Personally I would wait, now the Fire is on it's way. You'd get colour then, which could increase the range of books you would view on an eBook.
Can't see why people have such a downer on the Kindle, citing "DRM" ... true, the books you buy from the Kindle store are DRM'd, which is fair enough. But you aren't locked into *only* buying from Amazon, unlike Apple. And a properly configured Calibre install will allow you to backup and move eBooks around fairly painlessly.
Which will mean a backlit LCD screen that's harsh on the eye, unlike the e-ink pearl screen, which, for most people is what *defines* an e-reader.
That's my main reason, why buy into a walled garden, even if you can dig your way out of it?
It's not so much the DRM on the Kindle books, it's the fact that you're locked out (without going through the faff I've tried out today) of not being able to read library books, which use ePuB with DRM.
But you won't get the E-ink screen, which is what makes the Kindle, Kobo etc. such pleasant things to read, compared to an LCD (mileage varies of course, some people may well prefer the LCD, and of course it is colour, which for some books would be good, but for novels etc. no benefit)
But it's not a walled garden, is it? And no digging required. Many thousands of books in the right format, just there ready for use, outside the Amazon bookshop. People just can't seem to get that into their heads.
At present. Personally, I've given up on the local library anyway.
Interesting that you make out that it's the Sony that's incompatible, when it's actually Amazon that went and did their own thing to make a reader that's locked into their store. The rest of the e-book world is EPUB, which is the defacto standard.
The Kindle Fire is not a proper ebook reader, it's a backlit TFT tablet that runs a netured version of Android that prevents you running anything but what Amazon allow (hmm, sounds like Apple... Because that's exactly what Amazon are doing here, creating a walled garden - the iTunes for books).
Calibre is rarely the one click convert you seem to imply. Once you have gotten over the DRM removal battle, you will then likely suffer a sub-par conversion where Calibre loses chapter markers and messes up alot of the formatting.
You need a e-ink display to truly appreciate what a ebook reader is all about.
People have a downer on Amazon, simply because they are in a position where they can totally control the market. (even worse than Apple with iTunes), they are stuffing retail with loss-leader readers getting everyone locked into their system that is the only outlet for ebooks. If anyone has seen the insane control that Apple exert over owners, that is nothing compared to what Amazon are upto with the Kindle.
That's because the standard is EPUB, that's what the EBOOK world uses. It just so happens you bought a reader that was crafted to intentionally NOT support that format, meaning all your purchases come from the supplier of the loss-leader hardware. It's also not in that suppliers interests for you to borrow books for free from the library, they would rather sell you them.
You can see what's for grabs here:
I'm currently reading
I think piracy will kill the ebooks market because the downloads are so fast
What's the 'DRM' and how do you remove it ?
Mm, not what meant to imply and I'm well aware of this - but IMHO looks like Amazon will bulldoze their way into setting the new standard. A bit like Blu-Ray, VHS, and Skype in their respective markets.
But I'd still like to be able to use the same purchased e-books on our family's two e-readers... :( (anyone?)
David
Digital Rights Management (sounds better than "copy protection" :) )
As to removing it, I am sure there are other places on the interweb that could answer that,
When El Reg announced the Fire, the specifically stated it had an e-ink screen,
It's LCD, just like everything else. Trying to do video on e-ink would be amusing. It's just another tablet, in a different market to the normal kindle.
I was in WHSmiffs today for the first time in ages, they had a big display of wifi Kobos for 90 quid, so it looks like there is fair amount of promotion for it going on now.
They lied.
I must admit until I did some Googling today I thought that the Fire was basically a Kindle 3 with the keyboard sawn off, but no, I see what you mean; it's a stripped down Android tablet; nice colour screen but 6 hour battery life. The latter will be a bit of a shock to any current Kindle user, used to weeks between charges.
I can see how they want the 'fire' to be to online films what the b/w kindles have been to online books, but I think by re-using the kindle name they risk disappointing customers, rather than wowing them.
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