Comments on: ‘Sony Reader: Nice, but No iPod,’ Publishers Weekly reports

By: Moe

Moe — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:39:24 +0000

I have a Sony Reader and it is an excellent device. I can use it with a book light and there is no strain on my eyes. It is small and lightweight and I can carry many books (10 at the moment) easily. I can listen to audio books on it too (as long as they’re in the right format).

I am not sure why publishers view consumers as nuisances, but I am weary of it.

How about you try to make it work?

Why give me a good reason to buy someone else’s books?

By: McQ

McQ — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:31:02 +0000

re: ” one more proprietary format, reducing the enthusiasm of publishers who are sick of eBabel’s burden on them; ”

I still don’t get this. Sony needs content from book publishers to be interesting. Thus it’s in Sony’s best interest to provide the tools to convert the book *content* to something in their format. If the tools exist, then where’s the burden? It’s effectively the e-book equivalent of having multiple ways to ship a paper book — when a customer orders a book in a particular format, convert one for him and let him download it. You don’t even have to keep the converted form around afterwards (it’s just a speed/space trade-off). Heck, you can even just point him at the Sony story if he wants a BBeB book and squirt the content over to them for conversion/distribution.

Of course, the *content* is the real issue. How do you specify that “source material” that is fed to each eBook vendor? Well, obviously you want a single format for this, but it’s important to realize that this is _not_the_full_on_eBabel_problem_. For example, there’s no need for encryption or other DRM on this. The format only needs some reasonable way to express the basic content of the book (i.e. text + graphics + simple formatting, say an html subset) and can leave all the “hard bits” up to the person who wants to sell the book in that format.

Look at it this way: Music publishers don’t need to figure out how to implement the iTunes DRM, they let Apple do that. The “sound” that the comes from the Music publisher is the equivalent of the “source material” that should come from the Book publisher.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:11:14 +0000

Jake, what a terrific comparison. I myself like to use the example of having to buy proprietary reading glasses for books from different houses. – David

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:54:34 +0000

Well, best of luck with your Reader, Carl, and feel free to share your experiences here. – David

By: Carl Crist

Carl Crist — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:18:32 +0000

I bought a Sony Reader on Sunday. Is it perfect? No. But I’ve had the original Rocket eBook, the Hiebook, and the Ebookwise 1150. This is a very solid reader and the display is great. I’ve downloaded almost all my books in RTF and it displays them very well. I’ve also emailed Fictionwise and asked them if they were going to offer a Sony Reader compatible format for their multiformat books. They said that they are investigating it.

I still plan on making most of my book purchases in a non-DRM format, but it’s also nice to have the options of purchasing some of the “more popular” books.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:52:26 +0000

Thanks, Ellen! And remember, that invitation to do a Reader appreciation still holds! Plus, I’ll welcome any of the usual, helpful Hage tips for newbies who are starting out with the Reader! – David

By: Dr. Ellen Hage

Dr. Ellen Hage — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:37:55 +0000

David, I didn’t mean that you are not telling the truth. I am afraid that I am already having Rocket ebook deja vu and I haven’t even touched the Sony reader yet. Hopefully, it will catch on. I too am a victim of proprietary formats since I own at least one device of each of the Gemstar/Nuvomedia/Franklin/Hiebook/Ebookwise/Kolin/Librie. Yes, I wish that I could move those books to my Sony ereader when it gets here, but I am trying to accept the fact it ain’t gonna happen. So when those devices hit the dust so will my many books. The bright side is that my Cybook is still doing well and so is my T/X. Now if I could move my almost 500 books off those devices to the reader, I ‘d be in heaven. Maybe one day. For right now I would just like people to try the experience of reading a book without paper.

Keep up the hard work David!

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:34:50 +0000

Wouldn’t it be slightly ridiculous to consider a p-book as a “reading device” (although technically it is certainly that)?
And yet this is how we (of necessity) tend to see the digital print world. We conceive of “playing” print files on a “player”. I hope that someday we can get away from this “device-centric” view entirely. In fact I believe that at some point we will look back at “e-book reading devices” with the kind of whimsical nostalgia we reserve for horseless carriages and wireless sets. Electronic paper does not have to be an “ipod”. It can be seen as a medium rather than a device. All you need is a way to transmit an electrical charge to particles (via wireless signal, barcode, RFID chip, memory etc.) and voila! a page turns.

Picture a sheet of paper that just happens to display print which can be updated electronically, whether with today’s news or an annotated edition of Moby Dick. The medium is common as sand (think paper).
The interface: whatever you want it to be. If e-paper becomes ubiquitous (sounds pie-in-the-sky now, but you might be suprised in a few years) the hardware issue kind of goes away. That’s why I wholeheartedly support open standards. Don’t kid yourself, the eventual stakes here are infinitely larger than a simple, cozy e-book reader.

Pretend that way back in history, Sony or Philips (or e-ink Inc) “invented” and held the patent for tree-based, printable paper. Can you conceive of the royalties due? Very big stakes indeed …

By: KP

KP — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 15:14:52 +0000

The current crop of ebook readers is still abysmal, both technically and ergonomically, and prospective non-technical readers shouldn’t be led to think that they are ready for prime time. The iLiad and its ilk are getting there, but they are still pretty much beta-stage products. Maybe the next 5-10 years will bring both workable devices, and what’s more important, workable e-books (i.e. things you can actually own and do with what you will instead of just renting them on a hyper-restrictive license the publisher can revoke almost at will).

As a consumer, I won’t be buying any reader device until they get their act together and agree to a format that works on any device, anywhere. It’s not like coming up with a multi-platform format is rocket science, the only thing stopping it is greed and stupidity (greed for money and the power to control supply, stupidity for not realising that it’s the very reason why the market is so immature).