Best place to buy eBooks - Kindle or Apple Books?

[mpetrides]

Keep in mind that if you for example get banned on Amazon for too many returns you will lose access to all your digital purchases.

I guess it's quite unlikely but still.

If Amazon were to try that on me, they had better be ready to refund the $$$$ I spent on Kindle books, Audible books, and movies. Considering how much I've spent, it would be well worth it to me to sue their arses off. (I've got hundreds upon hundreds of Audible books dating back to 1999 or 2000 -- long before Amazon bought Audible. And hundreds of Kindle books dating back to whenever the Kindle first came out, which I believe predates the iPad.)

They did lock up my account many years ago because they correctly detected fraudulent activity. In that case, they refunded my Kindle books but it was a real pain to have to go back and rebuy them all.

 

[splifingate]

Considering that I've entirely transitioned to audiobooks, I preferred the Kindle App to the Books App (when I had a choice (which I often did not, back in the day)).

 

[ignatius345]

That would be nice, wouldn't it? Ideally, it would exclusively be an eReader and low cost (like a basic Kindle). I do find I get distracted when reading on my iPad--responding to a message notification or pausing to check email or news. That's the one disadvantage I've found to using an iPad instead of a DTB (dead tree book).

There are other disadvantages like:
- iPad has a fraction of the battery life
- iPad is barely usable in the sun
- iPad is heavier
- iPad is more easily broken

And real paper books have advantages like being truly archival quality, being easily transferrable to others, having MUCH better random access, and never needing any power except for external illumination at night.

 

[ignatius345]

If Amazon were to try that on me, they had better be ready to refund the $$$$ I spent on Kindle books, Audible books, and movies.

Or what? What's the recourse? Not much, I'm afraid, with Amazon or Apple or any of these other companies. The creepy thing about digital "ownership" is that it's not ownership as we all understand it. In exchange for payment we're given the right to use a digital good, but that right can be revoked. It's also not transferrable. Unlike a real book (or DVD, video game disc, etc), you can't lend it, give it away or sell it. Also, disturbingly, e-books can be edited after the fact. It doesn't happen a lot, but it's a creepy idea.

 

[mpetrides]

There are other disadvantages like:
- iPad has a fraction of the battery life
- iPad is barely usable in the sun
- iPad is heavier
- iPad is more easily broken

And real paper books have advantages like being truly archival quality, being easily transferrable to others, having MUCH better random access, and never needing any power except for external illumination at night.

Yes. And DTBs fill up entire rooms. Even though I only have them stacked along the knee walls of my storage loft, my massive collection of paperback still takes up an inordinate amount of space. And I pretty much stopped buying paperbacks in 2005 or so when I got my first eReader (a Sony Reader which predated the Kindle by a few years).

As for iPads being more easily broken, I have but one word for you: AppleCare+. In a freak episode of clumsiness, I did manage to drop my one year old iPad mini 6 onto the bathroom tile floor, striking the edge of the iPad and shattering the screen. Luckily I had purchase AppleCare for the mini 6. I took it the next day to the nearest Apple Authorized Repair Center, they took one look at it and ordered me a replacement via AppleCare, and the very next day I had a brand spanking new iPad mini 6 (AFIK a new one, not a refurb unit). I'm still using that mini 6 to this day.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Yes. And DTBs fill up entire rooms. Even though I only have them stacked along the knee walls of my storage loft, my massive collection of paperback still takes up an inordinate amount of space. And I pretty much stopped buying paperbacks in 2005 or so when I got my first eReader (a Sony Reader which predated the Kindle by a few years).

As for iPads being more easily broken, I have but one word for you: AppleCare+. In a freak episode of clumsiness, I did manage to drop my one year old iPad mini 6 onto the bathroom tile floor, striking the edge of the iPad and shattering the screen. Luckily I had purchase AppleCare for the mini 6. I took it the next day to the nearest Apple Authorized Repair Center, they took one look at it and ordered me a replacement via AppleCare, and the very next day I had a brand spanking new iPad mini 6 (AFIK a new one, not a refurb unit). I'm still using that mini 6 to this day.

AppleCare+ for an iPad is like the price of an entire eReader, for some models more so...

I think Apple is probably the worst possible place to buy eBooks. Literally unusable on non-Apple devices. Kobo is cross platform and the DRM is easy to remove and so IMO is the best option. Google Play Books is not far behind. Kindle just keeps ramping up the DRM that I can't recommend anymore.

 

[mpetrides]

AppleCare+ for an iPad is like the price of an entire eReader, for some models more so...

AppleCare+ for my iPad mini is $3.49 a month. Hardly going to kill the bank.