I have written several posts about ebooks and ways of reading them on the various devices that we possess. (See, for example, How do you read ebooks?, Another way to read ebooks, and Reading the electronic way.) I don’t own a dedicated ereader and don’t have plans to buy one for several reasons, including my belief that we should be encouraging the development of multi-use devices, not the proliferation of single-use ones.
I thought that I had found a working solution in the form of the Aldiko ebook reader that runs on the Android platform and that I installed on my Archos tablet. Unfortunately, the tablet has broken down and as Carphone Warehouse, the vendor, will not help in getting it repaired, I do not know when it will be available again for use, if ever.
I can of course read ebooks on my PC but even a laptop is not a convenient piece of kit to lug around just for the purposes of reading a book. Something more portable is required.
Tigger recently bought an iPod Touch and I find this quite impressive in its way. There are several good ebook readers available for it and the screen, though small, is very legible. I have been thinking about buying one myself but it seems silly to lay out £150, or whatever the current going rate is, just to read ebooks if I can achieve the same goal with the devices I already own.
I have been reading books on my Blackberry Curve 8900. The screen is small but with the right sort of software, reasonably legible. But that’s the magic word: software. There are simply no decent ebook readers for the Blackberry, with the possible exception of the Mobipocket reader (now owned by Amazon) which I have not tried. Moreover there are persistent rumours of Amazon’s intention to ditch it.
I have been using the Ibis Reader. This is a multiplatform online book reader. You have to create an account on the Ibis Reader site and upload your books to it. While it is very good, it has a major drawback: you have to be online in order to read. If you cannot get a connection, you can’t read.
Whenever I discuss ebooks, someone is bound to remind me that Amazon now offer a free Kindle application for mobile devices. What these kind advisors forget is that I live in the UK and that the Kindle application is available only to residents of the US. Or was, until recently.
Having read a news item that the Kindle app was now generally available, I thought to have another try at obtaining it. The first thing to note is that it is available from amazon.COM but not from amazon.CO.UK. The general page for the Kindle app is here and the Blackberry page here. To download the app, you have to sign in but I found that my .co.uk sign-in details were recognized on the .com site.
You are offered two ways of downloading: you can have a download link sent to your email of you can use your Blackberry browser to go to http://www.amazon.com/kindlebb. (This link doesn’t work correctly in a PC browser.) There you discover a notice telling you that “Non-U.S. customers: Kindle for Blackberry is not currently available.” You could be forgiven for giving up at this point, especially if, like me, you have already tried several times to obtain the app only to be rebuffed.
Don’t give up, though. Instead go to the notice above it which reads “U.S. customers: Download for Free. (Data usage fees may apply)" (In the browser, the underlined phrase contains the download link.) I clicked the link and the application downloaded and installed. Result!
I was naturally keen to try reading a book, so I ran Kindle (hereafter, “Kindle” refers to the Kindle app, unless otherwise stated) and clicked on the menu item “Shop in Kindle Store”. There I searched for Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. I clicked to “buy” it (though it is in fact priced at $0.00), only to be told “InvalidOrder [sic]: Purchase Unavailable: Purchasing from Kindle for Blackberry is currently only supported for U.S. based customers.” Grrr! Apparently, I had a reader but nothing to read with it!
After a few moments’ thought, I connected my Blackberry to the PC and took a look at the folder tree. I saw that the Kindle installation included a folder called eBooks. I then went onto the Web site of Project Gutenberg and looked for Life on the Mississippi there. I found two versions for the Kindle (file extension .mobi), one with illustrations and one without. I selected the one with illustrations, downloaded it to the PC and copied the file to the eBooks folder on the Blackberry. When I ran Kindle, the book duly appeared as available. Result!
One of the problems of using the Ibis Reader is that as it is a multiplatform application, it cannot format the text to your specific device. When you return to a book, it remembers the page you were on but that’s all. As these pages can be very large, as long as a chapter in some cases, you may have to spend time searching for the exact spot where you left off reading. Does the Kindle do a better job? Yes, it does. It divides the text into screen-sized chunks and if you close the reader and open it again, it remembers where you left off reading. Press spacebar to advance a chunk and ‘P’ to go back a chunk. I use the word “chunk” because, although Kindle recognizes pages, it serves up the text conveniently in screen-sized chunks, avoiding the need to scroll within pages.
There is also a bookmarking function but I have not yet tried this out.
Because the book is stored on the device, I don’t have to be online to read. I can even read in the depths of the tube network!
What about the availability of books? Well, this is something I will have to research further. Because Kindle for Blackberry refuses to sell me books, I assume I cannot buy books from Amazon. However, I can get books from other sources, provided these do not require to be linked to Kindle in order to download them. Moreover, by using Calibre, I can convert books from other formats such as epub. Doing so turns out to be a little complicated and I won’t bore you with it here but if you want the details, email me.
DRM-protected ebooks will remain unreadable unless I decide to use DRM-removal software to release them from their straitjacket. I regard DRM protection of a bought book as immoral as the locking of mobile phones by the mobile phone companies: they have no right to impose limits on property that I legitimately own. As long as I do not sell or distribute the text, I should be free to read it without restriction on any and all my devices.
For the present, though, I have enough to read with the ready supply of free, out-of-copyright books available on the Web from sources such as Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks.
Copyright © 2012 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.
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Tags: ebooks, ereaders, Kindle for Blackberry
January 6, 2012 at 9:16 pm |
I actually ran across a couple of books today that were cheaper in the Kindle version than in the “dead tree” version. Many newer books are coming out in Kindle as well as paper formats. However, availability of older books for the Kindle is still spotty. I know of a group of authors who share your aversion to DRM-restricted e-books. I know personally of at least 3 who have obtained the “e-rights” to their own works and have set up websites to market their own books DRM free — which I think is a win/win deal– not only is the text DRM free, but 99% of the purchase price goes into the author’s pocket. I notice that Kindle (Amazon) and Nook (Barnes and Noble) are both advertising rather heavily on TV, in head to head competition. I also notice that I can listen to internet radio on the Kindle Fire. It may be worth saving up the money for a Fire, as it is in color, and does many things a tablet does. It also has a bigger screen, which would make reading “graphic novels” easier (PDF format, which the Kindle can also use.)
January 7, 2012 at 12:26 am |
At the moment, buying books with Kindle for Blackberry isn’t a possibility and for the most part the self-published ebooks I have seen haven’t been anything I was remotely interested in reading.
I don’t know whether we will get the Archos tablets working again but if not, I have no plans to replace mine. My main interest in it was as a book reader and my phone can now play that role for the time being.