Starting Monday I’ll be at Tools of Change in Publishing, a conference that’s a sort of brainiac party at the intersection of publishing and digital innovation. Last year I called TOC a very full-brain conference because “both left and right brain perspectives are represented and explored.”
This year, Jane Litte and I were invited to present a panel on digital reading devices from the user’s perspective. If you’re attending ToC, it’s Wednesday at 2:30 pm. We’ll be talking about all the different digital reading devices and platforms, and the reader’s reaction. As it says in the description, we’ll be discussing “what real life book readers like, dislike, want to see, and couldn’t care less about” in their digital reading experience. Jane came up with this great list of items, and I added one more – customer service. I think the divide between the major players in digital reading rests largely on who can respond to customer questions quickly and clearly, because for many, the learning curve for digital reading adoption can be very steep.
So, if you could say anything to the folks who create and sell digital reading devices and programs, what would you tell them? What’s one thing you wish for, or one feature you can’t understand why it’s still included? If you could change one thing about your digital reading experience, what would it be (aside from “More time to read,” which is what I’d want, too)?
I love my Kindle, but can’t use it to read books I borrow from the library or buy in DRM format. (I must check into Calibre; I’m new to trying to read DRM formatted books and struggling with the fact that some programs don’t work with my MAC.) I just switched to an Android phone, and that makes it easier to take DRM books with me, but there’s no denying the screen is much smaller and the battery life shorter than on the Kindle.
The biggest plus in reading on the Android is that I can download library books right onto the phone. Even without my Kindle, I am never without something to read, so If I want to stick my wallet in one pocket and my phone in the other I can travel without a purse and still have access, thus reaching a goal I set in childhood of not having to schlep lots of stuff around and still have a book available at all times.
Kindle needs more options, especially in navigation, with its best features being the screen size and battery life.
As many have said, a universal format that worked on all devices would be great, but probably not likely with Amazon and other providers trying to hang on to market share.
I also listen to audio books, and like being able to do so on my Kindle. The Blackberry app for Audible I tried to use before I got my Kindle was horrible and worse than useless, because it would stop playing halfway through a chapter and refuse to start again. The Android app is much better, but the problem again there is battery life.
No DRM.
Need universal format to easier switch between devices if they won’t get rid of DRM.
Ebook prices need to come back down.
My Nook(s) finally have good organization with the custom Shelves. I have TBR, Favorites, Read, Contemp Romance, Historical Romance, Mystery, Pre-Orders. Very nice on the NookColor.
The NookColor allows me to read book blurbs and customer reviews. Easy. Big plus for B&N there. Big minus on some of their book prices forcing me to shop a book. They aren’t the only one with price issues. I’ve noticed it with ALL the bookstores.
I can use any ebook I’ve bought on any of my readers (nook, nook color, iDevices, or kindle) due to Calibre plugins. Strip the DRM and change the format. Universal format would eliminate that. I use my NookColor the most due to ease of use of use. Love the dictionary. Touch a word while reading and the definition pops up. Easier than kindle or nook or PC.
No DRM.
Better customer service.
Get rid of Adobe.
1. Geographical restrictions (which only lead to illegal copying)
2. Price increases where it is cheaper to buy dead tree than e
3. Carin’s poetry formatting!
Like Jenn I have an old, expensive Sony PRS700 and while I am tempted to buy a newer Sony with an easier to read screen it seemed like the black flicker when changing pages might drive me nuts. Am not at all tempted to move to the Kindle – I like the purchasing flexibility of the Sony – however I worry that I might find myself in a bluRay versus HD or beta vs VHS situation. I use Calibre to organize my collection and make groups to facilitate finding my books. The Sony software is terrible and as there doesn’t seem to be much proofreading in the metadata from the Sony Store, I often have to go in and correct the tombstone data. As mentioned, the Sony is dead slow after adding books, and even now sometimes I think that it has gone into some e-reader version of the blue screen of death.
I love the additional external storage on the Sony – extra backup, and have never had to contact tech support for my Sony. Their reliability is what would keep me with Sony if I upgrade.
