Not trying to convert you, and I appreciate that you said money isn’t an object for you, but why spend more than you have to, just because you can?

So many people do love their Sony 505′s, but I want to be able to annotate, and only the Sony 700 and Kindle have this feature. Between the 700 and the Kindle, the Kindle has a better screen (more contrast), and is easier to use with my Mac (I would have to register the SOny on a PC, then download software to make it Mac compatible.). Plus the Kindle has whispernet and a web browser, rudimentary though it is, and is $50 less than the Sony in price.

Thank you for your visit!

Not trying to convert you, and I appreciate that you said money isn’t an object for you, but why spend more than you have to, just because you can?

Amazon.com has notified its publisher and author clients that it plans to cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats. In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon. The online retailer’s note asks publishers and authors to make sure that Amazon has written permission to offer their books for sale in the Mobipocket format.

I can see how this would be advantageous for Amazon, but it does rather look as though Amazon want more and more power relative to the publishers (and other manufacturers of ebook readers and ebook formats).

What I’d like to know is which formats give proper, stable page numbers. I’ve been fine with the few Adobe ebooks I got from eHarlequin, because they have exactly the same pagination as the paper copies but when I saw a Sony Reader in a shop it didn’t seem to give page numbers. Admittedly I could just be incompetent and didn’t see them even though that option was available. If there aren’t stable page numbers it would make it much more difficult to put proper references into an essay.

I’m know you are right, and my New Media colleagues have definitely given me The Lecture on more than one occasion. But for now, I’m staying willfully unenlightened.

I know people get incredibly worked up over DRM, for what I am sure are very good reasons. But I couldn’t care less about these issues. I have plenty of political issues I care passionately about, write about, teach about, volunteer with, and give money to. I am not adding digital copyright to that list, for my own sanity.

I so totally understand your reluctance to take on any more political “causes,” but I would offer one teeny little point about this: as academics, intellectual property issues are much more central to our professional existence than we are taught. Scientists perhaps have a better knowledge right off the bat because of the patent issues they routinely deal with (what rights attach to the university v. the inventor, for example), but IMO over the next decade or so, by necessity we’re going to see all disciplines of institutionally-affiliated scholars being much more practically involved in IP issues.

I shared this post (and my response) with my husband and he offered a not-so-silent prayer of thanks that I haven’t yet worked through my issues re: ebook reader thingies in general and the Kindle specifically.

Oh, yeah. I forgot to add a new bit of e-reader insight: Don’t let your spouse know you bought an expensive e-reader by blogging about it. Bad idea.

At my bemused expression, he explained that right now, my book buying habits are mostly contained (or maybe constrained?) by my disinclination to actually go to the bookstore or run up large credit card bills buying on line and then having to wait for shipment. Instant gratification at a perceived discount could be very dangerous, he says. And I? I’m thinking, with God as my witness, I’ll never be bookless again?.

This could end up being a tricky marital issue. Well, not really, because my husband is an indulgent soul but when a reader marries a non-reader the former’s dedication to easing access to books can be a puzzle to the latter.