121–130 of 259 posts
I am really disappointed by this. These days, I mostly use my (fifth) Kindle when flying on aircraft, and there I mostly read The Economist or The Atlantic. They don't publish offline media for laptops. I don't own a tablet. My phone battery is precious on trips. I guess I'll just look for paper copies at the terminal again...?
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You can use a tool called Calibre to strip DRM from your ebooks. Also let's your side load them onto a different branded device so you're not locked in. Eg. I moved from kindle to kobo and was able to bring my content with me
The DeDRM tools don’t work with lots of new books from Amazon. The days of easily stripped DRM on Amazon books seems to be coming to an end.
While I loved the kindle and still own one, I have since moved on an eink android reader with an isolated google account. Calibre, Overdrive, RSS, Syncthing and obsidian plus a small portable Bluetooth keyboard and I can read and take notes anywhere.
You seem to be describing an Android tablet with e-ink display. Aside from Remarkable, what else is out there worth buying?
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Amazon doesn't want you to have a subscription to the New York Times. Amazon wants you to have a subscription to Amazon Unlimited, which would include access to the New York Times. Amazon would then pay the New York Times and all other periodicals an amount that Amazon thinks is fair based on how many people are reading their articles, like Amazon Unlimited books. This is very bad for big periodicals with many subscr…
Thank you for the thoughtful explanation. I never thought about it from that angle before, that is such a powerful move from Amazon that I believe most of us can learn something from.
I don't think that was the intended message here.
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Not to mention that the ebooks are not cheaper, or if they are not by much.
This was mind blowing to me. I can understand games did not become much cheaper by being electronic-only (though it did give rise to much cheaper indie games) but like 16 years ago when Kindle came out, I thought paperless books would slash the consumer prices by at least half. Turns out the publisher just increased their margins.
Shameless plug: I build a tool to forward RSS feeds and newsletters to Kindle automatically[0]. While it could not replace the official periodicals, it works pretty well for my personal reading workflow. Consider giving it a try if you’re looking for an alternative. [0]: https://ktool.io
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You seem to be describing an Android tablet with e-ink display. Aside from Remarkable, what else is out there worth buying?
Supernote, Onyx have a wide range of options. Onyx relationship with Open Source licensing is… delicate. This could be a stopper for some. I had a Remarkable 1 but I feel the company is trying to be the next Apple. Everything now is subscription. Shame, as The reading experience was good, writing was excellent, software was open but clunky.
With colour e-paper screens slowly picking up speed it's going to be even more interesting. Right now their quality is going to be disappointing if you expect the same quality as your phone or laptop, but it's an enormous step up from greyscale screens - and it's still getting better.
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For a bunch of reasons I'm done with Kindle. For a decade (~2010-2020) I've bought hundreds of books and read quite a few on Kindle. But from late last year when I started reading physical books again (Kindle version wasn't available) I've gotten to appreciate the physical form again. Nice fonts, ease of flipping pages, random access etc., And as an added advantage my kids now get to see my taste and maybe find some…
Not to mention that the ebooks are not cheaper, or if they are not by much.
The other advantage of this approach is that classic works are better than the books I was reading before, and there are enough of them to last me several years at least.
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Thank you for the thoughtful explanation. I never thought about it from that angle before, that is such a powerful move from Amazon that I believe most of us can learn something from.
Except customers will just leave Amazon. Like they are doing with Music, and Video, and Prime. This move disadvantages everyone except Amazon. It should be investigated by SEC.
That's why successful outlets like The Economist put so much emphasis into convincing potential customers that accurate information is valuable. It sure is, but people have to be constantly reminded of it.