I’ve had a Kindle 3 almost 6 months and am generally happy with it. But I agree with a previous commenter that I would much rather have page numbers than “locations.” I sort of understand from a computer-standpoint why they use locations but it’s just not how books are organized and it feels clunky.
Also, the hardest thing for me to get used to was the buttons since I wanted to use the right-hand button to go forward and the left-hand button to go back. The funny thing was that when I got my Android phone and put the Kindle program on, that’s exactly how it works—I touch the right side of the screen to go forward and the left side to go back. I understand that if I was left-handed, I’d appreciate the Kindle buttons but maybe they could make them programmable so that users could make them work as they wished.
I wish there was a single format since I am a big library user and I bought the Kindle knowing I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of their ebooks. But Amazon does have a good selection of free classics I never got around to reading (I just finished “Ivanhoe” Friday night on the way home) so I still have plenty to read on my commute.
I, too, miss the ability to look at the back cover blurb.
For commenters who asked, I have made a Collection named “Read” and I move books there when I have read them. I do wish, however, that I could move those books out of the Collections they were in originally when I move them to “Read.”
so if you want to remove DRM in calibre you can use this toolkit
http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-—-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
it’s purpose is to remove DRM so you can read in calibre and if you want you can change the format too. you do still need the other programs to initially open up/download the DRM file.
so I had a pdf book (i could only buy the pdf version and not epub cos of teritorial rights) and i find pdfs on the kobo are a little annoying cos if you need larger print you need to scroll – which involves excess page turning. so i used callibre to change it to an epub format and it was so much better. the only downside was that calibre couldn’t detect the page number and headers and incorporated it into the book text which is a little disrupting but at least i only have to press one button to turn a page.
so this is a prime example of why DRM and teritorial laws are such a pain and really need to be streamed.
as many have mentioned DRM makes illegal downloads more appealling and publishers (or whoever makes these discisions) should be learning from the music industry that this is not the way to go.
I want to BUY the ebooks. I’m not looking for illegal downloads – I am happy to part monies because I think the authors and editors and everyone else in the process should be paid for their hard work but I want it to be an easy process, an available process (from Aus we dun get much out that way) and be able to buy from different shops rather than be holed into a monopoly of one or two bookstores depending on my reading device/how many reader programs i can have on my computer.
I also agree with those who want access to blurbs – that would make life so much easier especially since one day i would love to own millions of books and blurbs would be a great reminder.
Also a TBR folder would be great – to distinguish from the multitude of books that are just on my kobo and i can’t be bothered to remove. Or if you need to reload the books they all become “unread” again so I have to remember which books I have read – again blurbs would help with that.
I am a Voracious Reader: new books, used books, swapped books, library books, K3 books, iThing books. I was in alt when my local library offered OverDrive software, then totally bummed when I realized that amazon and apple platforms don’t support OverDrive. What I want to shout out is: Library patrons are prodigious Book Buyers; borrowing and buying books are Mutually INclusive. Eradicate the erroneous idea that owners of eReaders will never buy ebooks if they are available through our public libraries!!! So often we borrow a library book and then decide to buy it.
PS add my voice to the anti-DRM bandwidth.
I have a Kindle and a Sony. I love them both, but I wish I could mate them and come up with the perfect ereader. I want a reader with the elegance and attractiveness of the Sony, the touchscreen and backlight of the Sony, but the wireless capabilities and sunlight-readable screen of the Kindle.
I just spent the last week trying out the Nook, the Kobo, the Sony PRS-300, and the Kindle 2 and 3. I came to pretty much the same conclusion as the rest of you about DRM, Organization, Format, and page numbers on the Kindle.
I also have one pie-in-the-sky hardware wish: I find reading a social experience. I talk about what I read, and when I’m in public I like seeing what people are reading and have them see what book I’m reading (except if it’s something embarrassingly smutty). Conversations have been started on planes and in waiting rooms based on the book in my hand. I’ve read books because I’ve seen other people reading them on park benches. I find that ereaders lose that “social networking” aspect of books with the loss of a public unique cover for each book. This is what I want on my ideal reader: The back cover should be a colour screen (covered with something like plastic for protection) on which you can, at your own discretion, have an image of the cover of the book that you’re currently reading. That way you can show off your highbrow tastes on the subway, or your ironic lowbrow tastes in your favourite hipster coffee shop. Or just reconnect with the non-virtual world of people who might be interested in what you are interested in. It’s like Foursquare for books, just in the real world!
