Epub and public library

[jehane]

Joe, I would recommend you stick with the Sonys, since you also use a Canadian library (no Kindle books) and are familiar with the brand. The Sonys have the best Overdrive interface - no need for a computer connection.

Can you tell us more about the certificate problem you're having? Have you tried the soft and hard resets?

[jehane]

slammerkin, look into the Sonys, you can download direct from your library Overdrive. I've also downloaded other documents from the web. I am surprised at the battery life, though I don't know much about the tech used by the pandigitals. The major brands - Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo - all use e-ink, which has excellent battery life. I usually get at least 2 weeks, reading maybe 4 hours a day, on mine.

[speakingtohe]

I would advise a T3 if you can get one. Much nicer than the T1 which I also have. No application closes, no spontaneous discharges and the battery lasts me for several weeks of 3-6 books a week.

Of course if you are happy with the T1 then maybe get a kindle so you can download kindle library books. I can't say that the T3 is nicer than a kindle although I am pretty sure the collection management is. I can say the T3 is lovely.

Helen

[jreed3000]

Thanks for the comments. I did get a Kindle Paperwhite because of all the positive comments out there. I like the device very much, but I am a little put off by Amazon. Yes, the libraries do have a lot of book selections in the Kindle format but checking them out requires going through Amazon and while you can remove the book from the device when the loan period expires, it is necessary to log in to your account to remove the expired item from the cloud. With the Sony reader, the transaction was just between you and the library. Amazon is far more aggressive than Sony. Perhaps that's why the Kindle is still around. I'm waiting to see how the Kobo/Sony merger works out.

[faithbw]

Originally Posted by jreed3000

Thanks for the comments. I did get a Kindle Paperwhite because of all the positive comments out there. I like the device very much, but I am a little put off by Amazon. Yes, the libraries do have a lot of book selections in the Kindle format but checking them out requires going through Amazon and while you can remove the book from the device when the loan period expires, it is necessary to log in to your account to remove the expired item from the cloud. With the Sony reader, the transaction was just between you and the library. Amazon is far more aggressive than Sony. Perhaps that's why the Kindle is still around. I'm waiting to see how the Kobo/Sony merger works out.

Yes, that is rather unfortunate. It's something some librarians are unhappy about as well.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jreed3000

I like the device very much, but I am a little put off by Amazon. Yes, the libraries do have a lot of book selections in the Kindle format but checking them out requires going through Amazon and while you can remove the book from the device when the loan period expires, it is necessary to log in to your account to remove the expired item from the cloud.

There's a very good reason it does that - it's so that any annotations you've made in the book are preserved. Should you subsequently buy the book, or borrow it again, your annotations will still be there for you. Once the book is deleted from your Amazon account, they're gone.

Presumably with the Sony, deleting the book from the device also deletes any annotations, does it?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by faithbw

Yes, that is rather unfortunate. It's something some librarians are unhappy about as well.

How exactly is it unfortunate or offensive?

As HarryT points out, there is a good reason for it.

More importantly, what harm does it cause, besides for getting people to reread the book? Is this another one of those "Amazon is evil, just, you know, because" things? All the librarians I know seem to be under the rather stupid delusion that the important thing is to get people to read more. (Silly them, don't they realize it's far more important to protect literature from the degradation of being associated with money-grubbers from a South American river?)

Which is what Amazon excels at. Because it involves selling people stuff.

[GeoffR]

With Kobo devices (at least the e-ink devices) annotations made in library books stay on the device after the book is deleted, so they are available if you buy or borrow the book again without the need to involve Kobo in the borrowing process.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

More importantly, what harm does it cause, besides for getting people to reread the book?

Right now, if I borrow a Kindle-format book from the library, I am sent to a page where I can't help seeing an ad for Amazon Fire TV. And if I scroll down, there are more ads. Does this harm me? No. But if my children were still kids, I think it would detract from their library borrowing experience to always be exposed to products that we can't afford to buy them, or just plain won't buy them, as they borrow books.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

With Kobo devices (at least the e-ink devices) annotations made in library books stay on the device after the book is deleted, so they are available if you buy or borrow the book again without the need to involve Kobo in the borrowing process.

"On the device" but not if you change devices?

