I was down at a construction site this afternoon, talking to a plumber. He'd been digging through the floor of an old building in order to install updated plumbing and was discovering all sorts of intrigues -- like the original sewer was a good three feet below the surface (unusual inside a building) and beneath the asphalt of an old parking lot. Hmmm. Anyway, the guy was talkative -- as most of these subcontractors are -- and told me about how in 2000 the federal government standardized all procedures for the installation of electrical, plumbing, etc. Up until then, every state had its own rules and ways of doing things. The standardization made some things harder, he said, and some things easier. But the best outcome was that he could move anywhere in the US and get a job without additional training and licensing.
Which brings me to this Sony eReader I've got on loan. Right up front, it's a terrific devise. About the size of a paperback, but much thinner; I can easily throw it in my purse and take it anywhere. It uses ambient light, so the more light in the room (or outside) the better the picture on the screen.
All the books on the eReader must have come pre-installed as they were mostly excerpts, plus a Harlequin and some no-name thriller. I'd recently been to site called Wowio which offered all kinds of books, although mostly those with expired copyrights. Sherlock Holmes sounded like something to keep in my pocket, so I went through the eReader box looking for the software to upload books.
Sure, there was software, but only for Windows and I'm a Mac gal through and through.
Being a Mac gal, I know how to get around roadblocks, generally, so I Googled "mac software for ereader" and no problem -- there was libprs500 to save the day. I installed it, grabbed the FREE book off Wowio and uploaded it to the eReader easy as pie.
Except that the Wowio format was PDF and the font was so small I needed a magnifying glass to read it. (Looks great on the computer screen however, if you're interested.)
Back to the drawing board. I go to the eReader site for selling books to figure out what format they're using and discover that the files come in a propriatory software that I can't convert to. And even if I wanted to BUY a book, I can't because I have to have, you guessed it, Windows.
I know that iTunes was similarly discriminatory at the beginning, but asap added software for "the others." You many years ago was that? Four? You'd think that it would be common practice by now to be inclusive rather than exclusive when marketing a "change your life" device. Even Apple messed up big here by only allowing ATT to run their cellular service. What's the point? How many more people would have purchased the iPhone if it worked across platforms? Why limit access?
Like the international standards for builders, electronics manufacturers need to unchain themselves from the notion that they have to own everything. It didn't work for railroad tracks and it doesn't work in an economy where stuff comes and goes with the speed of light. The eReader and the iPhone could have both changed my life. But they didn't. I'll just have to wait for a company to produce something that fits in everyone's pocket.
