Luminous Landscape Forum
Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: Jim Pascoe on February 22, 2012, 01:32:10 pm
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Thanks for an informative rundown on the tablet PC market, and where it appears to be going. I quite agree with the reasons why we photographers might need a tablet in general. However, it is with the first paragraph of the article that I do not entirely share the authors point of view. He starts by stating that paper books are history. Now I'm sure that was deliberately provocative, and to some degree true, but in one particular area - the fine art photography book - I'm not sure it will be true.
I have a kindle, which is great for reading novels. Recently I have bought some technical e-books, and the laptop is great for reading these, and if I had a tablet PC I'm sure I would be using that too. But for a really good quality photobook, I think print still has some life in it. I can appreciate that e-books are a great marketing opportunity for any half-decent photographer to get their work out into the market, but some of the books I own would just not be the same on a screen. Of course the market will shrink for the mass produced stuff - but I think there will still be a lot of photographers who want a beautifully printed book. In any case, the numbers of books in most print runs for this type of book is small already.
Jim
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I'll be a contrarian regarding today's tablet post. Informative post, but I think it's ill advised to recommend photographers use Apple's iPad connection kit to import photos. I thought that would be a great solution to lighten the load on a recent trip to Europe, but I was wrong. Here's the problems I encountered:
- 1. SLOW import. I tried to import from a Canon 7D through USB cable into the iPad connection kit. If you attempt to import several hundred RAW images into the iPad this way, you'll need to be verrrrry patient. It's hard to describe how slow it is, but it's slower than a card reader connected to the computer, it's slower than connecting the camera directly to the computer (USB cable), it's intolerably slow.
- 2. If you have to interrupt the slow import session for any reason and want to import the rest of the images later that day, it will start from the beginning, and reimport a 2nd copy of everything it imported the first time before it moves on to the files you missed in the first session.
- 3. You will run out of space on your iPad.
- 4. Did I mention it's SLOW?
My preference is to just travel with lots of CF cards and import the files when I get home, directly into the computer. You can let Aperture or Lightroom publish only your best work into a compressed format that's much more suitable for displaying on your iPad. Who wants a folder with all the throwaway files on the iPad anyway?
Then there's the issue of the Photos app on iPad. It's not good. Looked whizzy when Steve demoed all the pinching, swiping, and zooming at the iPad rollout, but it's not a practical or professional portfolio tools. Heckler should take a look at Portfolio for iPad (http://ipadportfolioapp.com/) and report back to us.
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While I think it was a good overview, I would hardly use it as a download platform. Over a multi day trip I could certainly fill up all the space on the tablet, also he is not mentioning that apps and the os all take space. That being said, I also have to disagree about the demise of books in print, ebooks are nice but I still like a good printed book. I do like and use my Xoom tablet, and there are some great apps that help you use live view for composing and then taking images and save them to the camera, things like focus stacking, and also for useful reference apps. So a worthwhile product but hardly a replacement for books in print or a good laptop with removable drives for storage on a long trip.
Alan
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My preference is to just travel with lots of CF cards and import the files when I get home, directly into the computer. You can let Aperture or Lightroom publish only your best work into a compressed format that's much more suitable for displaying on your iPad. Who wants a folder with all the throwaway files on the iPad anyway?
Not to mention, that apart from memory card storage costing way, way less than Ipad storage, the iPad really isn't a laptop replacement.
Then there's the issue of the Photos app on iPad. It's not good. Looked whizzy when Steve demoed all the pinching, swiping, and zooming at the iPad rollout, but it's not a practical or professional portfolio tools. Heckler should take a look at Portfolio for iPad (http://ipadportfolioapp.com/) and report back to us.
I use my phone as a bulk free/always present way of having some images to show to people when I'm out. And Apple's Photos on the iPhone is basically broken. It cannot display images to fit screen, you have to jump through hoops to make images order correctly and no way of reordering images without a computer.
Thankfully there's My Photos (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/secure-my-privacy/id441044210?mt=8), which fixes these issues and adds lots of other useful features too. It seems to be marketed as a privacy app [which could be useful for some people] but they'd be better highlighting how much better it is than Apple's frankly useless offering.
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I have an iPad (1) which I didn't bother to update to an iPad 2, and I rarely use it at all anymore. Many of its functions I now use on an iPhone, and the photo-oriented functions go to my Mac Air. It's quite possible that the tablets will become as important as Miles says they will, but I also think it possible that further evolution of Air-like computers will slow that advance. When I'm traveling, I need the input functions of a real laptop (the keyboard etc.) You can do that with an iPad, but then you've got all these pieces floating around. Eventually, I think, Airs (or Air-like computers) will have touch screens and, if you wish, phone links. You'll then have a package that includes a keyboard, a variety of ports, compatibility with mainline software packages, etc., in a one-piece package that weighs not much more than an iPad. And when you're out walking around, you carry an intelligent cell phone (You're going to need the phone whether or not you carry an iPad.)
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"Apple's iOS has been around since the release of the first Iphone. It's a mature, if somewhat stodgy product."
"stodgy"? iOS is most likely on 200-300 million or more actively used devices. 2 year olds to 102 year olds can use it without any effort. I do wish iOS were more open in what we can do with it for file structure, but it also works well.
I'd also say stodgy is the wrong word, clunky would be better. In the effort to makes things simple, Apple all too often makes things simplistic instead, which then requires more faff than if something was actually slightly more fully featured. Trying to add a song playing on my iphone to a playlist in iTunes is so very painful and convoluted. And all for the lack of a 'add to playlist button in the 'now playing' window. Arranging images in Photos is another very painful experience and many people simply disable Photosync (Once they work out how) as it doesn't allow you the very, very basic functionality of being able to delete images.
