Database Develop

sh*t I say - cheap/affordable Ebookshop/market?

I bought my Nook Color in the asumption, that I would get a fair share of ebooks for free. Till now i've also found nearly every book I wanted.
But this particular one book, I couldnt find anywhere.
So I looked at B&N, there I could get it for 10 Bucks, this simply was a little bit to much for a under 200 page book, so i started looking to find it somewhere else cheaper. Because I actually only know the kindlestore I looked there.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1855/****mydadsyas.png
This picture simply makes me sad, I dont find it funny and I also cant understand why ebooks are so expensive, to even being more expensive than the hardcover.
I cant understand this, because through this price policy the whole ebook market gets destroyed.
I actually dont want to start a big discussion.
i would just be interested if anyone knows a cheaper & good ebookshop

Amazon has it as a kindle book for 9.99
I might add that like B+N, the physical book price is less than the e-book which makes no sense at all.

The problem stems from the copy houses still demanding to get paid despite nothing getting printed. It's like the companies that press CD's demanding to get paid for MP3 downloads. But somehow the emarket was hosed when this became the norm. Kobo used to be a great place to get a good deal but those days are gone.
I simply put my ebooks in my b&n wish list and watch the prices. When they get reasonable, I'll buy them. It's not a perfect solution and it's absolutely stupid when a physical ANYTHING is cheaper than the digital version.

one4thewings said:
It's not a perfect solution and it's absolutely stupid when a physical ANYTHING is more expensive than the digital version.
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Don't you mean the other way around?
Anyway, yes they are too expensive. I would like to get my son a few of the read to me books, but at $10 a pop, I would much rather buy him the actual book.

Here are some places I look when I price out ebooks:
leatherbound.me <== searches multiple sites at once but they don't have support for many stores yet
books.google.com/ebooks
fictionwise.com
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Borders

acomiskey said:
Anyway, yes they are too expensive. I would like to get my son a few of the read to me books, but at $10 a pop, I would much rather buy him the actual book.
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Actually, the read-to-me books are the one example I can think of where there is added value in the electronic version which would justify a higher price. I've certainly already bought books electronically at higher-than-paper price, just because of the portability aspect and because I enjoy having content delivered to my lazy buttocks instantly.
The pricing does suck, though. Paying $1 for an iPod game that lasts me hours vs. $10 for a license to download a book is rather disparate. App stores have established a very low threshold for what people find acceptable for prices of downloaded content, but unless publishers fall in line (or, preferably, die), prices will continue to not make sense.
Personally, I think its a little crazy that books have joined music and movies as a good that people now find to be overpriced due to inflated prices from anachronistic and irrelevant previous distribution structures. Ohwellz.

Amazon Cloud Player

Didn't see this one coming. Go to amazon.com/cloudplayer
To summarize: Amazon did what Google's been planning to do for a while now.
Amazon uploads your music to the cloud and allows you to stream it to any device (logged in, of course) through their player. The first 5GB are free, 20GB is $20 a year, 100GB is $100 etc. From there, you can even choose to download the music to your SD.
Is anyone else as impressed as I am?

I'm also impressed. Never expected this from Amazon since I haven't read any rumors about it unlike with Google's and Apple's service.
The other feature that I believe is awesome is that any Amazon music purchase you make is automatically stored on your cloud account for free (doesn't use up your storage). So you don't really have to worry about backing up the music on multiple drives like you have to with iTunes purchases.
I already use Subsonic, but will probably be using this feature whenever I buy music from them.

Yah that back up is cool wish old purchases were backed up though.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

All that's left now is for Amazon to clean up the music player a bit more. You can tell they put some amount of thought into the design (and took a few cues from the iOS music player) but IMO it could use a little polish.
Still, great work by Amazon. They stepped their game up, again.

