Um, can Adobe kindly tell us just who'll control the development and evolution of Mars---described as "an XML representation of PDF," which itself is Adobe-bossed except for PDF/A and related flavors? An "open" standard, even one using components from W3C, such as SVG, can still be as vendor-controlled as all get-out. Read on to the questions at the end of this post. See why Adobe just might be creating some major problem for itself and rivals within its beloved IDPF---after holding itself out as standards-friendly and trusting of the organization. Adobe's do-it-yourself Tower of eBabel? Between old-fashioned PDF, the OEBPS as currently...

...

"Mr. Brodie applied one drop of the empyreumatic oil of tobacco to the tongue of a cat; it occasioned immediate convulsions and an accelerated breathing. Five minutes after, the animal lay down on the side, and presented, from time to time, slight convulsive movements. A quarter of an hour after, it appeared recovered. The same quantity of the oil was applied again, and the animal died in two minutes." - An Essay on the Influence of Tobacco upon Life and Health, via nanybooks.net....

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is one of the giants of the global book trade, at least within such areas as technical books. So how does Joe Wikert, a vice president and executive publisher in the Professional/Trade Divsion, feel about Adobe Digital Editions, the new Adobe reader now in public beta? "I've played around with it for a few days now," he writes, "and I don't see what the big deal is. Sure, it's a nice little application that lets you organize and read your e-docs, but what's new and exciting here? I've been able to read PDFs on my...

If you own an iPod, you can use it to read a free excerpt of The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness by Steven Levy. Nice going, Claire. What's more, I'm delighted that Simon & Schuster is already selling the book in Adobe, Microsoft and Palm formats. E-books should appear when or even before p-books do. What better way to take advantage of the initial burst of publicity, especially if you want to reach audiences overseas? Meanwhile, S&S might also want to consider selling the entire Levy book for iPod reading, not just in the other formats. ...

Today, IDPF announced the release of the Open eBook Publication Structure Container Format 1.0 (OCF). This standard is a step forward and I congratulate all who made it a reality. It will be useful for many e-book applications. But the IDPF continues to paint the OCF as a much grander thing than it really is — making a mountain out of a mole hill. This is disturbing since IDPF refuses to address head-on the most important issues regarding the “Tower of eBabel,” such as an industry-wide standardization of a consumer-acceptable DRM system. For the details of OCF's suitable role in the digital...

[poll=18] Other than actual e-book reading software, what's more important than a good, reliable browser for us junkies--to aid in finding and downloading e-books? And yet I regard Firefox 2.0 as a major disappointment, now that I've used it in various versions. I love the new spell-checker for online forms, but even more than the betas, the supposed production version keeps crashing on my PC. Is this a typical experience? Despite denials, might 2.0 have major memory-handling problems? Meanwhile you can bet I'm saving my blog drafts very often. Grrr!...

Will this architect's sketch for a new library in Lawrence, Kansas, be obsolete soon---whether or not a library is built? Will e-books and bookstores will kill off libraries or vice versa, in other words? That's what LISNews readers are chewing over in the wake of a London Times article suggesting that public libraries could go the way of public baths. U.K. vs. U.S. library use Library use is declining in the U.K., while the opposite is true in the U.S., as noted by various LISNews contributors. Ah, but nuances abound. Is the U.K. situation somewhat unique, given all the questions about...

The newly released container format from the IDPF is progress but far from a full solution. Read my Publisher's Weekly article from August for details. Still unresolved are such issues as incompatible DRM schemes and the possibility of excessive use of vendor-controlled standards such as Flash without adequate alternatives. As for OpenReader, we'll happily pick up the basic IDPF container format since it's just a twist on one associated with the OpenDocument format and we're interested in minimizing compatibility problems. Thanks, guys. (Via Roland.)...

I'll get to an e-book angle in time, but first here are two questions. What's missing in this screenshot from the New York Times's mobile edition? And why am I spending more time than before with the rival Washington Post edition for cellphones and PDAs? Well, look carefully and you'll see the New York Times no longer has a read-entire-article option at the bottom of each page of long stories. The mobile edition will give me the news only in shorter pieces. So now I must use the stylus or my finger much more often than before since, yes, I do...

Could Universe 3 be the solution for Palm owners who want to browse e-book sites that have yet to be optimized for cell phones and PDAs? The lowdown at Palm Infocenter looks promising: "Its main features will include the ability to have up to three browser tabs, HTML / XHTML / WML support and an integrated RSS reader." Features in the present beta---sorry, you need to sign up for the program, and no new slots are available now---include: A Tabbed interface (supporting up to 3 tabs) An address bar featuring a url box and navigation buttons An Integrated RSS reader Private browsing (mask the...

Here, from MobileRead. Also see past TeleRead posts on PL. Will an Amazon connection come about, assuming there isn't one already? The old Kindle rumors just adds to the fun. ...