5 ms·

I just know one thing: the moment Kindle is removed from the app store, I'm selling my iPad.

pederb72 16y ago
I'd love for Amazon to remove the DRM from their books, and just sell books in epub format which can be read on any device without a Kindle app. That would solve Amazon's problem with iOS/Apple, and also be an ideal solution for end users. EDIT: what I mean is, music is now sold without DRM. Why do we still need DRM for ebooks? I'd love to be able to just put all my ebooks in a Dropbox folder, and not depend on Amazon to create an app for every platform where I want to read my books.
- lwhi 16y ago
  But if you'd like Amazon to make a concession as large as this, surely Apple should be asked to make a few concessions too? Both companies sell IP - and both rely on a various forms of DRM to enforce scarcity. I think selling IP will eventually be seen as a fruitless (and unsustainable) pursuit - but for the time being this is a way both these companies are making a profit selling digital goods.
  - pederb72 16y ago
    As far as I can remember, Apple/Steve Jobs talked the music industry into dropping DRM on music. As the leading ebooks store Amazon should be the one to push to remove DRM from books.
    - lwhi 16y ago
      Well, I'm still waiting for the day when I can drag and drop one of these DRM free MP3s onto an iPod (without having to shackle my device to my computer via iTunes). It's not exactly freedom in the best sense of the word ;) Are iBooks DRM free? I don't think so ...
      - pederb72 16y ago
        The Dropbox app on iOS can play mp3 files so you don't have to use iTunes to sync your music. iBooks having DRM is (IMO) a problem with the publishing industry, just as DRM on music used to be a problem with the music industry. I want Amazon, and Apple, to push the publishing industry into dropping DRM on books.
        lwhi 16y ago
        I think I'd like to be able to pay an author directly - that would be my ideal solution; and an ebook should necessarily cost less than a paper book. But I agree - removal of DRM should be a target. The MP3 tip's a good one - thanks.
- jonursenbach 16y ago
  Or just send the Kindle over to Cydia.
- ctyrider 16y ago
  You can do this yourself (you can Google for how-to). The process of stripping Kindle DRM-MOBI format and converting it into ePUB is about as simple as ripping a DVD.
- thalur 16y ago
  I may be wrong, but I thought the choice between DRM or not for books was up to the publisher and not Amazon?
kmfrk 16y ago
Apple have done a great job of undermining their impending iPad 2 launch. I was on board for buying one (or the iPad 3), until the 30% subscription debacle ensued.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Whoever at Apple said that the iPad2 was a speedbump and the real glory was iPad3 kind of killed the iPad2 for me. Who's going to buy a tablet that is going to be obsolete in 6 months?
  - mdonahoe 16y ago
    Gruber said it http://daringfireball.net/2011/02/the_next_six_months http://daringfireball.net/2011/02/the_next_six_months
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      From an actual, yet unnamed, Apple Staffer: http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-staffer-ipad-3-is-the-one-to-make-a-song-dance-about/84275 http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-staffer-ipad-3-is-the-one-to-... That's what I was thinking of. Kind of throws a wet towel on the already rumored incremental iPad2 release.
      - kule 16y ago
        I wonder if they are releasing too fast with the iPad - with a mobile phone an annual release cycle makes sense as that market changes so fast and they are subsidised for a lot of people. However the iPad is pretty billed as the future computer replacement. I don't think a new version every year will sell as well.
        Stormbringer 16y ago
        It's a computer too, so billing it as a computer replacement is fuzzy thinking at best. I note that I cannot recall anyone at Apple saying this. According to Fortune, either Cook, Oppenheimer or Cue said this "Capitalizing on the "explosive" demand for the iPad, believing that tablets could end up being a bigger market than PCs. (If this is so, Sacconaghi calculates that the iPad could eventually be a $60 billion to $100 billion business for Apple.)" That doesn't mean that PCs will go away, at $500 for the average (future!) price of a PC that still leaves room for 100 million PCs to be sold each year, which is still a lot of PCs. It also doesn't say at what point in the distant future this might occur. On the other hand, if it is some breathless pundit speculating hard (as they are wont to do) who claims that the iPad is a future computer replacement, I take it with exactly the same seriousness as I do all their other breathless pronouncements about the 101 iPod/iPad/iPhone killers that are announced each week, which is to say I don't take it seriously at all. None of the tech pundits can predict the future worth a damn. They've proved this time and time again. Gruber has a running joke with claim-chowder (a play on words for clam chowder), where he takes the stupid things people said in the past and calls them to task for it.