I have no plans of buying a newer iPad simply because the first one works as well as if not better today than day 1 and does everything I need it to do. There's a point when having a working product negates the need for just a newer version of the same product.
Luckily for Apple, lots of people are happy to do just that. ;D
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I believe Hecker deserves credit for having the temerity to state that their are useful tablets besides those from Apple. Most of my photography buddies are so Apple-centric there is no room for discussion. (I have also noticed that many of them own Lightroom but just can't make the leap from Photoshop.)
For those people that appreciate more flexibility, and dare I say elegance, the upcoming Windows 8 tablets are going to be a real joy to own and use. Maybe Hecker can do an update once these are on the market.
[Note these aren't fighting words, there is no point in an Apple vs the world debate here.]
On the printed book vs ebook debate, I'll offer up a thought. While there's no doubt a high quality offset printed book is going to be more satisfying, it's also likely to be on the coffee table. With the tablet, you have it with you. And, say you have some reasonably talented photographer that has been to a place and done some nice work. He or she can create an ebook, and you can obtain that ebook. 99% of us aren't going to publish a similar paper book. So this opens up the exposure to lots of other people in a way we haven't been able to do it before.
Thanks Miles and LuLa. Bob.
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These are called Tablets and not Tablet PCs, just Tablets. PC, personal computer, has nothing to do with them.
I was going to say a similar thing, but even more curmudgeonly:
- A tablet PC is a laptop running Windows with a twistable, stylus operated touch screen: these typically weigh about 5+ pounds, cost well over $1000, and sell about 500,000 per year.
- The iPad (and its kin) is a device with a finger operated touch screen as its only built-in input device, running a lightweight "mobile" OS designed around touch input: these typically weigh about a pound, cost about $500 or less, and sell about a million per week. Apple has never called the iPad a tablet; instead its name harks back to its ancestor, the Newton Message Pad, and its intermediate ancestors are PDA's and touch screen phones, not tablet PC's.
- By the way, a tablet is a stylus operated auxiliary input device, mostly make by Wacom.
How the iPad and such got to be called "tablets", let alone "tablet PCs", based on one imperfect similarity (the touch screen, shared also with the iPhone and PDA's) is a mystery. Maybe Steve Balmer, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell wanted to pretend (as they all have) that the highly mobile all-touch iPad is just a slight variant on something that MS came up with a decade earlier. Usually, first movers and market leaders dictate naming, so it would make sense to call them all "pads", but "slate" might have more chance --- pity HP fumbled first use of that name.
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Windows 8 tablets are going to be a real joy to own and use. ... Note these aren't fighting words, there is no point in an Apple vs the world debate here.
Sounds more like "Microsoft vs the world" with that confident praise for a nonexistent product, with the likelihood of having to choose between a non-existent software base (in the ARM-based Metro UI case) or the distinct need for a mouse and keyboard with most software and dubious battery life (in the x86 processor and traditional Windows software version). Intel and MS _might_ indeed succeed in overcoming these challenges and making something that is "a real joy to own and use", but it is hard to see why anyone could be so certain of that on the basis of what we know so far.
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Tablets aren't replacing anything other than the latest piece of fad equipment. And then they'll get replaced.
You can't get around that a tablet is a consumption device and every attempt to make it a production device (which is at least half of what a photographer needs) becomes a major compromise from user interfaces to computing power to equipment interfaces.
The market is already reacting to this with the rapid release of Ultrabooks which appear to be, considering modern CPU's and screens, an effective platform for someone who desires a light portable device for a myriad of uses including photography. Ultrabooks perform beyond levels of professional series laptops of just 2-3 years ago.
Tablets are fun and useful consumption devices, but they should be kept in perspective. They are not even a 'decent' solution for photography as a whole, though they do offer some utility for specific purposes.
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Tablets are simply digital media management systems; they are not computers in the traditional sense. As long as one realizes this and doesn't have expectations of doing much beyond managing media content it's fine. As Steve points out ultrabooks are true computers and it's amazing how the size (e.g., weight) has shrunk over the last several years. If one really wants a machine to take on travel, the ultrabook makes much better sense than a tablet.
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For the record, I take my 13" Macbook Pro on photoshoots.
I like to work on photos during times of poor light.
My wife and another good friend are quite content to use an Ipad to cull their shots.
They find them far better tham an Epson Mutimedia storage device.
YMMV. ;)
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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You can't get around that a tablet is a consumption device and every attempt to make it a production device (which is at least half of what a photographer needs) becomes a major compromise from user interfaces to computing power to equipment interfaces.
The market is already reacting to this with the rapid release of Ultrabooks which appear to be, considering modern CPU's and screens, an effective platform for someone who desires a light portable device for a myriad of uses including photography.
I'll assume that the MacBook Air is included by your term "ultrabook" -- any lightweight laptop with a decent processor but no spinning disks. Given that my iPad is the best tool for numerous tasks, mostly consumption but also small scale input, while a lightweight laptop does some important things much better, I am still wondering what my travel kit will be in a few years:
- iPad pus lightweight laptop?
- lightweight laptop only, losing the joys of "touch based couch computing" when I am mostly reading?
- iPad plus accessory keyboard, the latter only needed sometimes, and left behind when just reading, delivering presentations and such? This one depends partly on how much Apple expands on the potential of the Darwin/FreeBSD core of iOS.
(It might be an Android device or whatever rather than an iPad, but for now I am comfortable taking "iPad" as a default like "PC".)
