Amazon: Business As Usual?

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I have some examples.

Main Battle Tank by Niall Edworthy (non-fiction):


The correct designation is FV432.


I'm not sure what "AVF 430 ambulance" refers to. The book is about a British tank regiment in Iraq in 2003. My first thought was that it meant the FV430 Mk3 Bulldog, but that didn't enter service until some years later.

It also uses the acronym "ATW" for "anti-tank weapon", an acronym neither I, nor anyone else I've asked, has ever come across before. The more usual acronyms are ATGW (anti-tank guided weapon) or ATGM (anti-tank guided missile).

Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik has the remarkable typo "and I hope you will permit me to suggest, Wilberforcewritten had, that any Oriental touch"

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik (these are also present in my paperback copy):





I've seen others, but those were the ones that I could immediately remember well enough to find easily.

If you tap the errors in the eBook, one option is to notify Amazon of the error.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by TCSimpson

Guess it depends on where you live or what you describe as satellite TV. Here in NYC, it's all things cable with tons of folks watching via the internet over smart phones, tablets et al, or having their internet connected to their TVs and using a service like Hulu, Netflix to catch up on shows.

As far as reading, I ride the subways daily. In every subway car, which routinely carry from 100 to 150 people, there a few things you will see. About 10 to 15 folks reading via their phones or tablets or readers, and maybe 3 or 4 print books. Many other folks are on their phones and tablets playing games etc. Every train has 10 cars.

I'm also in the park on a daily basis here to run and I see more folks with tablets and ereaders than I do print books, lounging on their towels or folding chairs.

I see a lot of people with tablets, and phones but few with ereaders. I see twice as many with paper who are not poking constantly at the screen where I live currently. I assume, perhaps stupidly, that those who are poking at the screen are not actually reading a book, but texting, typing or playing a game.

My winter residence in a big city I see a lot less ereaders and more people actually talking on their phones. Most of the people on the bus or skytrain are reading nothing and the vast majority of those who are reading are reading the free papers/handouts etc, that you can get at any stop. Go figure. And I have never seen anyone lounging on a towel with an ereader, although I do know it happens. can't recall the last time I have seen it with a paper book either. Park benches, all paper, waiting rooms/hospitals where I spent a lot of time last year, all paper, no phones, 1 tablet, 1 ereader(mine)

But I have never been to NYC and perhaps it is the capital of the big time readers as well as the state. Hoping to go there one day as I have been in many US cities and really should see New York.

Helen
I guess New Yorkers are overall

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Certainly competition is better. And I am not sure what you mean by focused. Are you saying Amazon are not focused?

Anyway bring on the whole lot of examples of monopolies that are independent businesses with a wide variety of products and interests (companies like Amazon that carry a multitude of products for example or even large conglomerates with diverse interests.) that have survived in the general marketplace long enough to destroy all competition or even 50% of it.
When management gets complacent or distracted, then generally the business itself suffers not, as you seem to imply (probably I am misunderstanding you) in a better position to be monopolistic and gouge consumers.

Only way I see it that your fears will realize is if Amazon buys all of the publishing companies, and all of the authors, and all of the diaper manufacturers of all of the goods that they sell. Could happen of course, but seems unlikely. And of course there may be many other ways this can happen that I am unaware of.

Looking forward to the list of very many times you have as I am sure I will learn a lot.

Thanks

helen

You seem to be in a rush to put words in my mouth. For the most part, monopolies don't last, barring government enforcement of the monopoly. Other companies see the opportunity and move into the space. For example, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the one that triggered the Anti-Trust lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998 that eventually got overturned on appeal when the judge was found to have bias in the case. hum, sounds kind of familiar) has dropped in usage all the way down to 19% of the market. It didn't happen over night and the original competition (Netscape) dropped by the wayside, but Microsoft got complacent and new competition came into the arena.

IMPO, Amazon is ripe for competition in the ebook arena. The only real barrier of entry is getting the contracts to sale the various ebooks and DRM. If the publishers ever drop the DRM, then I suspect we will see a number of companies who offer books in various formats.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

If you tap the errors in the eBook, one option is to notify Amazon of the error.

I use a K3 primarily. It doesn't have that option.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I use a K3 primarily. It doesn't have that option.

Nor on a Kindle Fire HD. Not sure what application he's using.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

If you tap the errors in the eBook, one option is to notify Amazon of the error.

