Only 5GB of storage on 32GB Glow21?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Renate

What part did you not understand? The previous two models did this. The current model does this. Why the outrage? Where are the people who have actually run into this limit?

"I bought a car and the speedometer does not go to 300 MPH!"

Because they promised something else. In fact, they lied by omission. They promised 32GB and kept quiet about the fact that only 5GB is accessible for sideloaded books. That's lying in my book.

To say nothing of the fact that these games with partitioning are petty, and doubly so for doing it in secret, like B&N were too cowardly to admit it out loud or something. No other vendor does this.

Edit: as to running into the 5GB limit, yes, I have done it on my 8GB Oasis 2. My whole calibre library is close to 50GB.

[Renate]

Saleslady: Hi. Welcome to Barnes & Noble. May I interest you in in our new Glowlight model?

Customer: What's it hold?

SL: Err, you mean, how much memory does it have? It has a 32GB memory chip. All the system takes up about 4GB of that, so that leaves 28GB.

C: So I have 28GB for whatever I want?

SL: Absolutely!

C: So how do I get files and stuff on that?

SL: You can download from any site using a browser. You can use Adobe Digital Editions to download library books. You can download from the cloud or DropBox. You can use Renate's fabulous AdbSync utility to sync any folder on your desktop or simply push individual files using ADB.

C: Sounds ok, I guess. [pulls a 3.5" 1.44M floppy disk out of their pocket protector] Do you know what this is?

SL: Erm... I believe it's a floppy disk. We had that in "History of Computing".

C: Well, I want to pretend that my device is a floppy disk. I like that it makes everything exciting. I can run commands like "chkdsk" to find all the lost files and corrupted indexes.

SL: Um, that's really not necessary in the 3rd millenium.

C: Yeah, but I want to do that and the customer is always right.

SL: Well, we planned for this contingency. We have a special sandboxed area that you can pretend is a floppy disk.

C: Great! So that's a 28GB floppy disk?

SL: Good gracious, no. That would we too stupid. We are only willing to humor wackoes so much. It's 5GB.

C: That's outrageous, that's bait-and-switch, you're cheating me, I'll have my lawyers on you...

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Renate

What part did you not understand? The previous two models did this. The current model does this. Why the outrage? Where are the people who have actually run into this limit?...

Because it's false advertising and equivocation (telling the truth with the intent to deceive, i.e., lying). What part of that don't you understand?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Renate

Saleslady: Hi. Welcome to Barnes & Noble. May I interest you in in our new Glowlight model?

Customer: What's it hold? ...

Oh good. Now ridicule. How to win win customers and influence people.

Reality.

CUSTOMER: If I buy your 32 GB Glowlight 4, will I be able to transfer my 28 GBs of ePubs to it via Calibre?

SL: Well, yeah, sure. You might have to jump through a lot of hoops to do it... but, yeah, I guess.... sure... maybe.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Renate

Saleslady: Hi. Welcome to Barnes & Noble. May I interest you in in our new Glowlight model?

Customer: What's it hold?..

Your average ereader user has no idea what ADB even is, let alone how to load their books using it. The official method at the moment on Nooks, Kindles and Kobos is to use the USB transfer and no B&N employee would tell the customer otherwise. Plus, chances are the saleslady would have no idea what ADB is either.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Your average ereader user has no idea what ADB even is, let alone how to load their books using it. The official method at the moment on Nooks, Kindles and Kobos is to use the USB transfer and no B&N employee would tell the customer otherwise. Plus, chances are the saleslady would have no idea what ADB is either.

If I had a 32 GB Kobo or Tolino or PocketBook or Kindle or... I could hook it up to my computer via USB and transfer about 28 GBs of books (ePubs or .mobis) using Calibre. As far as I know the only modern eReader that would NOT be able to do that is the Nook GlowLight 4.

I don't even patch my Kobos any more (don't want the hassle and comparatively it's extremely easy). I'm sure not looking to hack a Nook and bypass Calibre just to use the space they advertise as available. And if the extra memory is unusable (unless you jump through hoops to use it) why am I paying for it? (Well, actually I'm not.)