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I'll assume that the MacBook Air is included by your term "ultrabook" -- any lightweight laptop with a decent processor but no spinning disks. Given that my iPad is the best tool for numerous tasks, mostly consumption but also small scale input, while a lightweight laptop does some important things much better, I am still wondering what my travel kit will be in a few years:
- iPad pus lightweight laptop?
- lightweight laptop only, losing the joys of "touch based couch computing" when I am mostly reading?
- iPad plus accessory keyboard, the latter only needed sometimes, and left behind when just reading, delivering presentations and such? This one depends partly on how much Apple expands on the potential of the Darwin/FreeBSD core of iOS.
(It might be an Android device or whatever rather than an iPad, but for now I am comfortable taking "iPad" as a default like "PC".)
1. I'd agree a MacBook Air and even my Lenovo x201s (i7, 8gb RAM, 256gb SSD, 2.4 pounds with 7-8 hour battery, full size best in class keyboard, milspec rated for water/dust/shock) (http://www.bangkokimages.com/Articles/Equipment/entryid/606/Lenovo-x201s-Thinkpad-Review.aspx)should be included in the term "Ultrabook", but to be accurate Ultrabooks are a term given by Intel to a very defined set of recently released laptops that basically have a great combination of power and mobility.
2. This is a good question. I think Asus and some others have a realistic concept with their convertibles. It's a laptop, it's a tablet, no IT'S A CONVERTIBLE... And I'd like to see the two halves sold separately so I could bring 1-2-3 extra monitors along as needed.. especially if they had a limited function said similar to the EZ on board (motherboard) function set Gigabyte and Asus put on a small solid state drive, so if you can't get it up (no no, I mean your main workstation) you can at least get online and access email and a browser and some other basic functions.
But anyone who thinks a consumption device with piss poor UI's is going to be a do all machine.. they're probably more enamored with the glitz and bling of the newest technology than they should be. The good news is will wear off eventually. But probably not until they buy a few thousand dollars worth of the things..
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I would seriously love to replace my laptop with tablet for travel photography. If only I could get Lightroom to run on one.
Yes, I know I can view the images on a tablet, and wait until I get home to do anything more, but I really like having the ability to do some preliminary editing while on the road.
I guess I need to decide just how important that capability really is.
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I would seriously love to replace my laptop with tablet for travel photography. If only I could get Lightroom to run on one.
Yes, I know I can view the images on a tablet, and wait until I get home to do anything more, but I really like having the ability to do some preliminary editing while on the road.
I guess I need to decide just how important that capability really is.
Meyer, I have been here too. But after reviewing my images on my home computer, with big screen, I decided my "travel edits" just weren't accurate/worth the trouble. While on the road, I just want to see how I'm doing, and create another copy of all the files. I'll wait to get home for editing/culling, etc.
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I would seriously love to replace my laptop with tablet for travel photography. If only I could get Lightroom to run on one.
Yes, I know I can view the images on a tablet, and wait until I get home to do anything more, but I really like having the ability to do some preliminary editing while on the road.
I guess I need to decide just how important that capability really is.
You sound like you are complaining that your hammer isn't very good with screws. ;D
Why not use an Ultrabook or MacBook Air? They are hardly any heavier or bigger and are a more apposite and way faster tool for the job.
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You've apparently never used one. While the Kindle Fire is just a consumption device, the iPad is a very useful one. If it were merely a consumption device, companies wouldn't be buying them by the thousands, and sometimes, by the tens of thousands.
I find mine to be quite useful, will apps available for almost everything.
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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. :'(
Well my original post did make the point that I agree with you to a large extent, except in the case of fine art photo-books - which you had specifically included. I don't see that an 11 inch screen transmitted light device is a replacement for a well printed, large format book. Regarding the under 30's, that may be your experience - but I have two daughters aged 23 and 25 who still love buying books (the physical type). Of course we are in the backward UK. The mass market is always dominated by the latest, cheapest, most fashionable stuff, but there will still be a market for more discerning customers. Of course that market becomes more limited and expensive too.
Jim
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I would seriously love to replace my laptop with tablet for travel photography. If only I could get Lightroom to run on one.
Yes, I know I can view the images on a tablet, and wait until I get home to do anything more, but I really like having the ability to do some preliminary editing while on the road.
I guess I need to decide just how important that capability really is.
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.
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I think Asus and some others have a realistic concept with their convertibles. ... And I'd like to see the two halves sold separately ...
But anyone who thinks a consumption device with piss poor UI's is going to be a do all machine ...
"the two halves sold separately" also sounds like a touch-screen device with optional auxiliary bluetooth keyboard,maybe built into a case that also holds the screen at a convenient viewing angle. These we already see for iPads and Android devices and will surely see for Window 8 touch-screen devices.
"device with piss poor UI" is a good description of all efforts so far to run traditional Windows desktop software on a device with no physical keyboard or external pointing device (mouse, trackpad, Wacom-style tablet). Once it is acknowledged that some tasks need more than touch-screen input, and instead need some of that traditional input hardware, the main question is how well the various OS's will support such accessories. With Apple now getting the great majority of its revenues and profits from iOS devices, I would not assume that Apple will sit by complacently not adding such support to iOS when the market demands it. Bear in mind that iOS is essentially the core of Mac OS X with some API's and device drivers removed, others added, so adding in support for additional external hardware support would be easy enough. Tim Cook has already dismissed the silly argument against cannibalism, saying that he is happy for a new Apple product like the iPad to take sales from older ones like MacBooks, rather that see competitors products take those sales instead.
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You've apparently never used one. While the Kindle Fire is just a consumption device, the iPad is a very useful one. If it were merely a consumption device, companies wouldn't be buying them by the thousands, and sometimes, by the tens of thousands.
