Why Software Will Determine the Future of E-Reading (PC Magazine)

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by kjk

Wouldn't a tablet with any full OS (Win/OSX/Linux) do the job?

No - or at least not at the present moment. At this point in time, (not saying it won't change next week, mind you), Windows is the only operating system that reads every DRM'd and non DRM'd ebook format out there.

ETA: Hey, that's a project for someone - make a chart in the wiki about what O/S's support which formats.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

No - or at least not at the present moment. At this point in time, (not saying it won't change next week, mind you), Windows is the only operating system that reads every DRM'd and non DRM'd ebook format out there.

ETA: Hey, that's a project for someone - make a chart in the wiki about what O/S's support which formats.

ah....AZW and .LIT?

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by kjk

ah..Kindle for Windows?

Amazon has yet to release Kindle for Mac. Linux doesn't read .lit files natively (I understand you can force it to by using WINE, but that's not natively). There are more examples, but I don't feel like researching all of them at the moment, the situation changes nearly daily. The point, though, as of this moment is that Windows is the only operating system that reads all the formats out there. I'm hoping that changes fairly soon. I'd be a lot more excited about Android, for example, if it had that functionality.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

A recent TeleRead thread discussed preferences between spaces and indents between paragraphs. Here, we've discussed issues like display margins and contrast issues regularly. The winning devices will be those that allow the user to set their display options they way they like them, to optimize their reading experience. Software flexibility... that's what will win consumers over.

Definitely. Both in display (indents vs space between) and content management--right now, all the ebook readers on the market flounder when there's more than a few hundred books on the device.

As memory gets smaller and cheaper, a card of 5,000 books won't be unreasonable. (It's not impossible now, just not done much.) But right now, none of them can deal effectively with that much content; there's no easy sort, tag, display-subset-only options. There's no option for "just show me the PDFs" or "add this newspaper to my 'social justice' collection" from inside the reader.

The device with the most bells & whistles (mp3 player, internet browser, ability to run apps) may win the most media attention, but the first good ebook *library* device is going to clean up in the academic world.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

This is the reason why a tablet with Win7 will be the win. You can read any format you want, and install whatever programs you want.

Hardly likely to be *the* winner unless they can make a tablet that will fit in a shirt pocket. You might be right about it being *a* winner though-gotta be a niche somewhere for it or you wouldn't want one yourself.

[CyGuy]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Hardly likely to be *the* winner unless they can make a tablet that will fit in a shirt pocket. You might be right about it being *a* winner though-gotta be a niche somewhere for it or you wouldn't want one yourself.

And I do want one, I have been waiting for a decent tablet for many years. I personally am not interested in a "pocketable" tablet, I really want a 9" or 10" screen.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

No - or at least not at the present moment. At this point in time, (not saying it won't change next week, mind you), Windows is the only operating system that reads every DRM'd and non DRM'd ebook format out there.

ETA: Hey, that's a project for someone - make a chart in the wiki about what O/S's support which formats.

AFAIK *no* O/S supports an ebook format. It's the reader software that supports the format. So that would need to be a rather complicated matrix, starting with the O/S, showing what software exists for it, and then showing what formats are supported by the software.

(Note: text might be an exception to the above, although I'm not actually certain. A big question is what constitutes the O/S? For instance, most, if not all, versions of Windows include Notepad. Let's say they all do, for argument's sake. Does that make it a part of the O/S? I'd say no-because you can delete it & the O/S will still work. But others might say yes because all versions come with it. Dealer's choice, I guess.)

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

No - or at least not at the present moment. At this point in time, (not saying it won't change next week, mind you), Windows is the only operating system that reads every DRM'd and non DRM'd ebook format out there.

ETA: Hey, that's a project for someone - make a chart in the wiki about what O/S's support which formats.

While not a chart this is a list of reading software available that is already listed by OS.

Dale

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

AFAIK *no* O/S supports an ebook format. It's the reader software that supports the format. So that would need to be a rather complicated matrix, starting with the O/S, showing what software exists for it, and then showing what formats are supported by the software.

(Note: text might be an exception to the above, although I'm not actually certain. A big question is what constitutes the O/S? For instance, most, if not all, versions of Windows include Notepad. Let's say they all do, for argument's sake. Does that make it a part of the O/S? I'd say no-because you can delete it & the O/S will still work. But others might say yes because all versions come with it. Dealer's choice, I guess.)

LOL, ok you got me on semantics. Yes, the O/S supports the reading software and the software supports the format.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Is there a site anywhere on the World Wide Web with more annoying pop-ups than pcmag.com? I had to keep closing one pop-up after another just to get as far as I did in the article before giving up.

Jeeze!

Exactly my reaction! my local news site is bad but not quite as bad as that!!!

[LDBoblo]

Sadly I think good reading hardware will come before good reading software, and the good reading hardware is still a ways off apparently.