Definitely agree with: no DRM, no geographical restrictions, and better organization, both on the device and in the online library of purchases (including a read/ TBR designation). But the issues that are a daily (sometimes hourly) irritant to me are:
1. Bad editing/formatting, which I suspect is linked to the need for a universal format. Pick one and learn how to make it work correctly so an ebook reads like a book, not some grade-schoolers keyboarding exercise. I have a Kindle, so I read mostly books in the Amazon format, but I’ve bought several other formats (when I can find them without DRM) and converted them with Calibre, and they all suck. Some have spon taneous gaps in the mid dle of words at the rate of about one per page. Others suddenly have no indents for half a page, which can make it tough to follow who’s talking if it happens during a big chunk of dialogue. And even the best of them can’t handle a simple em-dash. I haven’t found one yet that wraps correctly (meaning without a big gap).
2. Pricing. Sorry, I know no one wants to say it, but an ebook is an inferior product and should have a lower price. Period. If I buy a paperback, even if I don’t like it, it has some resale value at the UBS. Or if I’m running out of shelf space, I can donate books I like to the library so that I can read them again in the future. Or I can loan it to a friend (or several friends) when I find a new author I think they’ll like, or when they’re just strapped for cash. I can’t do that with an ebook. Hell, when I spill something on it and stick the pages together, or the baby gums the corner off of it when she’s teething, I can still use it to start a campfire or level out a table with a broken leg. And some of those giant hardcover books make a great booster seat for unexpected guest toddlers. Paper books have a ton of worth, ebooks do not. You’ve taken a Mercedes, stripped off all the goodies and turned it into a Yugo with no resale value and no value other than a few hours of enjoyment for me. I can’t pass it on and extend my enjoyment by discussing it with others, or helping my small-town library, or any of the other things I can do with a paper book. Don’t expect me to pay full price for it. I haven’t yet and don’t believe I ever will. If the ebook costs the same as the paperback, I buy the paper.
Quick vote for better organization—would like hierarchical file system or system of multiple tags (or both, choose your own adventure!) Otherwise love my Kindle 3.
I think the other stuff (pricing, DRM, availability) entangles more than just the device manufacturers.
Hear hear on universal formatting!
Also:
Adobe Digital Editions is the most craptastic software ever inflicted on the public at large.
How about including the back cover in the file? I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Filing system in iBooks is the win. No file sorting for Kindle is the suck.
Best idea ever? Instant purchase via amazon.com and built in WiFi for the Kindle device. Kudos for cross-platform integration – you’ve made a fortune off me with impulse buys.
I agree with most of the comments. Formatting, price, availability. I’ve never bought an ebook, and I don’t know that I ever will, certainly not until I really own it – can lend it or donate it to the library like a paperback (why, oh why can’t we donate ebooks to the library?). I am so not tech savvy, and at first there was some problem with my mac not liking my nook, adobe digital editions wouldn’t work…I’ve blocked the memory because it was such a nightmare, but while the details were still fresh, for weeks I couldn’t even look at my nook I was so angry. (Can you feel the first world pain?) The customer service people were all very nice but shockingly useless. No one at Barnes and Noble stores, on their customer service line, or at the library was able to help, although they all spent hours trying to, so yeah, a user manual would be nice, if not for the consumer at least for the professionals. Anyway, the one thing I would change about the actual device – I want voice command. Possibly (probably) I’m just the laziest person imaginable, but as long as we’re living in the future and reading virtual books, why do I still have to turn the page?
I’d like publishers and device manufacturers/designers to keep in mind how appealing ebooks are to physically disabled readers.
