TidBITS#932/09-Jun-08
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/932>
At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference today, Steve Jobs
announced just about everything that was predicted, but that didn't
detract from the news. Arriving July 11th, the new iPhone 3G will
sport increased 3G cellular bandwidth, built-in GPS, and the iPhone
2.0 software - priced at $199 for the 8 GB version and $299 for the
16 GB version (in black or white). We've been crunching hard all day
to bring you the details from today's event, including more
information on the App Store, the .Mac replacement MobileMe, and a
limited sighting of Snow Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X due
sometime in the middle of 2009. For those less interested in iPhone
news, Adam debunks David Pogue's recent claims about ebook piracy,
and in the TidBITS Watchlist, we note the releases of Canon Print
Driver 1.1, Brother Print Driver 1.1, the Typinator HTML Snippet
Set, Default Folder X 4.0.6, DragThing 5.9.3, and Differencia 1.1,
as well as Leopard boot DVDs for Data Rescue II and Drive Genius 2.
Articles
Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Focus on Performance, Not Features
Apple Announces iPhone 3G to Ship on 11-Jul-08
More iPhone App Store Details Revealed
iPhone 2.0 Poised for the Enterprise
.Mac Morphs into MobileMe
No, David Pogue, Ebook Piracy is Not a Given
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 09-Jun-08
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/09-June-08
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Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Focus on Performance, Not Features
-----------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9651>
At the beginning of the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote,
Apple announced it would provide information about the next version
of Mac OS X - code-named Snow Leopard - after the keynote. Since all
the content at WWDC other than the keynote is covered by
non-disclosure agreements, it seemed that Apple didn't plan to talk
in public about what we could expect.
However, a press release about Snow Leopard appeared late in the day
revealing some details. Instead of adding marquee features like Time
Machine and Spaces, Snow Leopard will instead focus on enhancing
performance and reliability and lay the foundation for future
features. In particular, Snow Leopard will be optimized for
multi-core processors, be able to tap into the computing power of
modern graphic processing units (GPUs), make it possible to address
up to 16 TB of RAM, ship with QuickTime X, and provide
out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in Mail, iCal,
and Address Book.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09snowleopard.html>
A new technology code-named "Grand Central" will make it easier for
developers to create applications that make the most of multi-core
Macs, which should let people get more from those 8-core Mac Pros.
Additional performance gains will come from support for Open
Computing Language (OpenCL), a new language from Apple that
supposedly lets any application access the gigaflops of computing
power previously available only to graphics applications. Apple says
that OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been
proposed as an open standard; the only hints about it up to now came
in an interview with the Nvidia CEO.
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9962117-37.html>
QuickTime X will reportedly optimize support for modern audio and
video formats for more-efficient media playback. It seems likely
that QuickTime is due for a major rewrite, given how long it has
been around. Finally, Safari will receive JavaScript performance
enhancements that are intended to provide an enhanced user
experience for Web applications, perhaps due to a new JavaScript
engine called SquirrelFish that's recently seen the light of day.
<http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish>
The press release said that Snow Leopard is slated to ship "in about
a year," and I'm sure more details will start leaking out as
developers receive seeds. Overall, my initial reaction is that Snow
Leopard is a very good move for Apple, because the focus on adding
features in favor of performance has meant that Mac OS X has become
increasingly poky for many users. And I suspect that people are no
longer responding as favorably to long lists of features that they
may or may not use - although I use them happily, none of the new
features in Tiger or Leopard have radically changed the way I use my
Mac. Apple touts Mac OS X as being rock-solid and easy to use
(especially compared to Windows), so enhancing the engine under
Leopard's hood could be just what many people are looking for in the
next update.
It can be difficult to convince users to pay for better performance
and more efficient workings under the hood, but perhaps Apple will
charge less than the usual $129. Or, perhaps Apple will give Snow
Leopard away for free, in preparation for a Mac App Store that will
give Apple a cut of every Mac application sold. But that's just
crazy talk... or is it?
Apple Announces iPhone 3G to Ship on 11-Jul-08
----------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9647>
Ending months of speculation and rumor, Steve Jobs today announced
that the first major revision to the iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 3G,
will ship on 11-Jul-08 for $199 (8 GB) or $299 (16 GB). The iPhone
2.0 software, which will be a free upgrade for all current iPhone
owners, will also debut on that date. iPod touch owners will be able
to upgrade to the new software for $9.95.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09iphone.html>
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/>
The iPhone 3G will launch initially in 22 countries, with Apple
aiming for availability in more than 70 countries by the end of
2008. To illustrate the complexity in such a device, Apple said in a
briefing that the iPhone 3G has 10 radios, 7 of them covering the
various spectrum slices used around the world.
**New Hardware** -- As you might expect from the name, the iPhone 3G
supports third-generation cellular data networking that operates
over eight times faster than the EDGE data support in the first
iPhone model. Apple claims just a factor of 2 to 3 times faster
Web-page loading and email-attachment downloading. AT&T's flavor of
3G also makes it possible to use data-based services while you're
talking on the phone.
The iPhone 3G's enhanced networking capabilities don't come at the
expense of previous capabilities, and the device can switch among
3G, EDGE, and Wi-Fi as needed. The iPhone 3G can be set to use only
2G networks when that's necessary, which might be the case in
reducing roaming charges outside of one's home carrier network.
