View Single Post
Old 11-28-2008, 01:36 PM   #14
JasonWalton
Member
JasonWalton is on a distinguished road
 
Posts: 23
Karma: 64
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Device: None
I think the confusing multitude of formats out there right now is really hobbling the eBook industry as a whole. Geeks like us don't mind installing python to run some conversion tool, but not everyone is going to do that. I shudder at the idea of trying to walk my mother through a python install over the phone.

DRM is also going to be a huge problem for this industry, and the sooner that publishers realize the information density of books is so low that DRM makes no sense (someone can read the book and type it, people!), the sooner we'll see DRM evaporate. Baen and Tor already "get it", and it shows both in their pricing structure and their lack of DRM.

All that said, I don't like any of the "universal" conversion tools out there right now. I want something painfully easy to use. I want the iTunes of the eBook world, where I can plug in a reader or SD card, and drag and drop books to the reader, or synch my whole library, and the software will magically take care of the conversion for me.

Since nothing like that exists, AFAIK, I'm writing my own. I've hinted about this a few times. I hope to have something released by xmas, because I'm intending this to be an xmas gift for my wife. First release will probably not support nearly as many formats as I'd like, but I've often said my end goal is to make it so you really don't care what formats your next reader supports.
JasonWalton is offline   Reply With Quote