Michael bought a Sony Pocket Reader last month, but with the exception of $10 bestsellers, he’s finding that other books he wants are priced higher than he’s willing to pay. For example, Tad Friend’s memoir Cheerful Money is $10 on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, but $17.49 from Sony. Michael wants to know if we have any advice on how to get Sony to lower their prices.
ebooks
B&N Ebook Reader Lets You Loan A Book Just Once
By 10.23.09
One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they’ll let you virtually “loan” your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don’t tell you–some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out–is that you can only do this one time per book. You’d better lend wisely–and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days.
Amazon Clarifies When It Will Remove Kindle Books
By 10.2.09
As part of a settlement with the customer who sued Amazon over the 1984 fiasco this past summer, Amazon has clarified under what circumstances it can delete your books. Notably, Amazon is not saying that it will never again delete books, which keeps the Kindle in the “do not buy” list for consumers who want unequivocal ownership of the items they purchase. In fact, despite the muted praise Amazon is receiving for doing this, the best we can say about the clarification is that it’s about time, but that it still doesn’t address the fundamental ownership issues raised by the Kindle licensing system.
Now In Stores: Video/Book Hybrids
By 10.2.09
Great news if you enjoy books, but have the puny attention span of a person raised on television and the Interne—oh, look at the kitten!
Florida State Universities Launch Free Digital Textbook Program
By 9.30.09
If you’re going to school at a Florida state university, your fee burden just grew a little bit lighter:
Amazon Answers My Questions, Sort Of, About Kindle Licenses
By 8.27.09
Let’s get straight to the bad news: although Amazon did answer my questions, their answers included “we’re working on that,” “I don’t know,” and “I don’t know (but it’s the publishers’ fault).” To be fair to the “Kindle Specialist” I spoke with this morning, he has promised to talk to the Kindle marketing department—why marketing? these are DRM issues!—and get back to me with better answers. Until then, this is what the average consumer can expect from a Kindle ebook license.
By 8.5.09
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Later this month, Sony will start selling a $199 ebook reader through Walmart and other retailers ($100 less than the Kindle). They’re also dropping the price of new releases to $9.99, which is what Amazon sells ebook licenses for. [Consumer Reports]
Kindle Deletions: Amazon Ate Student's Homework
By 7.31.09
I was never much for writing in books in school, though I did use Post-Its frequently. Which is a precursor to leaving digital notes in a Kindle edition of the book. A Michigan high school student is one of the parties in a class action suit against Amazon because in deleting the unauthorized MobileReference edition of 1984, the company effectively ate his homework.
B&N Wraps Public Domain Books In DRM To Protect Authors' Copyrights. What?
By 7.29.09
The ebook “war” is a race to the bottom, apparently, with Barnes & Noble trying to out-do Amazon on DRM stupidity. A reader emailed B&N customer service to point out that their “free books” offer consists of 5 public domain titles that are no longer protected under copyright, yet are still locked down with digital rights management (DRM). Their response? “For copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be converted or printed.”
Read Chris Anderson's Book 'Free' For Free
By 7.21.09
Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail, has published a new book that looks at something of interest to Consumerist: the trend of content and services to slide toward free, especially in the digital world. It’s pretty light reading and an interesting look at economics in the digital marketplace in particular—and for now, at least, it’s available in multiple formats for free.
How To Load Up Your Kindle With Non-Amazon Ebooks
By 7.20.09
So you’ve got a Kindle, and you have books on it, and you want to keep those books—no matter what Amazon or a publisher decides you deserve in the future. Your legal options are limited, but you do have some.
By 7.10.09
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Everyone keeps reporting it, so we feel like we should also mention it here: Amazon has dropped the price on its normal-sized Kindle to $299. [Consumer Reports]
Amazon Tries To Clarify Download Limits For Kindle Books, Doesn't Quite Succeed
By 6.23.09
Dan, the Kindle owner who last week found that some of the books he’d purchased were no longer available to download due to unspecified limitations set by the publisher, spoke to more Amazon reps on Sunday. They clarified the DRM policy. Well, sort of.
Amazon Kindle Books Can Only Be Downloaded A Limited Number Of Times, And No You Cannot Find Out That Limit Before You Hit It
By 6.22.09
[The CSR said] that there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it’s five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice. And, here’s the kicker folks, once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.
By 5.26.09
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If you own a Kindle, you can now access your notes and highlights via the web at kindle.amazon.com. [TechCrunch]
Amazon Begins Selling Kindle Books With Text To Speech Disabled
By 5.13.09
As promised, Amazon has begun to implement the text to speech (TTS) flag that lets authors and their publishers turn off the “read it to me” feature of books on the Kindle. MobileRead members note that Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Stephen King’s The Stand both have TTS disabled, and it seems to be on an author-by-author basis instead of by publisher or imprint.
Amazon Can Ban You From Your Kindle Account Whenever It Likes
By 4.15.09
Amazon recently banned a customer for making what they considered too many returns, and when they did this they also disabled his Kindle account, although the returns were never related to Kindle purchases. So what happens when your Kindle account is taken away? Your Kindle still works, and the books you already bought for it will work, but you can’t download those books ever again (better have made a backup on your PC!), you can’t receive your magazine, blog, or newspaper subscriptions on it anymore, you can’t email documents to Amazon to have them converted and sent to your Kindle, and you can’t buy any new books for the device. That $360 device only works so long as Amazon decides it will work.
By 1.27.09
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Here’s a resource to help you determine whether your library lends digital media such as audiobooks and ebooks. It also helps you locate other libraries that offer digital lending. [Overdrive] (Thanks to jojo319!)