The other major hardware enhancement in the iPhone 3G is a GPS
receiver, which enhances the current iPhone's cell tower
triangulation and nearby Wi-Fi network sniffing to provide more
accurate position and real-time location mapping and tracking over
time. In the keynote, Jobs demonstrated a drive the company
"recorded" down San Francisco's famous curvy Lombard Street, with
the Maps application playing back the progress over the same time
duration, pulsating a ring of blue as a blue dot moved.
A GPS receiver can drain power from a mobile device quite rapidly -
that's why they're often used while plugged in to an automobile. But
in a briefing, Apple explained that the GPS receiver was engaged
only while Maps was active, or when a program that called on Core
Location features in the iPhone 2.0 software was using the GPS. The
iPhone will ask your permission before allowing an application to
use the location hardware, too.
It remains to be seen if Apple or another developer will add spoken
directions. Technically speaking, the iPhone 3G supports Assisted
GPS, or A-GPS, which increases accuracy and improves performance by
offloading some processing to a remote server. The GPS capabilities
also enable photo geotagging, although the iPhone's built-in camera
remains stuck at a mere 2 megapixels.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGPS>
Less sexy but equally useful is the iPhone 3G's improved battery
life in standby and talk time. Apple provides the following
estimates, although our experience with all vendor battery life
estimates is that they're optimistic and seldom reflect real-world
usage (since, for instance, you would likely perform a variety of
these actions over the course of a normal day of iPhone usage).
* Up to 300 hours of standby time
* 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks
* 5 hours of talk time on 3G networks
* 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi) hours of Web browsing
* Up to 7 hours of video playback
* Up to 24 hours of audio playback
The iPhone 3G uses 3G for talk when connected to 3G networks, and
that reduces talk time by half, as you can see. With a switch in
Settings, you can force the iPhone to use 2G networks to extend talk
time or reduce data roaming bills when you're roaming away from
home.
Physically, the iPhone 3G is almost identical to the original
iPhone. Apple's specs page shows it increasing in depth by .02
inches (.7 mm) and decreasing in weight by .1 ounces (2 grams), not
something we can imagine anyone but a dock manufacturer noticing or
caring about.
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html>
TidBITS editor Glenn Fleishman spent a few minutes with an iPhone 3G
during an Apple briefing, and found that despite the tiny changes in
weight and size that it was noticeably lighter - he compared by
holding his 2G iPhone in one hand and an iPhone 3G in the other -
and nicer to hold.
However, the original iPhone's easily scratched chrome back has been
replaced with plastic - black by default, although there's an option
for white in the 16 GB model. And the headphone jack is now flush
with the case, something that garnered big applause from the WWDC
audience. (The original model's recessed jack meant some third-party
headsets wouldn't fit without use of an adapter.) Jobs claimed that
the iPhone 3G also boasts dramatically better audio quality thanks
to better built-in speakers.
<http://images.apple.com/iphone/images/specs_colors20080609.jpg>
**iPhone 2.0 Software** -- Current iPhone and iPod touch owners won't
have to buy an iPhone 3G to take advantage of other new features,
however, since the iPhone 2.0 software that drives the iPhone 3G is
also available to the earlier devices. The iPhone 2.0 software will
enable users to move and delete multiple email messages at once,
search for contacts, use a new scientific calculator (merely by
flipping the iPhone to landscape orientation when displaying the
current calculator), turn on parental controls to restrict specified
content, and save images directly from a Web page or send them to
your iPhone via email (from which they can then be transferred back
to the Mac).
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/>
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/calculator.html>
Some users will particularly appreciate the capability to view (but
not edit) email-attached documents from the iWork suite within the
Mail program: Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, along with Microsoft
PowerPoint (joining the existing support for Word and Excel
documents). And, finally, the iPhone's Calendar app now supports
multiple iCal calendars, instead of grouping every event into one
calendar.
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/calendar.html>
There's a subtle change that Apple discussed in a briefing when
asked about the ability to enable Wi-Fi and disable cell radios in
aircraft, since many airlines in the United States will be launching
on-board Internet access using Wi-Fi in the next few months. An
existing Airplane Mode in Settings turns off all radios when
enabled; Apple said that the iPhone 2.0 software would allow Wi-Fi
to be switched back on after Airplane Mode was engaged. This would
also let you extend battery life by disabling 9 of the 10 on-board
radios if you didn't need voice calling. (Like cell radios, GPS
receivers are illegal to use in flight.)
Of course, we anticipate that the most interesting applications will
come from third-party developers who have now been using the iPhone
SDK (software development kit) for three months to create a wide
range of programs. 250,000 people downloaded the free iPhone SDK,
and 25,000 applied for the paid developer program, but only 4,000
have been admitted to the developer program so far.
During the WWDC keynote, Apple brought a number of developers on
stage to show their applications and make the expected platitudes
about how wonderful it was to develop for the iPhone. Sega, Pangea
Software, and Digital Legends Entertainment showed off games that
took advantage of the built-in accelerometer and gestures; eBay
demoed a native application for bidding in auctions; two companies
presented medical applications; the Associated Press and MLB.com
showed news-related programs; and the social-networking site Loopt
used the iPhone 3G's location capabilities to show the location of
your friends. The developer who garnered the most applause, however,
was a lone developer named Mark Terry from Moo Cow Music, whose Band
program lets iPhone users mix songs using a variety of instruments.
<http://moocowmusic.com/Band/>
All iPhone applications, free or commercial, will be available via
the new App Store; see "More iPhone App Store Details Revealed"
(2008-06-09) for more.
