Kindle users get burnt
Amazon has introduced a per-megabyte pricing mechanism for delivering files to the Kindle e-book reader, replacing the ten-cent flat rate for whispered content. Users wanting to put their own documents onto a Kindle reader, over the wireless network, will have to stump up fifteen cents a megabyte for delivery from Monday, …
Paying for putting my own document on a machine for which I've already paid is not what I will ever agree to do.
I'm amazed by the fact that somewhere in the world there are suckers who are happy to pay for such "service". It's like a guy standing at your front door and refusing to let you into your own house unless you pay him. And if you do not - you can always try a window or a chimney...
I do electronics engineering, I was looking a getting an ebook reader to dump the tens of gigabytes worth of Datasheets and diagrams (all in PDF format) which will apparently cost me about $1500 to do.. as well have to clear space on my HD for twice as many documents (the original PDF + the kindle format). Its not like PDFs are that hard to process... I had an old PDA that read PDFs just fine.
And whats up with the small memory on the thing anyway? Are they trying to make an iPod Touch or something?
If the USB is free, no harm to charge for the wireless option, downloading a 5Gb book should cost more than a 12k pamphlet.
As it is, using the USB cable couldn't be easier: you get your converted file back from Amazon's free converter service and save the file from your email right onto the Kindle attached to your PC, which looks like a USB mass storage device. (You have to put the file in the "Documents" folder, I believe.)
The hardest part may be that you then have to "eject" your Kindle from your PC before you can see the new document. Anyone trying to see whether a change they made to their doc makes it look better after it gets converted can find those few seconds inconvenient.
But presently it's pretty easy to not have to pay the ten cents, or whatever the new fee is. I suppose we can read a lot into whether it stays that way.
See also the MobiPocket converter, which I haven't tried.
Paris because, alas, I haven't tried her yet either. (No info on whether she's as easy as Kindle's USB cable copying, which frankly would be too little of a challenge for my tastes.)
"The fact that Amazon feels it necessary" or should that be "can" ?
Do Amazon make any claim to rights to the material that is converted? And I'm sure they keep a copy...
Scan your docs to your PC, convert them to PDFs using one of the countless free PDF printers and copy them to a device like a Netbook, which costs less and has more functionality.
Adobe even have a font that is designed for reading ebooks available for their reader if you want to put some quality into the process.
Anyone who pays Amazon for the privilege of copying their own books to their own book reader needs to be shown how badly they're being ripped off.
Amazon have it half right, but the other half is also important.
Someone will come along with a good one soon, and I would prefer the publishers sort this out rather than retail.
Book stores should be taken into consideration as well as libraries as distribution points, enough of this get from central let's start expanding the network and integrate it right into the high street.
