Survey of Microsoft .LIT eBooks

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mslit.com/redirect/survey/' target='_blank'>http://www.mslit.com/redirect/survey/</a><br /><br /></div>Microsoft is gathering information on how users are using (or not using) Microsoft Reader and other ebook formats. If you have 10 minutes or so, answer the 50 questions about your ebook usage patterns.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2002/20021129-litsurvey.gif" /><br /><br />And let 'em know device activation is not acceptable! :evil:

[avoglio]

I answered two questions:

WHICH READERS DO YOU OWN :
(7 readers), crossed MS READER

DID YOU USE MS READER ?
crossed NO

END

:lol: If it was a serious questionaire, one should have added options like "why did you never use it ?" or whatever .. maybe they just wanna hear what they want to hear :wink:

[Gordo]

I use the Reader for viewing documents that I create. I find it easier to take a word document and create a .lit from it for mobile reading. There were no questions relating to this type of usage!

[pkwjr]

I would be interested what type of reader people use and why. Thanks.

[Ed Hansberry]

I would be interested what type of reader people use and why. Thanks.
Primarily Palm Reader from www.peanutpress.com because their level of DRM ties a book to the owner so I can easily transfer the book to different devices by simply re-entering my credit card number into the ebook. No device activation required or limits on what devices I can put it on. Also, like a paper book, I can give the ebook to my wife for reading on her device when i am done with it. Because it uses my credit card number, i am not likely to post the ebook on the internet and give the unlock code.

[Steven Cedrone]

Free books: Microsoft Reader.
Books I purchase: Peanut Press.

Steve

[Gerard]

It always dismays me, but somehow I am never surprised, when I go to a Microsoft site and find that it is extremely difficult to navigate via Pocket IE. Same for this questionaire. What's with the endless side-scrolling???
Anyway, I use MS Reader for things only available in that format, and for my older collection from before I found µbook (http://www.gowerpoint.com), which handles a couple of 'other' formats well. Baen Books are especially nice in zipped HTML format in µbook, with the font set to medium with Papyrus.ttf, in a deep brown ink on a textured 'paper' background in a creamy off-white. Links need no distinctive colour, as they are underlined, so I use the same colour. I told MS about it a little, though I hardly expect them to adopt such little things, as they only serve to increase reader comfort. No point in that, right?

[Ed Hansberry]

It always dismays me, but somehow I am never surprised, when I go to a Microsoft site and find that it is extremely difficult to navigate via Pocket IE. Same for this questionaire. What's with the endless side-scrolling???
Sad isn't it? If MS won't bother with PIE 3.02 compliant pages, why would they expect others to?

[Steven Cedrone]

In all fairness, MS isn't administering the survey. They pay someone else to do it for them...

Steve

[Sven Johannsen]

In all fairness, MS isn't administering the survey. They pay someone else to do it for them...

Steve

But I would think they could propose some requirements, like "it should work with our browsers". Maybe they just forgot people actually use PocketPCs :oops:

[szamot]

100 clicks later, nothing will change much. Someone ought to do a study on that. How much clicking is clicked in vain each and every day - world wide? This might be worth at least a PhD dissertation. :idea:

[Marcel_Proust]

yes. i second the problem people have noted with their protection.
the book should be yours to read, no matter how many devices you've switched.
also, ms reader is so slow!

[RickP in AZ]

I read 3 ebooks a week and almost all of them are read in HaaliReader. So I put that in the "Other" category and then when asked what could be improved in MS Reader I gave them an earful.

[Steven Cedrone]

In all fairness, MS isn't administering the survey. They pay someone else to do it for them...

Steve

But I would think they could propose some requirements, like "it should work with our browsers". Maybe they just forgot people actually use PocketPCs :oops:

I think ebooks are a natural for Pocket PC, maybe you do too. But maybe in the "scheme" of things at MS, the Reader team doesn't consider us worth all that much attention? Maybe we are not the target "audience". Who knows???

Steve

[Unreal32]

Seems no one gives credence to the large number of "pirated" e-books available, either. I noticed the survey didn't ask how many "free" books people read that were not really intended to be "free".

All in all, if they do some things to improve the MS Reader software, great... but the survey was definitely flawed and did not take into account the other ways people use it (such as using ReaderWorks and turning Word documents into LIT documents for reading on the reader) nor did it cover the reasons why people like OTHER companies' software, which would have been a good idea, too.

Seems to me like this survey was written by one person... otherwise it wouldn't have been so skewed and missing so many angles. And if so, it makes me question whether MS will actually use any of this data to really change or improve things, especially DRM.

[Gerard]