This is amazing but it's only usable within the us
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Its a fantastic service. I've filled up my 5gb quota already. If you buy a full album from amazon from now between December 31 you will get 20GB storage for free

You can buy this "album" (1 song for 69 CENTS) and get the 20gigs for a year. I did it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SKEEM8/ref=docs-os-doi_0
I have some kind of discount show up on my receipt, so I actually only paid 39 CENTS lol.

nxt said:
You can buy this "album" (1 song for 69 CENTS) and get the 20gigs for a year. I did it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SKEEM8/ref=docs-os-doi_0
I have some kind of discount show up on my receipt, so I actually only paid 39 CENTS lol.
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Worth it. Just barely though, as the fact that it's glee raises the mental cost a little bit

Amazon is currently on a big time lawsuit against the big guys at Hollywood and DMA copywright people, it was all over the news yesterday
if they fall through, then this can backfire as a new weapon/ammo for the DMA people to crack down on MP3 music collections
so, IMO i'll wait until the dust settles before signing up for the account with Amazon
there are plenty of other good ones like mSpot and CX and much more for cloud music streaming
and there are even those you can host in your own home computer, as mentioned in the other topic
... you know... just us typical paranoids about the feds spying on us

Issue with B&N "app store"

So I'm trying the 1.2 update to give it a fair shake, and I have one big complaint about the way B&N chooses to do apps. To get any app, even free ones, it appears you need to have payment info in your account. For paid apps, that makes sense, but for free apps? No other major app store does this. I just don't like giving CC info out if I don't have to (especially after the recent PSN debacle). Just wanted to share my experience.

Not only that, but why aren't any games free?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Amazon app store works the same way
Sent from my SPH-D700

It is same way for Amazon (need to have 1 click enabled - It is annoying that I get invoices e-mailed to me the minute I buy that $0 app of the day).
I believe it works the same way for B&N Book purchases, even for free books, you need to have valid CC account with them.

I guess I never thought aboutthe Amazon app store. They had my info long before they had an app store. I am surprised that iTunes lets me go CC-less.

B&N requires a credit card for all Nook transactions. Including book and app purchases. Even if you have valid gift cards on your account they still need the credit card. Ghetto, but its life.
If you don't want to give your real credit card, I'd just buy a gift CC and add gift cards as your real payment. that way It'll use up the gift, and then the cc. Not the cheapest and fastest route, but its a secure option.

Apparently B&N does not allow app developers to subsidize the cost of their apps through advertising. That's why very little is free.
I don't see it as a huge deal, honestly. While i have yet to update to 1.2, it doesn't sound like apps are outrageously expensive. $2.99 for Angry Birds? I probably paid $29.99 for Lemmings, which was the 1990's version of Angry Birds, when that came out.

Yeah, I had to supply a credit card for the B&N store when configuring the stock Nook Color (before the new upgrade with apps); I didn't think we had a choice.
I used a "disposable" credit card number with a low dollar limit (via the "ShopSafe" credit card generator).
I was very pleasantly surprised that the Google Apps store on Android has no such requirement. I wonder how much success the B&N app store will ever have.

Google Play Music in the UK and Europe & Linux Music Manager

Just hit the UK and Europe and it's pretty awesome, it has a lot of offer and since I usually illegally download my music, I no longer have to (I refuse to use iTunes, I know there are alternatives). This is great news and its about time too. What do my fellow Europeans think? Pricing is also more competitive than I imagined. Good job Google :good:
Note you can't buy anything yet but you can browse and see the pricing.
One other awesome thing to know, the Music Manager is now available on Linux!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

ive had google music for a while now and like the fact i can leave all my music in the cloud and not clog up my n7:good:

tonybhoy said:
ive had google music for a while now and like the fact i can leave all my music in the cloud and not clog up my n7:good:
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I've been using it for a while, just hadn't had the ability to browse the store and buy stuff.

Single tracks look a bit expensive compared to the cost of the full album but I like the look of the album prices.
Similar artists had some weird suggestions, I eventually had it giving g Mark Owen>Debbie Harry>Victoria Beckham. Still a nice feature even if it did recommend Victoria Beckham.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

gbroon said:
Single tracks look a bit expensive compared to the cost of the full album but I like the look of the album prices.
Similar artists had some weird suggestions, I eventually had it giving g Mark Owen>Debbie Harry>Victoria Beckham. Still a nice feature even if it did recommend Victoria Beckham.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
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I've been comparing Play Music to iTunes and Googles offering is much cheaper.
Single tracks on both iTunes and Play Music average at about £0.79 to £0.99 with the occasional iTunes song dipping to to £0.59 and peaking at £1.89. This is from what I've seen so far. Play Music is a lot more consistent.
Albums seem to be cheaper on Google Play, most of the albums I have checked seem to be about £1 to £2 cheaper. That's a huge saving if you by a lot of music. I anticipate to spend at least a hundred quid over the next week, buying all the music I pirated.