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/9646>
**Pricing and Availability** -- Jobs acknowledged that one of the
major challenges Apple faced with the original iPhone was the price,
which started out at $599 for an 8 GB model. The first price cut
dropped that to $399 (see the details at the end of "Apple
Introduces iPod touch, Wi-Fi iTunes Store, and New iPods,"
2007-09-10), and Apple has now reduced the price yet again, cutting
it in half to $199 in the United States, and he said it would cost
the same or less worldwide. That's for a black 8 GB model; for 16 GB
of RAM, you'll pay $299, and you'll get the choice of a black or
white back.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9152>
Although it's hard to argue with Apple dropping the iPhone's price
by $200, a fact that came out only after the keynote is that 3G
service plans will increase by $10 per month for personal plans, and
$25 per month for business plans. That makes the cheapest package
$70 per month. Historically, Apple has received a share of revenue,
but Ars Technica is reporting that the revenue-sharing deal hasn't
been extended to the new model, along with the fact that current
iPhone users who want to upgrade will be able to do so by starting a
new 2-year contract, not adding another 2 years on top of the
remaining contract commitment. Instead of the revenue sharing deal,
AT&T is subsidizing the price of iPhones, according to the
Associated Press, a standard cellular-phone pricing arrangement.
<http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/06/09/att-remains-sole-iphone-carrier-in-us-revenue-sharing-axed>
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHJEtMffp-_0zKP9QU7QkBMhuOXgD916PAOO5>
(Don't cry for AT&T: with the cheapest personal service plan,
they'll realize about $500 more in revenue over two years with the
higher fee and no revenue sharing than they did with the 2G iPhone.)
The iPhone 3G will be available in 22 countries on 11-Jul-08.
Interestingly, the online Apple Store is not accepting pre-orders;
it merely points to retail Apple Store and AT&T locations where the
iPhone will be available.
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/buy/>
**What's Next?** This product announcement was perhaps the
least-well-kept of Apple's secrets since Steve Jobs returned to the
company many years ago. Both the 3G and GPS additions have been
discussed for ages, and Apple itself raised the curtain on the
iPhone SDK and App Store months ago. So in some sense, despite the
massive amount of anticipation, there's a slight letdown in not
being wowed by entirely unanticipated features or in Apple not
delivering on every rumored feature, such as a forward-facing video
camera for iChat video chatting. (Damn those rumors for raising our
hopes!) That does leave room for a third-generation iPhone to appear
next year, though who knows what Apple will call it, given that the
_second-generation_ is the iPhone _3G_.
More iPhone App Store Details Revealed
--------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9646>
When Apple opened up iPhone development with the iPhone software
development kit (SDK) in March 2008, the company also announced the
App Store, the exclusive online storefront for buying and
downloading the expected flood of iPhone applications to come. In
today's keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple
provided more details about how App Store will work when it goes
live in early July.
<http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/appstore.html>
The pricing model remains the same as previously reported.
Developers can set whatever price they choose for their
applications, with 70 percent of each sale pocketed by the author
and 30 percent going to Apple for overhead; free applications
require no fee to Apple (see "Apple Announces iPhone 2.0, Releases
SDK," 2007-09-07). Still up in the air is how the App Store will
handle trial software, where a fully functional version of a program
is available for free for a set time period (such as 30 days). Also
unanswered are questions surrounding Apple's opinion about selling
content used by iPhone apps, such as ebooks, maps, game levels, and
more. Plus, as software reviewers, it's unclear to us how developers
will be able to provide review copies to media.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9489>
Steve Jobs also provided more detail about how applications will be
downloaded. Following the same model as the iTunes Store, users will
be able to purchase and download applications via iTunes on a Mac or
Windows PC, and then sync downloaded applications to the iPhone or
touch. An App Store icon also appears on the Home screen of the
device itself for direct purchase and download. Unlike the iTunes
Store, however, the App Store allows applications weighing in at 10
MB or smaller to be transferred over the 3G cellular connection to
an iPhone, as well as over Wi-Fi or sync via iTunes. Programs larger
than 10 GB will be restricted to Wi-Fi or iTunes.
And, enterprise customers will be able distribute their own
applications to their employees via intranet or iTunes. Security
options will enable the applications to run only on the employees'
devices.
A new distribution method, Ad Hoc, requires developers to register
for a certificate that enables them to seed software on up to 100
iPhones. As an example, Jobs cited a computer science professor who
could distribute an application to students.
Jobs announced that the App Store will have a greater scope that
coincides with the broader worldwide rollout of the iPhone 3G,
serving 62 countries (out of over 70 countries anticipated to carry
the iPhone by the end of the year; Apple has not yet signed deals
with China or Russia).
iPhone 2.0 Poised for the Enterprise
------------------------------------
by Rich Mogull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9648>
With the release of the iPhone 2.0 software on 11-Jul-08, Apple is
introducing the first device that could finally erode the dominance
of Research In Motion's ubiquitous BlackBerry. The iPhone not only
represents Apple's first major foray into the enterprise in many
years, but could also offer Microsoft an opportunity to regain
control of mobile messaging and drive adoption of Microsoft's
Exchange Server's mobile features.
When the iPhone was initially released, it was essentially
unsuitable for most enterprises larger than a small business.
