Nice. How many bucks were you paid for this commentmercial of yours?
He is right - I do have iBooks, Kindle and Nook apps on my iPad, and in terms of both price and selection iBooks just doesn't compete with other two. For example - just bought this:
... Apple's agency approach has the publishers set the prices paid by consumers -- something Random House executives were concerned could lead to considerably lower prices, and thus lower profits.
I can't believe another bunch of industry fat cats are sitting around complaining about profits again. If you can't make a profit going digital you deserve to go out of business. Get with it already. They should be singing broadway songs about the increased profit that occurs when you don't have to pay for printing and physical delivery. Seriously what a bunch of bozos.
Great. A week ago I want to buy best-selling The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but alas, no such book on iBooks store. One lost sale for whomever hold the right. More publishers is always good news, both for us and for them.
It still doesn't solve the problem of eBooks being tied to Apple's ecosystem. Amazon is by no means great either, but it's much better than the Apple alternative.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
It still doesn't solve the problem of eBooks being tied to Apple's ecosystem. Amazon is by no means great either, but it's much better than the Apple alternative.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
I can't see any reason why Amazon's DRM is any better than Apple's (and iBooks does use ePub). In either case you're locked into someone's ecosystem. I guess most of this comment is just an expression of your bias.
But, proprietary DRMs are, in my opinion, a major problem with eBooks; one that will keep me from buying them until it's resolved. (All of my eBooks are DRM free, public domain books.) But, until there's a standard, non-proprietary, DRM system for eBooks, if I need to buy a book, it's going to be a hard copy.
I'm still in the IPad is too big camp myself. Thus I still believe Apple will have a sub 7" device out sometime this year. It is a market they can't ignore.
As to the people that dis Kindle and the Nook, they need to realize that these highly optimized devices work really well in their intended application. More important the size is manageable. People that have in the past grabbed a paperback to read are not going to grab an iPad as a replacement. This was confirmed by me while on vacation over the holidays, you just don't see iPads around the pool.
I don't find the iPad too big - I find the 7" screens of some tabs too small, though, especially when trying to read PDFs that were originally 8.5 by 11.
I know that many people like the Kindle and it is optimized for what it does, but it is TERRIBLE for reading in bed at night because of the lack of backlight - that is totally unforgivable! I prefer to use the iPad where I can use Ibookstore products, OR Kindle eBooks, OR B&N eBooks, etc. That flexibility is what I prefer, the Kindle can't give me that today.
Word that Random House could join on the iBookstore five of its biggest competitors -- HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Shuster -- comes just two days before Apple is expected to take the wraps off its second-generation iPad in San Francisco, a device that is rapidly altering the landscape of the publishing industry.
This has to be one of the most awkwardly worded sentences I have ever seen. I had to read it three times to understand what they were saying. You should rewrite it. How about "Word that Random House could join its five biggest competitors (HarperCollins ...) on the iBookstore comes just two days before...
BTW, I'm not a grammar nazi and almost never criticize a poster's grammar (I have made some exceptions when it was over the top), but this is a professional writer, and I expect him/her to write in a way that doesn't make me work so freakin' hard.
When I first bought my iPad I thought it would also be used as en Ebook reader but I think it's a bit too big and bulky to hold and read long periods of time. I actually bought a Kindle a couple of months ago and absolutely love the size, weight and reading on the e-ink text Now I still think the iPad is a superior ebook experience UI wise because navigating everything with a touch screen is so much nicer but since they are still new to the ebook market they can't compete with Amazon's readily available 800k plus books. now if Apple had that many books when it launched in April it's possible that I would've stuck with my iPad for ebooks
What are the odds that iPad 2 will have an e-ink-like surface for e-book reading in direct sunlight, and will be able to switch to backlit IPS screen for gaming and other functions? This would destroy Amazon's readers in a single stroke.
It still doesn't solve the problem of eBooks being tied to Apple's ecosystem. Amazon is by no means great either, but it's much better than the Apple alternative.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
Apple already uses ePub but with the Fairplay DRM. If they used the Adobe DRM that would be fine. If they supported Adobe DRM at least you could get library books and books from Nook or Sony and keep them in iBooks.
Apple already uses ePub but with the Fairplay DRM. If they used the Adobe DRM that would be fine. If they supported Adobe DRM at least you could get library books and books from Nook or Sony and keep them in iBooks.
Is Adobe's DRM freely licensed?
How about if Apple got together with a bunch of industry leaders and formed a new "Open DRM" (it sounds funny, I know) standard that was freely licensed to all members of the association? Kind of like the way h264 works.
No DRM would be best, but a freely licensed industry DRM would be the next best solution.
Comments
Nice. How many bucks were you paid for this commentmercial of yours?
He is right - I do have iBooks, Kindle and Nook apps on my iPad, and in terms of both price and selection iBooks just doesn't compete with other two. For example - just bought this:
http://www.amazon.com/Multicore-Appl...dp/B004C04QEA/ - $32. Same book on iBooks - $40.
And yes, 6" Kindle does rock as a reading device.
