Interview with Palm Digital Media on eBooks and DRM

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://cebooks.blogspot.com/">http://cebooks.blogspot.com/</a><br /><br />Check out the August 28th blog entry of Jerry Justianto's "Pocket PC eBooks Watch" blog. He has an interview with Peter Fry and Lee Fyock of Palm Digital Media (PDM). You know that super cool Palm Reader you are using on your Pocket PC? That is Peter's handiwork. It is so clear that PDM "gets it" when it comes to ebooks.<br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/palmdigitalmedia.gif" /><br />The interview mentions that PDM's format and ever so friendly method of DRM is available at <a href="http://www.fictionwise.com">Fictionwise</a> and <a href="http://ebooks.whsmith.co.uk/">WHSmith</a> and has been licensed to several ebook creators. Normally, I am all for competition, but in ebook formats, I would like to see on standard emerge as the clear victor and right now, it seems there is no stopping PDM. They have a powerful combination of great software, top notch tech support (rarely necessary!), DRM that treats me as a valued and trusted customer, a growing library and more licensees. Keep it up PDM!<br /><br />If you have <b><i>any</i></b> interest in ebooks, you owe it to yourself to stop by <a href="http://www.peanutpress.com">the Palm Digital Media site</a> and of course, <a href="http://cebooks.blogspot.com/">Pocket PC eBook Watch</a>.

[yvilla]

Just wanted to chime in and say that Palm Reader is definitely great, and having tried almost all the readers out there, my favorite; this is from someone whose initial reason for even getting a Pocket PC almost two years ago was to serve as an e-book reader--instead of the briefly tried and hugely disappointing Franklin eBookman. (The benefit to me of course, was finding out all the other great uses for my Pocket PC :wink:

[Guy Van Houtte]

For me, the microsoft reader is the easiest e-reader I know, followed as a close second by mobipocket.com.

Or at least, that was my opinion untill this year.
Now, mobipocket is for me the best one.
The microsoft reader has failed me since the pre-pocketpc 2002 version (as supplied with a hp jornada 54x series) doesn't support the new format for the reader 2002.

Anyway, when I look for free e-books, I look at www.esspc-ebooks.com.

[BoyWithPockets]

Standardization is actually one of the biggest issue with eBooks. There are way too many formats. Frankly I don't care which format wins,as logn as somebody does. It should be open so that others can create readers for that format.

Let the competition be about which reader has the best feature you like, instead of what format can it read. Right now my choice is based on what format the material I read is in, not really a choice.

[GadgetMan]

MS Reader and Mobipocket are fine applications, but have one FATAL flaw: they both use device specific encryption method, the most user UNFRIENDLY method out there. You only have a very limited number of activations available and if you happen to reformat your hard drive, hard reset your Pocket PC or upgrade your hardware one time too many you loose access to all those ebooks you paid your money for.

This practically GUARANTEES that sooner or later your ebooks will turn into expensive collection of useless files.

On top of that Mobipocket failed to implement ClearType technology and employs the most obnoxious and unfrendly support personnel I have ever met...

Fortunately, Palm Digital Media (a.k.a. Peanutpress) chose to implement user friendly encryption method that is NOT device specific. You use your name and credit card number to initially unlock the book. If you ever replace your credit card with one having different account number, all you do is logon to your bookshelf, update credit card info and re-download the books. You can do it as many times as you want, no need to beg anyone for permission.

And of course you can read your Peanutpress ebooks on as many computers/handhelds as you want. No matter how many times you repalce, repair or upgrade them.

Also, Palm Reader was smart enough to offer ClearType support, which greatly enhances my reading experience on my HP Jornada 568.

Cheers,

George
HP Jornada 568 Aficionado

[Jimmy Dodd]

Positive:

OK, you talked me into it. I tried it and I've got to say that it's pretty good. There seems to be a really good selection of titles available. The copy protection seems reasonable, too. I hadn't bought an ebook before (being content with the frequent free books and short stories available from fictionwise.com, etc.), because of all of the negative talk about the MS Reader (problems with changing Reader versions, using the media on different devices, etc.). I finally took the plunge and bought a couple from PDM. I'm pretty happy, except...

Negative:

Everytime I turn off my e740 while reading an ebook the book closes when I turn on the PPC again. I get to see it for about 1/2 of a second and then I see "No Books Open" and a big Palm logo. If I reopen the book it is right where I left it (page-wise, I mean). Is this by design or am I doing something wrong?

I'm not real keen on the paragraph formatting either. Skipping a line instead of indenting eats up a lot of screen space. Is this configurable?

[Ed Hansberry]

Negative:

Everytime I turn off my e740 while reading an ebook the book closes when I turn on the PPC again. I get to see it for about 1/2 of a second and then I see "No Books Open" and a big Palm logo. If I reopen the book it is right where I left it (page-wise, I mean). Is this by design or am I doing something wrong?

I'm not real keen on the paragraph formatting either. Skipping a line instead of indenting eats up a lot of screen space. Is this configurable?
You'd be surprised - indenting on a PDA isn't nearly as distinguishable as a line skip. No, it isn't configurable.

On the closing - your ebook on an SD card? Known bug. Put your ebook in RAM or a CF card and it won't do this.

[Jimmy Dodd]

Negative:

Everytime I turn off my e740 while reading an ebook the book closes when I turn on the PPC again. I get to see it for about 1/2 of a second and then I see "No Books Open" and a big Palm logo. If I reopen the book it is right where I left it (page-wise, I mean). Is this by design or am I doing something wrong?

I'm not real keen on the paragraph formatting either. Skipping a line instead of indenting eats up a lot of screen space. Is this configurable?
You'd be surprised - indenting on a PDA isn't nearly as distinguishable as a line skip. No, it isn't configurable.

