iPad What will iPad do for e-books?

[DawnFalcon]

Never mind

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by krischik

Why do you think so? Apple dropped DRM from iTunes - why should they introduce DRM into iBooks?

I didn't say I expected this to happen, just that I'm afraid this might happen. Turn it around - why would you expect they wouldn't introduce a new, draconian, DRM system for e-books as they enter the market when they introduced a new, draconian DRM system for mp3s when they entered that market?

Hopefully it won't happen, but I wouldn't rule it out completely, especially since they've said they want to see e-book prices go up by 50%, and they're going to need some way of keeping Amazon's books off the iFap to pull that off.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by charleski

Since legibility is the basic requirement for type which must supersede all other issues, I find this statement bizarre in the extreme. A 200dpi device is automatically better than a 132dpi one for displaying type.

If their contrast is equal and if they are both equally capable of using hinting to offset their limitations. They are not.

[sibelhodge]

Another interesting article http://the-tech-guru-radlett.blogspo....html?spref=tw

Sibel

[Yoshi 1080]

Originally Posted by krischik

Why do you think so? Apple dropped DRM from iTunes - why should they introduce DRM into iBooks?

Martin

Apple only dropped DRM for music. However, it still uses DRM on audiobooks and movies, because that's what those industries demand. Considering that all mayor publishers currently want DRM, I wouldn't be surprised to see the EPUB iBooks DRM'ed as well. After all, Apple is new to the market and has to play by their rules. I think the book industry is especially problematic, because most of them don't even want eBooks in the first place and still live in an analog world.

Hopefully, the piracy rates for movies and eBooks will reach such a high point that eventually those industries will have to drop DRM as well. Only without DRM these digital markets can really flourish.

[neilmarr]

***one has to question just how much impact it will actually have on e-book publishing***

Exactly, Pardoz. Ebook facility is a mere also-ran with this new machine. I guess that's OK because Amazon made no promises to the contrary. I can't see the iPad encouraging people to read books -- too many bells, whistles and other attractions. It's ebook-DEDICATED devices (cheap as hell with fair title prices) that will increase the popularity of reading for pleasure. This is just a pretty smart new gizmo that can handle ebooks as an incidental, like your PC, laptop, netbook and phone. Neil

[charleski]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

If their contrast is equal and if they are both equally capable of using hinting to offset their limitations. They are not.

For those with normal vision, global contrast has a far lower impact on the readability of text than resolution. The eye's contrast sensitivity function peaks at around 6-8 cycles per degree, and the closer the device can get to matching that the better.

Here's an example: 'Il1' in Times New Roman. The text on the right is rendered at half the point size of that on the left then scaled by 200% without interpolation so both elements are the same size, but with half the resolution on the right. The 'l' on the left is 17 pixels high. The contrast on the left is markedly lower, yet the text is far more legible, in fact the 'I' and 'l' on the right have blended together and look more like a Cyrillic capital delta.


As for hinting, while Apple developed the technology for use with their original laser printer, they have long-since altered their approach to font rendering. Hinting deliberately distorts character shapes to align them with the pixel grid and produce sharper borders. Apple's current anti-aliasing scheme is designed to retain character shapes and mimic the overall appearance of text on the page in print (the 'typographic colour'). Lots of people like it, and it works well when using large sizes which give the rendering engine lots of pixels to play with. But small text turns into mush.

I'm not privy to the inner secrets of exactly how Apple's text rendering engine works, but it certainly doesn't use hinting in the same manner as MS's ClearType. ClearType produces much sharper text, but only properly works with fonts that have been specifically designed for it from the ground up and can introduce clearly visible distortions in character shapes.

[deltop]

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitaleditions/

No adobe support. Apple's own flavour it seems.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by deltop

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitaleditions/

No adobe support. Apple's own flavour it seems.

FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

I can't say I'm surprised though. Jobs would have had to swallow a lot of pride to use Adobe's DRM on an Apple product, and he's a very fussy eater.

[Sweetpea]

Nothing. People will grow tired of the huge and heavy device for general reading very fast.

Magazines? They might take off once more and more larger sized screens will show up.

[tommywjf]

Kindle 2 sales would not be affected by this iPad. I will no way bring this iPad to my bed to read the novels. But there is a problem with Kindle DX since it is targeted to bring text- and tech- books to customers (as Amazon has distributed Kindle DX to some universities), but iPad is just far better than DX in displaying such books and plus 10 bucks only. Therefore I suppose any similar attempts (10-inch ereaders) would not be successful this year and later on.

Any thoughts?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Nothing. People will grow tired of the huge and heavy device for general reading very fast.

Magazines? They might take off once more and more larger sized screens will show up.

Agreed. I'd still like one, though, but not for reading ebooks. I think it would be great as a portable writing device. Of course, the iWorks word processor costs extra, and if you want the AT&T wireless, that will set you back about $15/month, and only works on the higher-priced model.

It's probably best that I can't afford one at present.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Second, I think e-ink screens will be obsoleted within a year (unless we get color and then only if it's implemented well).

I'm not so sure. The e-ink screen is very easy on the eyes when you do a lot of heavy reading and don't care for fast refresh rates but rather stick with great battery life, a normal lcd/oled screen isn't going to be able to match this.

[deltop]

http://blog.kobobooks.com/

Kobo obviously isn't iBooks, but they seem pretty confident they'll have an app for iPad. Either they know they'll be allowed on the platform or it hasn't occured to them Apple might not allow other ebook apps.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

As their clear embracing of DRM with the iPad shows, it wasn't Apple's idea to cut DRM from iTunes, EMI forced them into it. Said that for a long time.

I understand your obvious stance about Apple, but I've seen no proof Apple didn't drive cutting DRM from music on their own. I'm interested to read your reasoning.

No one asked, but here is mine:

Apple cares about selling more iPods/iPhones/iPads. Whether content has DRM or not doesn't change that. An iPod still plays music if it has DRM or not. An iPhone plays non-DRMed video, music, and can read non-DRMed books as well.

The industries (music, film, publishing) care very much about DRM.

When Apple first started the iTunes Store, it was to drive sales of the iPod. They had no clout, and no power over the music industry. They accepted DRM readily as a requirement, because they didn't have a choice. Once the iTunes Store gained popularity, Apple suddenly had clout, and power, and could dictate terms.One of those terms was removing DRM. Why did the music industry allow it?
1) Apple had power they didn't have before. 2) The music industry wanted something Apple didn't want-variable pricing. They traded-Apple got DRM-free music, the industry got variable pricing. Which tells me, at least, that it was Apple driving the removal of DRM, from music.

That is how I see things occurring, based on the evidence I've seen. If you have proof of events happening otherwise, I am interested in seeing it.

So yes, yes, but what about MOVIES? what about BOOKS? Huh? HUH??? They are EMBRACING DRM!!

I know its difficult to believe, but there are different industries. Apple has no leverage over publishers (yet), and has no leverage over film/TV studios (yet). So, they are back to where they are with movies and books as they were with music at the beginning.

Do they CARE about DRM on this content? I think what they care about, is selling more iPods/iPhones/iPads. I think the film and book publishers care very much about DRM still, and won't let Apple remove DRM. So Apple can either accept what the film and book publishers terms are (for now), or not offer anything at all.

Is that a different interpretation of events than anyone else has? I mean, not colored by an obvious distaste for anything with an Apple logo? Has any other major consumer hardware company managed to make DRM free deals with film/TV/publishing? Microsoft? Asus? Acer? Amazon?

I just think there is a huge difference between accusing a company of "embracing DRM", instead of just seeing that they do what they have to to play by the rules of someone else (in this case, the publishers)