I signed up for the 30-day free trial, and immediately found books that I'd like to read that are on long request waiting lists at my friendly county public library. Now I can look up those books any time I like during the next thirty days. I'll see whether or not I think there is enough value here to pay ten dollars a month indefinitely to keep this service, but I think I will.
Kindle Unlimited
61–70 of 199 posts
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#62To all the "this is just a 10 dollar library card", I ask you this: if library books are the way to go, why do people buy endless amounts of books from amazon. Amazon became successful by selling books. Audible is another successful company that offers a feature that according to you, can be achieved at a library. Clearly libraries are missing something or else we'd be using them more. Maybe it's one click instant ac…
> Maybe it's one click instant access. Maybe it's the larger selection, or that lack of having to wait.
Yes. Yes. Yes. As well as book condition/cleanliness, and being able to keep books forever.
My local library is also only open from 10am-6pm, and closed sundays, so unless I want to take time off of work, my only time to go to the library is on a Saturday afternoon. Usually when I buy a book via Amazon, it's spontaneous because of a recommendation. I'll have a friend recommend me a book. Click, it's ordered and shipping. I'll see a book recommended several times in the same HN thread, check reviews for it, click, ordered and shipping. I don't really remember the book's info in order to look up later while at a library.
Currently I have no idea how to check if a book is available at my branch or a nearby branch. I tried going to the library website and clicked their "check availability" link, and I was brought to a calendar for conference room reservations. Amazon is just a much more polished experience than my library. So yeah, I'll buy a book instead of getting it free from the library.
It reminds me of when people say that services like Netflix, Spotify, Steam, etc are cutting down on piracy because in many cases, they provide a simpler experience than the piracy does. Amazon and books (hell, Amazon and most products) provides that same simplification over a cheaper/free distributor.
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#63"We're sorry. Kindle Unlimited is currently only available for US customers. Please visit us again when it is available in your country." That's ok Amazon. My local library lets me check out as many ebooks as I can read. And audio books. And paper books. Total cost? FREE ! via taxation which works out as £13 per year (budget is £8 million, population is 650k)
Amazon isn't intentionally discriminating against your country, they don't have a choice.
They do have a choice - as a huge book store they have a leverage over publishers which they have used with great success.
They CHOOSE not demand their books to be available globally from publishers.
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#64This service would have the extremely interesting effect of replacing itself with all your reading sources. Consider: Given a choice between buying a book elsewhere and reading it here, you're going to choose the latter because it's free. But also, if you normally read a book per month, since you're paying for it whether you read or not, you'd have to basically read more from here to be able to make it "worth it". So given a choice between buying a book elsewhere or reading a different one here, you're still going to lean towards reading it here. Pretty smart!
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still don't understand why, when content is digital and distribution doesn't cost anything extra, things like this are restricted to specific countries.
Contracts. See this explanation by author Charlie Stross: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/07/some-ram...
But amazon have no problem selling me ebooks and audiobooks even thou in am located outside the us.
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was wondering if this could replace my Safari Books Online subscription, and the answer to that is a resounding 'no'.
I use Safari heavily and I've been hoping some sort of competitor would come along. It's not that that I dislike Safari, merely that I expect competition would push for a better product. The interface has barely changed in as long as I can remember with the same old clunky flash and limited search. It took years for the mobile app to go from horrendous to tolerable and it remains quite bad. Giving 'Online' the same v…
The interface is being redone. I don't know how they are planning to cut-over though: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/
Edited: They just announced how the cutover will work: http://blog.safaribooksonline.com/2014/07/08/new-safari/
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#67Can someone explain to me, whats the difference between Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime[1]? [1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000739811&ref=...
Kindle Unlimited gives you unlimited access to about 600,000 ebooks and audio books on Kindle devices. Prime gives you free 2-day shipping on a large number of Amazon products and gives you unlimited access to Amazon Video. I personally was a little surprised (and disappointed) Amazon didn't roll this out as another Prime perk. I'm not sure why making Amazon Video available to Prime members makes financial sense to A…
I would like to see a "Pick One" because I have zero use for the Prime Video but I could have a limited use of Kindle Unlimited. Prime Video is not supported by any of the platforms I choose to consume media on (linux desktop and RaspPi Media Centers)
In a Dream World I would be able to get a Free Shipping only Prime Account. I will probably cancel my Prime after this year since the jacked the price up to $99, Just not worth it anymore (plus they now charge Taxes for my state so I am buying less and less on Amazon)
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#68To all the "this is just a 10 dollar library card", I ask you this: if library books are the way to go, why do people buy endless amounts of books from amazon. Amazon became successful by selling books. Audible is another successful company that offers a feature that according to you, can be achieved at a library. Clearly libraries are missing something or else we'd be using them more. Maybe it's one click instant ac…
[deleted]
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was wondering if this could replace my Safari Books Online subscription, and the answer to that is a resounding 'no'.
I use Safari heavily and I've been hoping some sort of competitor would come along. It's not that that I dislike Safari, merely that I expect competition would push for a better product. The interface has barely changed in as long as I can remember with the same old clunky flash and limited search. It took years for the mobile app to go from horrendous to tolerable and it remains quite bad. Giving 'Online' the same v…
I seem to recall getting an email last week saying they were merging Flow into their main service, or the other way around. Did I dream it?
Re: Kindle Unlimited
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm well aware of that. And, I don't think it's discrimination to only sign complex licensing deals in only one territory. I'm just not sure why people in the UK would go for this when the Library already does a fine job of "all you can read".
It's often the case that the books I want to read are not at my local library; either because they don't have them or they are already checked out. This is especially true of e-books. Wilbur[1] doesn't have the greatest selection. [1] http://wilbor.lib.overdrive.com/826F0311-F3BF-4487-A2D0-CA70...
Luckily, in a democracy, you can address this. Write to your local elected council member (or whoever it is in your part of the world) and ask them what they're going to do about it.
Or, get on the board of your local library.