E-book question

Berties

When you sync ebook file to the device, does it create a database file, or do you browse by filename?

Also what software is needed, is it drag and drop or do you need a front end? Would prefer drag and drop (UMS seen as hard drive) and self build database, basically like Rockbox. So not relying on front end software (never been impressed with transfer speed or long term support)

tonycommander

kindles are drag and drop... and calibre is a great ebook organiser on your pc...

nheather

Can only talk about the Kindle but I imagine they all work pretty much the same.

Firstly, no database - it is file based.

When you connect the Kindle to a PC it looks like a USB Flash Disk.  You can browse files, create folder structures to you hearts content and organise files in folders.

But when you view on the Kindle, the structure is flattened and all files are presented as if they were all in the root directory.

Organisation uses tags in a similar way to MP3 players.  You can assign collection tags to files so that they 'appear' in collections regardless of where they sit in the file structure.  A book can exist in more than one collection.

The weakness in my opinion is that you can't have collections within collections.

Cheers,

Nigel

IronGiant

What device are you considering?

Berties

Was looking at Kindle keyboard but would like SD slot, Kindle line doesn't have any memory slots.

nheather

Unless you are planning on putting audiobooks or pictures on it, the Kindle has more memory than you know what to do with.

Cheers,

Nigel

Berties

Just principle of non upgradable product...thought 40GB on my iriver would be plenty. Also audiobooks would come in handy. Computer generated speech isn't as good as a real voice actor, words are pretty incoherent.

Also prefer copying from SD to USB adaptor (quicker) ie though phone it's painfully slow, but take out microSD card fit into dongle and much much faster...

ukbootlegs

Berties, even with audiobooks, 4gb is more than plenty.

I have 160 books on my kindle and 2 audiobooks, (I am in India for a few weeks with work, and then India, Goa, again for 3 weeks over Xmas), and I am only using 400mb.

You really do not need as much space as you would think.

I don't understand the desire for SD copying as I connect my Kindle upto the USB port but this is rarer than me winning the lottery.

I email my files to my free kindle address and it then downloads them onto the Kindle when in a Wifi spot.

Berties

Some audiobooks are 500MB-1GB. So just don't like the idea of item obsolescence.

Didn't realise there is a ebook forum, mods please move to correct place thanks

richardb70

You might want to consider the storage on the Kindle as "short term" like myself and other fellow users do. Basically, copy a bunch of books/audiobooks onto it, and replace/top-up when you run low. Have your PC as your primary storage. Most ebooks are pretty small and take no time at all to copy over via USB. I do this every six months or so, hardly inconvenient.

I know this is different from say an MP3 player when you can fit your entire audio collection on there - but you would still obviously have your collection on your PC as well. As great as the Kindle is, it's not particularly friendly when dealing with hundreds of books.

P.S. Wouldn't an MP3 player be more suitable for audiobooks?