If the GL4 goes on sale for about $120, and I decide the screen and page buttons are worth it (I haven't seen one yet) I might buy one by convincing myself that it's a reasonably priced 7 GB eReader. Unlike some others here, I like Nook's firmware (except for the limited font sizes).

[ZodWallop]

In the end, I think that among the posters here that aren't just driving by to slag on Nooks, it's more like the old parental saying: I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

In the end, I think that among the posters here that aren't just driving by to slag on Nooks, it's more like the old parental saying: I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

That's a good way to put it. And, after writing my last post and comparing Renate's "easy instructions" with the "easy instructions" I often try to share on how to use Emacs to write screenplays in Linux (for example), I have a better appreciation both for Renate and for those who give me those glassy eyed stares when I explain the "easy" 10 or 15 steps to setting up my screenwriting Linux system.

Obviously Renate likes working on the Nooks in the same way I like setting up my "ultimate" screenwriting "package" on Linux. But most people (like me on the Nook) would just as soon install an application that's already set up and ready to go ... and just use it.

At any rate, sometimes it's surprising what you can see in other folks that you fail to see in yourself. There's room for both those who just want to use their eReaders "straight" and for those who want to tweak them. Apparently the GL4 is worth tweaking, so maybe I'll take a closer at one (at some point, when it's on sale).

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by Renate

I don't understand the level of indignation on this. People are all getting burnt up by the single number "5GB" without anyone actually running into a problem. The only people who will ever be affected by this are users sophisticated enough to own over 5GB of books but too naive to either quit using UMS or reallocating the spsd.

That describes me. I have an 8 GB Kobo and I'm using more than 4 GB. I don't know what UMS means ("Use Map Settings?", I'm a gamer) or what SPSD means. I know what soldering is... a great way to get my completely untrained fingers burned. If I had bought this Nook instead of my Kobo I would be screwed.

(Note that having 5 GB of books on an e-reader doesn't make someone sophisticated. If I had more manga on my device I would be using up more memory, but I consider a manga to be only as sophisticated as an ePub.)

I use this quote:

Any business relationship predicated on a lie, no matter how trivial, will inevitably go downhill from there.

In any case, storing 5GB of anything on a filesystem that hearkens back to MS-DOS is questionable in this millenium.

Having 4+ GB on my device, which only needs simple functions, doesn't seem questionable to me. The device isn't slow, I can find my collections, and I haven't had any crashes that I can recall since around February 2021.

[Quoth]

Emacs?
I've used it. But I first did screenplays on Wordstar. Most people will use Word or LO Writer.

But 100% know what you mean about instructions. I used to teach applications & computers, then gave training. I know that zombie glass-eyed visage.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Emacs?
I've used it. But I first did screenplays on Wordstar. Most people will use Word or LO Writer.

I know very little about Emacs. I use it because of a screenwriting major mode, Fountain-Mode (using Fountain "markup" language) used in conjunction with 'Afterwriting (for PDFs). But there are now several free screenwriting applications (which make formatting much easier than a standard word processor). As a Linux user, I had more limited choices so did a lot of exploring.

Here's a YouTube video by the Fountain-Mode's creator, in case you have any interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be1hE_pQL4w

[JSWolf]

The problem as I see it is that when the previous model was released, there was enough outcry that B&N removed the memory partitioning. You would thing B&N would have learned that enough customers don't want partitioned memory.

However, I think the days of the 6" screen are not long and not enough people who care about partitioned memory are going to by the GL4.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

However, I think the days of the 6" screen are not long and not enough people who care about partitioned memory are going to by the GL4.

I think 6" screens are going to be with us for a while yet. More portable.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem as I see it is that when the previous model was released, there was enough outcry that B&N removed the memory partitioning. You would thing B&N would have learned that enough customers don't want partitioned memory.

But that was under the old management. Maybe the new management isn't too quick at learning from others' mistakes.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem as I see it is that when the previous model was released, there was enough outcry that B&N removed the memory partitioning. You would thing B&N would have learned that enough customers don't want partitioned memory.

The previous model (7.8'' Nook Glowlight) didn't have partitioned storage. The one before it (Glowlight 3) had initially.