I read on a Sony because page turning buttons and my hands are not friends. The touchscreen eink gives me the best of both worlds. I get the paper-like display as well as liberation from hard-to-click page turn buttons. But it’s still far from perfect. Those little, metal menu buttons? The slidey on-off button? Yeah, they’re not my friends. I have to use my knuckle for the former and give the hubs the sad eyes to tackle the latter.
Bigger buttons, less click resistance, better grips on sliders – legions of readers with poor manual dexterity would scream their thanks.
For publishers – drop the Agency bullshit already. I can’t read paper and I can’t afford Agency ebook prices. That means I haven’t been reading your books. Since April 1 of last year, I have bought exactly 5 Agency pubbed books, and they were all from Penguin, who at least marks their ebooks lower than their paper books. I used to buy 4 books a week. You’re not pushing us to buy hardbacks, you’re pushing us to watch TV, like we did before ebooks.
What both SarahW and SBSarah said about steep learning curve. My mom bought Kobo, found out that it wasn’t compatible with her computer, replaced it with a Kindle, but after the initial excitement, she hasn’t used it much at all. The browsing/recommending functions don’t work well for her, and it’s too much trouble to get help when she can’t figure out how to do something. Not to mention the price issue, which isn’t really a device/platform issue.
Unified format, no DRM or geo restrictions, lower prices for books on which I’m giving up my first sale rights—none of that is device or platform either, I guess, but frankly I won’t be comparing devices and shopping for a dedicated reader until those issues are resolved.
Also, I want a pony.
Hierarchical file organization. I have a nook. Love it. But hate the two separate libraries (B&N books vs. other books) and hate inability to organize files.
@C hillip. Yes, that. Support proper library models, instead of excluding them deliberately.
@Erica Anderson: YES! THIS!
The shiny new shelves feature on the nook is pretty much useless to me since it means I have to make two different sets of shelves for the B&N books and the non-B&N books. And I have just as many of the latter as I do the former, since I have a whole hell of a lot of books bought from Fictionwise, as well as several titles bought directly from Carina Press, my own Drollerie Press, and other independent locations. (I like to buy straight from publishers who make a point of selling without DRM, doncha know.)
Leave a review!
when I finish a book, I’d love to be able to click a link right then that says “what do you think? Leave a review!” and be able to type my quick thoughts in right then, pick stars and say okay and auotomatically have it loaded up to the reviews section at Amazon (from the kindle, clearly), to BN (from the nook, of course) ect ect ect…and if they could hook into Goodreads—just as great!
(specifically regarding the nook, which I mostly love)
FILE ORGANIZATION!
(this is the most muchly important)
File organization with password-protection capabilities, so I can let my mother read a nice cozy mystery on my device to test if she would like a device without risking giving her a heart attack by seeing just what sort of dirty books I also read.
Tell me the number of pages in the book I am considering buying. Not just the damn file size, which means next to nothing to me. Actually, just give me all the info I would have had if I bought the paper version of the book from the online store.
Allow me to search by publisher while shopping.
Include a “buy more from this author” link in the menu for the book that I’ve already purchased. I would probably buy 3 times the # of same-author books (like I do in the brick and mortar store) if I could auto-search for the same author without having to remember whatever multi-vowel arbitrary spelling the author has chosen for their nom de plume.
Claire C said…
I tried changing my location with the sony reader store and totally messed up my mom’s software. (It wouldn’t recognise her old uk bought books thereafter.) While the crappy customer service sony offered – no replies, different rep every time we called, no constructive advice for nearly a week – convinced me to buy a K3, I’ve been too scared to try changing my location with amazon and buy the books I so badly want to.
Good to know it works with amazon. ::thumbsup::
I’m probably just going to repeat what everyone else has said, but a chorus is a chorus, right?
– one format! I read on my iPhone, and currently have four or five different reader apps, depending on where I bought a book, and what format it’s in, and then an entirely separate app for borrowed library books.
– Hierarchical filing system! If you have any number of books on your phone, it’s nice to be able to sort the ones you’ve read from the once you haven’t yet, alphabetically by title, by author, or by genre, etc.
– get rid of DRM and geographical limitations.
security word: perhaps87 – perhaps 87 more voices in the chorus will help!