Without support for full Exchange (or Lotus Notes) synchronization,
and lacking crucial security features, the iPhone was limited to
one-off adoptions that often run counter to corporate policy. To
access email you had to open up remote Internet access to the IMAP
mail service in Exchange, and contact and calendar synchronization
required docking an iPhone with a computer. It was even worse from a
security standpoint, since there was no way to enforce remote
policies nor to remotely wipe a lost iPhone full of sensitive
corporate data. Finally, although enterprises could write rich, Web
2.0-style enterprise applications for remote access, the iPhone was
incompatible with major VPN gateways.
Much of this will change with the release of the iPhone 2.0 software
(and the iPhone 3G). While most of the features were previously
announced, Steve Jobs's keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers
Conference today provided additional information about what we can
expect.
The most significant enhancement is the inclusion of Microsoft's
ActiveSync technology for iPhone device management and
synchronization. By including full support for ActiveSync, Apple
gained compatibility with every organization running Microsoft's
Exchange Server, which is by far the most dominant corporate email
platform. ActiveSync for Exchange includes all the major features
required for enterprise mobile messaging, including full,
over-the-air synchronization of contacts, calendars, and email;
remote policy enforcement for device configuration and security; and
remote wipe.
For remote access, Apple announced greater support for VPN
protocols, with Cisco VPN gateway compatibility being especially
important, as it's the most widely deployed platform in the market.
While full details aren't yet available, it also appears that Apple
will provide full support for credentials-based network access over
Wi-Fi using digital certificates and the 802.1X port-based access
control protocol with WPA2's more robust Wi-Fi encryption. 802.1X
requires that a user provide some identity information before being
given any network access beyond a sequestered area on a Wi-Fi access
point; this can include two-factor authentication, a simple user
name and password combination, or a personal digital certificate
installed individually on each computer or device. (WPA2 plus 802.1X
is commonly called WPA2 Enterprise, as Apple labels it in their
enterprise marketing pages.)
Enterprises will also be able to develop and deploy in-house
applications to their iPhone users, perhaps allowing a
multi-platform basis for support for companies that choose to allow
multiple smartphone platforms, or that migrate from other platforms
to the iPhone universe. Some companies have extensive in-house
development departments for desktop and mobile applications. Jobs
said during the keynote that enterprises will be able to distribute
applications within a company, and then those applications can be
installed via iTunes. A separate enterprise developer license is
required; other details aren't yet available about the mechanics.
The combination of secure remote access, full Exchange integration,
remote management, and application development support will make the
iPhone as viable in the enterprise as any other mobile platform, but
the iPhone includes features that may enhance its enterprise appeal
over alternatives.
With a fully functional Web browser, rich attachment viewing
(including all Microsoft Office and iWork formats), and robust
custom applications, the iPhone will provide a slick mobile
workplace experience, likely to be far more appealing than other
current options - in my experience, most mobile devices and
applications are practically unusable due to user interface
limitations. Even viewing basic documents, like spreadsheets or PDF
files, is usually painful.
With pricing in the same range as competing products, full support
for all core mobile features, and a superior user experience, the
iPhone could even chip away at the darling of the corporate
executive - RIM's BlackBerry. This will actually benefit Microsoft
by reducing reliance on the expensive BlackBerry Enterprise Server
(BES) required for corporate messaging.
Most people don't realize that all BlackBerry devices rely on BES
servers for push email and remote management. For consumers, these
servers are hosted by RIM for wireless providers. Enterprises must
purchase enough BES servers to layer on top of their email servers
to support connectivity (that's why a consumer BlackBerry can't
synchronize calendars or contacts over the air, but enterprise
versions can). Exchange itself added over-the-air synchronization in
recent versions, but only after BES had become entrenched in the
enterprise. Microsoft's goal was to drive more users off competing
server platforms, like Lotus Notes, and mobile devices, like the
Blackberry, and to give Microsoft greater control over the mobile
experience.
Although the iPhone won't increase Microsoft's market share in
mobile devices, it positions Exchange as the only email server that
directly supports the iPhone, Microsoft's own mobile devices, and
pretty much anything other than the BlackBerry. This could increase
their lucrative server sales.
On the negative side, the iPhone will (as far as we're aware) still
lack copy-and-paste and the capability to edit Microsoft Office and
iWork documents. Also, RIM still has a major advantage in
international data roaming due to its highly efficient use of
bandwidth and global infrastructure that eliminates most roaming
data fees. Finally, the continued reliance on iTunes, still
essentially a music management tool, for configuration and
application installation and management, may irk corporate IT
departments.
With the impending release of the iPhone 2.0 software, the iPhone is
finally positioned to enter the enterprise market to the benefit of
Apple, and possibly of Microsoft, but likely to the chagrin of
Research in Motion. Let the enterprise games begin!
.Mac Morphs into MobileMe
-------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9649>
Pleasing copyeditors everywhere, Phil Schiller announced MobileMe, a
new online service that replaces the awkwardly named .Mac
("dot-Mac"). The changed name should also make the service more
appealing to Windows users, who can currently use many aspects of
the service even if they don't have a Mac. In essence, MobileMe is a
spruced-up version of .Mac, but with one significant difference:
Dubbed "Exchange for the rest of us" by Apple, MobileMe uses
Microsoft's ActiveSync technology to keep email, contacts, events,
photos, and files updated on the fly, so that a user can sync their
data without having to tether an iPhone or iPod touch to a computer
via a USB connection or even have the mobile device in the same
location as the computer. MobileMe will also continue to offer the
usual .Mac features like iDisk online storage, Web galleries of
photos and movies, and iLife integration. Apple has also increased
the storage amount to 20 GB, up from .Mac's 10 GB.
