Not Available on Kindle for iPad?
Posted by SpikeMay 27
At least that’s how I see it.
Just bought an eBook from Amazon for my Kindle.
The book I bought was something work-related. The list price on the physical book is US$35 bucks. Amazon’s price on the physical book is $23.30 and the Kindle edition is $19.22. Okay, only a $4 savings but I figure I’ll save on the shipping and the waiting time. (Okay, if you must know, the book is “Team Leadership in the Game Industry” by Seth Spaulding.)
And so I click on “buy.” Without noticing some of the small print first.
I’ve been using the Kindle application on my iPad. My Kindle has been gathering dust on a table. I pick up the iPad, start the Kindle app, go to archived items, select this new book and get a pop-up message – “This item is not available on Kindle for iPad.” I go back to the Amazon web site and check the product page and I see something I missed before – “This title is for Amazon Kindle devices only.”
WTF? I mean really, this is how Amazon is going to compete against Apple? I thought they were saying that they are device-agnostic as long as people are buying books from them. Obviously that ain’t the case. So to Amazon Digital Services, Course Technology PTR (publisher of the physical book) and Delmar Learning (publisher of the eBook) or whichever one of you made this shitty decision – bite me. Jeez louise, I might as well go back to those links about how to strip DRM from Kindle files and convert this thing to a PDF. I’m honestly gob-smacked that they’re doing this.
Just checked, of course the title isn’t in Apple’s eBook store.
One comment
Comment by NK on May 27, 2010 at 6:04 pm
And I thought that the people who came up with geographical zoning of DVDs were the spawn of satan.
I installed Kindle for iPhone on my phone a while ago. Created a login, signed in… and discovered that despite my ability to create a username and password, neither of my credit cards gave me access to a store. So I deleted the app with a giant imaginary middle finger to whoever decided that certain parts of the world could have no bookstore.
Fast forward a few months – discovered that one of my credit cards gave me access to a new (but smaller) Kindle store. So I thought I’d give them a buck or two and try the reader out again.
Reloaded the app onto my phone, logged in and was greeted with “This phone is already authorized for a Kindle account”. Well, no shit – mine. The one I logged in with. It refused to anything other than direct me to the page on the Amazon website that said I had to call customer services in USA to de-authorise it and then presumably authorise it again.
More trouble than it was worth. I deleted the app again. If these morons want to make it difficult for me to give them my money, then so be it. I’ll keep it.