“Kindle, EPUB, And Amazon’s Love Of Reinventing Wheels”
I don’t think the article matches the title. It’s describing Amazon’s love of locking people in to its platform. Having had Kindles and Kobos:
- If you prioritize ease of use in the form of widespread integrations with your reading data (selections you’ve saved, books you’ve read), then Kindle has the edge. Amazon doesn’t mind playing up the social aspect of reading, it just doesn’t want you shopping anywhere else.
- If you prioritize being able to buy ebooks directly from publishers or download them from other sources, and don’t care about a bunch of integrations, Kobo’s great: Add a free Dropbox account and it is dead simple to sideload content. Kobo just wants you to like their hardware and would obviously prefer you buy from their bookstore, but doesn’t prioritize making it hard on you to do otherwise.
- Public library support (at least here in Multnomah County) is better on Kindle, when a title is available that way. The DRM scheme Kobos have to use is fragile.
- Both offer pretty turnkey buying experiences if all you want to do is browse for books and click on “buy” buttons. I think Amazon has some exclusive deals if you’re the type who wants the very latest.
I just un-archived a post from a bit back bout how to cope with Kobo’s DRM crabbiness. Looks like micro.blog dated it now, so it’ll be beneath this post.