So, the Kindle 2 is now available. I've been ignoring it while it was in Version 1, but it might be time to start looking at this new one. Although part of me is arguing for waiting until V3. Any thoughts?
If you always keep waiting for the next version of anything, you'll never get what you want.
Personally, I'll get an eBook reader when the prices of eBooks will stop being ridiculous the way they are considering there is no printing process involved...
And even more wonderful when you add in Calibre and (google for this one) MobiDeDRM.py, at which point you can buy DRM'd Mobipocket ebooks if you're so inclined, strip the DRM, and transcode them for use on the Sony Reader without needing to run their Walled Garden software.
(Important for me, because both Sony's ebook store and Adobe Digital Editions insist on running under Windows, and I'm a Mac/Linux gearhead.)
Is there an easy way of doing that the other way round - as in, taking DRMed ePub books from Waterstones et al and stripping them so they can be read on the BeBook? (Which can only read Mobipocket DRM books)
I don't know of a way of stripping DRM from epub files -- or indeed of buying them from Waterstones without going through Adobe Digital Editions (see above: wake me when there's an OS X or Linux port).
I think you'll find the BeBook can read DRM-free Mobipocket books, though.
Oh the BeBook can read DRMed Mobipocket books, never minds DRM-free. It can read DRM-free ePub books too. But I'd just like the option of being able to buy from more than one source if I could, for price, availability etc.
Seems pretty cool. I'm almost envious that I just got a BeBook :) Although to be honest, I'm more envious that I didn't do my research properly and wait a few months for the 2me ed wireless BeBook to come out, as pretty much all the reviews I read rated BeBook over Kindle, mostly for appearance and proprietory reasons (they hated being confined, iTunes-like, to Amazon, and hated even more that it isn't available in Europe.) I love my BeBook, but I'd wait til the wireless one comes out.
Ohhhh... text to speech. I had no plans to upgrade, but that's a nice feature when you need to walk for fifteen minutes between trains, or whatever. I often wish books had a headphone jack :-)
First, the Kindle 2 uses 3G, so it's not *technically* tied to the US. I don't know if there are any plans to Europe-ise it.
You *can* download books to your PC, or so the internet tells me, and drop them over the USB cable; but, unless something has changed, you need a benefactor with a US billing address to register in the first place.
For me, certainly, it's too much for the amount of hassle it would involve to use it over here. Which is unfortunate, because in the US, I'd be all over it.
Update: there are rumours on the internet, with what looks like more substance than some and less substance than others, about an effort to forge agreements with pan-European telecoms. For me, that's just all the more reason to wait.
..on a device which really only does one thing, when for the same money you can buy a nice netbook and stick mobipocket on it? People are already hacking netbooks into tablet format; it is only a matter of time before we have a netbook tablet available COTS.
And while I do take autopope's comment about printing only being 10-15% of the cost of a physical book, much of the other costs are moving the printed book, or stacking it on shelves in high rent, high street bookstores, staffed by underpaid but keen booksellers. Ebooks cuts out all of those costs as well, so they should be significantly cheaper than paper.
I'm a luddite as far as ebook readers go - I do carry quite a lot of academic journal articles as pdfs on my eee, but for fun reading I do prefer actual paper
I was thinking the same, but in terms of usability and comfort, the Kindle really is fantastic. I saw the one cartographer has last year, and really, it's leagues beyond anything you can do with a netbook/notebook.
For the amount of reading I do, that added comfort factor means a lot.
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Personally, I'll get an eBook reader when the prices of eBooks will stop being ridiculous the way they are considering there is no printing process involved...
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(I am getting tired of repeating myself here ...)
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(Important for me, because both Sony's ebook store and Adobe Digital Editions insist on running under Windows, and I'm a Mac/Linux gearhead.)
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I think you'll find the BeBook can read DRM-free Mobipocket books, though.
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very nice and pritty :)
it is a bit expensive. how many books do you get with it before you have to buy more if any?
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You *can* download books to your PC, or so the internet tells me, and drop them over the USB cable; but, unless something has changed, you need a benefactor with a US billing address to register in the first place.
For me, certainly, it's too much for the amount of hassle it would involve to use it over here. Which is unfortunate, because in the US, I'd be all over it.
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Why spend the money
And while I do take autopope's comment about printing only being 10-15% of the cost of a physical book, much of the other costs are moving the printed book, or stacking it on shelves in high rent, high street bookstores, staffed by underpaid but keen booksellers. Ebooks cuts out all of those costs as well, so they should be significantly cheaper than paper.
I'm a luddite as far as ebook readers go - I do carry quite a lot of academic journal articles as pdfs on my eee, but for fun reading I do prefer actual paper
Re: Why spend the money
For the amount of reading I do, that added comfort factor means a lot.
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