My biggest peeve are geographical restrictions – why can I buy a print book that has to be shipped all the way to Germany, but not the ebook? And I hate it that some stuff is *only* available as an ebook that nobody wants to sell to me – do the PTB really not realize that they aren’t making money that way?
Second is pricing – I’m surely not paying the same for an overblown computer file as for an hardcover copy. This has been adressed by others already (sharing books, reselling etc).
I haven’t had too many negative experiences with DRMed books, but then, I buy mostly non-DRM stuff at the moment.
Format has been no big concern so far. I’m happy with my Trekstor ebook reader that can display both pdf and epub (and play MP3s, too), so if it’s available in any of the 2 formats, I’m game.
I have a KOBO and have had a lot of trouble with books that I have bought, but haven’t even read yet, being “locked”. I bought and paid for it, it should NEVER lock. I can read a paperback as many times as I want, why not e-books? CS at KOBO and Adobe were NO help.
The KOBO lets me read pdf, but if I don’t want to scroll left and right for every line, I have to use a magnifying glass to read pdf documents. You can make the font larger (and it is still small) but instead of fitting the document to the screen, you have to scroll left and right on EVERY line!
So, add my vote to universal format that you can buy at ANY online store that sells ebooks, and that will work on any ereader AND
NO DRM!
I want to be able to read Cyrillic characters (Russian language in my case) without having to break the e-reader or buy it in Russia. I am sure that many reader of non-Latin based alphabets would agree.
UNIVERSAL FORMAT. please.
I just got my Kindle not long ago, and I love it. But the Kindle Storefront is pretty sloppy in its organization. I’d like to see a really organized system where all the categories have subcategories and tags and so forth, so that if what im looking for is paranormal romance with dragons and fairies, or whatever, I can click my way there with less hastle. After all, if you make it easy for me to find what I want, I’m likely to buy it.
Grr. Typed my whole response and it disappeared. Looking on the bright side, maybe I can be more coherent this time.
I have a Sony 650 which I love. I think wifi and 3G can be a selling feature, but people should realize it’s really not important to everyone and some of us actually prefer NOT to have it.
I agree 100% about good customer service.
All Romance eBooks has great customer service. They have a lousy search feature and their website is not as good as it could be, but I love to shop there because I know if I have an issue it will be promptly taken care of.
I also frequently shop at the Sony Reader store, but have never had any problems with them, so no clue if they have good customer service or not.
Kobo is another matter. I love Kobo’s coupons, but their customer service is horrible! And often I have to send 2 or 3 emails before I get a response. Which is usually that they will do A and have escalated the problem to tier 2 or something like that. Weeks go by, you email them again, wait and they often respond stating they can’t do A (as told they would initially). It’s been over a month since I was promised a refund on one book that was the wrong book and I am still waiting…
I have not purchased any Kindle books, but Amazon’s customer service is usually very good. I’ve had a few problems with them over the years, but overall I would rank them pretty high is customer satisfaction.
And Borders is sometimes slow to respond about eBook issues, but overall I’ve found them to have good customer service. I will truly miss them if they go out of business.
I would also love a universal format and to see the end of DRM, agency pricing, and geographical restrictions, but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m an eReader fiend. Although I’ve only owned Sony eReaders (PRS-500, 505 and 600), I’ve had the pleasure to play with and put their their paces some of the other major players, from Kobo to Kindle to Libris to Nook to Pandigital and more.
I’m too much of a bookaholic to want wifi, so that isn’t important to me. I don’t mind downloading through my computer.
Pandigital has had lots of problems and their support appears to be by the book, literally reading from it. They are with Barnes & Noble for their books, but even the BN employees don’t seem to realize that. I know of one Pandigital owner who was told they wouldn’t be able to buy everything in the company’s inventory because they didn’t buy a Nook.
Kobo bothers me due to the inability to turn it off. I have to allow the sleep function to work instead.
Kindle’s keyboard is right where I like to hold my eReader. I have small hands who don’t really like to hold the device from the side.
