On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:24 AM, Eric Scoles <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > On 2009-02-19, Linda G <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> .... There's industry speculation that Apple >> may jump into the ebook business in the near future, which would add >> considerable momentum. ... >> > > When Apple moves into the ebook business, it will be with an offering that > leverages all their existing strengths without adding much of anything new. > That's how they work.* I doubt it will make much of an initial splash, but > will probably end up shaping the way ebooks are sold (not least because > they'll patent the user interaction so it can't be used by anyone else, > which could even lead to a 'negative shaping'). It will probably use iTunes > as the delivery vector, and will work on Macs and Windows PCs, iPhones, and > iPod Touch only, no separate e-reader hardware and no Linux support until > someone creates it. > > [snip] > > iPhone/iPod already does this to at least a degree. PDF is readable this way, and many books are available as PDF via iTunes. Maybe not via the Store, yet, but at the very least via podcasts. I have several delivered as promotional material in 'casts to which I listen (EscapePod, Sigler's Bloodcast, Darker Projects, etc.). I'm not sure what other formats are available right now, but it's not going to take much, particularly when iPhone is running OS X. Oh, and while the underpinnings of OS X are not necessarily new creations, the integration into the OS X GUI and hardware itself is significant innovation. The :it just works: thing you mention. Having switched to Ubuntu for financial reasons, I can say that the KDE/GNome experience is not as smooth as OS X. Installation of new software, while helped greatly by the Synaptic Package Manager, is still a bit more difficult. But there are things I can do in Ubuntu that I can't do in OS X. Not many, but a few. I'm sure there are more, but those are likely things I'm not interested in - at least not yet. I'm very much looking forward to the day I switch back to Mac full time. -- Dave Henn [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