I find mine to be quite useful, will apps available for almost everything.
A snarky unnecessary assumption. A wrong one as well.
Yes, corporate has put ipads and even lesser tablets like the Kindle Fire to use with custom aps from scanning incoming shipments to dispensing medications.. the context of this discussion is their use to a photographer or perhaps extrapolated to the average user where for both it's still basically a consumption device. And while it might have some productivity uses, it's a subset of capabilities of which a laptop or ultrabook has a much larger subset making them much less of a compromise.
Let's face it, we could make an argument the 3" LCD on the back of your camera is a productivity device and is all you need on the road, or the small screens on the portable hard drives. But I find someone satisfied with such a low level of function is more an exception than the rule. A tablet is a step up. An Ultrabook is a bigger step up. A complete workstation in hard cases even bigger. The question is where will the majority of photographers find their comfort spot and overall will tablets have the cultural effect of doing away with books and the like. I don't think they will and my comfort spot is an ultrabook like device.
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"the two halves sold separately" also sounds like a touch-screen device with optional auxiliary bluetooth keyboard,maybe built into a case that also holds the screen at a convenient viewing angle. These we already see for iPads and Android devices and will surely see for Window 8 touch-screen devices.
Right, these keyboards and stands are the latest marketing push. A fair number are now available. But an ipad with one of these devices starts to approach or even exceeds the size/weight/cost of an ultrabook without the full function of an established operating system like Osx or Win and the library of software written for them. Will a user want to spend that amount and carry that weight/bulk for a few aps.. or for the entire library of Osx or Win software?
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My iPad has become an indispensable accessory to my laptop:
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The list of 'Reasons You Need A Tablet PC' were not exactly compelling from a photographic point of view with perhaps the best being the dubious claim of "our photos will look better and weigh less when you show them off on your tablet". Rather than a CNET-esque table of features I'd rather have read about how photographers were using these on location, in the studio and on the road to make their lives easier and shoots go better.
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My iPad has become an indispensable accessory to my laptop:
Ha, ha! ;D
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Will a user want to spend that amount and carry that weight/bulk for a few aps.. or for the entire library of Osx or Win software?
If the keyboard is only needed sometimes, and/or most computational heavy lifting can be done back at the office on more powerful desktop computer or over the internet to a server-based solution, then the ability to carry just the touch-screen device when they physical keyboard is not needed can be clear win on size, weight, and portability. On the other hand, if money is no object, iPad + lightweight laptop + powerful desktop has clear advantages too.
On software: let us see in a few years what array of software has been developed for or ported to ARM-based mobile devices, be they iPad, Android, or Windows on ARM [WARM]. With Apple, Google, and Microsoft (with Metro) all pushing development for these ARM-based mobile platforms, I expect the choice to become quite good, quite fast. And I suspect that a large proportion of even professional usage would be met by a selection of items from a list of "the top 100 apps used on laptops to do real work". I wonder what people have to add to this minimal wish list:
- web browser
- email client
- document/eBook reader
- document editor (Word, Pages, GoogleDocs connection)
- spreadsheet editor (Excel, Numbers, Google stuff)
- presentation editor (Powerpoint, Keynote, Google stuff)
- note taking, scheduling, project planning, organizers (many options)
- image manipulation software (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture) [which by some dogmas, no photojournalist should be using anyway!]
- VPN client (the catch-all for almost everything else when you have a good internet connection)
Meanwhile, I will cling to my laptop too!
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I do the cardreader-laptop-external HD-DVD workflow. For tablets I've also got an IPad1 and 2 Kindles (a B/W reader and the color Fire).
Guess what I found? First you need a Data Plan and then ... There are places where there is no cell coverage and no wifi. (duh)
So if I don't pre-load a manual or other document I certainly can't download it "in the field".
cvt
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I don't have a tablet (home office and a desktop PC is all I really need) but this New York Times column (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/technology/personaltech/onlive-desktop-plus-puts-windows-7-on-the-ipad-in-blazing-speed-state-of-the-art.html?_r=1&ref=technology) really was interesting (you may need to register to access). More is here (http://desktop.onlive.com/). Looks interesting and pretty cheap but you have to have a 4g connection to make it work.
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When will tablets start offering HDMI-IN so that you use them as field monitors as well?? Seems like such a simple feature but no one's offering it.
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I do the cardreader-laptop-external HD-DVD workflow.
DVD? If I used that strategy I would have needed 40 DVD's on my last trip. Not very practical. Maybe you have blu-ray? Or you don't need to take a lot of pics to get the winners? ;D
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DVDs are still relatively cheap
Haven't graduated to BL yet ...
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DVD's are too slow and they are not very durable, one scratch and they are pretty much done. I would much rather have a couple of travel hard drives. But this is all personal preferences.....
and what one's preferences are for a workflow.....
Alan
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DVD's are too slow and they are not very durable, one scratch and they are pretty much done. I would much rather have a couple of travel hard drives. But this is all personal preferences.....
and what one's preferences are for a workflow.....
Alan
Agreed! Chuck at Work respectfully suggest you check out travel hard drives. USB powered. You can get 250, or 340, or 500 gb that is a fraction of the size of all those dvd's. About 100x faster to use.
Back to the tablet discussion... My dream tablet would let me import my images, and copy them to an external HD or Cloud service if I have wifi. My laptop is nice and small but for a photo trip I'd like an even smaller tablet.
