Choosing Tablets

The Fusion Garage JOOJOO tablet is now shipping to U.S. customers who pre-ordered them.

But we have to ask why anyone would want a JooJoo when they can have an iPad?

The device has the largest capacitive touch screen of any tablet on the market and measures 12.1” in length - but does size matter?

It supports Flash 10.1 and is Java compliant - but the iconic Steve Jobs says the Flash world is dead and HTML5 is the future and who would argue with the man?
It comes equipped with a built-in, rechargeable lithium-polymer battery - so what?

The issue is simple and comes down to Appleworld and a relatively safe bet , versus the Internet and uncertainty? The truth lies somewhere in between and is down to whether we believe apps, or the web as we know it today, is the future. This is an interesting debate in its own right and will have many high profile supporters on both sides of the fence.

We personally believe that the sound-bite application world of the apps is good but does not provide the full answer today. Its like having a specific app to do one thing and needing another , then another to complete to process. Its not a joined up world. Today we have the emergence of the cloud world and also need joined up thinking and solutions. The debate on Flash and HTML5 is somewhat premature and is like saying that the world tomorrow will travel in faster planes whilst living in the reality of today. HTML5 may be the answer but today we have to recognise that unlike consultants and industry gurus we wake up in yesterday’s sheets. MP3 and DRM free dominate today’s music, not because of the Ipod, but despite of it. We have to accept the Apple has changed much ,but like its high profile Air laptop, sometimes Apple gets it wrong in getting it right.

We note today that AppAdvice.com report that Apple has already listed over 30,000 free ebooks on the iBook store. These aren’t the latest best sellers but public domain fillers from the Project Gutenberg library. Do they really count, or are they merely there to make up the claim that ‘my repository is bigger than yours’. Perhaps the move is designed to stop the iPad's ebook library from being overrun with multiple versions of public domain books wrapped up in a app package by 3rd parties after a quick and easy buck.

Hart to Hart on eBooks

Michael Hart is a man with both a mission and a proven ability to digitise literature. He is of course better know as the man behind, or in front of Project Guttenberg. In his latest article ‘Some Things I Like the Best and the Least About eBooks’ he not only states his values but much of those behind his project.

His likes about digital books is being able to use them as digital files, correcting errors, searching and retrieving text and being able to give them away free to others with little effort. It makes him sound like a pirate but we should remember he isn’t. He certainly believes in sharing but only those books which are free to share. He believes that the mobile world we are rapidly converging to offers much to those that share his views.

His dislikes may appear different to that expected. His most telling statement is that he provides content and cares little about the world of formats and form. He argues that the content is what matters not the format and that 99% is content and should not be dictated to by the 1%. We think it is an interesting point when one thinks about the format and DRM contraints of today.

Let’s face it, but when even the plainest of plain text eBooks is created, 99% of the work of re-creating it into another format is already done, all YOU have to do is change 1% and you can have it any other way you want it. On top of this, there are many format conversion programs out there that will do most of this for you.

We have to obviously put it into the perspective of Project Guttenberg and the fantastic often unsung work they have undertaken and achieved. They don’t have the deep pockets of the likes of Google but neither do they have the commercial and corporate vales. It’s interesting that at a time when Google vies to capture all in its settlement net for chump change and news and governments express fears of piracy, that Michael can bring such simple and focused values to the table and probably still get ignored by many.

There Are 2 Million Free Electronic Books On The Internet

Project Gutenberg has joined forces with The World Public Library and Digital Pulp Publishing, Internet Archive, Baen to promote The Forth World eBook Fair. Two years ago The First World eBook Fairs introduced 1/3 million books, which became a million and a quarter last year and this year tops two million. They expect to have 2 1/2 million by July 4. The contributions come from 100 plus eLibraries including; Project Gutenberg, The World Public Library, The Internet Archive, eBooks About Everything and IMSLP's Music eLibrary.

Michael Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg and co-Founder of World eBook Fair has ambitious goals of widening the number of devices and programs people can read ebooks on and clearly has his eyes on mobiles. In addition he wants ebooks not just in the top six languages but for the 250 languages with over a million speakers.
The goal of World eBook Fair is to provide free public access for a month to 2 Million eBooks.

For more information: http://worldebookfair.org