On Nov 22, 2007, at 5:51 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote:
> The other issue is that a book purchased in Kindle format can't be
> used anywhere else... if you're Kindle dies or Amazon stops supporting
> it you're out of luck. That library is useless. At least with the
> iPod I can use plain MP3s or buy AACs and burn them to a non-DRM CD
> for later use.
I concur with this, and it's also the primary argument against the
iPod Monopoly claim: the device is not locked against other formats,
so if the iTunes Store went away, non-DRM music from other sources
could still be transferred to and played from an iPod, just like from
any other music player. (There are also enough of the things out
there that an after-market can exists in the repair business, keeping
iPods "alive" if Apple stopped making them.)
If the Kindle store and Kindle transfer service goes away, these
devices are bricks, with no mechanism to use them for anything but the
content currently on them. That was exactly the risk with the Gemstar
eBooks 6 years ago, since Gemstar shut off the personal content upload
channel when it bought SoftBook and NuvoMedia, although I believe that
they turned it back on before shutting things down (and there were
still backdoor ways into the RocketBooks), preventing them from being
complete bricks.
What depresses me most with the Kindle is that it's like the eBook
industry shut itself off 6 years ago and rebooted today. Other than
the eInk display, there isn't a single new idea or innovation apparent
in the Kindle descriptions that wasn't in place at the turn of the
millennium. It's like no time has passed, nothing has moved forward.
-- Jim Drew
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.soundskinky.com/blog/
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