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While I think tablets are important I believe 'cloud enablement' will provide many more benefits. The real value of a tablet is the hardware form factor and portability. The rest of a tablet is not much different than a standard computer. The benefit of moving files to the cloud and using software services will be flexibility in workflow at lower operating cost and time commitment for photographers. The technologies are almost all in place, including upgrades in wifi upload speeds. Companies should be investing heavily in cloud, I see so many $$$ opportunities in this space.
In 10 years time tablets will be the equivalent of the razor and the cloud will be the razor blade.
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When will tablets start offering HDMI-IN so that you use them as field monitors as well?? Seems like such a simple feature but no one's offering it.
HDMI-IN for such a device would endeavor to support HD video as well.. which would need more processing power and memory. Not to mention the sound channels. Really I'm not sure on this, but I think this is an issue with a tablets limited power.
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Hi have an ASUS tablet (amongst about 14 other computers, including servers) and an iPad. My ASUS tablet is a little bulky compared to the iPad, but has a Wacom pressure-sensitive stylus and runs Windows 7 with a full Photoshop CS 5 install. The device also has 2 built-in SD readers and 2 USB ports. For photo editing on the road, it's pretty hard to beat when you have a full environment, can hook up small USB drives, etc. Not to mention, some photo editing tasks are really nice and easy with a stylus right on the display. Sure, it doesn't compete with my tricked-out desktop at home for performance, but I'm not carting that beast with me when I travel.
Net effect, I might consider my iPad (or a Droid device) for portfolio display, if I was a pro and needed to show the images to clients, but not for photo editing and processing. These devices aren't ready for that and may not be for some time to come.
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I have an iPad (1) which I didn't bother to update to an iPad 2, and I rarely use it at all anymore. Many of its functions I now use on an iPhone, and the photo-oriented functions go to my Mac Air. It's quite possible that the tablets will become as important as Miles says they will, but I also think it possible that further evolution of Air-like computers will slow that advance. When I'm traveling, I need the input functions of a real laptop (the keyboard etc.) You can do that with an iPad, but then you've got all these pieces floating around. Eventually, I think, Airs (or Air-like computers) will have touch screens and, if you wish, phone links. You'll then have a package that includes a keyboard, a variety of ports, compatibility with mainline software packages, etc., in a one-piece package that weighs not much more than an iPad. And when you're out walking around, you carry an intelligent cell phone (You're going to need the phone whether or not you carry an iPad.)
Agreed. The tablet that I bought a few months ago sits next to my bed solely for ebook and internet reading, and I rarely use it. If I need apps on the go, I use my iPhone, and, if I need more, I use my Macbook Air, which runs Lightroom well, can still exhibit photos nicely, and is marginally larger than my tablet. It's the best computer I've ever purchased. Tablets just don't add much to my daily life, and I'll probably skip the iPad 3.
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Agreed. The tablet that I bought a few months ago sits next to my bed solely for ebook and internet reading, and I rarely use it. If I need apps on the go, I use my iPhone, and, if I need more, I use my Macbook Air, which runs Lightroom well, can still exhibit photos nicely, and is marginally larger than my tablet. It's the best computer I've ever purchased. Tablets just don't add much to my daily life, and I'll probably skip the iPad 3.
The increase in resolution, to over 3MP on screen, makes the next batch very tempting because that's more megapixels than any of the current laptops that you can buy today. The downside is that because the screens are smaller, there will be more megapixels and smaller megapixels - just like new cameras :)
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"Paper books are history"
Well, maybe.
Back in the early 80s I used to make corporate films for a computer company called "Wang". At the time this company was rated (by "Fortune" as best I recall) to be one of only three computer manufacturers likely to survive in the market. IBM was another. One of Wang's key slogans and central marketing proposition was "The Paperless Office". I don't recall anyone questioning the underlying assumption.
Been in an office recently?
Roy
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The increase in resolution, to over 3MP on screen, makes the next batch very tempting because that's more megapixels than any of the current laptops that you can buy today. The downside is that because the screens are smaller, there will be more megapixels and smaller megapixels - just like new cameras :)
There are rumors that Apple is bumping up screen rez on MacBooks, too, so that may or may not be an advantage.
I just fail to see much of the point of tablets, when laptops like the MacBook Airs exist. I've yet to even bring my tablet on a trip/airplane, because my Air fills the same general space in any bag, and I can run my home Office and Lightroom with it. Plus, the laptop's clamshell design provides a built-in stand that makes it more hands-free.
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I just fail to see much of the point of tablets, when laptops like the MacBook Airs exist. I've yet to even bring my tablet on a trip/airplane, because my Air fills the same general space in any bag, and I can run my home Office and Lightroom with it. Plus, the laptop's clamshell design provides a built-in stand that makes it more hands-free.
It's all dependent on your specific application, isn't it? I use MacBook Air, because I can't get along without a computer, and a combination of an Air and an iPhone pretty much handles my needs while traveling. It helps that I prefer paper books. But for people who don't need a computer, they can be convenient, providing back-up and review.
"Paper books are history"
Well, maybe.
Back in the early 80s I used to make corporate films for a computer company called "Wang". At the time this company was rated (by "Fortune" as best I recall) to be one of only three computer manufacturers likely to survive in the market. IBM was another. One of Wang's key slogans and central marketing proposition was "The Paperless Office". I don't recall anyone questioning the underlying assumption.
Been in an office recently?