On the closing - your ebook on an SD card? Known bug. Put your ebook in RAM or a CF card and it won't do this.

Actually, it's on a CF card already.

As for the line skips, I can live with that.

[jsjxyz]

Here are the list why I prefer Palm Reader over MS Reader for Pocket PC:
1. No memory bug problem.
2. Lighting fast in page jumping around the ebook
3. We can zoom in the picture
4. Can change the font

Thanks for posting my interview Ed!

Jerry
Pocket PC eBooks Watch

[aBrentk]

Ed, if it weren't for your many positive comments about PDM and Palm Reader, I probably would have never tried it. I got the Palm Reader Pro version and it's now my favorite reader, except for the almost useless dictionary that came with it. (I had read somewhere, maybe even you wrote it, that the dictionary was not useful, so I wasn't expecting much.) Its configurability is what I like most about it. I've changed the font and background colors, and have disabled ClearType (I was surprised that I could see the words more clearly without ClearType!)

[Ed Hansberry]

I got the Palm Reader Pro version and it's now my favorite reader, except for the almost useless dictionary that came with it.
Not a big fan of the pocket dictionary either. I forked over the bucks for the 10MB dictionary. Much more complete. :)

[Pony99CA]

I am all for competition, but in ebook formats, I would like to see on standard emerge as the clear victor and right now, it seems there is no stopping PDM.

Actually, I think competition should be based on the applications, not on the data format of the content. Imagine if every TV only supported a video format proprietary to the TV's manufacturer.

If there's a need for a new data format for common applications, I'd prefer to see that developed by a standards body (like JPEG and MPEG). Of course, that would delay new features coming to programs, but it would avoid things like the IE and Netscape versions of HTML.

With a little luck, the future may be different. More and more applications will start using XML for their native data formats (Microsoft Office is already doing that, I think). For common applications, standards bodies will develop XML document types to enable documents to be easily shared among applications.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

MS Reader and Mobipocket are fine applications, but have one FATAL flaw: they both use device specific encryption method, the most user UNFRIENDLY method out there. You only have a very limited number of activations available and if you happen to reformat your hard drive, hard reset your Pocket PC or upgrade your hardware one time too many you loose access to all those ebooks you paid your money for.
Actually, I hard reset my iPAQ 3870 when I installed the EUU2, and recovered my activation without a problem.

I had read about what files to backup on some Web site, and saved them. After the hard reset, I copied the files back to my Pocket PC and stopped getting MS Reader's nagging about activating my device.

Here is a list of the seven files to backup:

* Microsoft Activation.unload
* msreader-exe.sig
* msreader-exe-manifest.sig
* secrep.dat
* secrep.dll
* secrep.xml
* secrepid.dat

Steve

[roberto_torres]

Hi I just moved from Palm OS to PPC, due to Palm OS inminet dead.


I have a concern of what will happen to Palm Reader afther the end of the Palm OS. (On every Palm OS site people are predicting the dead of the Palm OS, and saying that Sony is going to purchase it and turn it into a propietary Clie only system). Palm Source which is in bankrupcy is the company that makes the Palm OS and the Palm Reader and this is the company Sony is going to purchase.

Also it is obious from sites such as Amazon that Palm now has less than 15% of the handheld market.

[KH]

I have been reading ebooks for several years, and yes, I have a few casualties, books that I bought in formats that are no longer supported. I find that reading ebooks on my IPAQ is so much better than physical books - always with me, built in 'nightlight', lightweight and always a one-handed operation - that my book buying habbits have all changed. Because I change devices often I have shied away from making a big investment in Microsoft Reader formats. I just don't feel like I can depend on the whims of an activation-overlord, and don't know whether the saving-the-files trick will work across different device types. Also I don't really like having to remember PassPort information, or mixing work with home accounts. I hope ultimately to convert my total collection of books to electronic form. As readers go, Palm/Peanut Press Reader is my favorite for some of the reasons already identified - font size, ease of navigation, opens automatically to the last book and page read, etc. Microsoft Reader has gotten better over time and I will use it but still find that I have more steps-per-operation than I like.

As far as book sites go, I like Baen (www.webscriptions.net) and Fictionwise, both of which offer multiple formats and good selections - but for new books published by any one other than Baen nothing beats Palm/PeanutPress. Palm also continues to take steps to increase my comfort level with making investments - they recently made their reader available for the PC, and while pleasure reading on today's PCs doesn't have much to recommend itself, there is yet another platform that will work. One other concern I have had is that the reader format or OS-version compatibility will change - Microsoft has done that at least once, Palm has not yet obsoleted anything of mine, and I have hundreds of their books. I have bought non-encrypted books for Microsoft Reader that I could not read on my Pocket-PC based Aero, and had to go back to html. Palm will also allow you to reset your code if you change credit cards; you can reload your books any time. I wish that Palm had a bulk download but that is a nit.

The protection issue really becomes important when you realize that your ebook collection has reached the several hundred mark - the $$ REALLY add up.

[Pony99CA]

Hi I just moved from Palm OS to PPC, due to Palm OS inminet dead.

I have a concern of what will happen to Palm Reader afther the end of the Palm OS. (On every Palm OS site people are predicting the dead of the Palm OS, and saying that Sony is going to purchase it and turn it into a propietary Clie only system). Palm Source which is in bankrupcy is the company that makes the Palm OS and the Palm Reader and this is the company Sony is going to purchase.

Also it is obious from sites such as Amazon that Palm now has less than 15% of the handheld market.
Wow, what can I say about this? I haven't heard that Palm Source is in bankruptcy. In fact, I don't believe Palm has even finished spinning it off.

As for market share, Amazon is hardly a way to judge things. Every report I've seen still has Palm OS-based devices at over 50% of the market, with Palm itself having the biggest part of that.

Steve