<http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/>
MobileMe works with native Mac OS X applications like iCal and Mail;
under Windows, the same functionality applies to Outlook, Outlook
Express, and Windows Contacts under Windows XP or Vista.
Although still costing $99 per year (with a free 60-day trial), the
idea is that MobileMe is less a separate service and more of an
extension of what you already do on your Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPod
touch. For example, your email messages and mailboxes will
apparently be instantly be the same, whether on your iPhone or your
computer, a feature that many users should welcome with open arms.
And, contacts and calendar items will sync automatically. As a final
example, a photo you snap with an iPhone can be immediately uploaded
to your MobileMe gallery, and viewed by anyone accessing the service
via computer, iPhone, or Apple TV.
When I wrote earlier that MobileMe is spruced up, I didn't mean to
downplay the new look and feel. Apple excels at user experience, and
this iteration promises to make you forget you're using a Web
browser. Transferring files to and from your iDisk is a
drag-and-drop operation in a browser, just as it is in the Mac OS X
Finder.
<http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/idisk.html>
What about .Mac? Current .Mac users can visit the .Mac home page to
find details on getting ready for MobileMe, retaining their mac.com
email addresses, and how to start using a new me.com email address.
<http://www.mac.com/>
MobileMe is expected to become available in early July with the
iPhone 2.0 software, though Apple's Web pages list only "coming
soon." For Macintosh users, the service will require at least Mac OS
X 10.4.11 Tiger, but Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in order to access
all the features. You'll also need Safari 3 or Firefox 2 for the
Mac. Windows users will need Safari 3, Firefox 2, or Internet
Explorer 7.
No, David Pogue, Ebook Piracy is Not a Given
--------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9641>
In "Can e-Publishing Overcome Copyright Concerns?," David Pogue of
the New York Times talks about why he doesn't make electronic
versions of his books available, supporting his position as ebook
naysayer with a blog post by an author whose voluntary payment
experiment for the digital release of an outdated book was a dismal
failure. Apparently, Pogue has twice sent PDF versions of a book to
someone claiming to be blind and each time, he said, the book was
all over the "piracy sites" within 48 hours. In a subsequent post,
Pogue relayed and responded to reader comments, which spanned the
gamut of opinions.
<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/can-e-publishing-overcome-copyright-concerns/>
<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/readers-have-their-say-in-the-e-publishing-debate/>
I normally appreciate what Pogue has to say in his print and email
columns due to the way his technology sensibilities have been honed
by years of being a Mac user. But in this situation, and I say this
with all respect due to a fellow author with whom I've written a
book, I disagree with him pretty much completely. I'm not just
spouting off like some of the people commenting on his blog posts -
my point of view comes as the result of selling over 150,000 ebooks
with virtually no copies being shared widely.
(Ironically, despite Pogue saying that he doesn't make electronic
versions of his Missing Manuals available, a quick scan of O'Reilly
Media's Web site showed that 5 of his 24 books are in fact for sale
in PDF format. When I asked him about this, he admitted that he knew
that "iPhone: The Missing Manual" had been released in PDF to get it
to market faster last year. Three of the others were older books,
and he was surprised to learn that "Windows XP Home Edition: The
Missing Manual, Second Edition" was available in PDF. This lack of
awareness is understandable: the royalty statements for a print-book
author as prolific as Pogue are undoubtedly voluminous and may be
nearly incomprehensible.)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/347>
**Sourcing Copies** -- Implicit in Pogue's claim that his kind-hearted
gesture twice resulted in copies of his ebooks being shared widely
is the belief that had he not provided those PDFs to the scammers
(we'll assume they were scammers, and not people who legitimately
needed an electronic copy for use with screen-reading software), no
copies would have been shared, there being no other way to get them.
This sounds like the flawed reasoning that the music industry used
for so long to block online sales of digital music - they wanted to
keep music restricted to the physical medium of the CD, ignoring the
fact that there was already a commonly used path for music to move
online: by being ripped from CD into MP3. It's much harder to scan a
physical book into PDF format, but there are other ways for a print
book to move into a digital format.
O'Reilly Media, which publishes the Missing Manual series that Pogue
started, is a partner in Safari Books Online, a joint venture with
Pearson that gives subscribers access to a large selection of books.
Books can be read only online, but because most are converted to an
XML format for use within Safari Books Online, people have
apparently figured out how to extract the content and turn it into
other formats, most notably Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (known as
CHM format; readers exist for a variety of platforms). Plus,
O'Reilly sells PDF versions of some Missing Manuals, including those
I mentioned previously that Pogue wrote. (Full disclosure: Both
O'Reilly and Peachpit Press, which is owned by Pearson, are
distributors of our Take Control ebooks, and our ebooks are also
available in Safari Books Online.)
<http://www.oreilly.com/>
<http://www.safaribooksonline.com/>
<http://www.peachpit.com/>
A search of common BitTorrent sites turned up a large collection of
Missing Manuals in CHM format ready for the downloading, and
searching the Gnutella network via Acquisition also found
"Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual" in PDF format. So clearly,
although plenty of Missing Manuals are available illegally, those
copies stem from Safari Books Online or from O'Reilly, not from
anything Pogue may have done, or from someone buying the print book
and scanning it. (That sort of thing happened with the last few
Harry Potter books, but we computer authors flatter ourselves that
anyone would care enough about our writing to go to the significant
effort of scanning our books in order to share them.)