Roy
People I talk to in the publishing industry (and I do that a lot) think things will settle down so that electronic books become another niche product, like recorded books. Right now the velocity of electronic book expansion is so high that, if you extrapolate it, pretty soon ten thousand percent of all books will electronic, and they will cover the earth to a depth of six feet. That's called the straight-line extrapolation error. There is a very large market of people who read a half-dozen books a year. In aggregate, they account for millions of sales -- but they are not the kind of people who will spend anything between two and several hundred dollars for an electronic reader. They can get a book for $9.99, and if they lose it or damage it to the extent that it's unreadable (and trashing a book takes some work, though it can be done) they're only out the $9.99. An electronic reader may cost them the equivalent of four or five years of typical reading, *before* they buy any books for it, and the readers are relatively easy to damage. If you lose it, of course, you're out the whole hundreds of dollars. What had the book publishers panicking was not the rise of electronic publishing, but the idea that they might lose pricing control over their products -- that the control might shift to a couple of big retailers like Amazon. The "i-store" model has pretty much ended that threat.
We have these keyboards for iPads, for people who need them, and other accessories, which clutter up briefcases. Some things I would like to see...
1. A universal standard for charging ports, so you only need to carry one charger. If I were a major camera maker, I might provide a camera battery-charger that would have, in addition to its regular charging port, a port that would accept an iPhone charger (if Apple would allow that - and since there'd actually by some synergy for both companies, I don't see why they wouldn't.)
2. An Air- (or Ultrabook-) sized computer with a detachable touch-screen that could be read like a Tablet. Or, to come at it from another direction, a Tablet with computer functionality and an attachable base that would provide a keyboard and a wide variety of ports, that could handle some standard software (Lightroom, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.), and still be Ultrabook-sized.
3. An Air that can handle 3G or 4G connections (like an iPad.) This is *very* convenient when traveling by car.
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Ultrabooks with 3G already exist:
http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/products/computers/portege/r830/pt320a-0hm00701/specifications#details
As an example.
I'm actually surprised that Apple hasn't made it an option for the Air.
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People I talk to in the publishing industry (and I do that a lot) think things will settle down so that electronic books become another niche product, like recorded books. Right now the velocity of electronic book expansion is so high that, if you
Maybe you should tell them about Kodak?
I am a book lover (here's a quick shot one of my two reading places). That small white line on the table below the globe is my kindle (2nd gen). It's where most of my reading occurs. When I like the physical appearance of hardcover editions (Neal Stephenson's books are alway cute for example), I buy both the electronic and the hardcover version. Even though I am not from the digital generation (I am 49, first computer at 17) I prefer to read on the Kindle and buy books almost exclusively for their appearance and smell these days.
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
My love from the smell and feel of books is not inherited: it was shaped by my childhood and adolescent immersive experiences. Have you been around 12 years old recently? What's shaping their experience? Tablets, smart phones and iPods.
between two and several hundred dollars for an electronic reader. They can get a book for $9.99, and if they lose it or damage it to the extent that it's unreadable (and trashing a book takes some work, though it can be done) they're only out the $9.99. An electronic reader may cost them the equivalent of four or five years of typical reading, *before* they buy any books for it,
Assuming $100 for the entry level, that would put the average reader at 2 $9.99 books per year. Not necessarily wrong in absolute terms, but probably not where the bulk of the money is for publishing companies.
and the readers are relatively easy to damage.
To some extent, yes. However, this is perfectly acceptable in today's world of yearly smartphone (or camera) upgrades, or a world where TVs have a 3-4 years life expectancy.
Kindle dies, buy new kindle and automatically have access to you whole library, wherever you are.
but the idea that they might lose pricing control over their products -- that the control might shift to a couple of big retailers like Amazon. The "i-store" model has pretty much ended that threat.
Agreed for the first part. But how has the i-store model ended that threat?
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John,
We are getting a wee bit off topic and maybe we should take this to the Coffee Corner (which is, appropriately, an electronic version), but I think that those publishing industry people are predicting based on the way they think it should be, not how it will be. IIRC, both Amazon and Barnes&Noble now sell more eBooks than "pBooks", so that "niche" is a sink-hole swallowing most of the traditional book publishing and retailing industry.
Arguments based on stating ways that the traditional alternative is better are usually not to be trusted, even though those advantages are real. Should I restate the advantages of film over digital?
P. S. I still buy and enjoy books, and have not found a satisactory electronic alternative to making notes on them in pencil.
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It's all dependent on your specific application, isn't it? I use MacBook Air, because I can't get along without a computer, and a combination of an Air and an iPhone pretty much handles my needs while traveling. It helps that I prefer paper books. But for people who don't need a computer, they can be convenient, providing back-up and review.
Funny thing is that I prefer reading on both my Air and iPhone over my tablet, because they're both easier to hold while laying in bed. In fact, I can't really think of anything I'd rather do on my tablet over my Air. Price seems to be the only advantage of the tablet. I guess there a few things, like apps for children, that make more sense on a tablet.
p.s. I tether my Air with my iPhone, so I've got 3G on it, too.
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For me, one advantage of the iPad over a laptop is greatly increased display space. I usually like to read things in vertical orientation and for this the iPad (or other tablets) give much more room than a laptop screen which you have to use in horizontal mode.
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John,
We are getting a wee bit off topic and maybe we should take this to the Coffee Corner (which is, appropriately, an electronic version), but I think that those publishing industry people are predicting based on the way they think it should be, not how it will be. IIRC, both Amazon and Barnes&Noble now sell more eBooks than "pBooks", so that "niche" is a sink-hole swallowing most of the traditional book publishing and retailing industry.
Arguments based on stating ways that the traditional alternative is better are usually not to be trusted, even though those advantages are real. Should I restate the advantages of film over digital?
P. S. I still buy and enjoy books, and have not found a satisactory electronic alternative to making notes on them in pencil.
You are not getting off topic because I started this thread to talk about the Tablet and it's impact on books (or not). Anyone can start a new thread to discuss the tablet as say a storage device or whatever if they wish. I am interested to hear your feelings on this aspect of the devices.