What I do want is ease of use (without having to drag out the instruction booklet all the time), ability to buy from whoever I want (sorry, Kindle, Pandigital and Nook), and customer service that is responsive, knowledgable, and an accent I can understand.
Sony has a few issues and tweaks that could still be done, but at least when I have a problem, I have options to contact them and get an answer, from email to live chat to Twitter.
I read on the Kindle and my only complaint is that it doesn’t have page numbers. I don’t really understand what the “locations” are. This makes it very difficult to jump to different parts of the book, or if you’re a student like me, hard to use digital books in class discussions and projects.
I’ve owned my Kindle 2 for about 2 years now. In that time only ONCE, ONCE have I gotten a message from Amazon that an ebook I’ve purchased has been updated. I’ve bought some books (published by the big NY pubs) that have had an incredible number of typos in them but apparently nobody is interested in fixing them.
The one that really frosted me is I bought the In Death ebook where Dallas & Roarke get married at the end. I’d already read it before so I was able to spot a major goof. On the very next line after what should have been the last sentence of the book, it continues on with several pages from the first chapter of the NEXT book in the series. It was supposed to be an excerpt but it wasn’t labeled that way. Someone who had not already read the story would be scratching their head wondering why it ends with a cliffhanger.
Sounds like an easy fix, right? Just put in a few carriage returns and add the words “Excerpt from the next novel in this series”. That’s all it would take to fix it. But when I emailed Amazon about it, they said that the publisher was not interested in updating the book at this time, refunded my money and deleted the book from my account. That isn’t what I wanted. I don’t know if they ever fixed it or not. I still don’t get why this is so hard to correct.
So my request would be to start fixing your darn typos!
Pretty much the same as everyone else-
Stop with the DRM
ONE format
Let me buy what I want, where I want and organize it however I want to.
Bring the costs down to non-hardback prices- I didn’t buy a hardback so I’m not paying the cost of one.
Until these things are met- I refuse to buy an eReader. I can wait- even if it means having four different programs on my laptop.
Update the software. Shiny new hardware every year is nice but the software isn’t where it needs to be. Putting the same old epub or mobi on the new hardware isn’t an improvement. (see above comments regarding no organization, no page numbers, poor formatting). I’ve been an e-book devotee from the early days and frankly Microsoft lit format has the current ones beat with all of the above issues. It used folders, had both page numbers and a slider, and was generally better formatted than the current offerings.
First of all, I’m a huge fan of my nook. One of the main reasons I purchased the nook over the Kindle was the ability to go right into a Barnes and Noble store and ask them questions if I had any. Plus, I like shopping that way. I just use my iPhone nook app and can download any book that I see on the shelf, frequently at a discount.
Another reason I prefer the nook is the fact that the battery is separate from the unit itself. If the battery ever conks out, you don’t have to send in the whole unit (like a Kindle), just get a new battery. That’s a big deal IMHO.
Two things I would like to see improve: more backlists. They’ve done a pretty good job so far of making sure books are available for the nook, but there have been a few not yet available. I would like to see a way to contact B&N about suggestions for authors or books to put on the nook. (Currently you have to jump through hoops to make suggestions.)
The other is the still elevated cost of some of the books. I’ll use Jasper Fforde as an example. After the discussion the other night regarding his books, I went to B&N.com to price the nook versions, and they’re very expensive, some of the most expensive nook editions I’ve seen thus far. It was a big deterrant so I didn’t purchase it. I just find it exploitative to charge the same as a print book when there is no publishing cost, shipping, stocking, etc. It turned me off of the author/publisher because of that.
Just my 2 cents.
Oooh, what a great idea!
I don’t have an e-reader because I love the feel of books (and replacing the 700+ in my library would be VERY costly), though my mom adores her Kindle and says Amazon.com customer service is AMAZING.
I have a kindle and love it, but agree with most of the above comments;
1. Universal format is a must,
2. No geographical restrictions (why can I buy the physical book but not download it???)
3. Pricing
4. Back catalogue releases in order eg. Nora Roberts 3 Sisters Trilogy – amazon release books 2 and 3 before book 1 and book 1 had the higher price tag once available.
