An Amazon rant - and a cautionary tale!

[georann]

If you're interested in a kindle for ebooks, why not go for a kobo which is open source. It supports a range of different ebook files and theres plenty of converters for it and you can make ebooks from text files. Its the same as a kindle except cheaper and not tied to a particular store!

 

[rik_uk3]

Red, don't be put off the Kindle, I was a true hater of the things until the kiddy winks got one for daddy They will NEVER replace my beloved books but...they last weeks between charges and its a joy to have several hundred books to pick from when your camping or on holiday/travelling.

Let me know when you get one and I'll send you a years reading, books you will enjoy

 

[tim_c]

Tim,

I have the player on my laptop. Trouble with ripping to CD is that each book is about 25 CDs worth - and I have 30 books!

I've found some instructions to 'Record what you hear'. You can play your audible book over night, the computer will capture the sound internally and then you can export to mp3. The only disadvantage is the large recording file before its converted to mp3
http://windows7themes.net/how-to-record-what-you-hear-in-windows-7.html (D'oh, these instructions go to some trial software. I'll edit this post later if I can find better instructions.)

Really the point of the post was to warn others of the appalling service by Amazon - advertising a format compatibility and then withdrawing it and leaving their customer stuck and unable to use what they have sold them. It really is a dreadful way to behave and I wanted to warn others

Thanks for all the offers of help - its greatly appreciated!

Red

I appreciate that. Digital rights is something that worries me and I think we'll see it more problems there in the future. Remote kill commands for computers and mobile phones and people buying content and then having it revoked without any action from the customer. (This is a slight tangent from a big company behaving badly but close enough)

 

[British Red]

Red, don't be put off the Kindle, I was a true hater of the things until the kiddy winks got one for daddy They will NEVER replace my beloved books but...they last weeks between charges and its a joy to have several hundred books to pick from when your camping or on holiday/travelling.

Let me know when you get one and I'll send you a years reading, books you will enjoy

I'm not put off e-book readers mate - just Amazon proprietary products.

Fool me once....

They don't get to rip me off again!

 

[ReamviThantos]

Hello Red, Loads of respect for you as I am a keen follower of your works and postings but really how can you be surprised at the bull regarding this tech issue. Don't you know it's all fiddle at your age

 

[rik_uk3]

I'm not put off e-book readers mate - just Amazon proprietary products.

Fool me once....

They don't get to rip me off again!

Red, the Kindle can read .PDF files and there are thousands of books in PDF format and free. Other books can be downloaded and converted using http://calibre-ebook.com/ freeware.

I've bought books for the wife from Amazon, but pretty much all my bushcraft/gardening/survival books have been freebies.

 

[mace242]

Red, according to Audible UK site their books work on Creative Zen players. I have and old one gathering dust. On hols for a fortnight but if you want it then give me a PM in a couple of weeks and I'll fish it out and it's yours. Not ideal but less of a faff than all that CD stuff.

 

[mountainm]

I think your best bet is to find a version of the player somewhere in the depths of the internet. Possibly on a blackberry hacking and Dev forum.

 

[Biker]

Sorry to read about your troubles Red, a warning indeed. I know it's a bit late to say this given your experience and it sort of ties in with the 1984 book that mysteriously disappeared off everyone's Kindle. The first thing I did when i got my Kindle4 was turn off the wifi, making it a stand alone device. (Maybe i haven't protectedit completely but I feel safer for having done that)

Having bought 250,000 books off ebay on four DVDs it seem pointless to buy books direct from Amazon after that. Plus there are plenty of websites which have free download books too and Calibre is a damn fine tool to convert almost any format used digitally into the reader friendly format that my Kindle uses. Even something so basic as .txt the Windows notepad format.

Of course all the above doesn't help you with your audio books situation, but given the responses previously posted it seems to me you have a lot of offers of help to resolve the problem and get you back to listening to them.

As Rik said, a Kindle will not replace a book but it comes as a very close second, one of the things I like about it the most is that you can read it in direct sunlight rather than mooching about looking for a shady spot to see the screen. Another factor is that the screen doesn't glow which is very easy on the eyes too. Yeah you got shafted over those books but don't be put off my missing out on the Kindle, I can't see them ever pulling the plug on that money spinner.

Later fella.

 

[widu13]

+1 for Calibre. You don't need to use Amazon for your eBooks Red- Calibre will convert most eBook formats to Kindle format. The Kindle device is good and so is the Amazon hardware warranty- the net is littered with stories of Kindles being replaced FOC even when owners have sat on them outside of the warranty period.

 

[British Red]

Red, according to Audible UK site their books work on Creative Zen players. I have and old one gathering dust. On hols for a fortnight but if you want it then give me a PM in a couple of weeks and I'll fish it out and it's yours. Not ideal but less of a faff than all that CD stuff.

Thats very kind - if I haven't cracked it by them I'll shoot you a PM!

Thanks very much indeed