Sony closing their e-book store

Cafe Society
#1

I have been carrying a Sony e-reader everywhere I go for years. I have a second one that I keep in my gym bag for those long hours on the elliptical. I have been happy with the product. The epub format has worked pretty well for me.

Sony sent out email announcing that they are closing their e-book division and shifting all accounts to Kobo, a Canadian company. The selection is more limited, the layout is kind of garbled, and reviews I have read say the download process is not very user friendly. The prices are higher to begin with and there is also a 3% foreign transaction surcharge on all purchases made outside of Canada.

I have just ordered a Kindle from Amazon…

#2

Damn. I’ve gotten good sales through Sony. I wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come.

#3

A word of warning: Kindles can’t read the EPUB format. If you have a substantial investment in that format, I would consider looking into an alternative ereader.

#4

Bosh, you just need a converter. Calibre is free.

OP, sorry about your woes, but I absolutely love the Kindle, and I hope you find peace with it soon!

#5

HI there, Hodge

I know that Kindle will not read epub. I have three Sony readers, one of which has less than four hours total use. I think I will be ok for a long time to come with my existing epub ebooks. The books that I did not buy at Sony do not have Sony’s DRM, and I can likely convert them to the Kindle format using Calibre. For my new purchases though, I plan to shift formats.

I am just glad that I have not used Sony as my management and storage option. All of my ebooks are resident on my computer.

#6

The above was cross posted with our friend araminty

#7

I think you can also load a Kobo app on your Kindle (Kindle Fire, anyway) to read your Sony books.