**Legal Sales Prevent Illegal Copies** -- If you did want to prevent
illegal sales, what's the best way to go about it? Far from
preventing people from sharing copies on the peer-to-peer networks,
Pogue's decision to restrict electronic distribution may have had
the opposite effect.
Supply and demand are inextricably linked, and if there's no supply
for the demand Pogue freely acknowledges, it's easy to see how
someone could feel relatively little guilt in downloading or sharing
an illicitly acquired copy. I'm not justifying such behavior, but
the harder you make it for someone to buy an easily replicated
digital commodity, the more likely they are to share that commodity
as a way of making things easier for others. Look at the parallels
in the music industry. Apple made legitimate purchases of music both
easy and inexpensive via the iTunes Store, and anyone who was on the
fence about whether it was acceptable to share music suddenly had a
viable alternative. Providing a legitimate purchase path for
electronic versions not only generates revenue, but also reduces
illicit copying.
Closer to home, consider our experience with Take Control. We've
been publishing ebooks for more than four years, and as I said,
we've sold over 150,000 copies in that time, with virtually no wide
scale copying. We try hard to price our ebooks reasonably, and we've
put a lot of effort into making the purchase process simple. Because
it's easy to buy our ebooks legitimately, there's not much incentive
to share purchased copies or to download copies rather than buy
them.
Of course, we do more to discourage copying. I believe that
displaying the price prominently on the first page of every one of
our ebooks triggers anti-shoplifting experiences for most people. If
you see a pile of items without prices in a store (as is true of
most digital files, including books in Safari Books Online), you
might assume they're samples or marketing freebies. But if there's a
price sign on the pile, or each item has been clearly marked with a
price, there's no question that you can't take one and walk out
without paying. Also, because we tend to cover timely and perishable
topics, we often release updates to our ebooks, thus rendering
obsolete previous versions. Those updates are often free, and for
more major updates, we usually offer existing owners a discount. To
judge from our reader email, people appreciate these gestures.
Other techniques we employ include free samples of all of our
ebooks, a discount offer that readers can share with interested
friends or colleagues, a plainly written request that readers treat
the ebooks as they would print books (occasional lending of books is
a time-honored tradition), and an up-front statement that we don't
use any copy prevention or DRM technologies. We also take small
pains to make sure our Check for Updates links work only for
purchasers, and utilize basic security measures to prevent copies
from being downloaded illegitimately from our Web site.
How do I know we're not being taken to the electronic cleaners? I
have automated Google searches that look for copies of the ebooks
that may be available for public download. I have found our ebooks
available for download on a handful of occasions; each time it was
someone who had put the file on a server without realizing it was
open to the public or who was transferring the book from work to
home and had forgotten to take it down. I periodically search the
file sharing services too, but it's exceedingly rare to find any of
our ebooks there, and those I have seen were wildly out of date.
In short, far from the foregone conclusion that publishing an
electronic book will result in rampant copying, our years of
experience show just the opposite.
**What's the Difference?** When I was corresponding with Pogue about
his blog post, he zeroed in on the key question: Why are his books
being shared illicitly whereas ours are not? Certainly, some of it
has to do with us providing an easy, inexpensive way for interested
readers to purchase the electronic versions they want, and all the
little things we do to discourage rampant copying undoubtedly help
as well. But O'Reilly also sells many of their print books in PDF
form, so the difference isn't just availability. Possibilities that
occur to me include:
* I think having the ebook as our primary format may discourage people
from copying, since doing so would clearly impact our core business.
People inclined to share digital files may not see their actions as
significantly detrimental to traditional publishers like O'Reilly
who make the bulk of their revenue from print sales.
* I suspect we get an advantage because we're a tiny operation and we
try to maintain personal connections with our readers. We read and
respond to as much of our email as we can, as do our authors, which
I believe reduces the desire of readers to do anything that might
conceivably harm us. The fact that we and our authors are known as
real people with mortgages and looming college costs may defuse the
disdain some people feel toward companies (ignoring the fact that
companies are made up of real people too).
* Our small size and relative obscurity may mean both that we have
fewer customers who would be likely to share our ebooks, and fewer
people who would think to look for our ebooks on the file sharing
services.
* By publishing DRM-free ebooks, acknowledging that it's OK to lend
one of our ebooks to a friend or colleague, and providing free and
discounted updates, I believe we come down squarely on the side of
the reader, reducing the number of people who would feel inclined to
distribute our books for free. However, this is more of a contrast
with publishers other than O'Reilly, whose PDFs are also DRM-free.
* The fact that subscriptions to Safari Books Online are often
institutional may increase the likelihood that people will share
books from that service. My suspicion is that people spending their
own money are less likely to upload an ebook to a file sharing site.
This is born out anecdotally by the large number of Missing Manuals
I found in CHM format that were extracted from Safari Books Online,
in contrast with the single title I found in PDF format.
**Try iTunes Instead of Voluntary Payments** -- Pogue segues from his
personal story to the experience of author Steven Poole, who gave
away copies of a 7-year-old book about "the aesthetics of videogames
- what they share with cinema, the history of painting, or
literature; and what makes them different, in terms of form,
psychology and semiotics." In November 2007, Poole released the book
as a DRM-free PDF under a Creative Commons license, and included a
PayPal button with the text "If you like the book, you can leave a
tip via PayPal."
