Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 released

[Kumabjorn]

Like any Company, Sony is concerned about its bottom line. Especially after the last few years when they've been in the red. However, Japanese companies in general, Believe that a healthy bottom line is the result of good customer relations. Buying a cell phone in Japan is a two hour endeavor, every Little detail will be explained to you so that you can utilize it to the fullest when you leave the store. Bloatware for example are rarely apps, just download shortcuts, so if you don't need or use a certain app it never takes up more than 20 kB on your phone. Japanese vendors consider this part of customer relations.

I have no details of the Sony - Kobo deal, but from my experience working in a Japanese company, I feel fairly certain that Sony's primary concern in cutting the deal was to not leave customers hanging. Either they have provided Kobo with access to the firmware or promised to implement any changes required (probably for some sort of payment) over a certain time span.

[robko]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

The Kobo readers have both the Adobe Mobile rendering engine and another one called ACCESS that is entirely independent of Adobe. Rakutan wanted their eReader to render text in Japanese, Chinese and Korean which the Adobe system couldn't do: hence dual rendering.

I'm going to say you're wrong on the reason the reason for dual rendering being that Rakutan wanted Japanese/Chinese. Dual rendering has been the case since the 1st Kobo which was long before Rakutan was anywhere in the wings. Asian font support was also added when they went after the Asian market before Rakutan came in to the picture.

[Kumabjorn]

The compny's name is Rakuten (Paradise)

[John F]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

Don't worry, your friend will be okay with her Sony T2.

Just a word about Kobo: they are a Canadian company mated with a Japanese conglomerate, and worldwide they are a major player in ebooks. For the US market they chose to sell their products through independent bookstores. ...

Their sales outlets vary over time (for hardware for the US.). You can also buy from the website. You can buy online from Best Buy. Also, the independent bookstores sometimes have quiet a lag as to when the hardware becomes available.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Either they have provided Kobo with access to the firmware or promised to implement any changes required (probably for some sort of payment) over a certain time span.

The way I read the announcements on this, it looks to me that Kobo is basically buying the customer list from the Sony store. I doubt Kobo will do anything with the firmware side and I can't really tell by reading how much Sony might do on the firmware side/Sony for PC side to integrate them to Kobo compatibility. And I do think that would be a totally separate issue to updating current (or older) device firmware to a new Adobe DRM. Really, from a business perspective, unless Adobe comes to their senses and doesn't break old device functionality, it's in Kobo's interest not to have Sony update so that users end up buying a new device (and hopefully a Kobo since the users are going to be ticked with Sony, not them, and for ease of use they are going to want another epub device).

[pssquirrel]

I agree that Sony readers are going to be royally screwed if this new hardened DRM gets enforced.

Unlike Kobo, Sony has never been big on updating software (which hasn't been much of a problem because the software is pretty good to start with). The last software update for the T2 was November 2012, over a year ago. Perhaps Sony will update the T3 (the latest model), but I really doubt they will bother updating the T2, T1, and older models, especially since they seem to be pulling out of the ereader market.

If Kobo upgrades to ACS 5 and enforces this new hardened DRM, I'm sure they will update their Kobo readers. But will anything be done for Sony orphans? I doubt it. Does Adobe realize this? Do they care?

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

Does Adobe realize this?

Probably.

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

Do they care?

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

If stopping piracy is all this is about then the whole thing is unnecessary. Other industries, the movie industry in particular, already solved the problem.

WOW - did I blink & miss that,

please explain when & how the movie industry solved the problem - are they hiring more lawyers, building bigger jails, or just buying shares in piratebay

Quentin will be pleased to hear that his script has not leaked after all
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014...-hateful-eight

and the stories about all the Oscar award short list films being on torrents already are obviously scurrilous
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-websites.html

[Akshayy]

Originally Posted by Jane12

Once booksellers and libraries start adopting this "hardened Adobe DRM," my friend won't be able to read any new books. And this is an ereader that's less than a year old and supposedly had the advantage of not being locked in to a single bookseller. Instead, she may soon be locked out of all booksellers and libraries. Does Adobe realize this is what's happening on the consumer end? Perhaps this new DRM will make the publishers happy, but it's a nightmare for the end-user -- i.e., the people who are just trying to read books.

For now , I can just say don't worry, besides if you have issues I can help resolve them.

Also just for discussion sakes, kobo uses acs 4.0 which is permanently old drm.
And lets say migrating server infrastructure is not an easy job and barnes and noble uses passhash, which is not affected by the new drm.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Akshayy

For now , I can just say don't worry, besides if you have issues I can help resolve them.