Amazon saves to the cloud.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Right now, if I borrow a Kindle-format book from the library, I am sent to a page where I can't help seeing an ad for Amazon Fire TV. And if I scroll down, there are more ads. Does this harm me? No. But if my children were still kids, I think it would detract from their library borrowing experience to always be exposed to products that we can't afford to buy them, or just plain won't buy them, as they borrow books.

This is not a library problem per se. It's a generic "why the hell do you let them go on the internet if you're that overprotective of them" problem.

Where can you possibly go that doesn't have ads?

If ads worry you that much, you really should install Adblock Plus.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

"On the device" but not if you change devices?

Amazon saves to the cloud.

The annotations are stored on the device in a device-independent xml file, so the annotations for a book can be copied from one Kobo device to another, to ADE on a PC, (and possibly to non-Kobo devices based on the Adobe reader software such as Sony, but I haven't tried that), all without needing to involve Kobo, Adobe, etc. in the process.

If you wanted to copy the annotations from a Kobo device to a non-Kobo device that wasn't based on the Adobe reader software you would need to convert them to a format the other device could use, but you would need to do that if you wanted to copy them from an Amazon device to another company's device too.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

The annotations are stored on the device in a device-independent xml file, so the annotations for a book can be copied from one Kobo device to another, to ADE on a PC, (and possibly to non-Kobo devices based on the Adobe reader software such as Sony, but I haven't tried that), all without needing to involve Kobo, Adobe, etc. in the process.

If you wanted to copy the annotations from a Kobo device to a non-Kobo device that wasn't based on the Adobe reader software you would need to convert them to a format the other device could use, but you would need to do that if you wanted to copy them from an Amazon device to another company's device too.

I think the point here is that if you switch from one kobo to another, or from a kobo device to a kobo app the annotations won't follow you automatically. BUT...if I understand correctly, you can't switch to another kobo device or app and have the book available automatically either--you would have to plug your device into your computer and transfer it using ADE. With a Kindle library book you don't ever have to connect to the computer if you don't want to--the book is available in your Amazon cloud and you can download it from there, and it will automatically open to the place you were at on the other device, with any bookmarks or notes available. If you later decide to purchase the book, or take it out from the library again, the bookmarks and notes are all available.

Shari

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by shalym

I think the point here is that if you switch from one kobo to another, or from a kobo device to a kobo app the annotations won't follow you automatically. BUT...if I understand correctly, you can't switch to another kobo device or app and have the book available automatically either--you would have to plug your device into your computer and transfer it using ADE. With a Kindle library book you don't ever have to connect to the computer if you don't want to--the book is available in your Amazon cloud and you can download it from there, and it will automatically open to the place you were at on the other device, with any bookmarks or notes available. If you later decide to purchase the book, or take it out from the library again, the bookmarks and notes are all available.

Shari

Precisely.

It's also worth noting that annotations are stored in the sidecar .sdr folder, easily accessible and transferable (to Kindles) via USB. If you so choose.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Silly them, don't they realize it's far more important to protect literature from the degradation of being associated with money-grubbers from a South American river?

Librarians do realize that allowing patron to borrow Kindle-format eBooks is more important. That's why the communities most Americans live in do offer Overdrive access. It's not a matter of boycotting, but of complaining.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

This is not a library problem per se. It's a generic "why the hell do you let them go on the internet if you're that overprotective of them" problem.

Forcing the government to advertise television viewing, as part of the process of getting literature to the populous, isn't really an internet issue. It would be the same issue if publishers of a really popular English textbook put an ad for a television network at the end of each chapter.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Where can you possibly go that doesn't have ads?

Except hidden away inside newspapers and magazines -- the library.

I'm afraid to ask this, but should libraries sell naming rights? How about if the Free Library of Philadelphia becomes the Random House Library of Philadelphia? Or Disney Library of Philadelphia? In those cases, at least the ad revenue would be going to the library instead of to a private business.

Now, if Jeff Bezos wants to become the next Andrew Carnegie in terms of making impressively large financial gifts to libraries, I won't have more complaints along this line. But the fact that we library patrons get the Amazon TV ads, while the libraries get none of the ad revenue is, to me as a taxpayer, unfair.