5. Also it would be good if it was possible on the readers to have a next chapter/jump X pages button like you do on DVD players. If you want to flick back to find something but are not 100% sure where it is, being able to jump a chapter/10 pages at a time would be useful.
6. Page numbers or at least an approximation of number of pages the download will be.
Also, improving the editing in some of the cheaper (likely not print published) titles would be great. The number of times I’ve felt like taking a red pen to my kindle or emailing the author/publisher is ridiculous. We readers appreciate spelling, grammar and even consistent character names!
I love, love love my Nook I love that I can be in bed at midnight finishing up a book and buy the next book in the series right then. I love that I can lend and borrow from friends and from the library.
I would change Geo restrictions, drm and make sure there was some kind of universal formatting (as most everyone else on here has mentioned).
Also, I would make more bundles at lower prices available particularly for authors who have an extensive backlist that stretches back years (for example Deanna Raybourne’s series is a great one that I managed to get bundled for only 9.99-more like this please!)
I don’t want to pay full price for a book I have owned in PB format for 10 years, yet I’d like to stock my Nook with my favorite books. For example if they had an option to buy all of the back titles of the In Death series all at once for 100 to 200 bucks I’d do it, but I am not paying 7 dollars each!
Yes to the prior comments about DRM.
Recently rec’d a NookColor (I rarely do anything with B&N because of their LOUSY customer service. The device, I’m sure, was given as revenge for some imagined slight or sin):
Had an ECTACO JetBook Light; loved it and lost it.
So: *yes to having the plug in somewhere other than where your hand or tummy is going to be when reading.
* Allow resets and what not from the computer instead of just Wifi (the local B&N does not HAVE wifi and the next nearest is 75 miles away. Really, what were you thinking?)
* Allow for a reversal of the touch pad page turner. Sometimes I’d like to hold my NC in my right hand and turn the pages forward from there. Sometimes, I’d like to use my LEFT hand, but then I still need my right hand to forward pages. (JetBook had three different locations for page turn)
* Allow for standard cables to hook up to computer and recharge. Having a NC specific cable is nuts.
* Allow for the NC to READ WHAT YOU SELL. B&N sells ereader format (.pdb) but the NC doesn’t read it.
* What the rest of you said about pricing, geographical distinctions, and the rest.
@Aryn:
Allow for the NC to READ WHAT YOU SELL. B&N sells ereader format (.pdb) but the NC doesn’t read it.
Wait, the Nookcolor doesn’t read PDB?! That’s asinine, for more reasons than one.
Last I checked, if you’re downloading your books right off of B&N’s site as opposed to letting your nook or nookcolor slurp ‘em down, you get PDB IF you’re a Mac user. If you’re coming in on a PC, you get epub.
Which points back to how B&N does not have a proper client for the Mac platform even after many, many months of Mac users bitching about this.
But wow, I had no idea that the color nook doesn’t even read the damn PDB files. They really, REALLY need to fix that.
I love my Sony eReader, but HATE the headaches and heartaches in trying to manage it. I have an iMac now, with dual book. I cannot see books purchased when in PC mode when the software is open on the Mac side and vice versa. I cannot organize the thing to save my life, and am trying to figure out if I can save my books to a card, taking them off my reader to use the memory cars as a form of organization. To top it off, when I try to borrow books, my reader sometimes duplicates its contents while simultaneously blocking access to the book I just borrowed. And the stupid Sony software freezes my Mac to the point that hubby has put a temporary moratorium on using the reader. Speed in syncing is a real issue, but almost a minor one now.
And then there are the restrictions…geographical (seriously, if I can drive to the use in 2 hours and buy the book in a store, why can’t I do it in an ebook?) and others. Format and DRM would be more of an issue if I could use my reader right now. And pricing is stupid at times.
I read this and think maybe I need to invest more time in learning to love the Kobo for iPad…
I want to be able to read easily, without spending more than I would for the blasted paperback, borrow/loan books like I do with paper, and organize the whole thing….like I do with paper.
Amazon should work out contracts with libraries so that we can borrow books that work on our Kindles.