I'd love for Amazon to remove the DRM from their books, and just sell books in epub format which can be read on any device without a Kindle app. That would solve Amazon's problem with iOS/Apple, and also be an ideal solution for end users. EDIT: what I mean is, music is now sold without DRM. Why do we still need DRM for ebooks? I'd love to be able to just put all my ebooks in a Dropbox folder, and not depend on Amazon to create an app for every platform where I want to read my books.

lwhi 16y ago
But if you'd like Amazon to make a concession as large as this, surely Apple should be asked to make a few concessions too? Both companies sell IP - and both rely on a various forms of DRM to enforce scarcity. I think selling IP will eventually be seen as a fruitless (and unsustainable) pursuit - but for the time being this is a way both these companies are making a profit selling digital goods.
- pederb72 16y ago
  As far as I can remember, Apple/Steve Jobs talked the music industry into dropping DRM on music. As the leading ebooks store Amazon should be the one to push to remove DRM from books.
  - lwhi 16y ago
    Well, I'm still waiting for the day when I can drag and drop one of these DRM free MP3s onto an iPod (without having to shackle my device to my computer via iTunes). It's not exactly freedom in the best sense of the word ;) Are iBooks DRM free? I don't think so ...
    - pederb72 16y ago
      The Dropbox app on iOS can play mp3 files so you don't have to use iTunes to sync your music. iBooks having DRM is (IMO) a problem with the publishing industry, just as DRM on music used to be a problem with the music industry. I want Amazon, and Apple, to push the publishing industry into dropping DRM on books.
      - lwhi 16y ago
        I think I'd like to be able to pay an author directly - that would be my ideal solution; and an ebook should necessarily cost less than a paper book. But I agree - removal of DRM should be a target. The MP3 tip's a good one - thanks.
jonursenbach 16y ago
Or just send the Kindle over to Cydia.
ctyrider 16y ago
You can do this yourself (you can Google for how-to). The process of stripping Kindle DRM-MOBI format and converting it into ePUB is about as simple as ripping a DVD.
thalur 16y ago
I may be wrong, but I thought the choice between DRM or not for books was up to the publisher and not Amazon?

kmfrk 16y ago

Apple have done a great job of undermining their impending iPad 2 launch. I was on board for buying one (or the iPad 3), until the 30% subscription debacle ensued.

kenjackson 16y ago
Whoever at Apple said that the iPad2 was a speedbump and the real glory was iPad3 kind of killed the iPad2 for me. Who's going to buy a tablet that is going to be obsolete in 6 months?
- mdonahoe 16y ago
  Gruber said it http://daringfireball.net/2011/02/the_next_six_months http://daringfireball.net/2011/02/the_next_six_months
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    From an actual, yet unnamed, Apple Staffer: http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-staffer-ipad-3-is-the-one-to-make-a-song-dance-about/84275 http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-staffer-ipad-3-is-the-one-to-... That's what I was thinking of. Kind of throws a wet towel on the already rumored incremental iPad2 release.
    - kule 16y ago
      I wonder if they are releasing too fast with the iPad - with a mobile phone an annual release cycle makes sense as that market changes so fast and they are subsidised for a lot of people. However the iPad is pretty billed as the future computer replacement. I don't think a new version every year will sell as well.
      - Stormbringer 16y ago
        It's a computer too, so billing it as a computer replacement is fuzzy thinking at best. I note that I cannot recall anyone at Apple saying this. According to Fortune, either Cook, Oppenheimer or Cue said this "Capitalizing on the "explosive" demand for the iPad, believing that tablets could end up being a bigger market than PCs. (If this is so, Sacconaghi calculates that the iPad could eventually be a $60 billion to $100 billion business for Apple.)" That doesn't mean that PCs will go away, at $500 for the average (future!) price of a PC that still leaves room for 100 million PCs to be sold each year, which is still a lot of PCs. It also doesn't say at what point in the distant future this might occur. On the other hand, if it is some breathless pundit speculating hard (as they are wont to do) who claims that the iPad is a future computer replacement, I take it with exactly the same seriousness as I do all their other breathless pronouncements about the 101 iPod/iPad/iPhone killers that are announced each week, which is to say I don't take it seriously at all. None of the tech pundits can predict the future worth a damn. They've proved this time and time again. Gruber has a running joke with claim-chowder (a play on words for clam chowder), where he takes the stupid things people said in the past and calls them to task for it.