Dymocks announces their new ebook reader

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by mrsp

A web browser is not a device

True, but an "internet tablet" might be - I think this is the angle Jon was suggesting: a screened device with wifi and a sogtware browser, for instance. Everyone's (quite rightly) second-guessing the (dis/mis)information from the original story.

and Ebooks.com are not a European manufacturer

True again! Aren't they the Western Australian mob?

so I think there is more to come on this.

You and me both, mate. You and me both.

...I also have suspicions that the device from the european manufactuer will be an Illiad. If it is, I don't think it will work because its just too expensive to be attractive to Dymocks customers.

It seems to me ("I can feel it in my waters") that it might be an Iliad. I would probably buy one, but I have to say they're going to have a hard sell coming on the news of the Kindle's price. I know they're significantly different, but as a going concern the "great unwashed" of Australia have only that to compare to (as we know, American news is Australian news half the time, so a hell of a lot of folks know about the Kindle down this way).

Also I don't think the local telcos would be nearly as accomodating in doing deals like Amazon have done so it will probably involve an expensive relationship with Telstra.

Is there any other kind?

And if not Telstra it won't work for me as where I live they are the only ones with a decent network. At $85 a gigabyte for wireless, its no wonder price is a big issue for me in buying a reader - I spend my money just keeping connected

To be honest, I'm not really interested in the device as a "connected" device, except perhaps wifi, but just to locally connect to my own router. That's just me but.

I hope they do announce something more before Christmas given that they originally said they hoped to have it for sale before then.

I'll offer as a final phrase (since this is my third reply in this thread in a row), a very non-etiquette "Me too!".

Cheers,
Marc (who is going to buy a Palm T|X in the interim, just to keep his buzz going)

[preetamrai]

Looks like they are just reselling ebooks in other formats.

[mrsp]

of course the other problem with ebooks.com being Australian, and Dymocks too, is that in the short term, they are bound by our ridiculously content restrictive copyright laws.

I have looked at a couple of books today - Cormac McCarthy's The Road and the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials Trilogy - and although they are listed at ebooks.com, there is then a list of countries for which they are available and Australia isn't one of them. They are also on fictionwise and I suspect fictionwise wouldn't be objecting if I bought them whereas I don't think ebooks.com is going to give me the option.

I think its a real chicken and egg scenario with publishers waiting for more consumers to use digital before expanding their range/renegotiating their distribution agreements while customers like me really really really not only a decently priced device but access to the titles they actually want to read.

[thaoula]

I gave Dymocks George St a call and asked to speak to some one about the new reader they are looking to introduce. Apparently the device they have selected is the IRex Iliad.

They have not yet settled on a retail price but it is currently expected to cost more than than $800. However, they are also still in discussions with IRex regarding pricing as they understand the price is pretty high for the Australian market especially considering the fact that the Sony, Kindle and Hanlin readers are significantly cheaper.

Tarek

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by thaoula

I gave Dymocks George St a call and asked to speak to some one about the new reader they are looking to introduce. Apparently the device they have selected is the IRex Iliad.

Ooo-er! Get her! Comes along here all smart-alec-y with the panacea to speculation of all these "fact" thingies, from the oh-so-smartypants cure-all of just picking up the phone and asking. You're such a show-off.

(You know I'm joking, don't you? Of course you do - you're the smart one. ).

They have not yet settled on a retail price but it is currently expected to cost more than than $800. However, they are also still in discussions with IRex regarding pricing as they understand the price is pretty high for the Australian market especially considering the fact that the Sony, Kindle and Hanlin readers are significantly cheaper.

That's expensive. Saying that, I'd probably pay it, but I think the latter is definitely in play.

Thanks, Tarek. I don't know why I didn't just ring them myself. Actually, yes I do - it's hot, and I'm lazy.

Cheers,
Marc

[thaoula]

I figured you were kidding Marc....

The other thing that I forgot to mention was that the device is supposed to be available next week if everything goes according to plan. It was originally supposed to be released today but they were unable to finalize the pricing.

Personally, I think it is pretty expensive for this market. Secretly, I am hoping it will come in cheaper but at the same time I busily siphoning off money so that I can present a partly paid off business case to my wife

Kind Regards,
Tarek

[sianon]

Originally Posted by thaoula

I gave Dymocks George St a call and asked to speak to some one about the new reader they are looking to introduce. Apparently the device they have selected is the IRex Iliad.

They have not yet settled on a retail price but it is currently expected to cost more than than $800. However, they are also still in discussions with IRex regarding pricing as they understand the price is pretty high for the Australian market especially considering the fact that the Sony, Kindle and Hanlin readers are significantly cheaper.

Tarek

Be interesting, if indeed Dymocks do sell the Iliad, and it does link to the EB20, whether existing units nit sold by Dymocks will be able to access the platform.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by thaoula

I figured you were kidding Marc....

I thought you might, but you can never be too careful. This internet thing is sometimes inexplicable invaded by folks with absolutely no sense of humour.

The other thing that I forgot to mention was that the device is supposed to be available next week if everything goes according to plan. It was originally supposed to be released today but they were unable to finalize the pricing.

Even more excellenter news.

