Posted on 08/01/2012 12:45:19 PM PDT by dps.inspect
We just learned that Amazon or Amazon's president is donating $2.5 million to support gay marriage activists' efforts. Because of this, I cannot do business with them any more. Just prior to their announcement, I purchased my wife the Kindle Fire... Q, can you get books and such from other sources for the Kindle?
Somebody out there with conservative leanings, some money and business knowhow needs to start a business like Amazon but with at least a neutral political stance if not more conservative. After the Chick-fil-A thing, ya gotta know that business would do very well, and I'd be happy to give them my business.
You can use the Kindle to read certain formats, but the Kindle ebook format is proprietary. You wouldn’t be able to purchase books from other retailers and download them to the device. You would either have to hack the Kindle OS and change the “cloud” pointer or download the ebook in another format to your workstation and copy it via the USB cable.f
This saddens me too. I’ve been using Overstock for miscellany and specific retailers for other purchases (i.e. computers and electronics from NewEgg).
You can often get books directly from the publishers in the MOBI format for the Kindle, like Baen books for example http://www.baen.com/library/. You need never get a single book from Amazon.
A. Drop the stupid e-books.
B. Use Abebooks or any number of good book dealers. It’s cheaper, you get first-editions, signeds and all kinds of goodies.
C. The books the liberals hate, tend to get into the antique-dealers fast and extra-cheap.
I wish there was an alternative. I was disappointed to learn that Bezos was doing this. Guess we need to all email and tell him we’re not going to do business with them anymore and I really enjoy my Fire, too.
There is always the library...
You can download Calibre and convert books from one format to another in seconds. Some convert well, like MOBI <--> EPUB (Amazon and Barnes/Noble either direction). Others don't convert very well, like PDF to MOBI.
Thanks for asking the question. We, regretfully, have 2 Kindle fires in the household and I wish to avoid Amazon at all costs now.
Many if not all books on Project Gutenberg are in the MOBI (Kindle) format.
Also, don’t overlook using newsreader to download MOBI books (alt.binaries.kindle). You’ll want to get a copy of calibre.app to store and process other formats, which it will do as long as they aren’t DRM protected.
I have found that even EPUB books can be read on a Kindle (sometimes have to run through Calibre, however).
tehe, tehe... shutup...
I use Froogle a lot when shopping, it will give you some alternatives to Amazon. But you do have to watch the ratings and make sure you’re dealing with someone trustworthy.
And Nextag for some things.
Ah... will look into this...
There are lots of other sites that have current ebooks. Google .. . plus you can take them out at your local library.
There are sites out there and @ a lower price than Amazon.
You can use any extention and convert , i.e. if you download a .lit book you can convert it to any another extension using “Calibre” , a free converter (it’s great and easy.
Here’s one link for a site and there are plenty more. I don’t use Amazon at all.
I read a LOT of PDFs (technical documents) on my Kindle Gen2. Never tried to convert anything. Most of the books I read are out-of-copyright classical works that I get from Google or my local library.
Thanks for the info. I really do not care where company officials donate their personal funds...but when they go big time like Amazon, they’re off my list. Too bad, ‘cuz Amazon used to get a lot of my money.
No longer.
Shove it up your smelly Obamas, Amazon. And next time, keep your nightly activities - or activity support - to yourselves.
Does anyone have suggestions about who to contact at Amaazon to register a protest (and boycott plans) with?
what other formats will a Kindle read?
Waste of time to email. he already donated the cash. Lets just boycott Amazon. It was my favorite place to shop. Guess I’ll have to pony up some shipping charges now.
If you want to order actual books, I recommend alibris or powells in Portland Or. And I would write to amazon and tell them why they are losing my business.
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