Microsoft doesn't realize that people use the Pocket PC. They forget, somehow. I know, they make the OS and the patches, and they stipulate various hardware requirements for the OEMs to follow, but they seem fairly consistently to forget about the actual users. There are ample demonstrations of this not only in their neglectful treatments of PIE in their own pages and those of contractors, but sprinkled liberally throughout the OS!
Look at Reader, since that's the focus here. Can it go fullscreen? No. But in their own questionairre, a question clearly asks (yes or no only, no other options here) whether the fullscreen option is something we use regularly. I wonder, how many people actually read books on the monitors of their desktop or notebook PC? I've tried, and even though the TFT on my Acer notebook is its best feature by far, my eyes get sore. Same goes for Reader on my iPAQ; the screen is simply too bright at night, when I tend to read the most, even at the lowest setting. So I sought out a better reader, and get books that it can read. µBook is awesome, and there are enough titles in ZIP format to keep me happy at the moment. It softens the screen enough that I don't get a headache. For stuff in LIT only, I use my old Casio, as it can get much dimmer and the contrast can easily be softened. But µBook is worlds better than Reader, whatever device I am using.
Then there are the myriad other parts of the OS which make no sense to anyone who actually uses a Pocket PC for a month or more. An alarm setup which is outperformed by any $10 digital watch in terms of reliability. An email client so riddled with bugs, so focused on a dependent relationship with a host PC, and so ugly as to make it irrelevant (nPOP rules!). Appointment reminder pop-ups which STILL fail to include an Edit button! A multi-media player that fails more often than it can just play a damned file, has endless bug-fixes that don't really work, can't playlist to save its life, and can't even handle something as basic as MPEG video. And multi-media is supposed to be a cardinal selling point of these devices! Then there's the File Explorer, which at last lets us see all files, but still witholds file extension access. What the hell is that??? And Pocket IE without significant Java support, keeping us from accessing most bank accounts and even a lot oa Microsoft's own pages and page functions. (Ever try to download MS Portrait in PIE? There's a laugh.) Pocket Word can open and destroy formatting of a lot of proper documents, and then there's no way to escape the damned program without having the messed up version getting saved - so I hardly ever use the program. Same goes for Pocket Excel. Why strip features from a file by default, when it could simply offer a pop-up message asking if you really really do want to lose important formatting and such? And the list is so much longer...
But back to Reader. Reading books on a portable device makes more sense than reading them on paper, in terms of trees saved, reduced back strain, convenience, lots of reasons to like it. So why cripple it with so few options, in font size, colour, and type? In background colour which a user should be able to darken for low-light conditions (like in bed, when one doesn't really want to blind one's partner with whiteness). In activation limitations. In a bookmarking and annotation system so slow and ungainly it makes it hardly usable at all. I know, I'm ranting to those who already know this stuff. But hey, maybe a Microsoft software developer will actually read this stuff. :P

[szamot]

GERARD ---- A-fricking-MEN! you said it well especially the part of night blindness it is almost like you need a welding shield to read the screen at night otherwise your retinas start bleeding.

[mobileMike]

I had been using Microsoft Reader for my first few eBooks, but this is about to change. I just put Linux on my iPAQ. It is insteresting that there are readers of Palm's format on PALM, PocketPC, Linux, .... but Microsoft Reader only exists on Microsoft's OS. Had I thought about this more, I would have bought books in Palm's format for the best compatibility.

Does Microsoft publish the format of .LIT? Why aren't there more .LIT readers, or are there?

- mike

Don't worry, I think my next PDA will be a Dell Axim (PocketPC).

[Take1]

Gave up on using Reader due to the activation runaround. you MUST have the PC/laptop component installed to donwload the content and if you **gasp** exceed your activation limit (4) you're going to have to ask permission from MS and WAIT for a response. While I've never been turned down, it's a P.I.T.A.

Palm Reader has a library which you can acess anywhere via the web and you're content isn't tied to the PC. You don't need a desktop client to download and install the files and the response to software problems and new features is very quick. The G.U.I. is intuitive and everything runs smoothly. The only gripe is that protected content is only available through Peanut Press (which restricts the amount of content available).

[bjornkeizers]

I have to agree with the others; the survey was totally flawed.

I use the Ebook reader a lot, and most of the time with books that I got for free but were not mean to be. [you know what I mean]

Why? The simple reason is: I have a visual handicap, and as such it is difficult to read a normal paperback. I can get the books for free, convert them to a nice font, and put them in the library. Easy. I have a very nice private collection of them. ;-)

I have not used paper for over 5 years.. and I'm not kidding. I have not read a paper book in over 5 years.. haven't put pen to paper in at least that amount of time, except to sign something..

But I too would definately like some more options: fonts, background colors.. faster loading.. etc.

[Sunnyone]

I ranted a bit in my response about the poor excuse for DRM. I haven't used Microsoft's Reader in so long I can't remember. I read over 1-5 ebooks on my PPC per week. I'm really sold on the ebook format - convenience - portability. I use Palm Reader - solely - since my HP 545/548 (started back when they were Peanut Press). My purchase library with them is huge. I'd hate to add up the cost of everything I've purchased over the last 2+ years 8O

I agree with all of you that I don't think the survey will do much in the way of changing Reader. At least as far as the DRM aspect of it. It was pretty much ignored throughout the survey. Notes? Printing? Dictionary? I could care less for that type of functionality - not to downplay those features for any of you who do care :wink: But personally, I feel the survey was not meant to explore DRM, which is the issue that seems to be Microsoft Reader's biggest problem - IMHO.

Sunny

[Marc Zimmermann]

you MUST have the PC/laptop component installed to donwload the content and if you **gasp** exceed your activation limit (4) you're going to have to ask permission from MS and WAIT for a response. While I've never been turned down, it's a P.I.T.A.
You'll automatically get another activation grant 180 days after using the last one. I guess that this covers most "normal" users hardware replacement cycles.

[unxmully]

... that there no further interaction once you had indicated thayt you don't use MS Reader. I would have thought that they would be interested as to why I don't use it - poor display options, silly DRM.

Ed H hit's the nail on the head with his comments on Palm Reader. The method of encryption it uses is far more sensible.