Notice Len’s comments about lack of DRM interoperability – the fact that the books are “Epub” doesn’t mean anything!!

18 COMMENTS

  1. If Amazon isn’t sending you the newest Kindle free, they should be.

    If you really wanted to compare apples to apples (so to speak) you would have chosen the Sony Touch instead of the Sony Pocket Reader, enough said there.

    As to epub not being open and/or being too complicated, I can download an eBook from Sony, Kobo, Borders, WH Smith, Waterstones, BAMM, etc and have it on my Nook in about 20 seconds, yeah, I’d say that is the much more open format. What are my Amazon choices???? Oh yeah, DRM free Mobi or Amazon.

  2. Joanna, I imagine that Len has already attained a state of being which frees him sufficiently so that he is quite able to choose to do any number of things beyond whatever one has to do. And, as most artists and creative people can ably demonstrate by the awesom results of their individually inspired process and productions, Len too has produced a lively and humorous demonstration of some perfectly useful and entirely relevant and timely information. But I’ll admit to being at least somewhat enchanted by Len’s delicious style and wit. His art fortunately is not reduced to any stifling notion of merely mechanical expediency.

  3. Debbie, I bought and used a Sony Digital Edition and found the clarity of the screen was really diminished by the touch layer. The Pocket’s display, IMO, is much easier to read than the touch screens, and thus more comparable to the other three readers I own.

    Where I may have missed the boat in my comments on ePub is that when I tried to move a book I’d bought at the Sony Store (not Wolf Hall) to my nook, it didn’t work, but that was before the last nook software update, which sounds as if it fixed that problem. I made an attempt to learn how to move an ePub book between two of the devices (can’t remember which ones) and called support for one or the other. When I asked for help reading the other store’s book on their device, the support person couldn’t help me, and they seemed to have no clue how to use ADE. I gave up too soon and decided to just buy the book in each store.

    From these and other comments, I see that I probably didn’t need to buy all these copies of the book. Even if I’d gotten that part right, I think my comparison of the four e-readers would have turned out the way it did, based on the actual reading experience of the same book.

    Two things that I wish I’d mentioned are the nook’s advantage over the Kindle in the LendMe program and the library borrowing, which is also available on the Kobo and Sony readers. I like those features and wish the Kindle had them, but they don’t outweigh the benefits I talked about in notes/highlighting, which are a big deal in the way I read. I’m sure each reader weighs different capabilities differently.

  4. Excellent video and a clear presentation. Other than library borrowing, I just can’t see ANY benefit for the nook over the Kindle. Add to it the much smaller ebook store at B & N, and the customer support issue, which you mentioned, and it is clear that Kindle wipes the floor with nook. And THAT is before the new Kindle is even out.

  5. Len,

    Nice video.

    “Two things that I wish I’d mentioned are the nook’s advantage over the Kindle in the LendMe program and the library borrowing, which is also available on the Kobo and Sony readers. I like those features and wish the Kindle had them, but they don’t outweigh the benefits I talked about in notes/highlighting, which are a big deal in the way I read. I’m sure each reader weighs different capabilities differently.”

    I’d be surprised if the LendMe program is of much big picture significance, but the Kindle has account sharing, which might? be unique to Amazon. If I buy a kindle book, anyone sharing the account can download and read it on their kindle or equivalent with almost no restrictions on simultaneous access or time. If there is someone in the US, a relative perhaps, who can share your account, he/she can buy/receive a kindle, starting out with access to hundreds of books worth $1K or more. Any new book purchased is effectively half price if shared once.

    Regards, Don

  6. Don, good point. My wife shares her books with her sister and a friend in Wyoming, and it’s a simple process. You need to really trust whomever you’re sharing access to your Amazon account with, of course, but for a limited number of close friends/family this is a more significant form of sharing than the nook’s two-week, one-time-only LendMe program.

  7. ePub DRM isn’t exactly standardized and therefore there are some occasional issues (such as B&N using a new DRM that some older readers couldn’t handle), but this is a far cry better than the lock-in caused by the Kindle’s proprietary format. Not to mention these issues really are uncommon, and can be easily corrected with a software update. I’ve not seen the video yet, but if any emphasis was placed on this topic, the rest is probably just as biased and wrong.

    While not the same in how it works, the Nook can have shared accounts (it’s really multiple devices on a single account, but achieves similar results). Further, you can share books without sharing accounts if you can trust the other party with your credit card information. All of this on top of the LendMe program, which I’ll agree has restrictions that make it not as useful as it should be. So the Kindle doesn’t have any benefit here, and actually loses out due to not having the Overdrive system for reading library books.