Also just for discussion sakes, kobo uses acs 4.0 which is permanently old drm.
And lets say migrating server infrastructure is not an easy job and barnes and noble uses passhash, which is not affected by the new drm.

This still doesn't address the problem of library books. If Overdrive goes with the new drm we won't be able to read library books. Since a lot of publishers don't like libraries I don't think publishers will care.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

This still doesn't address the problem of library books. If Overdrive goes with the new drm we won't be able to read library books. Since a lot of publishers don't like libraries I don't think publishers will care.

have overdrive made any public statements or has anyone emailed their customer support already ?

I see the 1st error report already on adobe boards ( & I note they never reply to what gets posted there - pretty much every post shows zero replies )

ADE3.0 cannot operate correctly with Overdrive library books when using a Sony PRS-350 (and ? other models)
ADE3.0 shows (almost?) exactly the same incorrect behaviour as reported for ADE2.0 over a year ago.
ADE1.7.2 continues to work fine.

With the Sony plugged in:
ADE3.0 cannot process a library .acsm file: No record for this loan is found on this machine.
With Sony unplugged it goes fine.
Fine with non-library DRM books with Sony plugged in.

If a library drm .epub has been previously downloaded, trying to open that gives same symptoms as (1) above.

Drag and drop a previously download library drm .epub onto PRS-350 gives 'No permission to copy this book'.
Works fine on 1.7.2

[dordale]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

I agree that Sony readers are going to be royally screwed if this new hardened DRM gets enforced.

Unlike Kobo, Sony has never been big on updating software (which hasn't been much of a problem because the software is pretty good to start with). The last software update for the T2 was November 2012, over a year ago. Perhaps Sony will update the T3 (the latest model), but I really doubt they will bother updating the T2, T1, and older models, especially since they seem to be pulling out of the ereader market.

In all fairness to Sony, when they switched to the ePub standard (from LRF) years ago, they put out updates for their outdated readers--at that time, the 500 and the 505. In fact, with the 500, if I recall correctly, folks had to send their reader in to Sony for the update--they may have had to pay shipping, but Sony didn't charge for the update. (This was in the United States, not sure about elsewhere in the world.)

That being said, I would have no expectations of Sony providing updates for their readers--especially their older readers. Although, I do hope they do. I still use my 350/650 quite a bit.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by dordale

In all fairness to Sony, when they switched to the ePub standard (from LRF) years ago, they put out updates for their outdated readers--at that time, the 500 and the 505. In fact, with the 500, if I recall correctly, folks had to send their reader in to Sony for the update--they may have had to pay shipping, but Sony didn't charge for the update. (This was in the United States, not sure about elsewhere in the world.)

That being said, I would have no expectations of Sony providing updates for their readers--especially their older readers. Although, I do hope they do. I still use my 350/650 quite a bit.

That was for a change that Sony themselves made. This is a change a different company is making, so Sony may feel they don't need to update readers that are more than three generations back.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

That was for a change that Sony themselves made. This is a change a different company is making, so Sony may feel they don't need to update readers that are more than three generations back.

Good point Purple Lady--and since Sony seems to be walking away from their e-readers at least in the United States and Canada--where they are closing down their eBook store, they really have no reason to continue to support their older readers.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

I agree that Sony readers are going to be royally screwed if this new hardened DRM gets enforced.

Unlike Kobo, Sony has never been big on updating software (which hasn't been much of a problem because the software is pretty good to start with). The last software update for the T2 was November 2012, over a year ago. Perhaps Sony will update the T3 (the latest model), but I really doubt they will bother updating the T2, T1, and older models, especially since they seem to be pulling out of the ereader market.

If Kobo upgrades to ACS 5 and enforces this new hardened DRM, I'm sure they will update their Kobo readers. But will anything be done for Sony orphans? I doubt it. Does Adobe realize this? Do they care?

The T1 was also updated to 1.0.5.11130 at the same time as the T2 update, but it was a very minor change:

• Unable to login to the Reader™ Store
• Removal of Google Books™ (dependent on Country / Region setting) as it is no longer supported via the Reader Store

I think they also may have plugged a vulnerability that allowed rooting the T1 with that update. My T1 is still on the previous update (1.0.04.12210) which was 6 months or a year before 1.0.5.11130. I seriously doubt they will release a major upgrade with a new RMSDK for the T1 (or the T2) although I could see them releasing a minor update to point the Sony Store to Kobo.

Edit: Actually, I misread the dates. The T1 was last updated in November 2012 and the T2 was last updated in November 2013, so the the last update for the T1 was over a year ago. I seriously doubt that Sony will update the T1's firmware... even to push customers to Kobo. I could be wrong, though.