Comments on: Amazon Kindle – the tipping point for ebooks?

By: eBooks on the iPhone : reading hacks

eBooks on the iPhone : reading hacks — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:44:35 +0000

[...] in the days before ReadingHacks.com existed, I suggested that the Amazon Kindle might turn out to be the tipping point for ebooks. By this I meant that having the backing of a well established bookstore like Amazon might make [...]

By: Nick Hornby on ebooks : reading hacks

Nick Hornby on ebooks : reading hacks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:17:26 +0000

[...] have said before that Amazon getting in on the act with the Kindle is a big deal for the format and I still believe [...]

By: gizo

gizo — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:09:23 +0000

Interstingly enough, I was listening to the latest MacBreak Weekly (68) podcast this morning, and Andy Ihnatko spent the first 20 minutes or so talking about how much he loves the Kindle. It had nothing to do with books - he likened it to a waffle-making robot. You'd be better off listening to him talk about it. Or wait for his article to appear in the Chicago Sun Herald (I think) or on his blog. Certainly highlighted a much different side of the Kindle though..

By: bookboy

bookboy — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:15:14 +0000

I sort of agree, and don’t particularly like the stringent DRM. If you can’t sell or give away your book, then it feels like you are in effect paying for the right to access the book, rather than buying it. But having some sort of DRM is an inherent problem with digital content.

Amazon do say that you can download your own files to your Kindle. It will accept Mobi format which you can buy from various places. It accepts Audible audio books. They are sorting out problems with PDF too, which will allow you to get free books from Gutenberg.

I compared it with Apple because it seems to me that having the “oomph” of the iPod manufacturer behind the iTunes store was a big step for making digital music sales more mainstream. In a similar way I think Amazon has the clout to have a big impact on ebooks.

Personally, I won’t be buying a Kindle any time soon for several reasons:
1. Not available in Australia anyway
2. Too expensive
3. DRM and associated limitations
4. It’s fugly
5. No matter how cheap the ebooks are, they are still more expensive than library books
6. My next foray into ebooks will be trying free books from gutenberg on the diminutive treo screen

By: gizo

gizo — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:46:27 +0000

Yes, iTunes songs (excepting most of EMI and some independent labels’ music) are DRM-laden. BUT, you don’t HAVE to buy music from iTunes to go on the iPod. You can put a variety of different formats on it.
And you can still share your DRM’d tracks with up to 5 different devices (although they must be Apple hardware or software). But then you can still burn them to CD, and re-import them DRM-free.

But with the Kindle – you buy from Amazon, direct to the one device. It plays only Amazon formatted eBooks, and it doesn’t let you do anything else with them…

By: bookboy

bookboy — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:07:41 +0000

I agree on the DRM concerns. I also agree on the styling concerns. However, I still feel that Amazon has the clout to push ebooks forward in spite of these problems.

I could be wrong, but eren’t iTunes store songs hampered a bit by DRM initially?

By: gizo

gizo — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:19:07 +0000

I think one of the key problems is that everything is wrapped up in DRM and amazon proprietry formats.
It completely debunks the whole idea of sharing books.

And it looks like it was discovered in an 80′s time capsule.