  8. With the Kindle you need to share an account to share books because the Kindle books are tied to the hardware ID of the Kindle.
    The great thing about the B&N social DRM is that your books are not tied to any hardware or software ID.
    You can share a Nook account, but there is no reason why you should.

    You can copy you B&N books to any Nook or B&N reader and open them by entering the credit card number and name the books were bought with.
    You can do this with all your books, as many times as you like.
    The LendMe option is great for sharing books with strangers. But for sharing with family and friend you can just copy your books. There is no other DRM system (except ereader of course) that allows this.

  9. Geert,

    “You can copy you B&N books to any Nook or B&N reader and open them by entering the credit card number and name the books were bought with. You can do this with all your books, as many times as you like.
    The LendMe option is great for sharing books with strangers. But for sharing with family and friend you can just copy your books. There is no other DRM system (except ereader of course) that allows this.”

    Very interesting, if true. I have a few questions, that I’ll make up as I go along. TIA.

    1. What is the actual physical/whatever procedure for copying a book from one Nook to another unit/device? Is any wireless connection required beyond the initial purchase?

    2. If I go into a B&N store to buy a Nook with a copy of your quote above, how confident are you that they will agree, even if they have to kick the question upstairs to a supervisor?

    Since the kindle/device is registered to the account (up to six at one time) you don’t need to copy anything. You won’t even know (or need to know) when another registered kindle downloads any book from the account.

    Thanks, Don

  10. 1. You can copy the book you want to share from the Nook, or download the book from your library on the B&N website.
    The other person uses the USB connection of the Nook to copy the book to the My Documents folder of the Nook.
    The books is just a file so you can e-mail it to the other person, put it on a USB thumbdrive, etc..

    2. The answer wil depend on the B&N store I think.
    Some have good support, others no so good.

    You can also share a Nook account (just like with the Kindle), but this has some disadvantages:
    – The other person can buy books using your credit card.
    – You both have the same library, so you probably will have a lot of books on your reader you are not interested in.
    – The other person has access to all your books (not something you always want in a family situation with children).

  11. Geert,

    Good answers, thanks.

    I’m still looking for a hole.

    “You can copy you B&N books to any Nook or B&N reader and open them by entering the credit card number and name the books were bought with….”

    I understand you to say here that the original purchase name and CC# are what are needed AFTER the book copy is on nook #2, independently of how it came to reside there. If so, do they need to be entered more than once?

    Is this correct?

    To share an account, possessor of nook #2 needs to sign in, which presumably means he needs either a user name or an email address, and a password.

    Once signed in, he can presumably see your on-line library.

    I’m assuming a PC access here, like ‘Manage Your Kindle’ on Amazon, but maybe all Nook access is direct?

    I’m want to try to trace the information requirements, but I can avoid going off on a tangent if you tell me that only nook direct access is possible. (With the kindles, I can go onto the PC and queue up various books for download independently for each registered device, even if they’re offline).

    Thanks, Don

  12. When you download a B&N book, the book is encrypted with the credit card number and name of the default credit card at that time. This encryption is fully contained within the book (no online connection, authorization or whatever needed).
    The first time a credit card number and name combination is used you need to enter it. The Nook remembers which combinations have been used, and other books encrypted with the same info will just open. So you have to enter the credit card info only once.

    To share an account all Nooks have to be registered to this account, using the e-mail address and password of the account.
    The B&N library of the Nook is synchronized with the B&N library of the B&N account. So all Nooks registered to an account will have the same books in their B&N library. This also means that if you archive a book on one Nook, it will be archived on all Nooks, the same is true for unarchiving.
    So sharing an account on the Nook is probably not a great solution for most people.
    The better solution is for every Nook to have its own B&N account, and to copy the specific books you would like to share to the other Nook.

  13. Geert,

    Thanks, good answers, lead to new questions.

    “… This also means that if you archive a book on one Nook, it will be archived on all Nooks, the same is true for unarchiving…”

    Assuming that archive here means a LOCAL archive, then all shared nooks have the same set of books in their archive PLUS any side copied books for an individual nook.

    Does that sound right?

    If one book is deleted (unarchived), does it disappear from all nooks upon re-sync? Is it gone forever, or is there still a copy on the B&N server?

    When a kindle is asked for an archive view, it shows all the books in the central archive except the ones already downloaded to your local library.

    It seems to appear that the account-shared kindle devices are more independent than for the nook.

    Regards, Don

  14. If you archive a book, the book is deleted on the Nook but still available on your B&N account.
    The book is listed greyed out on the Nook (you can choose to hide archived books). If you unarchive the book it will be downloaded to the Nook again.

    According to the information you have mentioned account-shared Kindle devices are indeed more independent than the Nook. Account-shared Nook devices will all have the same B&N books available, and a change on one Nook will be synchronized with all other Nooks.

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