<http://stevenpoole.net/blog/trigger-happier/>
Although the book was downloaded nearly 32,000 times, fewer than 20
people paid anything, and a few tipped Poole only a cent. Poole
seems neither surprised nor particularly dismayed about his specific
results (it was an old book about past technology, after all), but
correctly concludes that, despite the much-discussed Radiohead
experiment, voluntary payments don't constitute a viable business
model. We dabbled with voluntary payments a while back with what we
called PayBITS, and came to the same conclusion - it's fine for an
author to ask for a voluntary payment every so often, but it works
best for very well-known creators, and only infrequently even then.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/arts/music/04radi.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
TidBITS contributing editor Glenn Fleishman had a brush with this
sort of model when he distributed a DRM-free copy of "Real World
Adobe GoLive 6" after the useful life span of that book had passed.
He didn't ask for any contribution originally, but due to a hosting
error, he nearly faced a $15,000 bill for the many thousands of
downloads. The bill was narrowly averted (a threshold wasn't crossed
for bandwidth usage), but a simple general appeal - since he wasn't
tracking individual downloaders - brought in $2,000, which, with
donors' permission, he gave to Project Gutenberg. (See "Publish
(Electronically) and Perish?", 2003-03-24, for the whole story.)
<http://www.gutenberg.org/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/7115>
What I don't quite understand is why Pogue chose to quote Poole's
description of the failure of his voluntary payment experiment
without also acknowledging that Poole touches on the obvious
solution:
A reasonable outcome, perhaps, would be something like an iTunes for books,
where people choose to buy (DRM-free or at least DRM-lite) copies because it's
still easier for most folk than hunting down a torrent.
Precisely! Although I haven't seen reports from individual artists
about how much they're making from the iTunes Store, the fact that
the iTunes Store is, as of April 2008, the largest music retailer in
the United States, probably means that it's generating real revenue
for artists as a collective whole.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/04/03itunes.html>
All this reminds me of my call for Apple to enhance the text-reading
capabilities of the iPhone and iPod, perhaps even with an iPod
reader that would feature a larger screen (see "Open Letter to Steve
Jobs: In Support of an iPod reader," 2008-03-05). Core to that idea
was the suggestion that the iTunes Store sell ebooks; I'd bet that
Apple would become the largest ebook retailer in the world nearly
instantly.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9487>
In fact, Amazon pairs their ebook reader, the Kindle, with just such
an ebook store. Even though the Kindle's interface and hardware
design could stand improvement, its frictionless approach to buying
books is one of the few online experiences akin to the iTunes Store.
(See Tonya's take on the Kindle in "First Kindly Impressions about
My Kindle," 2008-03-27.) For those who might be wondering, we are
looking closely at the Kindle, but we're hoping Amazon will add more
formatting options soon, because converting the Take Control series
to Kindle format would require a lot of work to pare down our rich
formatting to the Kindle's feeble display capabilities.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9528>
(Amazon has revealed almost nothing about the Kindle's adoption
rate. Jeff Bezos said recently at the Wall Street Journal's D: All
Things Digital conference that the Kindle's ebook sales represent 6
percent of all Amazon sales for the 125,000 titles that are
available for the Kindle. Unfortunately, that statistic is less than
useless, because although many mainstream print best sellers are
available for the Kindle, there are also Kindle-only titles that
would pull up the average. Plus, Bezos never clarified whether that
number is unit sales or dollars. Personally, I suspect that if the
Kindle had started a raging fire of demand, Amazon would be
trumpeting that news widely. Their near-complete silence causes me
to think it's more of a fizzle.)
<http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/05/twittering-d-conference-and-kindle-sales-stats-finally.html>
**Marketing via Copying?** One last point. Pogue's assumption is that
copying is a bad thing - that a copy is equivalent to a lost sale.
Although any publisher would prefer a sale to a not-sale, I think
this assumption oversimplifies the situation. I see three possible
scenarios:
1. Anne is looking for documentation on Mac OS X, and to avoid
purchasing "Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual," she downloads an
illicit copy of the book via BitTorrent.
2. Bart has a question about how Spaces works, and in the process of
trying to find an answer, downloads an illicit copy of "Mac OS X
Leopard: The Missing Manual." Whether or not the book contains the
answer is irrelevant, because Bart wasn't going to buy any book - he
just wanted an answer to his question.
3. Cassie, like Anne, is looking for documentation about Leopard,
stumbles on an illicit copy of "Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing
Manual," downloads it, and reads the first few chapters. Impressed,
she pops over to Amazon to order a print copy and returns to reading
the illicit version until her print copy arrives.
In this first scenario with Anne, Pogue and O'Reilly lose a likely
opportunity to make money, but they don't lose any actual money. In
fact, they may gain a future sale to Anne through increased
familiarity (for the sake of argument, we'll assume that Anne's
opinion of the book was positive).
With Bart, in the second scenario, there's no revenue gained nor
opportunity lost, although a future sale to Bart is again more
likely than it would be had he not seen the book online.
But in our third scenario with Cassie, where the downloaded version
causes a print sale, not only do Pogue and O'Reilly earn money from
the sale, they do so without having to pay anything to introduce
Cassie to the book. The cost of customer acquisition is nil (or
rather, it's shared by others). That's a double win.
My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that the people
downloading illicit copies of ebooks fall onto a classic bell curve,
with the bulk of the population being like Bart and relatively few
people acting like either Anne or Cassie.