Personally, I think it is pretty expensive for this market. Secretly, I am hoping it will come in cheaper but at the same time I busily siphoning off money so that I can present a partly paid off business case to my wife

Ahh, a man with a plan. My best wishes for a presentation that goes down well with the Board at the next Meeting.

Kind Regards,
Tarek

...and many thanks from me.

Cheers,
Marc

[mrsp]

Originally Posted by thaoula

I gave Dymocks George St a call and asked to speak to some one about the new reader they are looking to introduce. Apparently the device they have selected is the IRex Iliad.

Well done for taking the direct approach and putting us out of our misery

This is really disappointing as I don't think its going to work with such an expensive device. The iRex has always struck me as the kind of device that is perfect for someone who primarily reads non-fiction and reads with some kind of objective - student, professional etc.

Dymocks, although having a big non-fiction section, are not at all what I'd call a technical bookseller - ie if you want a non-fiction book on a subject beyond entry amateur level - then you don't find them, or at least a good range of them (have found the odd random one) at Dymocks. Your best bet is a specialist bookstore or better and cheaper still - Amazon.

What Dymocks do really well is sell fiction and books that are to be read for pleasure and to me the Sony and the Cybook are far more suited to reading fiction and reading for pleasure where you don't really need to take notes and them being cheaper, smaller and lighter.

ebooks.com has a lot of the more academic and technical titles available and it would make sense for them to sell Iliad but for Dymocks to entice people away from paper, it just isn't going to work.

I was in there the other day and there is a deal on where you can by 3 paper books for the price of 2. I found 3 that I liked and 2 of them aren't even available as ebooks (because I've searched before).

Why would I fork out $900 for a device and then still not be able to read what I want - there is just no incentive for me to change my ways??

(that's me pretending to be joe public instead of a gadget freak who hates the space paper books take up and the weight of holding them when lying in bed ).

Not to mention that my Mum (an even more avid reader of books who I have no hope of convincing to go digital -she doesn't see the need or the point) is going out tomorrow to buy the entire Phillip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy tomorrow and is going to lend them to me when she's finished. I'm swapping with her the book that I'm reading now. Can't do that with ebooks...yet...

[HarryT]

[QUOTE=mrsp;123743]

Originally Posted by thaoula

What Dymocks do really well is sell fiction and books that are to be read for pleasure and to me the Sony and the Cybook are far more suited to reading fiction and reading for pleasure where you don't really need to take notes and them being cheaper, smaller and lighter.

As the owner of both an iLiad and a CyBook I have to say that you are 100% right; the CyBook is a much better fiction reader. Being the size of a paperback book (in fact, EXACTLY the size of a standard PB, which I'm sure isn't a coincidence) it's easy to carry around everywhere with you. The iLiad is slightly too big for that. Another issue with the iLiad is its 45s boot time - double that of the Gen3; it's just long enough to be irritating, whereas the Gen3's boot time (about 20s) is, for me, short enough to be non-intrusive.

Not to mention that my Mum (an even more avid reader of books who I have no hope of convincing to go digital -she doesn't see the need or the point) is going out tomorrow to buy the entire Phillip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy tomorrow and is going to lend them to me when she's finished. I'm swapping with her the book that I'm reading now. Can't do that with ebooks...yet...

You can, actually. If you both have a Mobi device (Gen3 or iLiad), you can register up to 4 reading device to your account at the book store and share the books amongst those 4 devices.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you both have a Mobi device (Gen3 or iLiad), you can register up to 4 reading device to your account at the book store and share the books amongst those 4 devices.

Four is the maximum allowed by the MobiPocket format, but Dymocks is following ebooks.com in only allowing 2 devices. See Which download format should I choose?, under "How many times can I download my eBook?":

As many times as you like, but only to two different machines.

I don't know what the legal situation is in Australia, but this is one more reason to buy the LIT version (if available) and run ConvertLIT/mobigen.exe to get a DRM-free MOBI version (i.e. format shifting - for personal use only obviously).

By the way, if you compare Dymocks and ebooks.com it is obvious that Dynocks is already using ebooks's web store software, so it isn't surprising that they will also offer eb20.

[TallMomof2]

I know that online reading via eb20 has been available for selected titles at ebooks.com for some time. Not only Secure PDF but Secure MobiPocket, too. Never used it because I either read off my Palm 99.9% of the time or my PC the other 0.1% of the time.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Four is the maximum allowed by the MobiPocket format, but Dymocks is following ebooks.com in only allowing 2 devices.

The nice thing about Mobi, though, is that there are lots of stores. You can buy books anywhere you wish. The fact that you bought a reader from Dymocks doesn't mean that you'd have to buy your books there too (unless they've "hacked" the iLiad's firmware in some way).

[sianon]

Expect an announcement on Saturday 8 December in regard to the Iliad being available as of Monday next week. Price still not revealed.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by sianon

Expect an announcement on Saturday 8 December in regard to the Iliad being available as of Monday next week.

No! I expect one in the next 15 minutes!

Price still not revealed.

I'm telling myself already it'll come in under $650 and come with a free set of steak knives, and I'm saving shekels even though that's still "too expensive".

Cheers,
Marc (who is obviously often prone to massive disappointment )