Michael Kassner - ePub is pretty standard. It's just a bundle of HTML files.
I agree that multiplying standards is a problem though. For example, I'm happy to buy my ebooks from Amazon but I don't like the Amazon app on the Nexus 7 tablet. If Amazon used an open standard -- or even licensed its formats -- we might see other apps using Amazon.
There are tools to convert between formats, and tools to rip ebooks that are crippled by DRM. But who has the time?
I hope to see these problems sorted out as the technology matures.
You maybe right about physical books going away, but that will not happen until a universal format is determined. Until that time, physical books will be the only true archival format.
Yes, it is definitely an adjustment from paperback to tablet reading, but like you Kim I don't have a problem with my tablet being a strain thus far. I do like the convenience of of downloading my books and if the is really good, I will buy it and add it to,my library.
@Mitch - I think smartphones has a huge upside in developing countrys-- because old wired infrastructure is sporadic or simply doesn't exist. As mobile internet usage increases both at home and abroad they can definitely exceed that of the desktop internet sometime inthe future.
The mobile Internet is beginning to resemble the commercial web in the middle 1990s. It's a gold rush. I wonder when mobile will overtake the desktop Internet?
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The US National Security Agency learned the hard way that it can be dangerous to give a contractor too much money and access, with too little scrutiny. The NSA and other government agencies hire tens of thousands of contractors
a year to analyze data. Edward Snowden -- who revealed himself as the NSA leaker after fleeing the country -- was one such contractor, reportedly holding a $122,000 salaried position at Booz Allen Hamilton at the time of his departure.
Midsize businesses rarely achieve the same standards of security in their own datacenters as professional providers that specialize in delivering these services to organizations.
It was about 10 years ago when a new generation of software-as-a-service (SaaS) alternatives started to gain acceptance and adoption among organizations of all sizes. And it has only been about five years since Amazon Web Services captured the marketplace's attention with Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3, which opened the door to a vast array of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings. Now, the third piece of the cloud computing puzzle is beginning to win over organizations seeking to build their own apps: platform-as-a-service (PaaS).
Energy consumption is a primary contributor to global warming. At the end of 2012, 40 percent of energy consumption in the US came from commercial and residential buildings.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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