ePub eBooks From Apple Will Use FairPlay DRM

This has never been a question in my mind so I’m really shocked to see posts around wondering if the ePub eBooks sold through the iBookstore will have DRM.

Of course they will!

I Won’t Miss Flash. Here’s Why, In One Image.

The site for the Sony Reader used to load quickly. Recently they did a revamp and clogged it all to hell with Flash. I had to go there today to find out a two-second bit of information: What dictionaries were in the Sony Reader.

I had to wait forever for this crap Flash to load first!

Click = big

Count the spinning wheels! And those are only the ones on-screen. There’s a bunch more off-screen too!

(Don’t bother trying this on your iPhone. Sony might have an iPhone-friendly version of the site.)

My crap desktop PC is old. A 1.6GHz Celeron. But still — the CPU in the iPad is a 1GHz A4. How much of that CPU do you want to see wasted on some insane web designer’s Flash wanking?

Kill off Flash, Apple. And good riddance to it!

iPad: iBooks Software Will Have Dictionary Lookup?

That’s what I surmise from a list of iPhone OS 3.2 SDK features listed over at Engadget.

Included dictionaries: Apple Dictionary, New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, Shogakukan Daijisen, Shogakukan Progressive English-Japanese Japanese-English Dictionary, and Shogakukan Ruigo Reikai Jiten (may also be used for a Dictionary app perhaps?)

I understand the need for a dictionary for Pages. That’s necessary for spellcheck.

But with a dictionary baked in the OS anyway, adding dictionary word lookup to iBooks wouldn’t be a difficult thing.

Models of the Sony Reader with dictionary word lookup use New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford Dictionary of English.

The Kindle uses The New Oxford American Dictionary.

The Barnes & Noble Nook uses Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Also important:

Much richer text API including low-level access to font data and highlevel support for drawing formatted text

I don’t know if that will help eCrap ePub any. I suspect it’s more for a future use.

Archos To Do Seven-Inch Android Mini-Tablet

I was waiting for this shoe to drop!

Archos 7” Android Tablet appears for iPad-killer Price

Right now, it’s only a rumor.

But Archos has had a seven-inch mini-tablet for some time. It’s a frikkin beast — a metal-clad brick.

Sony Bets The Farm On 3D TV

I came in late to a live vidcast from CES of Sony announcing something called the Dash. I missed that completely and am disinclined to look it up so close to my sleep time.

I did, however, see Howard Stringer pimp and pimp and pimp for 3D TV. Discovery Channel 3D HD. ESPN 3D HD. PlayStation 3D. Blu-Ray 3D.

Did anyone out there ever ask for 3D? Anyone?

Ray Bradbury hates television being such a “distraction.” But he apparently owns a large flatscreen HDTV. That’s something I’ll never own.

And I will also never own a 3D HDTV, either.

I don’t care that no one would ever see me watching it …

… I still don’t want to risk looking like a dick while doing so.

At least Sir Howard had the sense not to imagine a 3D Sony Reader.

Is The Amazon Kindle An Outright Fraud?

Amazon Says Kindle and E-Book Sales Set Records

Amazon.com said Monday that its Kindle e-reader has become the most gifted item in the company’s history, but didn’t provide specific sales numbers.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

This is the game Amazon has been playing since the introduction of the Kindle. A “Look over there!” game of misdirection that smells of outright fraud.

It’s well past time for Amazon to put up or shut up.

Honest companies don’t continue to hide something like this.

Honest companies show transparency.

Honest companies understand that real numbers are related to real shareholder value.

What is Amazon’s game here?

Is it the standard Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt ploy? Put fear in the minds of your competitors, put uncertainty in the minds of book publishers, put doubt in the minds of eBook device buyers?

Listen, it’s been claimed that Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Lost Symbol sold 200,000 eBook editions. But that was available in multiple formats. Plus we’re not even certain that number is either truthful or accurate.

Doesn’t anyone realize what an absolutely crappy sales figure that is given the hype the Kindle has gotten since its introduction?

Sony slogged for years and years and years, plastering ads all over the place — and managed to sell “only” 300,000 Readers.

I put “only” in quotes there because compared to the non-existent number of Kindles out there, that’s the impression left in comparison.

FUD.

We have been through a decade of outright fraud as noted in this New York Times column by Frank Rich. The fraudulent invasion of Iraq, the fraudulent hype of Enron, the fraudulent low-interest mortgages.

I’m saying until Amazon releases a true number, it smells as fraudulent as the rest of those, period.

And all of you publishers in New York City? It’s time for you to grow some balls.

I’m giving you a task: The first week in January, all of you issue a joint press release stating what your largest eBook sellers have been on the Kindle.

I have a feeling all of you are going to be shocked at the low cards you’ve been holding, while thinking your “competitor” has been holding a high card, making money hand over fist via Amazon Kindle Store downloads.

Do it!

Let’s end this stench one way or another.

Why A 7-Inch iTablet Makes Sense

Ever since the rumors stated the iTablet would have a ten-inch screen, I’ve been uneasy about that possibility.

In one of those rumors, it was asserted that Apple was going with ten inches due to a decree by Steve Jobs himself that anything less was too small.

The more I thought about that, the more nonsensical it became.

First of all, Steve Jobs has seen what the iPhone has done to the Internet.

Second of all, what we think about as a “proper” screen size is about to undergo a revolution.