... Apple's agency approach has the publishers set the prices paid by consumers -- something Random House executives were concerned could lead to considerably lower prices, and thus lower profits.
I can't believe another bunch of industry fat cats are sitting around complaining about profits again. If you can't make a profit going digital you deserve to go out of business. Get with it already. They should be singing broadway songs about the increased profit that occurs when you don't have to pay for printing and physical delivery. Seriously what a bunch of bozos.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
It still doesn't solve the problem of eBooks being tied to Apple's ecosystem. Amazon is by no means great either, but it's much better than the Apple alternative.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
I can't see any reason why Amazon's DRM is any better than Apple's (and iBooks does use ePub). In either case you're locked into someone's ecosystem. I guess most of this comment is just an expression of your bias.
But, proprietary DRMs are, in my opinion, a major problem with eBooks; one that will keep me from buying them until it's resolved. (All of my eBooks are DRM free, public domain books.) But, until there's a standard, non-proprietary, DRM system for eBooks, if I need to buy a book, it's going to be a hard copy.
I'm still in the IPad is too big camp myself. Thus I still believe Apple will have a sub 7" device out sometime this year. It is a market they can't ignore.
As to the people that dis Kindle and the Nook, they need to realize that these highly optimized devices work really well in their intended application. More important the size is manageable. People that have in the past grabbed a paperback to read are not going to grab an iPad as a replacement. This was confirmed by me while on vacation over the holidays, you just don't see iPads around the pool.
I don't find the iPad too big - I find the 7" screens of some tabs too small, though, especially when trying to read PDFs that were originally 8.5 by 11.
I know that many people like the Kindle and it is optimized for what it does, but it is TERRIBLE for reading in bed at night because of the lack of backlight - that is totally unforgivable! I prefer to use the iPad where I can use Ibookstore products, OR Kindle eBooks, OR B&N eBooks, etc. That flexibility is what I prefer, the Kindle can't give me that today.
I can't see any reason why Amazon's DRM is any better than Apple's
It supports more platforms and devices. It's not great. In fact it is still pretty crap. It just happens to be less crap than the Apple's alternative.
If Apple offered DRM free eBooks and all major publishers I'd never look at Amazon again.
It supports more platforms and devices. It's not great. In fact it is still pretty crap. It just happens to be less crap than the Apple's alternative.
It supports one platform, Kindle, and it's no less crap than any other proprietary DRM.
Word that Random House could join on the iBookstore five of its biggest competitors -- HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Shuster -- comes just two days before Apple is expected to take the wraps off its second-generation iPad in San Francisco, a device that is rapidly altering the landscape of the publishing industry.
This has to be one of the most awkwardly worded sentences I have ever seen. I had to read it three times to understand what they were saying. You should rewrite it. How about "Word that Random House could join its five biggest competitors (HarperCollins ...) on the iBookstore comes just two days before...
BTW, I'm not a grammar nazi and almost never criticize a poster's grammar (I have made some exceptions when it was over the top), but this is a professional writer, and I expect him/her to write in a way that doesn't make me work so freakin' hard.
It supports more platforms and devices. It's not great. In fact it is still pretty crap. It just happens to be less crap than the Apple's alternative.
If Apple offered DRM free eBooks and all major publishers I'd never look at Amazon again.
Apple having DRM on their ebooks has nothing to do with Apple's desire, but the major publisher's insistence on adding it.
It's the same kind of deal with DRM on iTune music.
When I first bought my iPad I thought it would also be used as en Ebook reader but I think it's a bit too big and bulky to hold and read long periods of time. I actually bought a Kindle a couple of months ago and absolutely love the size, weight and reading on the e-ink text
What are the odds that iPad 2 will have an e-ink-like surface for e-book reading in direct sunlight, and will be able to switch to backlit IPS screen for gaming and other functions? This would destroy Amazon's readers in a single stroke.
It still doesn't solve the problem of eBooks being tied to Apple's ecosystem. Amazon is by no means great either, but it's much better than the Apple alternative.
If Apple remove DRM and switch to something like ePub and I'm all in... until then you'd be crazy to lock your book collection from now until forever into Apple.
Apple already uses ePub but with the Fairplay DRM. If they used the Adobe DRM that would be fine. If they supported Adobe DRM at least you could get library books and books from Nook or Sony and keep them in iBooks.
Apple having DRM on their ebooks has nothing to do with Apple's desire, but the major publisher's insistence on adding it.
It's the same kind of deal with DRM on iTune music.
I thought they removed DRM on music?
Apple already uses ePub but with the Fairplay DRM. If they used the Adobe DRM that would be fine. If they supported Adobe DRM at least you could get library books and books from Nook or Sony and keep them in iBooks.
Is Adobe's DRM freely licensed?
How about if Apple got together with a bunch of industry leaders and formed a new "Open DRM" (it sounds funny, I know) standard that was freely licensed to all members of the association? Kind of like the way h264 works.
No DRM would be best, but a freely licensed industry DRM would be the next best solution.