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Author Topic: Tablet PC's  (Read 25654 times)

meyerweb

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #60 on: February 26, 2012, 04:43:07 pm »

A sample size of two, now that's real science.  FWIW, my two sons, ages 23 and 20, both still buy paper books, and aren't really interested in a book reader.  Come to think of it, neither of their girl friends have book readers, either.


PS: Paper books are dead if you're under 30 years of age.
Neither of my two daughters, who are 20 and 29, have bought a paper book in 2 years.
Many school districts are considering the transition to e text books in the next few years.
You may have seen Apples move with the Ibooks Author for educators.

In the US the US postal service is delivering, so few letters, magazines and pamphlets, that must they seriously down size in the near future.  :'(

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meyerweb

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #61 on: February 26, 2012, 04:47:15 pm »

I hear you.. one of the things I like to do when on the road traveling is to relax in the evening and go through my images and maybe process a few just because I'm curious or for the fun of it.  I wouldn't want to give up this capability.   On the other hand, when I travel for a shoot I'll carry an entirely different set of computer gear where size/weight is accepted to be a lot more.

Yeah, even if all do is get all the files uploaded into the right directory structure, and use the compare tool to eliminate unneeded shots, it's handy to do on the road.  To the person who suggested a MacBook, if you can find me one at a tablet price I'll jump on it.
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meyerweb

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #62 on: February 26, 2012, 05:16:28 pm »

Pierre wrote:
"I suspect the situation for book lovers is on average roughly as follows
   age above 60, on average, preference for physical books.
   age between 45-60, quite open to e-books, still under the physical book charm.
   age between 30 and 45, if money isn't a critical issue and IT education level acceptable, prefer kindle like experience
   age below 30 - prefer tablet experience"


At the moment, there's still one big disadvantage the some of my 20 and 30 something coworkers are just figuring out:  DRM. Buy a paperback book, and you can share that experience with as many people as you want. But the same book for a book reader, and you can share it with....yourself.  Unless, of course, you want to loan out your book reader, too. That's a fatal flaw to me.
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #63 on: February 26, 2012, 06:14:28 pm »

At the moment, there's still one big disadvantage the some of my 20 and 30 something coworkers are just figuring out:  DRM. Buy a paperback book, and you can share that experience with as many people as you want. But the same book for a book reader, and you can share it with....yourself.  Unless, of course, you want to loan out your book reader, too. That's a fatal flaw to me.

That goes to John Camp's point above about the long-term possibly limited market for e-books and e-readers. Authors may not like it, but friends and I regularly share books, either directly or via a third party like a second-hand book store. (To assuage those authors, all I can say is that I could never afford to read all the books I do if I could only buy them new from a store, so it's not as if they're losing any income from me.  :) ) If I can't trade e-books with friends, or buy/sell them at 2nd hand shops, that would increase the per book cost to me to the point where I could not read books at my current rate. But I am probably a statistical outlier, so despite the claims to providing efficient market choices, my guess is that nobody is too concerned about providing choice to me, not that I blame them much.

As it stands now, the only advantage than an e-book would have for me is if I wanted to bring several books with me on vacation. But when I'm on vacation I generally don't read, just walk around and take pictures, so I don't plan to buy a reader any time soon (I'm 58 in case anyone is collecting stats).
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BJL

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Lending and sharing eBooks, and pricing
« Reply #64 on: February 26, 2012, 06:46:47 pm »

Issues like lending, reselling, and pricing eBooks are a matter of how the publishers and distributers like Amazon choose to price things, not technological barriers. For example, some Kindle books can be lent out, with the owner not able to read during the loan period, but with rather severe restrictions. Amazon and the publishers want to prevent people running an eBook rental service with many people reading a book that Amazon and the publisher only gets paid for once. I can envision reselling being allowed, but for some fee to Amazon. All this has been worked out, sort of, for online video rentals and streaming.

Another interesting twist is the iBooks Textbooks initiative, aimed at K-12 for now, where the price is capped at $15, a fraction of the cost of printed school books. It seems that the fact that each copy of a printed school book is shared by about five students over successive years has lead the publishers to make a deal where they instead get a far smaller fee per eBook, but get it for each of those five students. As a teacher, I hope this works, because then students retain access to texts from previous years, in case they do need to read up on something again. (The old books might have to be deleted from the iPad because they are big files, but can be redownloaded at any time.)

I expect that market forces will work out some better solutions in time, but for now there is still a significant early adopters pricing premium.
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Steve Weldon

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Re: Lending and sharing eBooks, and pricing
« Reply #65 on: February 26, 2012, 07:03:23 pm »

For example, some Kindle books can be lent out, with the owner not able to read during the loan period, but with rather severe restrictions. Amazon and the publishers want to prevent people running an eBook rental service with many people reading a book that Amazon and the publisher only gets paid for once.
It's also interesting that software is easily available to break the DRM on Amazon or any other ebooks.  Or that 5-10gb libraries of ebooks libraries are available on torrent sites or via user groups.

