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Just got a Kindle.

CelticRose said:
If I did have a Kindle, I would make sure to back all my books up on a USB drive or DVD or something else that Amazon doesn't have access to.
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And here’s the thing: What you don’t own, you don’t control.
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But that's the thing: I can control my Kindle purchases, by doing just as you suggest. So I do own them, so long as my house doesn't burn down, or some such thing. And if that happens, my paper books are just as gone.
 
patchbunny said:
I've been curious about getting a Kindle/Nook, but looking at Amazon.com I noticed that a British author I like, Andy McNab, is not available to US readers. How does one get around this, as it's really a deal killer for me.
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If (and there is a thread on it on Amazon in the customers forum) you get around it Amazon apparently is free to and will erase your kindle purchases and blacklist you for any kindle stuff. The latest (and subject of the thread on Amazon) is a Norwegian women named Linn (IIRC). Note, if any book you purchase is the subject of a withdrawal by the publisher (copyright, plagiarism, fact check problem, etc. etc.) it also vanishes. Real books may take up more space, but Amazon can't take them back (and if they ever try that, it will be from my cold, dead hands and I won't be lying there alone).

This is another post on why I do not kindle and, unless Amazon gets reigned in and drops all the limitations and gives up denial of service regardless of problem (except pure theft or hacking).........
 
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Earlier in this thread I think, someone suggested the Kindle PC software to download and try as I haven't got an e reader at all. I really hated the way I couldn't read anything without referring to the Amazon site. I couldn't even read PDFs with it for gawd's sake! What sort of e reader is that? I also understand that Kindles are not compatible with the E books that i can download for free from my local lending library website.
Useless for me! I doubt I would ever buy a kindle.
 
Rrose Selavy said:
Earlier in this thread I think, someone suggested the Kindle PC software to download and try as I haven't got an e reader at all. I really hated the way I couldn't read anything without referring to the Amazon site. I couldn't even read PDFs with it for gawd's sake! What sort of e reader is that? I also understand that Kindles are not compatible with the E books that i can download for free from my local lending library website.
Useless for me! I doubt I would ever buy a kindle.
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There are plenty of applications to convert e-books into different formats, so you can read the result on your Kindle; Calibre is the one I've used. What format are the library e-books in?

The Kindle PC app is not meant to be a general purpose e-reader, so it's not too surprising that you didn't find it useful.
 
zooterkin said:
There are plenty of applications to convert e-books into different formats, so you can read the result on your Kindle; Calibre is the one I've used. What format are the library e-books in?
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But can it convert, say an E PUB that you don't actually own, a book from a public library download that is locked to certain reader software and to expire so presumably has some digital rights embedded?
 
Rrose Selavy said:
But can it convert, say an E PUB that you don't actually own, a book from a public library download that is locked to certain reader software and to expire so presumably has some digital rights embedded?
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I haven't looked, and it may depend on what the format and DRM used are, but it's not necessarily impossible. Probably technically illegal, though you may find it morally justifiable if all you are doing is getting the book into a format so you can read it on your reader of choice, and are not sharing it with people not entitled to read it.

I got quite excited when I saw that my local library was doing e-books, but then it turned out that you could only read them in a web browser, which is useless to me.
 
Amazon have opened the doors to their Kindle Owner's Lending Library in the UK.
Already available to US eBook readers for some time, it offers hundreds of thousands of books to borrow in a library-like service, with no due date to finish them. One book per month can be borrowed, with the service working on anyKindle connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi or 3G.
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http://www.techdigest.tv/2012/10/amazon_kindle_o.html

One book a month for the cost of your Amazon Prime membership - fill your boots!
 
DrDave said:
http://www.techdigest.tv/2012/10/amazon_kindle_o.html

One book a month for the cost of your Amazon Prime membership - fill your boots!
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Nah.Don't have Amazon Prime . That's still Amazon locking you to their content and conditions and getting you to pay for it somehow. Much as I like Amazon as a general retailer and to buy real books occasionally (even though they pay virtually no tax in the uk) , count me out.
Since I already paid in my taxes etc for free books at my local library I would like to take advantage of it if I had an e reader.
 
Rrose Selavy said:
Earlier in this thread I think, someone suggested the Kindle PC software to download and try as I haven't got an e reader at all. I really hated the way I couldn't read anything without referring to the Amazon site. I couldn't even read PDFs with it for gawd's sake! What sort of e reader is that? I also understand that Kindles are not compatible with the E books that i can download for free from my local lending library website.
Useless for me! I doubt I would ever buy a kindle.
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Nooks read a number of different formats, although I usually convert .pdfs to .epub using Calibre first for the readability aspects of it.
 
Rrose Selavy said:
Nah.Don't have Amazon Prime . That's still Amazon locking you to their content and conditions and getting you to pay for it somehow. Much as I like Amazon as a general retailer and to buy real books occasionally (even though they pay virtually no tax in the uk) , count me out.
Since I already paid in my taxes etc for free books at my local library I would like to take advantage of it if I had an e reader.
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zooterkin said:
As I don't have Amazon Prime, that would be 4 quid to borrow a book for a month (and that's assuming I could find that many to borrow). Most books I buy for the Kindle are 99p, so it's not a particularly attractive option.
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My sarcasm obviously wasn't strong enough! I haven't paid for a book on kindle thanks to amazons offers and that free classics library so I'm not overexcited about it either.

Although, you can get a free trial of prime so I'll probably take a look one month.
 
Rrose Selavy said:
Earlier in this thread I think, someone suggested the Kindle PC software to download and try as I haven't got an e reader at all. I really hated the way I couldn't read anything without referring to the Amazon site. I couldn't even read PDFs with it for gawd's sake! What sort of e reader is that? I also understand that Kindles are not compatible with the E books that i can download for free from my local lending library website.
Useless for me! I doubt I would ever buy a kindle.
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If you get an Android ereader you can read almost any format, including Kindle & epubs.

The only format I haven't been able to read on my device is DRM-protected pdfs from my local library, and that's because Adobe for some reason doesn't have an Android version of Digital Editions. Fortunately, it's rare that my library only offers a book in pdf format. They usually have them in epub and/or Kindle formats.
 
ZirconBlue said:
Probably worth noting that Amazon Prime also includes access to on-demand movies, and discounted shipping on stuff (free 2nd day, discounted overnight I think).
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Yes--I'm a Prime member and feel it's well worth it to me, primarily for the free (well, "free" as in included in your Prime membership) 2-day shipping (overnight I think is $4 per item) on almost any item I want to buy, but also for the streaming movies/TV shows.

I only found out today about the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, but I already borrowed my first book. :D

YMMV, of course.
 
My Kindle Fire HD arrived this morning, I connected it up, selected one of the books I'd already bought for my other Kindle which it helpfully showed me and downloaded it, tried to read it - "invalid DRM". Not impressed.
 
BenBurch said:
Did they help you fix that?
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They replied to my email saying they needed more information and inviting me to call them, but when I tried it again to check the exact error message to give them it had mysteriously started working OK. So either they corrected something at their end in response to my email, or the problem was a temporary glitch which fixed itself.
 
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