Is "The Brick" a modern Tarot card?
"But after June 30, 2024, Kindle devices in China won’t be able to access content."
This is the part that makes me never want to buy any of the "magic boxes" on offer. The disappearing trick...
Amazon.com has decided to end its Kindle digital book business in China. A statement posted to the Kindle China WeChat account states that Amazon has already stopped sending new Kindle devices to resellers and will cease operations of the Kindle China e-bookstore on June 30, 2023. The Kindle app will last another year, …
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So I'll wait for the list of all the multinationals based outside of China that are not investing (or outright pulling out) in China to make up my own opinion ?
Maybe if China stopped forcing foreign companies to consent to placing a Chinese national they don't control, investment would start flowing again ?
When i looked into buying an e-book reader couple of years ago i found kindle to be one of the best options available.
While that works fine and it is easy to get recent books for it i am not a fan of Amazon so i am interested in better alterantives.
Can you give me some examples of what devices you consider better (doesn't even have to be cheaper to catch my interest)?
Sorry, I should have been more specific: my comments were specific to mainland China where Amazon is up against established incumbents and different devices (comics are big in east Asia).
I personally like the Kobo readers, marketed in some countries under the Tolino label. The software contains nice attention to detail and is very flexible. I don't think much of the store but they work with whatever DRM most libraries are using. I always strip any DRM off books I buy so that I'm not tied to any particular provider or software and use Calibre to manage my library. I love my Aura One for the screen quality and form factor but SWMBO is very happy with my old Glo, that still gets software updates. I'm routinely tempted to get something even larger for technical documentation, you know when you like having two pages at once.
I also recently bought a PocketBook for a friend who's been pretty ill and this has the advantage of a Dropbox client, which means I can easily give him books to read.
Worth noting that most readers have awful PDF support. Sony is/was the exception because it licensed something from Adobe that "reflows" documents for different aspect ratios. I've not tried the PocketBook but PDFs on the Kobos are an exercise in frustration, even with third-party readers.
Thank you for taking the time to answer.
I'll have to look at the Kobo devices again, something with a bigger screen might be an improvement for some screnarios. For reading while commuting or traveling the small size of the kindle is actually good but when stationary it feels too small at times.
I'm not really stripping the DRM for reading on the kindle but i do have a copy of the ebooks on my pc ready to be processed by that swiss army knife for ebooks (=Calibre) if there's a need to do that.
I'll not be stripped of my complete library if i loose the device or acces to the amazon account or some Amazon shenanigans.
When I first looked I wanted something with folders so I could organise my collection as I wanted. I bought Bookeen. I also went through the larger is better stage and bought their Ocean (8" screen) but found it to heavy. For PDFs or graphical formats I use either my laptop or a tablet.
I think you've got to be prepared to have two devices if necessary. The 6" models can fit into a jacket pocket but, even with a small font, I find the pages "too small". The Aura won't fit into a jacket pocket but fits in pretty much everything else. I think the Kobo Nia would suit you fine, my Glo is now over ten years old and still going strong. Otherwise my mate is really happy with the PocketBook HD.
Azure announced a few months back it had opened new Azure points in China ignoring its CCP issues. An knob Elon has invested in China with his car factory and claimed how they are leading the way with electric cars. Totally ignoring the fact they are also a massive coal miner and still burn it.
Ah a 50cent army member, a wumao. A quick search will find you're talking bolloks. The CCP haven't lifted millions out of poverty. Its their propaganda making you think they have. Not to mention in this bullshit attempt, they removed old Chinese culture from streets where you could sit outside a cafe and relax, watching the world go buy so they could bulldoze the place and put up high rise.
Just look up the amount of ghost cities in China its nuts. Their economy relies on their housing market which can't be seen to fail so apartment prices continue to rise. You can buy a flat in China, never live in it and then sell it on to the next sucker for a profit. Don't ever furnish it and try to sell it as you'll loose money, due to Chinese culture of not wanting other people's furniture. Costs more to get rid of it so they prefer to buy an empty flat.
There are plenty of videos showing poor Chinese people lining a street begging, something the CCP don't want people to see. Because there is no benefit system in China.
China would be a nice place without the CCP. Also don't forget Mao tried to eradicate the rich, past Chinese culture and even wanted to get rid of the language until Russia convinced him not to. Mao is also why there are a lack of birds in China.
Actually I think you'll find that entry into the WTO is what brought millions of PR Chinese out of poverty, despite the best efforts of the CCP. For a supposedly communist country the PRC is horrifically capitalist with rife inequality and corruption. I have data to back this up, you show me yours and I'll show you mine.
and will continue to innovate and invest,
What this actually mean is that if workers in the West demand their pay to at very least keep up with the inflation and make them feel the effort they put in their education gives some worthwhile return, then Amazon may think of replacing them with cheap as chips Chinese employees that cannot complain, because if they do they likely get to sent to a labour camp.