News Waterstone's making own eBook reader

I love my Kindle. And to be honest, the DRM really doesn't bother me. I only own a Kindle, so i'm not fussed about not being able to read my ebooks on the iPad i don't own. I'm not going to read them on my phone, and nor am i going to read books on my pc.

I recently had to send my Kindle back to John Lewis who replaced it for me. Not a problem recovering my books; just go online, de-register my old one, register my new one, and re-send my books. Next, hook it up to the wireless network and it goes about receiving all the books. Simples.

That's why i love it; it's just so easy. The e-ink is great. It looks almost fake when you see it at first; as if it's a display unit that's had the text printed on it but you get used to it. The battery life is impressive also.

 

Good work Waterstones. Like the world calling out for another under powered android tablet running a "My first UI" skin and sporting a half-baked "also ran" app-store.

 

I hate to break this to you, but they are NOT selling more ebooks than physical books and that is a GROSS misinterpretation. The ebook category includes all types of literature from self-help to science-fiction all put together, and as a single category it outsells the physical category of science fiction, and the physical category of self-help, but not all the physical books lumped together.

 

I've had a Kindle since Christmas and it's one of the best things I've ever bought. I still read just as many paper books, but now I have quick and easy access to thousands of classic. I'm reading Catch 22 at the moment which I downloaded as a free PDF from the web, then converted to .mobi format for the Kindle. I also have got loads of the free books that Amazon provides. So far I've only bought one e-book and that was because it was going for a quid, and the paper book was a fiver.

 

I am not a Luddite (far from it I built my own rig) - but to me there is something sacred about paper books.

The smell of a new book takes me back to the smell of opening a new book as a kid, or the smell of opening a new board game - like Space Hulk. Still gives me a tingle.

When they can recreate that on an e-book then we shall see...

 

I'm buying a second kindle for my wife. I can go into my account and send all the books I own to her kindle. That way we can both read the same book at the same time. In fact I believe you can have it on as many devices as you like, but that book can only be read concurrently on 4 devices. So I can have the book available to read from my PC, phone and 2 kindles all at the same time. Thats brill.
Couldn't do that with a dead tree book.
There is DRM involved, but not intrusive. The only thing it reallly interferes with is the ability to "share" books with other people.

In answer to borrowing books, in the US they are doing a library borrowing scheme and I believe its coming over here too. So that argument is invalid. And I heard rumour that you WILL be able to lend books, but they will be deleted from the other persons Kindle after 30 days. So tahts good too.

Back on topic. Waterstones will have to release someting special to compete with the Kindle. There are not many things that it doesn't do, and there can't be many people thinking " I'm not buying an e-reader until they fix........"
This has the making of a similar story to Sony releasing an MP3 player that would beat the ipod. It just didn't. Commercially anyway.


Edit: Actually, just thought of one thing that waterstones could do to improve of the Kindle (although its only a software/server thing). Browsing and buying books in the kindle store is nowhere near as much fun as being in a book shop. In a shop your eyes are drawn to books; you see the size, the front cover, the description/synopsis on the back etc and often walk out with a book you'd never heard of but sounds great.
On the Kindle its hard to get drawn to something you don't know. I frequently find myself in book shops looking for inspiration on what to get for my Kindle. It should be that the Kindle store gives me inspiration. If Waterstones improve the stores front end, they may do well.

 

Calibre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibre_(software), http://calibre-ebook.com/).

It has support for Linux, Windows and Mac OSX

It supports reading of (and converting to other formats of): CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDB, PDF, PML, PRC^, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT.

Aswell as these it supports cataloging (but not viewing) of: AZW, AZW1, IMP, LRX, OEBZIP, OPF, PDB, PMLZ, RAR, SNB, TPZ and ZIP.

It supports syncing to the:

 

Waterstones will also have to compete on price, something they have never been able to do with real books either in store or online in my experience.

 

A barcode scanner shouldn't be hard to build into the waterstone's device. Look around the shop, see a book you like the look of, scan it, buy it, put the book back on the shelf. It'd also let you get digital versions of your books at home for if you want to go travelling light. Just get the book out of your bookcase, scan it, buy it!

 

Waterstones could give you a free digital version of each physical book you buy so that if you did want to take some away on holiday you could read some of your old books on the reader for no extra cost.

 

love my kindles, yes kindles. I have one and the other half has one. we swap once in a while less hassle.

I wasn't loving the idea of an ebook until i picked up a kindle and played with one and could see the possibilities. few days latter i purchased the 3G version incase i didn't like it, i could sell it on after.

Love it, books could be cheaper but access to free classics which would have otherwise be purchased means i kinda win.

Soon to start the Charles Stross series.