Wasn't play music supposed to release in Canada as well as Europe?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Google said Canada and Australia are coming later this year or early 2013.

I like it. Prices are ok, and encourage album sales, and play store is nice to browse.
Was expecting it it be 'meh'. May have to get Floyd dsom first as is just rude to buy anything else before it.
Sent from my Nexus 7

Have you compared to Amazon MP3? For the sort of music I buy amazon is consistently cheaper and offers the same cloud playback functionality and tune matching (although you have to pay £20 a year for a lot of tune matching).

Another potential benefit of buying from Amazon is you can download the tracks, then upload them to Google Music and enjoy the (more reliable) cloud streaming

Yay finally they release it to the UK.

With regards to your Amazon questions, Amazon sells tracks cheaper however buying the whole album is usually about £0.50 - £1.00 cheaper from Play Music.

I think it does depend on the sort of thing you buy, every album I looked at was cheaper on amazon also but I guess we might have different tastes!
Worth shopping around either way, they both support matching music so can just upload to your cloud streamer of choice.

mrchiggles said:
I think it does depend on the sort of thing you buy, every album I looked at was cheaper on amazon also but I guess we might have different tastes!
Worth shopping around either way, they both support matching music so can just upload to your cloud streamer of choice.
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Yes and I think a price matching script would be in order from someone.

I have a problem with the new UK service, suspect its down to my account being previously activating via proxy to allow me to access my music account and upload music for streaming some months before the service went live here in the UK. I cannot now purchase anything from the site, it takes me from the UK site in £GBP to the US site to complete the transaction in US$ and then won't accept my UK credit card or UK activated Google Wallet balance.
I've contacted Google support and their answer today is that "I must be a US customer to buy music..." clearly the support agent doesn't know his arse from his elbow
Anyone else got this issue and worked out how to solve it? I've got over 5000 tracks uploaded and so would not want to lose them if I had to create a new account.
Would also add... I'm not getting the 'music match' service... music is still being uploaded track by track (music manager version 1.0.51.1573)... only 17k tracks to go to my limit!!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Google Music Explorer is simply amazing, and a game changer. Apple fanboys look on in disappointment when I showed them it at work...
:good:

JNeail said:
I cannot now purchase anything from the site, it takes me from the UK site in £GBP to the US site to complete the transaction in US$ and then won't accept my UK credit card or UK activated Google Wallet balance.
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OK so I fixed this - turns out my US credit card had been changed to default somehow?
Still not seeing the 'Music Match' service - has anyone got this working?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Been looking for that.. a lot of the mp3s I have are a bit ropey and music match is ideal for sprucing them up. I can only find the standard upload service.

Is anyone else having issues launching the Music Manager app on OSX? It doesn't do anything...

South America??

Amazon App Store: Plex for Android $0.99US or $1.09CDN

I wasn't sure where I should put this, but since it's a great program for Android/Chromecast I figured here would be a good place.
If you have the Amazon App store you can get Plex for $0.99US or $1.09CDN depending on which store you use. For those of you who don't have it yet, it's basically a steal at this price. You should definitely jump on it!
Helps solve a lot of the local casting issues without a bunch of workarounds.
http://www.amazon.com/Plex-Inc-for-Android/dp/B004Y1WCDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1396499599&sr=1-1&keywords=plex
http://www.amazon.ca/Plex-Inc-for-Android/dp/B004Y1WCDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1396499599&sr=1-1&keywords=plex

mmmmBACON said:
I wasn't sure where I should put this, but since it's a great program for Android/Chromecast I figured here would be a good place.
If you have the Amazon App store you can get Plex for $0.99US or $1.09CDN depending on which store you use. For those of you who don't have it yet, it's basically a steal at this price. You should definitely jump on it!
Helps solve a lot of the local casting issues without a bunch of workarounds.
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I notice the Amazon version is 3.2.9.113 whereas the play store is 3.2.11.118.
I don't buy apps from Amazon, but it's the same apps from the same developer, right? Amazon is just slower to update? If you buy from Amazon, does the phone recongnizes that there is a new version? And then update from google? Does it work that way? I guess what I'm asking is who's going to tell me I need an update? The Play Services or Amazon's own prompt?

