Nov. 2nd, 2012

cobrabay: Wally Woods 2nd and 17th panels  (Default)
I really like my Kindle, it is robust, simple, a good basic dedicated e-reader, but I'm getting fed up of feeling like I'm dealing with a sleazy black-marketeer rather than a responsible retailer every time I buy an ebook from Amazon. What with the proprietary formats, tax avoidance, charging 20%/paying 3% VAT scam, squeezing the publishers, remote wiping books from Kindles, closing peoples accounts without explanation or appeal, the zombie Amazon storefronts , and so on, I'm thinking I should look for a less evil alternative.

With that in mind, the new Kobo Glo is looking like a nice alternative. This review on Engadget compares the hardware favourably to the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight and in a number of respects as good as or better than the similar Kindle Paperwhite. It has the advantage of being a tenner cheaper than the Kindle Paperwhite, and I already have a Kobo account from way back. My current Kindle (the recent non-touch basic model) is selling for about £50-60 on eBay so it could only cost £40-50 for the replacement, and while I can continue to read my Kindle books on my PC, phone & tablet with the relevant Kindle software, they could just as easily fall through my copy of Calibre and a few Python scripts and emerge as DRM-stripped EPUBs from the other end to be installed on a new e-reader.
cobrabay: Wally Woods 2nd and 17th panels  (Default)
Household Management, a marvellous little story by Ellen Klages on Strange Horizons.
Only 2 days left on the Strange Horizons fund drive (see http://strangehorizons.com/fund_drives/2012/main.shtml), a site well worth supporting. They publish quality SF and Fantasy, available on-line for free, but paying their authors pro rates. They are not far off their initial funding target for the year, and I've just donated a few quid myself.

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