Kobo Is Going To Purchase Tolino Back End Assets

[Quoth]

More books are read on phones and tablets than eink, allegedly. However some eink users might read a lot.

Reading an ebook or a PDF in a browser isn't sensible. Better to download and use a dedicated app/program. MS had ebook reading in Edge because they had an idea of selling ebooks. It worked less well for them than Zune.
Amazon has over 90%. Also own a POD for paper and Audible and Goodreads as well as other online paper based book sellers Abe Books and Book Depository.
Smashwords distributes to just about everyone other than Google or Amazon, inc Apple, Kobo/Tolino, libraries and Nook.
I'm sure Google is a bit peeved that they got the laws adjusted and scanned all those millions of books, poison search results with Google Books, have about 85% of phones/tablets and Playstore yet are probably selling less ebooks than Smashwords!

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

There's a billion Windows10 devices, hundreds of millions using Edge browsers that could handle epubs, yet so few did so that MS didn't bother to keep the feature when they switched the browser codebase.

Likewise there's zillions of iOS and MacOS devices and Android phones yet Apple has a small ebook sales market share (10%?) a

Apple iOS has about 12% of the phone/Tablet market. So 10% would be good seeing as there is the Kindle iOS app.

Actual Windows tablets is a small %. Much less than iPads. They spent maybe $12 Billion and damaged the desktop experience trying to push Windows Phone (they once had near 30% in North America before iPhone when Nokia led), it's less than 1% now and officially EOL! Not many people read novels on laptops. I tried years ago. Instead I converted the mobi to a web document with navigation and put it on a media player with an 800 x 480 screen. Read one ebook that way.
So the number of Win10 in use isn't relevant to reading novels, even when Edge had epubs. Part of the reason it hasn't is that they entirely scrapped Edge. It's now based on Chromium, like Google's Chrome.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm sure Google is a bit peeved that they got the laws adjusted and scanned all those millions of books, poison search results with Google Books, have about 85% of phones/tablets and Playstore yet are probably selling less ebooks than Smashwords!

Payback's a witch.
While they were fighting in court over old books, others were building tbeir business off *new* books.

Details, details...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

As long as DRM is removed, I don't think you have to convert from kepub to ePub. A kepub is just an ePub with a bunch of extra spans thrown in. Though I haven't tried, you should be able to open a kepub with any ePub reader.

There is also some .js an other stuff. Modify ePub can remove all the extra KePub stuff and turn KePub into ePub.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm sure Google is a bit peeved that they got the laws adjusted and scanned all those millions of books, poison search results with Google Books, have about 85% of phones/tablets and Playstore yet are probably selling less ebooks than Smashwords!

Yep, this crushing failure no doubt keeps the CFO awake at night as they contemplate the parlous state of their balance sheets

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

iBooks as well?

Are there applications outside of the apple ecosystem that can read them?

But it's simply not true that Apple hardware only supports Apple Books.
There is a million epub apps and ther Kindle and Kobo apps, plus Bluefire Reader for DRM'ed epubs.

It is however true that you can read Apple Books only on Apple hardware, with the aforementioned exception of DRM free Apple Books (like ‘the classics’) which are delivered as regular DRM free epubs.
Apple Books are basically epubs with a non-standard encryption, much like Kobo's only not as easily hackable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Apple iOS has about 12% of the phone/Tablet market. So 10% would be good seeing as there is the Kindle iOS app.

On an iPhone, the Kindle app for iOS is lousy. The L/R margins are far too wide.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

But it's simply not true that Apple hardware only supports Apple Books.
There is a million epub apps and ther Kindle and Kobo apps, plus Bluefire Reader for DRM'ed epubs.

Can you name these million ePub apps for iOS?

