Whoa...Amazon's Matchbook service offering e-book copies of your real books for cheap

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Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,897
6,854
136
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/29/amazon-matchbook-live/

Amazon's Matchbook service, which offers e-book versions of hard copies of books like Amazon's Autorip offers digital versions of physical music, is now live. The service supports over 70,000 books at launch with digital equivalents costing $3 or less. The service recognizes purchases from as far as 1995 (when Amazon first started selling books), and their digital versions come with all the bells and whistles readers have come to expect from the Kindle service: Whispersync, X-Ray and more. Of course, Amazon's promising that there's "more being added every day" to the list of available titles, so don't lose all hope if you don't see your favorite authors/publishers/etc. listed.
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A++++
 
D

darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
I'd love love love to consolidate all my paper books into digital copies but I've gotten almost all of them through second hand stores or as gifts so I would get very little use out of this service unfortunately.
 
gorcorps

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
454
126
Nice

Too bad I never bought any physical books from amazon in the past.
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,897
6,854
136
darkewaffle said:
I'd love love love to consolidate all my paper books into digital copies but I've gotten almost all of them through second hand stores or as gifts so I would get very little use out of this service unfortunately.
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Yeah, I think a lot of my books are going to not be on the list. I tried my hand at scanning books at home (got a monster scanner to convert to searchable PDF's, especially so I could just use a tablet to read them all), but it just didn't work out like I had hoped over time.

Plus, I don't really like electronic books. Sure, they're handy - having the entire collection in an easily-accessible digital storage location for use on a computer, phone, tablet, etc. - but I work a lot better with paper - being able to take notes in the margins if needed, highlighting stuff instantly instead of having to take the time to be precise on a screen with a highlighting tool, flipping back & forth between pages, that sort of thing. The digital books have their benefits, especially search, and I do love my e-ink Kindle, but honestly I still prefer paper books at the present time.

My big plan was to convert everything I owned to digital - music, photos, documents, books, movies - and it's largely worked out well. I use Plex for the movies, streamed to Rokus around the house. Pandora & MOG for music. Kindle & tablet for books. Never really got into digital picture frames, maybe if they ever come out with good color e-ink screens that don't emit light. I think the technology will get there for books, maybe once we get flexible displays or something, I dunno, but I still haven't made the 100% digital conversion I was working on for so long.
 
SP33Demon

SP33Demon

Lifer
Jun 22, 2001
27,928
142
106
Kaido said:
Yeah, I think a lot of my books are going to not be on the list. I tried my hand at scanning books at home (got a monster scanner to convert to searchable PDF's, especially so I could just use a tablet to read them all), but it just didn't work out like I had hoped over time.

Plus, I don't really like electronic books. Sure, they're handy - having the entire collection in an easily-accessible digital storage location for use on a computer, phone, tablet, etc. - but I work a lot better with paper - being able to take notes in the margins if needed, highlighting stuff instantly instead of having to take the time to be precise on a screen with a highlighting tool, flipping back & forth between pages, that sort of thing. The digital books have their benefits, especially search, and I do love my e-ink Kindle, but honestly I still prefer paper books at the present time.

My big plan was to convert everything I owned to digital - music, photos, documents, books, movies - and it's largely worked out well. I use Plex for the movies, streamed to Rokus around the house. Pandora & MOG for music. Kindle & tablet for books. Never really got into digital picture frames, maybe if they ever come out with good color e-ink screens that don't emit light. I think the technology will get there for books, maybe once we get flexible displays or something, I dunno, but I still haven't made the 100% digital conversion I was working on for so long.
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Which color e-ink are you talking about. The Triton? I was looking into getting a reader with that tech, but maybe not if you're saying it sucks.
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,897
6,854
136
SP33Demon said:
Which color e-ink are you talking about. The Triton? I was looking into getting a reader with that tech, but maybe not if you're saying it sucks.
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They're getting there; Ectaco has one out with a very nice resolution for $500:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1CU0NZ4109

But really, it's the whole ecosystem. A lot of my books are in Kindle format because I bought them on Amazon. Which is nice because I can read them on my computer, my Kindle, my iPad, and my iPhone, but not so nice when Ectaco doesn't talk to Kindle format. And what about my paper books? I scanned a few to PDF, but it is a lot of work (cutting the binding, feeding into the scanner, running OCR for search & alignment, etc.). Plus reflow issues, real page numbers, etc.

Sure you can hack things and patch things and force things to work, but they need to get behind the Netflix idea - make it hassle-free! Amazon only has an LCD color tablet, not an e-ink color tablet, and if you want the convenience of a legitimate, pay & download system, they're the best game in town right now.
 
D

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Slim pickings for me too -- 5 books and a sixth that I'd never heard of and never bought. I've been buying from them since they were just "Earth's Largest Bookstore" so I'd guess I've bought at least a couple of hundred books.

With AutoRip they had 92 of my old CD purchases.
 
phucheneh

phucheneh

Diamond Member
Jun 30, 2012
7,306
5
0
I was wondering when people were going to realize how dumb e-book pricing is. Paying $9.99 to download a book that exists in print for ~$7.99...right...
 
Drekce

Drekce

Golden Member
Sep 29, 2000
1,398
0
76
I've easily bought over 100 books on Amazon, and only 6 showed up in this list for me.
 
SP33Demon

SP33Demon

Lifer
Jun 22, 2001
27,928
142
106
Kaido said:
They're getting there; Ectaco has one out with a very nice resolution for $500:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1CU0NZ4109

But really, it's the whole ecosystem. A lot of my books are in Kindle format because I bought them on Amazon. Which is nice because I can read them on my computer, my Kindle, my iPad, and my iPhone, but not so nice when Ectaco doesn't talk to Kindle format. And what about my paper books? I scanned a few to PDF, but it is a lot of work (cutting the binding, feeding into the scanner, running OCR for search & alignment, etc.). Plus reflow issues, real page numbers, etc.

Sure you can hack things and patch things and force things to work, but they need to get behind the Netflix idea - make it hassle-free! Amazon only has an LCD color tablet, not an e-ink color tablet, and if you want the convenience of a legitimate, pay & download system, they're the best game in town right now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't want an LCD color, forget that. Is there an easy way to hack the Kindle file to make it compatible with the Ectaco?
 
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