|
I think this is a great step in the right direction - regardless of it being MS only or not. Only when the demand for other formats increases to the point of being worth their effort will they begin to expand to those other systems. The problem I have with PDF's is that Adobe's PPC version won't let you read DRM-encrypted files...
On a side note - let me explain my current battle in the land of ebooks. I bought an MS Reader ebook on Amazon that contained maps of the area described in the book. I was suprised (and pissed) when I found out that these maps are 240x320 and therefore unreadable and useless!! You can't read any of the names of places and when you try to zoom in it just gets "blocky"...
I called up Random House and they referred me to an email address for support from ContentLinkInk.com - their ebook website. I wrote three emails to them within two weeks asking them to reissue the ebook with higher resolution maps - and got no response. I finally called Random House again and they told me they don't know how to contact those guys by phone but coincidentally less than an hour after hanging up with them I received a one-sentence reply from ContentLinkInk saying that they are researching to see if this can be done. Of course, when I reply asking how long it might take, I got no response.
So, this weekend, I went out and bought the third book in paper format. I just couldn't justify buying the ebook knowing it would have useless maps... It appears that companies are not spending much time or effort on enticing people to purchase ebooks. I do hope this can be changed...
|