[Quoth]

I think the few decent ones for iOS are listed on this site. Obviously hyperbole. Some are the same name as ones on Android that mostly work. Android may have nearly 100 ePub apps, I didn't count them, but maybe 1/2 dozen are really good.
Android:
Some totally ignore Publisher CSS, some people like that.
Some need paid version for annotation or some other feature. May be better than ad supported if it's good.
One I used to use now requires the an Adobe ID before you can us it at all.
Some "import" the books to somewhere, fine if it's your only library but backup can be tricky and that doesn't work sensibly for Calibre.
While there doesn't seem to be a huge number of ePub apps for iOS, certainly the main user preferences are covered. Mostly iOS needs a host application (as do some/most/all? Sony PDF digital paper readers) or even Apple cloud. I had to install the Apple client on an old Win7 game PC here to be able to use the media player. Linux CAN access the internal storage, but the built in media player only recognises music loaded via Apple's host program. Sadly I was given the iPhone 4s 32 Gbyte just after most Apple Store / iTunes apps no longer supported it, so I was unable to install VLC or other 3rd party applications that can access files copied direct via USB.

So as long as the iThing running iOS isn't too old, you can install Amazon's Kindle App and a variety of 3rd party epub readers, some of which can use directly loaded files via USB if you have suitable drivers for your OS.

Apple is a walled garden. But you are not limited to Apple applications or Apple music or Apple books or photos and documents only via Apple. Install suitable 3rd party apps while your iPhone, iPod or iPad is still fully supported.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can you name these million ePub apps for iOS?

Man you did see that I am exaggerating, right?
There's obviously Apple Books, Google Play Books, Bluefire (mentioned already), an app from Pocketbook, from tolino (both which also support DRM'ed books) there's Marvin, Kybook 3, FBreader, Aldiko, tiReader, PureReader and so on and so on...

I am sure you, JSWolf, “resident curmudgeon”, will find something wrong with all of these.

But at least Apple is beginng to move towards USB-C

[Butterfly1234]

Originally Posted by graycyn

That would work for me!

Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

Kobo is epub-format, amazon is another format, in what format are books from Barns and Noble?
Are their prices OK?

[Butterfly1234]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

As long as DRM is removed, I don't think you have to convert from kepub to ePub. A kepub is just an ePub with a bunch of extra spans thrown in. Though I haven't tried, you should be able to open a kepub with any ePub reader.

Which store (Kobo, Amazon...?) sells e-books in kepub format?

[Butterfly1234]

When it comes to My Books/Library, I also like the way B&N offer a cover view on Authors whereas Kobo only shows a list. Multiple books by the same author can be 'stacked' in the Nook Library and it will show a little number to clarify how many books are in that author's stack.

Now why stacked authors are displayed first name last name and unstacked authors are displayed last name, first name is just one of the quirks of the Nook.[/QUOTE]

1) I'm quite happy with the design of my Clara - except that the on/off button is at the bottom instead of on the top - but I'm not so fond of the way the books are displayed.

2) What are unstacked authors? Authors of whom you have only one book?
3) What I don't like about the "listing" of books by author, is that you have to choose either by first name or last name. And when you choose by last name, the first name is still put first.
So listing by last name would be
Kader abdolah
Leila Aboulela
Madeleine Albright... etc.
Whereas Albright Madeline, Abdolah Kader would make searching through authors way easier.

[Butterfly1234]

There's no question there's a lot of ebook readers outside the eink platforms but there's no telling how significant a segment tbey are; how many are avid readers buying dozens of books a year, casual readers buying one or two a year, or something in between. At most we can assume that the vast majority of eink users are avid readers. (Or independently wealthy and think nothing of spend $100 to read one book a year. )

(FWIW, I have all four platforms: phone, PC, eink, and multiple tablets. At one time or another I read of the latter three but when I settle down for extended reading it's the eink I reach for. Maybe I'm just weird.)[/QUOTE]

---------
May I assume that with eink, you mean e-reader?

I can only say that since I have my e-reader (first a Tolino, then my Kobo) I almost never read a paper-version book. Why? For a paper book you have to sit down, whereas I can do the dishes and read on my Kobo. Plus there's the weight of the paper books to consider if you're going outdoors.

I sometimes read an e-book (from Kobo or other) on my Huawei, but rarely.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Butterfly1234

Kobo is epub-format, amazon is another format, in what format are books from Barns and Noble?
Are their prices OK?

B&N are also ePub. But the problem is that you cannot remove the DRM and you cannot read them on any other eInk Reader but nook. You would need to buy only DRM free eBooks from B&N.