-2011, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Why would anyone pick up the proprietary format of a (hypothetical) failed company? They won't even pick up other failed DRM's, let alone entire formats. What's in it for them? Nothing.

Because of the hundreds of thousands of existing users?

SmokeAndMirrors · 10-02-2011, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

Because of the hundreds of thousands of existing users?

Again, that hasn't necessarily stopped other companies from discontinuing support in the past. Someone might pick it up - it would largely depend on how Kindle/Amazon went down. But there is no historical reason to believe it is beyond doubt that support would continue.

Grimm · 10-03-2011, 12:33 AM

Back on subject, I went from the first Nook to a Kindle 3 to a NookCOLOR and now to a Nook STR. I prefer the Nook devices to Kindle but the Kindles seem to be fine devices.

EowynCarter · 10-03-2011, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kubizo

You mean the one you have to press with a ball-point-pen? I was scared that it would literally RESET it, meaning clear memory, all my settings, etc...

Or you mean the on-off one? That one did not work when the device was crashing...

Thanks for the tip, will look into the ball-point-pen one!

Yes that one

While the on/off will not always respond when the cybook crashed, the reset will shut down the cybook. Then you can start it again.

cgsmom · 10-03-2011, 12:13 PM

I bought some ebooks from Amazon back in 2005 in LIT format to read on my PDA with Microsoft Reader. Now Amazon will not even acknowledge that I bought them. If I hadn't backed them up on my PC (and converted to epub), I wouldn't have them at all. I back up every book I own. Also, I never buy anything I can't liberate.

booklover6 · 10-03-2011, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Since Amazon uses a proprietary format, if the Kindle ever goes down, so do all your books... unless you break the law by stripping the DRM and converting them.

I wasn't aware that doing that to a book one has purchased legally was breaking the law.

10-02-2011, 01:39 PM	#21
Kubizo Connoisseur Posts: 96 Karma: 54908 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Milan Device: Kindle 3 B008 3.1	I have a Kindle 3 and a Cybook Gen. I must say that the Cybook Gen is lighter, smaller and probably has a tiny little advantage in terms of screen contrast, but... ...the battery lasts very little and IT IS UNRELIABLE! It crashes very frequently. And when it does there is no way to fix. Just let the battery die and power it up again. Or, like I did, install a power-down switch, that kills the power when it crashes. Only way I manage to get something out of the Cybook Gen 3. Ciao! Last edited by Kubizo; 10-04-2011 at 03:44 PM.

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10-02-2011, 02:08 AM	#18
Laura81 Addict Posts: 360 Karma: 407796 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Victoria, Australia Device: Paperwhite 5	^ Well if breaking the law means being able to keep the books I've already paid for rather than possibly lose them, I may have to look into it. Not being snarky, just saying. I get what you mean now though that if the only place you have your books is on Kindle you would lose them but if you've downloaded them to your computer, even if you haven't stripped DRM and converted them, they can't take them off your computer.

10-02-2011, 03:21 PM	#23
Kubizo Connoisseur Posts: 96 Karma: 54908 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Milan Device: Kindle 3 B008 3.1	You mean the one you have to press with a ball-point-pen? I was scared that it would literally RESET it, meaning clear memory, all my settings, etc... Or you mean the on-off one? That one did not work when the device was crashing... Thanks for the tip, will look into the ball-point-pen one!

10-03-2011, 12:33 AM	#27
Grimm DRM killer Posts: 471 Karma: 793120 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Just northeast of Atlanta, GA Device: ASUS Transformer Prime (Sold: Nook, Kindle 3, Nook Color, Nook STR)	Back on subject, I went from the first Nook to a Kindle 3 to a NookCOLOR and now to a Nook STR. I prefer the Nook devices to Kindle but the Kindles seem to be fine devices.

10-03-2011, 12:13 PM	#29
cgsmom Addict Posts: 336 Karma: 3797667 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: USA Device: Kindle Colorsoft, Nook GL4+, Nook GL4, Kindle Oasis 3, iPhone 14	I bought some ebooks from Amazon back in 2005 in LIT format to read on my PDA with Microsoft Reader. Now Amazon will not even acknowledge that I bought them. If I hadn't backed them up on my PC (and converted to epub), I wouldn't have them at all. I back up every book I own. Also, I never buy anything I can't liberate.

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