Personally I think a 10gb library is roughly a 9.9gb bunch of books I'd never read and a .1gb bunch of books I can't find.

I like Amazon's kindle PC readers and that I can sign up for the pre-release, pay for it, and I get what I want as soon as it becomes available.  A backlit screen is easier on my eyes than a paper book, but I still prefer paper books for  manuals, drawings, etc..
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PierreVandevenne

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #66 on: February 26, 2012, 07:22:21 pm »

A very respectable opinion, of course.

But there are still a lot of misconceptions among the general public. DRM is an issue for a lot of people, true. Technically, it isn't harder to circumvent than it was with music if you are so inclined. And chances are it will evolve the way of music. I wouldn't be surprised to see virtual book clubs appear, on a model similar to Spotify or Pandora. Lending is possible, but depends on the authorization of the publisher. As far as carrying a reader along is concerned, there's no need: this morning I went to my son's tennis game. I brought my Macbook along, decided to purchase a book (Kingpin by Poulsen) which I started reading during the match. I continued reading it on my library's PC this afternoon and will use my Kindle in my bed as soon as I send this message. Tomorrow, I'll be driven to the garage to pick up my car. If I want, I'll be able to read a few pages on my phone. Back at the office, I could use computer to read for a while and then later resync on my kids tablet before supper. That's a real setup, with six reading devices (the current limit). But actually, that limit is artificial as you can deauthorize a device and reauthorize a new one should you need to do so. I currently maintain my complete library on 3-4 devices, but redownloading it is fast, even on 3G/HSPDA. It's not as if you were stuck with a single device/tablet that you have to have with you at all times. And more than the e-reader itself, the revolution is in availability, cloud storage of your books and near universal access and synchronisation. The kindle was my second e-book reader btw. The first one had no connectivity and I had to manage books through USB. And it was indeed broken at the start of a trip by a helpful British Airways attendant :-( Connectivity changed all that.  Remember the start of MP3 players, the start of digital cameras, the start of wikipedia, the start of video on demand, etc.. etc... Same stories, same generic objections, same outcome. And before people who didn't read the whole thread jump on me, let me restate I am a near pathological book lover: the difference with yesterday is that most of the physical books I purchase now are almost purchased as decorative objects.
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BJL

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #67 on: February 26, 2012, 07:38:18 pm »

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Steve Weldon

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #68 on: February 26, 2012, 08:35:15 pm »

DRM is more of a "please keep of the grass" sign than a wall around the garden.

For example,

http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/
http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/best-kindle-drm-remover.html
http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/how-to/remove-ibooks-drm.html

Don't you find it odd that the people who would want to break DRM would pay to do it?  It's like paying one guy to steal from another.  It feels dirty somehow.   Anyway, it's not necessary to pay to remove DRM.    Personally I find the price of ebooks reasonable on an hour for hour entertainment basis, and I like with the Kindle Reader how it keeps track of your place as you move among devices.  Most of the time I use my small laptop and the Kindle PC Reader, but sometimes I use my smart phone and if I'm feeling particular evil my main workstation.
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welder

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #69 on: February 27, 2012, 01:00:30 pm »

I'm still trying to get my mind around the author's statement "Portfolio cases are history."

My photos will look better on a tablet than they will as prints? I mean, does any photographer really think this is true?

From my perspective, if someone wants to look at my portfolio on a screen, they can browse my website from the leisure of their own computer. If I actually have a face-to-face meeting with them, do I really want to waste that opportunity by just giving them my photos on a screen again? Sure the screen is fancy and you can touch it and flick through the photos...I know photographers are doing this but I think the "gee-whiz" factor is going to wear off really fast.

I can see using a tablet as a backup presentation device, say, if the potential client wants to see even more of my work than I have brought in my physical portfolio.

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BJL

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #70 on: February 27, 2012, 01:24:03 pm »

Don't you find it odd that the people who would want to break DRM would pay to do it?
Yes. Then again, I find odd the whole sense of entitlement attitude that "I paid a few dollars for access to something that cost many thousands (if not millions) of dollars to produce, so I 'own' it and should be able to do whatever I want with it", but that is another story.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 05:00:46 pm by BJL »
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Steve Weldon

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #71 on: February 27, 2012, 07:18:04 pm »

Yes. Then again, I find odd the whole sense of entitlement attitude that "I paid a few dollars for access to something that cost many thousands (if not millions) of dollars to produce, so I 'own' it and should be able to do whatever I want with it", but that is another story.
Well.. if many thousands (if not millions) of people paid a few dollars then we shouldn't have a problem.  This is a complex topic were public perception pays a big part in the publics willingness to either buy or steal a product.  Public perception is skewed by all sorts of things from P.Diddy and his G6 lifestyle and others like him getting all the press, while legions of other musicians can barely pay the rent.  Or companies like Microsoft producing the richest people on the planet, and then sneaking in updates to disable copies of windows.  Is someone right just because they're legal?  Many thing not, and in fact pressure from pirates have forced changes.. piracy as bad as it is, has done a lot of good for the consumer who doesn't pirate.

