Kindle App Converts Physical Books To eBooks, Usefulness Questionable

[scolaner]

Amazon launched a new program that allows you to scan physical books and convert them into eBooks. But its usefulness may not be all that it's cracked up to be.

Kindle App Converts Physical Books To eBooks, Usefulness Questionable : Read more

 

[buzzrattie]

I can see a use, but how about scanning a bar code, if the book has one, and get your ebook that way, aren't they universal anyways?

 

[toadster]

so customers pay to scan books to feed Amazon's already huge online bookstore?

 

[Quixit]

Seems like a marketing tool to get you to buy the eBook version from them more than anything else.

 

[rayden54]

This sort of review is really quite pointless. No one's suggesting that you spend the time digitizing a bunch of trade paperbacks. Buying an ebook isn't always an option and there IS a market for this sort of thing-you're obviously not part of it though. As you said, "The main target for this application is likely to be for preserving old documents and books that are not otherwise saved in an electronic format."

Given that that is purpose of this software (and even the main sales page would tend to agree there saying things like "convert scans of your personal books and documents" and "most treasured books documents and keepsakes") how well does it do it? How accurate is the OCR? How versatile is the output? How well does this piece of software stack up the other softwares that do this sort of thing. That would be a useful review.

 

[synphul]

I guess I don't get it. It requires a separate scanner, so what's the difference between this and just buying a decent scanner with ocr software? I'm guessing their software just takes the scans and converts them to some sort of proprietary 'ebook' format - I'd think there's likely other software out there that will do similarly. I'm wondering where the issue comes in getting the scans right, if the scanner scanned it properly and the ocr is accurate.. wouldn't that be a hardware issue or does their software actually botch up the accuracy of the text during the conversion process?

 

[Grognak]

@buzzrattie - Because anyone could walk into a library and scan every book they see. It could work if you provided proof of purchase or something but who keeps the receipt for a book?

 

[Forth]

Tom's Hardware writer editorialises inanely; usefulness questionable.

 

[IInuyasha74]

@rayden54: You are missing the point that this is a news article, not a review.

 

[etTuQuintin]

There's a service that will do this for you: www.texttotablet.com

 

[zodiacfml]

i thought this is a kindle app using using the camera as the scanner. after learning this is a software for Windows and requires a PC scanner, and considering the price. I find this ludicrous.

 

[bit_user]

It'd be nice if you could use the camera to prove you have a copy of the book (perhaps by photographing three pages they choose at random), and then get the eBook for free or at a heavily discounted price. To reduce the risk of cheating (such as books at a library or bookstore), perhaps they could just give you a discount on ebook rental.