Jim
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... I started this thread to talk about the Tablet and it's impact on books (or not). ... I am interested to hear your feelings on this aspect of the devices.
OK then!
I agree that books as vehicles for printed photographs and other artwork are going to be around for a long time, along with prints and drawings and paintings hanging on the wall. This is usually the case with declarations that "X is dead" or "X is dying", where X can be photographic film, printed books, oil painting, writing letters to family and friends on paper, or whatever. ... At best, it is just a lazy way of saying that the days of the dominant, mainstream role for "X" are past, leaving us to envision what its new role will be.
I have also mentioned my preference for having some technical and text books on paper, so that I can scribble notes on them, and I am not alone: this is apparently what killed the Kindle DX as a text-book replacement, even when tested with technology-friendly subjects like MIT students. But maybe the technology will solve the note-taking dilemma soon enough.
On the other hand, the roughy 10" touch screen format, as with the iPad, is my favorite for most reading of web-pages, technical papers and documents (formatted for 11"x8 1/2" paper) and technical books where I do not want to make marginal notes, email, while for novels, it is a toss-up between the iPad and a smaller, lighter Kindle, with printed books in third place.
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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"
Broadly speaking I'd guess that this is a reasonable estimate. As an over-60 I'd definitely buy an e-Reader (probably a Kindle) if I spent more time travelling on public transport. As someone who owns thousands of books my own preferences are clear - it's lifetime habit. The inconvenience of carrying books when travelling is vastly outweighed by the sheer inconvenience of the number of batteries and chargers that now accompany every trip: somehow this irritates me far more than the bulk of books, which can be readily discarded or exchanged. Books don't need batteries; they can be purchased very cheaply (a used market where there are ridiculous bargains); nobody is very interested in stealing books, unlike electronic consumer durables (to the extent that anything electronic can currently be designated "durable"). And of course books do, er, um, certainly furnish a room...
As for the lower end of the age-scale, I often wonder just how many "books" people actually read today - as opposed to shorter forms of text? One thing I did notice last time I took a look at what was available for Kindles (a couple of years ago) was how many contemporary authors - and not obscure ones either - were unavailable in this form. V.S. Naipaul (Nobel prize winner) and Paul Theroux were unrepresented. Uh? Additionally when I looked at the copyright free listings the problem was that there was no decent search facility in the sites I examined, so unless one was looking for a specific author or title, it was impossible to locate, say, particular subject groups of interest. Maybe this has already been improved. It certainly needs to be.
Roy
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John,
We are getting a wee bit off topic and maybe we should take this to the Coffee Corner (which is, appropriately, an electronic version), but I think that those publishing industry people are predicting based on the way they think it should be, not how it will be. IIRC, both Amazon and Barnes&Noble now sell more eBooks than "pBooks", so that "niche" is a sink-hole swallowing most of the traditional book publishing and retailing industry.
The market is much bigger than Amazon and B&N. Right now (end of 2011) e-books are about 20% of the market. That will continue to grow, but the growth will slow. Where it will end, I don't know. People may be right when they say younger people prefer tablets...but I'm not sure that younger people prefer reading.
@Pierre: In a nutshell, Amazon's $9.99 pledge for bestsellers, which really fueled the growth of e-books, costs them about $4 per book (they lose that much.) What they were trying to do was to seize pricing control over the market, and force the publishers conform to their low-price standard. That, in turn, would have forced competitors (who were heavily involved in bricks-and-mortars stores) out of business. That is, paper books can't be sold as cheaply as e-books, and if competitors like B&N and Borders couldn't cut their prices to meet Amazon's, then they were in trouble (and indeed, Borders went out of business, although part of their problem was management -- they might have gone out of business anyway.)
Then, along came the iPad and the Apple store. The iPad sells way more than the KIndle (or B&N Nook.) Apple has a different pricing scheme -- they don't care what the publishers sell their books for, they just want a cut. That's more or less the standard deal with regular bookstores. That undercut Amazon, because if the publishers decided not to provide books in Amazon's format (and that threat was made explicit by some publishers), there was still an e-book outlet through Apple. At that point, it was Amazon that got squeezed. The end result was, the market stabilized with everybody more-or-less where they started.
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Having looked at the new, used, and Kindle books on Amazon, I was surprised that often you can buy a used hardcopy book for less than a price of the ebook.
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The market is much bigger than Amazon and B&N.
What I have seen in the US book market is first the almost complete domination of book selling by major chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Waldenbooks, marginalizing independent booksellers, followed by the disappearance and shrinkage of most of those chains, leaving Amazon and Barnes & Noble dominant (along with pure eBook sources like Apple) and becoming more so. So the pattern at those major players is to me a very good predictor of what the overall pattern will be soon. Also, I wonder what fraction of paper book sales to young people are school and college textbooks, where paper still dominates (due in part to the dictates of teachers and professors?). The electronic textbook push is really just getting started.
Do you have a source for that 20% eBooks figure, and for the trend over recent years? It is for the US, or global?
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What I have seen in the US book market is first the almost complete domination of book selling by major chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Waldenbooks
Canadian market is about 10 times smaller, but completely dominated by Indigo-Chapters. There are hardly any independent bookstores left (beside used books stores).
Because of limited shelf space in the stores, this monopoly situation makes it very difficult for small publishers to keep their books in stores. Virtual shelf space for ebooks might help small publishers and authors.
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Having looked at the new, used, and Kindle books on Amazon, I was surprised that often you can buy a used hardcopy book for less than a price of the ebook.
