Digital products compatibility...

[Conquistador]

Several eBooks at Osprey look interesting but I have a Nook - are EPub books usable across all platforms (Nook, Kindle, others) or machine specific in usability?

Gracias,

Glenn

[zemjw]

Glenn,

There are two main formats - epub and kindle (mobi) - and they don't play together.

I had thought that ePub was readable on all devices that support ePub (ie your Nook), but it looks like it's slightly more complicated than that (I have a Kindle, so this isn't something I've had to deal with)

This thread on the Barnes and Noble site may help and Osprey themselves mention the Nook, so you should be okay.

[Connectamabob]

EPub is supposed to be the general purpose generic format for ebooks, so if a particular machine won't play it, that'd be a big black mark against that particular machine more than anything.

There's a lot of shinannigans going on these days with using proprietary formats to prevent other machines or apps from using a given companies ebooks (in attempt to force platform dependency on the users). Generally, it's to company A's advantage to make their own devices/apps able to use as many formats as possible, while simultaneously preventing company B's devices/apps from being able to use company A's native formats. Basically it's a big anti-competitive monkey knife fight over who gets to have their vigorous and sticky way with the end users. Since Epub is not attached to a specific company or device/app, there's no one to block other companies from using it and thus it should be compatible with nearly everything, e-reader wise.

Some of these formats, like Kindle format for example, are really just ePub with a DRM wrapper.

[Derek H]

Get yourself of the Calibre E0book management programme http://calibre-ebook.com/about 

It will convert EBook files from most formats to most other formats.   

[Berlisarius]

The Calibre program is great. I have been using it for years to convert books to the format I need for my ereader. The best part it is a free program.

[Emir of Askaristan]

I've not a been a great fan of the Osprey MAA and Campaign serious books which I have bought for Kindle on my IPad. I think the graphic content of these books needs a little more care when formatting - especially the campaign and battle maps which have been split over pages and thus lose their impact.

I think Osprey has made a good job of the Bold Action books for kindle however. I have several of these and it's dead handy when playing a game. I've also got some rule sets which I view with IBooks and some sourcebooks on Scribd. All in all a digital library of useful stuff at my fingertips!

[Buff Orpington]

I agree with Derek, Calibre is excellent