Sizes: Sony Reader Daily Edition Vs. Camangi WebStation

I was looking at some pictures of the Sony Reader Daily Edition on Flickr and a light went off in my dim head.

This is very interesting (photos are not to scale):

5″ x 8-1/8″ x 19/32″ without cover
5″ x 8-1/8″ x 23/32″ with cover
12.75 oz

4.72″ x 7.87″ x 0.57″
13.75 oz

The Camangi is actually smaller! It weighs one more ounce, however.

The screens are quite different in resolution: 600×1024 vs. 800×600.

On the other hand, the Camangi is color.

Perhaps most devastating: they are both US$399.00.

Yes, the Camangi lacks free 3G, but still.

I said the Nook at 12 ounces was too heavy for extending holding. The Sony Reader Daily Edition is heavier!

Updating the prior list now:

Nook: 11.2 ounces (actually 12!)
Cybook Opus: 5.3 ounces
Archos 7: 23 ounces
Archos 5IT: 6.4 ounces (32GB Flash)
Pocket Edition: 7.6 ounces
Touch Edition: 10.1 ounces
Daily Edition: 12.75 ounces
Camangi: 13.75 ounces

Sony Reader Touch Edition Slaughters Barnes & Noble Nook

Blame my stupidity for not thinking of this earlier!

We’ve had two posts now where the Barnes & Noble Nook failed with a significant ePub: The People of the Abyss by Jack London.

Barnes & Noble Nook Gets Trashed By Archos 5 Internet Tablet
Barnes & Noble Nook 1.1.0: Liza Reports

As of today, the situation was still this:

Opening The People of the Abyss still takes a long time (about 30 seconds, enough that I initially thought it wasn’t going to work at all). Jumping into a chapter takes long enough that I get an OS-level error saying that the application is stalled (answering “wait” will eventually work).

* Going backwards into a previous chapter still shows no loading message, when loading can take time.
* Moving between chapters in this edition still takes 20-30 seconds.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

So I asked librarian Robin Bradford to try it on her Sony Reader Touch Edition, which she just bought a few weeks ago. She reports:

So I tried the book.

There was not a noticeable difference between this book and others when turning pages or changing chapters.

The only slight difference was when a picture would come up. It would take an extra second for it to settle into focus. Focus may not be the right word, but I’m not sure what to call it. The words would all be there, and then the pic would settle in. By the time you noticed, everything was fine.

Moving between pages, or between chapters, was done with the speed of any other book.

Go Team Sony!

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Really, this is what I thought would happen with the Sony Reader Touch Edition. But I wanted it confirmed with a real test.

As I wrote earlier, if you must buy an eInk device:

Sony Reader Touch Edition is the best.

Previously here:

Barnes & Noble Nook 1.1.0: Liza Reports
Multi eInk eBook Device Fondle Report
Barnes & Noble Nook Gets Trashed By Archos 5 Internet Tablet

Barnes & Noble’s Incompatible Non-Universal ePub

I don’t know why this should shock anybody.

Still, it makes the PDF press release [PDF link] title all the more ironic:

Adobe and Barnes & Noble Join Forces to Standardize eBook Technology

“By standardizing on EPUB and collaborating with Adobe on a content protection standard based on Adobe technology, Barnes & Noble is delivering the richest range of content available, across a broader array of devices than anybody else,” said William J. Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com. “Consumers can feel confident that when they buy their digital content from BN.com, they can read it on more devices than any other bookstore.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Let me parse this.

By standardizing on EPUB — ah, good! Everyone except Kindle is on the same page now. ePub for everybody! You can buy ePub here, there, and even everywhere — at Barnes & Noble and all other ePub-pusher storefronts — and it will run on anything that uses ePub.

Um, no.

Because of this:

they can read it on more devices than any other bookstore — the key words are devices and bookstore. Meaning, those devices must run the software of the bookstore, meaning Barnes & Noble.

Which then makes the next sentence in that press release an outright lie:

This collaboration with Adobe further delivers on our commitment to provide the digital content our customers want, anytime, anywhere and on whatever device they choose.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

What if I choose a Sony Reader? Or a Cooler? Or Astak?

Out of luck.

Because of this:

Adobe is integrating Barnes & Noble’s eReader social content protection technology into Adobe Content Server, Adobe Reader Mobile SDK and, eventually, into Adobe Digital Editions.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Barnes & Noble’s eReader social content protection technology — this is the eReader DRM feature, which places the eBook buyer’s name and credit card number in the eBook file. So, if you pass that file on, there’s your name and credit card number for everyone to see.

No other device aside from the Nook and those running the Barnes & Noble eReader software can deal with this form of DRM.

ePubs purchased at Barnes & Noble will “stay in Barnes & Noble.”

The only hope is that as other manufacturers — Sony, et al — update their device firmware, they will add this method of DRM to it.

It’s not just device firmware, either: Adobe Digital Editions and Sony Library will both require updating too to handle this.

In summary: The Nook can read ePub with the special (for now) Barnes & Noble “social DRM” as well as all other Adobe DRM ePub files (from public libraries or bought even from Sony’s Reader Store). The reverse is not true: No device other than the Nook right now can process the new “social DRM” scheme the Nook uses.

When will ePub again be “universal?” Adobe says by the end of 2010.

How’s that for a hell of a wait?

Additional:

Customer FAQ: Adobe and Barnes & Noble