Clearly, authors and publishers have to earn money at some point, so
if _everyone_ downloaded _everything_ for free like Anne, the
publishing industry would disintegrate. In managing Take Control,
though, I've learned that the greatest challenge to increasing sales
is reaching a larger audience - customer acquisition rears its ugly
head. I'd far rather acquire a customer like Cassie for free than
spend marketing money to attract someone new. That doesn't mean I'm
comfortable just giving our ebooks away, since we don't have a
print-based model to promote, as do the Baen Free Library and
science-fiction author Cory Doctorow. (Doctorow's broadly licensed
works, which can be downloaded for free, translated, performed, and
adapted, seem to have contributed to his robust print sales.) To be
fair, both Baen and Doctorow are publishing fiction, which differs
somewhat from technical reference works of the like that we and
Pogue publish.
<http://www.baen.com/library/>
<http://craphound.com/>
But I am sanguine about what would happen if some of our ebooks were
to be shared widely. I don't believe it would hurt sales because if
we (and Google) are doing our jobs right, it will always be easier
to find and purchase our legitimate copies than to hunt down some
out-of-date illicit version. Would such copying help sales in a
noticeable fashion? If I'm right about the bell curve, that's also
unlikely, unless such a shared book also somehow became associated
with a fast-spreading Internet meme. But any exposure is better than
none, at least for the vast majority of authors. As O'Reilly Media
publisher Tim O'Reilly has said, "Obscurity is a far greater threat
to authors and creative artists than piracy." To tie this back to
the music world, encouraging copying may not work for well-known
artists with multiple distribution channels, but for the vast
majority of unknown musicians, that Internet meme lottery ticket is
a way better bet than a spot on American Idol.
<http://www.openp2p.com/lpt/a/3015>
In the end, I find myself on the opposite end of the spectrum from
David Pogue. I've proved over four years that ebook piracy is not a
fact of Internet nature, and I'd argue that it's something that all
authors could both control and profit from. The trick, as always, is
to watch how the recording industry behaves and do the opposite.
Bring on the iTunes Store for ebooks, Apple, and make the Kindle
better, Amazon!
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 09-Jun-08
---------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9642>
* Canon Print Driver 1.1 and Brother Print Driver 1.1 from Apple add
support for more Canon and Brother printers in Mac OS X 10.5
Leopard, but you probably don't want the standalone versions, since
they include all Canon and Brother printer drivers. Instead, stick
with Software Update, which will download updated drivers for just
those printers you actually have (and have configured in Mac OS X).
(Free, Canon 267 MB, Brother 54.5 MB)
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/canonprintdriver11.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/brotherprintdriver11.html>
* Typinator HTML Snippet Set from Ergonis adds over 100 predefined
abbreviations for HTML 4.0.1 tags to the company's text expansion
utility. After installation, you can simply type "<<" followed by
the tag you want, and Typinator will insert all the necessary tags
and variables and place the insertion point appropriately. (Free for
Typinator users, 44K)
<http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/>
* Default Folder X 4.0.6 from St. Clair Software now enhances Open and
Save dialogs further by remembering the width of resized columns in
file dialogs that use column view. Other changes include a fix that
allows Default Folder X's preferences to be moved between PowerPC-
and Intel-based Macs, a fix for Carbon applications ignoring one of
Default Folder X's keyboard shortcuts, and improved compatibility
with Kodak Preps, Web Confidential, Parallels Desktop, and
QuarkXPress. ($34.95 new, free update for purchases after 01-Jun-07
or $14.95 for purchases before that date, 9.3 MB)
<http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/>
* DragThing 5.9.3 from TLA Systems addresses a number of problems
introduced in the highly configurable dock utility by the release of
Mac OS X 10.5.3 and related to Dock windows failing to come to the
front reliably. The fix is that the Desktop Trash no longer appears
in all Spaces by default. ($29 new, free upgrade, 7.5 MB)
<http://www.dragthing.com/>
* Differencia 1.1 from DayTime Software looks to be an extremely
interesting data comparison and differencing application that can
compare data files from different applications and different
formats. You might use Differencia to compare data exported from
MYOB and QuickBooks, to compare multiple contact databases, and
more. Most people won't need Differencia, but for those who do, it
could save an incredible amount of time and effort. ($39.95 new, 2.3
MB)
<http://daytimesoftware.com/>
* Owners of Data Rescue II (hard drive and file recovery) and Drive
Genius 2 (disk defragmenting, partitioning, and directory repair)
from Prosoft Engineering can now get Leopard Boot DVDs for both
products. The DVDs are free to current owners, although there's a
no-hassle approach (if you can't find your receipt) that costs $5.
<http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/data_rescue_leopard_dvd2.php>
<http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/drive_genius_leopard_dvd2.php>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/09-June-08
-------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9645>
**Online storage query** -- What's an economical system for storing
and accessing files among family members who are in several
locations? (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2016>
**Modem question** -- Could replacing the broadband modem given to you
by your cable provider with a different model dramatically improve
Internet performance? It's worth looking into. (4 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2017>
**What Windows software is still in use?** If you're using Parallels
Desktop, Fusion, or Boot Camp, which Windows software do you need to
run? Is it because the programs aren't available for the Mac? Games?
Tech support or testing? Readers share their uses. (20 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2018>
**Apple TV downloading** -- A reader notices that movies downloaded
directly to the Apple TV appear much slower than downloading to
iTunes on a Mac. Is the wireless network to blame? (5 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2020>
**Thoughts on illicit ebook copying** -- Readers react to Adam's
article on ebook piracy, noting other outlets where free or
inexpensive legal digital copies of books are available. (19
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2021>
$$
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