Sometimes the ebook costs more than a new paper copy of the same title. That is the result of the "Agency Model" that John was describing - where publishers set the selling price with no room to maneuver by the vendor. I think it is a deliberate move on the part of publishers to kill the ebook market. Publishers can't control ebooks - anybody can create one, but not everybody can create a physical paper book.
At one time publishers - print and music - were able to completely control the market because they controlled manufacturing of the medium. Those days are changing and the old-line companies don't like it. As one of the over 60 crowd I like both physical books and ebooks; each has their place. But I also remember how we were told the advent of music CDs was going to lower the cost of music to the consumer because they were cheaper to manufacture than vinyl. Instead, prices went up.
Wally
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@BJL -- The numbers are for the US market. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/story/2012-01-09/ebooks-sales-surge/52458672/1
THe US actually has several smaller regional (but still large) chains, like Hastings and Books a Million which are doing okay, because they were never as over-extended as Borders and B&N. What actually damaged Borders, as much as anything, were mistakes made in buying/leasing real estate. If you ever noticed, B&N is mostly in strip malls; Borders for some reason tried to expand into mainline shopping malls and got stuck with longterm leases on outrageously expensive real estate.
We are also seeing the re-rise of small mom 'n pop bookstores, which is possible because they usually serve niches (cookbooks, childrens books, mysteries, etc.) and because they often are run by a husband and wife as the only employees. That can be a ruthlessly efficient business model.
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We are also seeing the re-rise of small mom 'n pop bookstores, which is possible because they usually serve niches (cookbooks, childrens books, mysteries, etc.)
I certainly hope that small bookstores make some comeback, in places like the market holes left by Waldenbooks, in part to serve the "look before you buy" market, such as for art reproduction books. Then again, I hope for the return of photography stores run by individual photographers, now that their former nemesis, Ritz, is on the ropes (Ritz is gone from my town after killing off all the non-chain competition).
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I certainly hope that small bookstores make some comeback, in places like the market holes left by Waldenbooks, in part to serve the "look before you buy" market, such as for art reproduction books.
I'm quite sceptical about the outlook. The main problem (at least on the Canadian scene) are the high operational costs (rent, payroll, pilferage).
In Toronto, the last large and finest independent book store called PAGES (catering to art, travel, and quite a few other niches) located downtown on Queen street, when faced in 2009 with a lease renewal at almost twice the previous rate, decided to close rather than to move to suburbs. In the small Ontario towns, they are a few independent book stores, but even those are slowly disappearing.
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Maybe this has already been improved. It certainly needs to be.
I agree that the situation is far from perfect now, but that also means it can only improve whereas the real book market is quite mature already. When someone said on this board that "Thinking, Fast and Slow" was a very good book, I started reading it within a couple of minutes.
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One thing I did notice last time I took a look at what was available for Kindles (a couple of years ago) was how many contemporary authors - and not obscure ones either - were unavailable in this form. V.S. Naipaul (Nobel prize winner) and Paul Theroux were unrepresented.
There is a distinct lag in getting the "back catalog" of still in-copyright works into electronic form, with newly published works doing better, and out of copyright in wonderful shape thanks to efforts like Project Guttenberg. On your examples, iBooks now has twelve by Naipaul and eleven by Theroux, so progress, but still half or less of their totals. And "The Mosquito Coast" is missing: the pattern of when and if older books get reissued electronically is mysterious, and maybe depends on legal/financial wrangling.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
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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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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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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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Apps for Apes: Orangutans using iPads to paint and video chat with other apes
Link.. (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/apps-apes-orangutans-using-ipads-paint-video-chat-174457692.html) I'm just sayin..
(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kNWyEGWn2StTEh9GwpFNEA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thesideshow/ape.jpg)
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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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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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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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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.
But that's been the book model for as long as there has been commercial printing. It was also the model for music prior to online music libraries. I buy a CD: I can keep it, I can dub it to tape (remember tape?), I can give it away, or even resell it. I buy a book, same deal, except for easily copying it. If I buy a movie on DVD, I can resell it or loan it out after I watch it. Even most software works this way. I can deauthorize my copy of Photoshop, uninstall it, and give it away to someone else to use, or try to sell it on ebay. Heck, the car I paid $25K for cost the manufacturer tens of millions of dollars to design and bring to production, but that doesn't prevent me from reselling it when I'm done with it. Or loaning to a friend for free, or even setting up a rental agency and charging other people to drive it.
Furniture, houses, motorcycles, pets, tools, TVs, computers, and phones. Books, CDs and records, movies, games, and software. All of these things are sold at a fraction of the cost of producing one, and all can be used or disposed of as the purchaser wishes.
Why should ebooks follow a different model than almost any other product or IP I can purchase? As long as I'm not making copies of it, I'm not violating anyone's copyright. This isn't a question of fairness to the creator, nor of a sense of entitlement. It's simply the sellers' attempting to use technology to limit consumer choice and increase their profits.
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Reselling something, or lending it out in a way that means you do not have access while another person does, is one thing: Amazon allows a bit of this with Kindle books, and I would like to see more. And simultaneous sharing with a limited number of people can work too, like the up to five computers plus any number of mobile devices that can share an iTunes account.
I am thinking of people who claim a right to participate in massive duplication, like with Bit Torrent. The practical solution might be just keeping the duplication and sharing fiddly and time-consuming enough that a solid majority of people choose the convenience of doing it the "official" way. That seems to have worked with cassette tape copies and even ripping of CDs, for example.
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I'm wondering about the quoted price of $395 for a Galaxy Tab. The cheapest I've been able to find from a reputable store is about $440. Anyone know of a better price?