Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
Some one please correct me if I am wrong, but I beleive that Amazon created its own proprietary book format becuase they wanted to have super fast page turns. Perhaps the Kindle 3 is the answer, I believe it can handle the required paper size. My readers can't handle the screen size so I will not talk about them.
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No. Amazon bought French ebook publisher MobiPocket back in 2006, and the native Kindle format is based on the MobiPocket format, which is essentially an encapsulated subset of HTML. Amazon's main change to Mobi's work was a proprietary tweak on the DRM provided, whose intent was to lock you into Amazon as the vendor for purchased, DRM protected content. (You can get DRM protected content in Mobi format from other vendors, but must strip the DRM to read it on a Kindle. Content in Mobi format
not encumbered with DRM may be side-loaded and read on a Kindle regardless of source.)
The Mobi viewer from MobiPocket is available for the PC, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry, and several other formats, and predates eInk.
It appears that Amazon bought MobiPocket because Adobe had ceased selling and supporting its own electronic publishing system, leaving Amazon with little choice but to find a different solution when they decided to get into ebooks.
Fast page turns are less a matter of the underlying ebook format than the display technology. eInk screens and display controllers controllers have seen development since the early devices, and page turns are faster.
If you use a device with an LCD display, the question is moot, as the eInk based limitations don't apply.
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Dennis