Yeah it's the same devs. It is just Amazon that hosts the updates and not Google. So they may be a bit slower. It will work exactly the same way though.
You need to keep the amazon app store installed as that is where the program will update from.
The prompt etc. will all go through Amazon.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

mmmmBACON said:
For those of you who don't have it yet, it's basically a steal at this price. You should definitely jump on it!
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Thanks for the tip (button pushed)!
I've been holding off (re-)buying Plex on Amazon until the price came down. I've gotten so used to only buying buying an app once on my Android/Play devices. The thought of buying an app again just for the one Amazon Android variant device in my home pisses me off. Plex, however, is worth it to me. Now this gives me a way to easily allow the baby sitter to play movies for the kids.

muchtall said:
Thanks for the tip (button pushed)!
I've been holding off (re-)buying Plex on Amazon until the price came down. I've gotten so used to only buying buying an app once on my Android/Play devices. The thought of buying an app again just for the one Amazon Android variant device in my home pisses me off. Plex, however, is worth it to me. Now this gives me a way to easily allow the baby sitter to play movies for the kids.
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Haha, yeah I hear ya.
I keep the Amazon app store kicking around because they toss in paid apps/games/bundles for free relatively often. It's not really different from the Play store except that it's Amazon and not Google. If I'm going to buy an app I'll generally use the Play store, but occasionally there will be deals (like Plex) on Amazon that are worth it and I don't mind jumping on.

Amazon is terrible with keeping apps up to date. I downloaded Magic 2014 there and purchased some in game content. Now it's still stuck on a version 10 months old that doesn't support new features or content. For $1 I'm less worried, but I would never spend real money there again.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

cmstlist said:
Amazon is terrible with keeping apps up to date.
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I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure you can blame the developer for that. Developers have to submit their apps to each "store", generally Apple, Google, and then Amazon. If they neglect to do so in a timely manner, you get outdated apps.

muchtall said:
I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure you can blame the developer for that. Developers have to submit their apps to each "store", generally Apple, Google, and then Amazon. If they neglect to do so in a timely manner, you get outdated apps.
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Well.....Yes and No....
Even in cases where the Developer keeps both up to date the Amazon App does not automatically update you and will not always notify you of one until you run their App...
Google will almost always automatically update you to the latest version except at times where the permission requests have changed significantly enough to require manual accepting of the new permissions.
And if your flashing custom roms a lot the other thing about Amazon is that unless the app is installed it not only won't update but the license will expire until you log in to Amazon at least once after every flash.
While it's nice to save money for the $3 or $4 I prefer to get most (if not all) of my Apps from Google.
But I sure understand why people are willing to go through the extra hassle to save a few bucks in this economy.

muchtall said:
I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure you can blame the developer for that. Developers have to submit their apps to each "store", generally Apple, Google, and then Amazon. If they neglect to do so in a timely manner, you get outdated apps.
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I think there's more to it. Something is blocking developers from getting their updates submitted or approved in a timely fashion. Maybe there's a confidentiality agreement that explains why the details are not clear to the public, but for some reason even apps from reputable developers are chronically behind in updates on Amazon.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

One of the main reasons I installed Amazon appstore on my various Nexus tablets and phones is for the daily free apps. I have over 500 + so far and some of them are quite good, including those I already bought from Google playstore: swype and switfkey, Runtastic pro, SketchBook pro, etc., and tons of games. And don't forget about the Amazon coins promotions. I have over 500 coins so getting Plex for 99 coins is a no brainer because its free!
Also I remember, a while back, having Android devices that don't include Google playstore nor is it supported. It's much easier to side-load Amazon appstore in such cases. Even with all that I still think Google Playstore is more refined and works great on Google "approved" devices. Amazon has been making some major improvements to the UI lately though.