trymahjong Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 This article in the Chronicle Business section caught my attention:Costly eboooks 'no accident" http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/03/apple-antitrust-suit-over-e-books-set-for-ny-trial/ I usually grouse that ebooks seem very expensive and wondered why that was---I more insight now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 The lawsuits over this has been going on for a long time now. At least a year, maybe two. It's not just Apple's e-books that are overpriced, it's all the e-book vendors - Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Indigo, Google, etc... When I've shopped for books sometimes even a hardcover was cheaper than the e- version. Crazy. The reason this is news now is because while some of the e-book vendors and publishers settled out of court for tens of millions of dollars (I got a credit from Barnes and Noble for some overpriced Nook books), Apple is the one company choosing to fight this. Plus anything with "Apple" in the headline gets attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I guess I'm a pseudo-Luddite, I still don't get understand ebooks I don't have to make sure my friends have a compatible reader to lend them a book, or have one lent to me, I can't take ebooks to halfpriced books (or shop for them at halfpriced books). I can just as easily toss a paperback in my carry-on as I could an ereader, or a tablet. Just as all my PS1 games are rendered useless on new platforms, what's to protect me if 5 or 10 years from now someone comes up with a new format for ebooks and all the new readers only use that new format? Ebooks feel like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I've got a Nook and have found that mainly I use it to check out books online from the library. I originally bought it for that purpose and also because BN said you could read books for an hour or two while in-store. Having used it for a while, I still prefer real books. I think ereaders might find their best use in cases where you need to lug around a lot of books for your job or studies. I can see college textbooks eventually all being on ereaders, which would be awesome compared to the backpack full I lugged around during college. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I guess I'm a pseudo-Luddite, I still don't get understand ebooks I don't have to make sure my friends have a compatible reader to lend them a book, or have one lent to me, I can't take ebooks to halfpriced books (or shop for them at halfpriced books). I can just as easily toss a paperback in my carry-on as I could an ereader, or a tablet. Just as all my PS1 games are rendered useless on new platforms, what's to protect me if 5 or 10 years from now someone comes up with a new format for ebooks and all the new readers only use that new format? Ebooks feel like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I like E-books because I move a lot. Packing and unpacking a library of books, and paying to have them shipped (sometimes across the country) gets tiring and expensive very quickly. I can keep most of my library in one hand. Unfortunately, most older books aren't available in electronic format, so I still have to use a few boxes for those treasured oversized volumes when moving time comes, but e-books are far from a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Everyone has different problems. I also like being able to borrow books from libraries on the other side of the country -- things that aren't available in my local library without a months-long interlibrary loan process. With the e-book I can start reading the book in a matter of seconds. As for the evolution of formats over the years, I'm not worried about that. I don't know why. New e-book formats don't come out that often. PDF is 20 years old. Epub has been around since Palm Pilot days. I don't see Apple dumping its iBooks format anytime soon, it has a very good track record of supporting legacy file formats (Macs still read file formats from the 80's). From a technical standpoint, it's not really necessary to "change" a format wholesale anymore. Back in the 80's and 90's when computing power and storage wasn't that great, you had to make way for the newest and greatest thing. But these days file formats are designed to be expandable. Look at how MP3 has evolved over the last 20 years. PDF is another good example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I've got a Nook and have found that mainly I use it to check out books online from the library. I originally bought it for that purpose and also because BN said you could read books for an hour or two while in-store. Having used it for a while, I still prefer real books. I think ereaders might find their best use in cases where you need to lug around a lot of books for your job or studies. I can see college textbooks eventually all being on ereaders, which would be awesome compared to the backpack full I lugged around during college. I wasn't an e-reader fan until I got my Nook. The only reason I got it was because it came free with a New York Times subscription, and since I was already subscribing to the dead tree edition, I just made the switch to electronic and got a free Nook. Now I can carry a decade's worth of Times issues with me and search them at the tap of a finger, even if I don't have an internet connection. Try that with the paper versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 That makes sense, reminds me that a few years ago my mom made my dad get rid of about 30 or so years of Nat Geo and popular mechanics issues he just couldn't throw away. I got him the DVD library of all Nat Geo issues a year ago for Christmas. So thinking about that, I see the point. I guess I should say, for me, I don't see the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 For me switching was a matter of practicality, before the stacks of physical books crowded me out of my home. I picked this up from my parents, who installed bookcases in every room of my childhood house. It's not consistently so, but when I cross check prices between Amazon and Apple on books, Apple usually seems to come in cheaper so I normally shop there. That said, prices are outrageous considering all they are selling is an electronic file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Apple has high prices, and people are surprised? Is this out of character for them? I am constantly amazed at the slack that Apple fanboys cut for them. As for ebooks, I still go old school, dead trees or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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