Singapore Expats

Does anyone have a sony ebook reader and where do you buy your ebooks from ?? I have UK account but registered address is in Singapore and also a Swiss registered account.... I don't think I can buy from the UK with my singapore address card ?? or has anyone done this.... ?? something to do with distribution rights I think.....

edit: this won't entirely answer your post, and was meant to be an alternative in case you have a "smart phone" or pda of some sort....

until this january past, i've exclusively used a palm-based device to read ebooks for the past many years, using either the eReader or MobiPocket software (both are free).

i buy my books from fictionwise (now owned by barnes & noble i think) which i feel has pretty good prices and even better deals if you subscribe to their program.

occasionally i buy an ebook from mobipocket.com but their prices have never been enticing enough for me to become a regular customer.

also i have purchased an ebook once from amazon.com - this was a few years ago, and it has to be read using Adobe Digital Editions. i no longer have access to it because that purchase is no longer recognized by amazon. this means the ebook cannot be opened for reading or re-downloaded.

in contrast, both fictionwise and mobipocket still store my ebooks (first purchase: 2001) and allow me to update the books with my new device IDs... (although in the small print, they can theoretically do what amazon did).

i travel regularly and have credit cards registered in 3 countries; all of them work when i buy ebooks online. i've yet encountered the distribution problems you mentioned...

as for dedicated ebook reader devices, i've only used one older sony ebook reader years back and my experiences are probably no longer relevant as there are updated products on the market which work and feel much better.

price-wise, i don't believe they're as cheap as i'd like them be, so i usually stick to my hand-sized gadgets - i'm currently using a new'ish nokia smart phone and an old old blackberry. without problems for either, the former runs eReader and MobiPocket, the later runs MobiPocket only.

however the best device i've had for reading ebooks so far is still a Palm TX. big screen, decent battery life, wifi built-in. if it's not been washing machined, i'd still be using it to read ebooks!

I have a kindle DX and i love it...

Hi Taxico - Do you use and American Credit Card ?? I emailed Waterstones and they said they wouln't supply me because my card is registered here. I am going to have a look later this week and see if I can download something using my Swiss card..... I don't have a PDA or smart phone ;(

I study and can get my course books in PDF format - I think I am right in assumong I can read these on the new Sony...

Re Kindle - Isn't it true that you need to buy books from Amazon ??

I need to spend more tine researching and trying to 'buy' cheap books first to see if I can get them

Hi for a Kindle...

it's great for the quality of screen... the battery is a bit weak... but visually it really feels like you are reading from paper...

A large one can read pdf files.

However amazon will not send it to a customer with anything else but a US credit card... questions of copyright for the books.

hi swiss, indeed i do use an american credit card from time to time.

however i initially misread your post (i didn't see "sony") so your mileage may vary... i personally don't like using proprietary devices/stores.

however the kindles i've seen at airports are grooo-vee. not my thing, but nice screen.

THE BASTARDS!!!! IT'S HAPPENED TO FICTIONWISE TOO!!!

edit: apparently this was a circa april 2009 thing... coz my last purchase was in february and i had no problems with any book i selected!

the purchase went through when i used an american credit card.

i think it depends on where the store is based. whatever the case, this restriction sucks big time...

its just maddening. I can buy books and have them posted using my Sing credit card but can't but the e version of the same books.... in an age when we are being told to reduce waste, use less paper and reduce carbon footprint..... ;(

it has to do with exclusivity contract negociated by local publishers

you can still have access to anything where the rights expired ( Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde for example... )

that would make sense if I bough the books here... I usually buy from Amazon.co.uk and get posted from UK........because its quicker than asking Borders to get me something. They take 4-6weeks...... Though I guess most people would just wait for the local shop to get the book.....

merichan wrote:it has to do with exclusivity contract negociated by local publishers

this didn't use to be such a big problem until Q2 2009. i presume someone has been advising the publishers it's the right thing to do.

what they don't understand is that while it would be smart to enforce such restriction for physical books, it makes no sense to do so for ebooks.

in fact, many of the ebooks i buy are not much cheaper than actual books. i do so because i don't want to have boxes of books that i can't bear to throw out, yet no longer want to reread, and that it's much more convenient (for me) to read from an electronic device than a physical book.

such restrictions will only reduce sales from ebook stores (which are not as commonly found as a brick and mortar book store), whose customers have already decided to not go the paper route.

so what will many of these tech savvy customers do? they'll just download DRM-free ebooks online for no fee.

whomever advised the publishers to do so must be dragged out and shot.

I have a Kindle (the smaller one) and while I love the device, it is a bit of a pain that you can only get the kindle and the ebooks from amazon, with a US credit card. Also, it reads only pdf and kindle files. I don't know much about the sony readers. But I would say that an ebook reader of any kind is worth the investment!

Oh and BTW there is a way to get the smaller Kindle to read pdf files too.

taxico wrote:

merichan wrote:it has to do with exclusivity contract negociated by local publishers

this didn't use to be such a big problem until Q2 2009. i presume someone has been advising the publishers it's the right thing to do.

what they don't understand is that while it would be smart to enforce such restriction for physical books, it makes no sense to do so for ebooks.

in fact, many of the ebooks i buy are not much cheaper than actual books. i do so because i don't want to have boxes of books that i can't bear to throw out, yet no longer want to reread, and that it's much more convenient (for me) to read from an electronic device than a physical book.

such restrictions will only reduce sales from ebook stores (which are not as commonly found as a brick and mortar book store), whose customers have already decided to not go the paper route.

so what will many of these tech savvy customers do? they'll just download DRM-free ebooks online for no fee.

whomever advised the publishers to do so must be dragged out and shot.

completely agree with you...

noticed also that sometimes the same is happening with online music stores... even if you have a US account, credit card, address etc.... they sometimes kick you out because of IP address

It's getting tougher and tougher... it's crazy... to have so much trouble to get something you are ready to pay for