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stxopher · 03-11-2007, 10:28 AM

Trying not to be a Sony fanboi here (because I'm not. They generally are on my "Do Not Buy" list.) but they have a bad position here no matter how it goes. If they try and make a PDF program completely compliant with Adobe standards will it be used? Out of 2 gigs of PDFs here and at work, NONE of them are really anything more than page snapshots. Any documents that need page changes, style alterations or graphic inputs are saved in HTML with CSS sheets or as a RTF with stlye settings. Why? Just the way we get them. I'm assuming it's because more office and design people understand Office better than Acrobat.

So should Sony have just left PDF out? Well, probably not. Documents actually formatted FOR the reader look great. The problem there is most documents already in existence are not formatted for something that small. All that may change soon with so many readers coming out in this particular size. This particular display and storage format is just starting to work its way into business and will still take time before people start making either reflowable docs (which few know how yet) or just make a second "portable" version sized for these newfangled thingamajigs all these new bucks are carrying.

Could Sony have made a better PDF interpreter? Again, probably not. I say that because some innovations are just better left to smaller groups and not committees and "innovation teams". How many years has Sony been working on this reader (especially if you consider the foundation already laid with the Libre)? And yet within a few months of release some non-commercial, no-name, non-profit people are already massively increasing the usability of the reader. (Hmmmm, wonder who those people would be?)

Sonys best bet might just be to provide basic tools and hardware and stand back. In my opinion, that is almost ALWAYS best now. Most of us can't build a reader but more than a few of us can sure alter it and that is what is happening right now. A group with an actual interest in the device is shaping its growth and path instead of leaving it entirely in the hands of someone whose only (understandable) interest is their bottom line.

The problem that will soon come to pass is will Sony be able to resist their normal impulses to lock down the hardware so it can't be altered? They do love to make sure great hardware can't be used in ways they didn't design. Hopefully they will take the Roomba approach on this matter. (For those of you who don't know, Roomba makes a line of robotic floor vacuums that have sold fairly well. Some people took to altering them and using the units as robotic starting points for projects. So what did Roomba do? Find some way to protect their product from being misused or altered? Err, no, they saw a demand and filled it. They offer a different version of the vacuum without the actual vacuum, just the body, motor and robotics and market it cheaper to those people wanting it. For some reason it went over very well.)

AARRrrggghhh! Even though the reader is an excellent hippo and ninja deterrent, it still has a ways to go to prevent "excessive opinionated run-on messaging" syndrome. Maybe in the next release.....

03-11-2007, 10:28 AM	#24
stxopher Nameless Being	Trying not to be a Sony fanboi here (because I'm not. They generally are on my "Do Not Buy" list.) but they have a bad position here no matter how it goes. If they try and make a PDF program completely compliant with Adobe standards will it be used? Out of 2 gigs of PDFs here and at work, NONE of them are really anything more than page snapshots. Any documents that need page changes, style alterations or graphic inputs are saved in HTML with CSS sheets or as a RTF with stlye settings. Why? Just the way we get them. I'm assuming it's because more office and design people understand Office better than Acrobat. So should Sony have just left PDF out? Well, probably not. Documents actually formatted FOR the reader look great. The problem there is most documents already in existence are not formatted for something that small. All that may change soon with so many readers coming out in this particular size. This particular display and storage format is just starting to work its way into business and will still take time before people start making either reflowable docs (which few know how yet) or just make a second "portable" version sized for these newfangled thingamajigs all these new bucks are carrying. Could Sony have made a better PDF interpreter? Again, probably not. I say that because some innovations are just better left to smaller groups and not committees and "innovation teams". How many years has Sony been working on this reader (especially if you consider the foundation already laid with the Libre)? And yet within a few months of release some non-commercial, no-name, non-profit people are already massively increasing the usability of the reader. (Hmmmm, wonder who those people would be?) Sonys best bet might just be to provide basic tools and hardware and stand back. In my opinion, that is almost ALWAYS best now. Most of us can't build a reader but more than a few of us can sure alter it and that is what is happening right now. A group with an actual interest in the device is shaping its growth and path instead of leaving it entirely in the hands of someone whose only (understandable) interest is their bottom line. The problem that will soon come to pass is will Sony be able to resist their normal impulses to lock down the hardware so it can't be altered? They do love to make sure great hardware can't be used in ways they didn't design. Hopefully they will take the Roomba approach on this matter. (For those of you who don't know, Roomba makes a line of robotic floor vacuums that have sold fairly well. Some people took to altering them and using the units as robotic starting points for projects. So what did Roomba do? Find some way to protect their product from being misused or altered? Err, no, they saw a demand and filled it. They offer a different version of the vacuum without the actual vacuum, just the body, motor and robotics and market it cheaper to those people wanting it. For some reason it went over very well.) AARRrrggghhh! Even though the reader is an excellent hippo and ninja deterrent, it still has a ways to go to prevent "excessive opinionated run-on messaging" syndrome. Maybe in the next release.....