The example given isn't ebook specific and would be something to take up with the publisher, author and/or editor.

[Sydney's Mom]

Thank you so much for posting this--I watched the whole thing, and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it wasn't really a discussion, because there was an unchallenged presumption that publishers were essential for books to survive. And that Amazon is Evil.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

You seem to be in a rush to put words in my mouth. For the most part, monopolies don't last, barring government enforcement of the monopoly. Other companies see the opportunity and move into the space. For example, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the one that triggered the Anti-Trust lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998 that eventually got overturned on appeal when the judge was found to have bias in the case. hum, sounds kind of familiar) has dropped in usage all the way down to 19% of the market. It didn't happen over night and the original competition (Netscape) dropped by the wayside, but Microsoft got complacent and new competition came into the arena.

IMPO, Amazon is ripe for competition in the ebook arena. The only real barrier of entry is getting the contracts to sale the various ebooks and DRM. If the publishers ever drop the DRM, then I suspect we will see a number of companies who offer books in various formats.

I'm no fan of DRM, but universal DRM - that is, cross-platform DRM that would allow you to have your book on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo - might make DRM less onerous. It would free you to buy your books from whatever vendor you wished.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I'm no fan of DRM, but universal DRM - that is, cross-platform DRM that would allow you to have your book on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo - might make DRM less onerous. It would free you to buy your books from whatever vendor you wished.

Which is precisely what these companies don't want and will fight to their dying breath!

But I don't want to be locked in to anyone. Take away my choices and I will start pirating left right and center!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I'm no fan of DRM, but universal DRM - that is, cross-platform DRM that would allow you to have your book on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo - might make DRM less onerous. It would free you to buy your books from whatever vendor you wished.

I would assume that like DRM on music, DRM on ebooks will eventually fall by the wayside. Amazon doesn't seem to be particularly focused on keeping DRM, the DRM on kindle books was broken long ago and Amazon doesn't seem to have made any particular effort to update it. Tor dropped DRM sometime ago.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I would assume that like DRM on music, DRM on ebooks will eventually fall by the wayside. Amazon doesn't seem to be particularly focused on keeping DRM, the DRM on kindle books was broken long ago and Amazon doesn't seem to have made any particular effort to update it. Tor dropped DRM sometime ago.

Amazon has actually updated their DRM a number of times IIRC, and *the tools* have been updated to match it.

Granted, they don't seem to care as much as Adobe, what with ADE3/ADE4beta and all.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I use a K3 primarily. It doesn't have that option.

That option is only available on the Paperwhite 2013 and the Kindle for PC app. Tap a word, then More and one of the options is: "Report Content Error." Its not available on the Kindle Fire HDX 7 2013 or the Kindle for Samsung App.

If you own another model and want to report the error, use the Kindle for PC App.

However, on the Kindle Fire HDX 7 2013 one can tap Mayday and directly report the content error.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

If you own another model and want to report the error, use the Kindle for PC App.

I use Linux, so Kindle for PC is out

To be honest, I tried to report the errors I mentioned above direct to the publishers. I couldn't find who to contact at Michael Joseph (the publishers of Main Battle Tank) or Penguin (it's a Penguin imprint), and attempts to ask were ignored.

I did eventually get a response from HarperVoyager (the publishers of the Naomi Novik books). The initial response was "it's caused by the conversion to Amazon's format", but they later accepted that the errors weren't limited to the Amazon versions.

Frankly, if there's a simple option right there on my ereader, I might use it, but my experiences have put me off the idea of putting any time or effort into it.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Nor on a Kindle Fire HD. Not sure what application he's using.

On a Kindle Touch, one can press on a single word until a box pops up. The box is mostly the definition but there is also the option to highlight and "More".

"More" lets you share the word somehow (Facebook?), or add a note, get a translation, check Wikipedia, or "Report Content Error" to Amazon.

You can report typos, errors in formatting or images, and "Other". There's also an area where you can type in a description of the error.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Amazon has actually updated their DRM a number of times IIRC, and *the tools* have been updated to match it.

Granted, they don't seem to care as much as Adobe, what with ADE3/ADE4beta and all.

The tools have been updated quite a few times for enhancements as well as bug fixes but the original 2008 python script still decrypts a book that I bought from Amazon last week.