The fair use act is a good example.  If you buy the rights to an album.. for instance.. the fair use act basically says you can use it for your personal use and change it's form as required to do so.  We never heard from the RIAA when we copied our albums to cassettes or reel to reels.. but now because we can make a higher quality copy so we can listen to the album in our car, our ipod, and at work.. they're upset.

Personally I think copyright/DRM is constantly evolving and it will never be settled.  Greed all around will ensure it.
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jjj

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #72 on: February 27, 2012, 08:08:30 pm »

Back in the early 80s I used to make corporate films for a computer company called "Wang".
Always thought that was an unfortunate name.
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jjj

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #73 on: February 27, 2012, 08:18:30 pm »

I'm still trying to get my mind around the author's statement "Portfolio cases are history."

My photos will look better on a tablet than they will as prints? I mean, does any photographer really think this is true?
Some of my images do not work when viewing on something as small as an iPad as what makes them work is the texture. Which tends to be lost when shrunk down to small sizes. So they will be best appreciated when viewed as large prints.
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John Camp

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #74 on: February 27, 2012, 10:38:48 pm »

Yes. Then again, I find odd the whole sense of entitlement attitude that "I paid a few dollars for access to something that cost many thousands (if not millions) of dollars to produce, so I 'own' it and should be able to do whatever I want with it", but that is another story.

I don't find that sense of entitlement just "odd," I find it criminal. If some guy copies something for a friend, because the friend can't afford it the actual product, I don't have too much trouble with it (though Adobe and Microsoft obviously do.) What I do have trouble with is the idea that because there's this widespread sense of entitlement, as you call it, that somebody can then set up a huge piracy operation and get rich from hijacking other people's products. This isn't just a bunch of some little rat-shit teenagers knocking off a copy of the latest from the Beebe, this is a bunch of very sophisticated programmers with server farms making tons for money from an organized criminal enterprise. What baffles me is that we put people in jail for fifteen years for robbing banks, where the take is never more than a few thousand dollars, but if you take down the music industry or damage the film industry, doing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage, you're a prankster. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of overpaid assholes in those industries, but there are lot of overpaid assholes in banks, too, and robbing them is definitely not viewed as a prank.

.
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jjj

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #75 on: February 27, 2012, 11:26:51 pm »

What baffles me is that we put people in jail for fifteen years for robbing banks, where the take is never more than a few thousand dollars, but if you take down the music industry or damage the film industry, doing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage, you're a prankster. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of overpaid assholes in those industries, but there are lot of overpaid assholes in banks, too, and robbing them is definitely not viewed as a prank.
There was an image floating around the interweb a few weeks back contrasting the severe sentences piracy got you when compared to violent or sexual crimes.
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Steve Weldon

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #76 on: February 28, 2012, 05:45:31 pm »

Apps for Apes: Orangutans using iPads to paint and video chat with other apes

Link..  I'm just sayin..

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mhecker*

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #77 on: March 13, 2012, 08:57:01 pm »

Today the encyclopedia Brittanica ended it's print edition.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/story/2012-03-08/encyclopaedia-britannica-print/53516812/1

RIP books, we knew you well.  :'(
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OldRoy

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #78 on: March 14, 2012, 02:49:18 pm »

Always thought that was an unfortunate name.
Yes indeed. Wang. Amazing how, when they're paying you, it's so very easy to remain deadpan... I did similar work for Grid. Great name, interesting products too. They didn't survive either.

One other point about the general discussion. I know quite a few cultured, English-speaking people in Eastern and Central Europe, where incomes - for those fortunate enough to have jobs -  are still shockingly low (whilst multinational companies like Tesco, Carrefour and Globus suck the retail heart out of their towns) who are delighted that they can now acquire pirated e-versions of books free of charge.

I can't say that I'm heartbroken about the publishers' losses from this leakage. I remember when the Phillips Compact Cassette was first introduced and people started recording music on them. The music industry immediately started wailing piteously about the impending end of the world. Given the fact that governments aren't prepared to formally tax their greedy chums appropriately, a little informal taxation is no bad thing.

Roy
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meyerweb

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Re: Tablet PC's
« Reply #79 on: March 16, 2012, 10:43:50 am »

DRM is more of a "please keep of the grass" sign than a wall around the garden.

For example,

http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/
http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/best-kindle-drm-remover.html
http://www.ebookdrmremoval.com/how-to/remove-ibooks-drm.html


Yes, but I doubt that the typical, middle-class e-book reader is going to do that. It was possible to work around iTunes DRM, too, but few people did.
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