On Mon, 19 Apr 2010, Jim Adcock wrote:
Apple has assured me over and over there is no DRM on our files.
And I said it wouldn't matter if they have DRM on your files or not as long as they prevent you from moving the files from applet to applet, and/or prevent you from sharing the files with your friends, because then they have accomplished the same goals as DRM without actually implementing the DRM.
This is not where you started, and I doubt it's where either you or iPad end.
Until you have at least tried the examples I went and found for you, that allowed ME to read AND download directly from gutenberg.org....
Well, I just spent about an hour reading all the manuals for goodreader -- the applet you most recommended -- and it talks about supporting PDF not epub nor mobi and it talks about why when you try to read a big book it
Is The Bible a big enough book for you? Shall I test that for you? Once again, I repeat, I don't care about any one particular format, so please stop pretending this is a valid topic with me, instead, I ask you to take that to a different subject header so I do not have to keep getting bonked over the head with it, however cartoonish.
crashes, and how if you want to set up wifi to talk to your computer then that kills wifi to the internet, etc.
And just how many systems do you have, or know of, that wifi to two wifi spots at the same time??? I have never even tried this, so I am very interested. I hope it isn't just one more dead herring dragged across this pathway-- a pathway that still continues to weave madly across times zones.
So forgive me if I am not impressed. I also looked up everything else on the iTunes store listed under "ebooks" or "books" and those apps are even weaker. So clearly we are living on non-parallel planets!
Sorry, reading the manual and looking up Apps does not qualify you with any actual experience on the subject. Not to mention that YOU did not mention, once again, the actual NAME of the products you are claiming so much expertise about. I'm willing to bet you can't even name the handful I downloaded or much less the entire list available. This would indicate you don't actually know the options available for a selection of programs, not to mention those that are not spelled out in detail in what you say you have been reading. One of my favorite quotes of all time comes to mind here: "Don't Confuse The Map With The Territory."
I read all sorts of stuff with Safari and Opera Lite, which is your problem?
I told you the first thing I tried doing at the Apple bricks and mortor store was to go to PG in the Safari Browser, clicked on an epub link, and it says "Sorry downloading that file type is not allowed."
And you didn't go any farther with your experimentation? I tried other options, got other results. However, I will try what you said, as well.
Please experiment and cite your specific examples that we can recreate.
Please use your Safari browser, go to PG, pick an epub link, click on it, and report back what happens on the iPad. When I tried this at the Apple Brick and Mortor store iPad says "I'm sorry but I can't do that Hal".
I have no desire to go to any Apple Brick and Mortar store, but I will try from general wifi hookups. Nevertheless, if, at the end of all this, you send me a list of questions, comments, complaints, etc., I will try to go get you answers from Apple. Fair enough?
For comparison, I go on my desktop using IE or Mozilla, click on an epub or mobi link and that book opens automatically in its appropriate ebook reader, just the same as clicking on a PDF file causes that file to open in Adobe Reader. Or clicking on a djvu file opens it in a LizardTech djvu ebook reader.
For comparison, on Kindle I go to PG, I click on a mobi link and it says "Do You Want to Download This Book?" I say "Yes" that book shows up in my Kindle bookshelf, where I click on the book and read it any time I want.
And hasn't Apple made it totally obvious you can't do with with an iPad??? Yet you continue to complain that they have Apple when you want Orange??? Yet, I have found plenty of ways to get that kind of end result. No matter what your reading of manuals and reports might have said. BTW, I haven't been able to make the iPad crash yet, even with The Bible.
And you never tried to install those reader apps I mentioned. . . . So what right have you to complain?
About the below: Now you resort to putting words in my mouth, like in high school days. I have never tried to "suggest something where [you] have to spend [your] $500 up front only to. . ." particularly when you have made it obvious it it the case that your mind is closed to a variety of options.
I complain because every time you suggest something where I have to spend my $500 up front only to determine that indeed what I said doesn't work doesn't work. If I spend the $500 and sure enough it doesn't work are *you* going to offer me my money back??? Sure I know that iPad has Safari that can read HTML but I don't want to read HTML. I want to read ePub or Mobi on a decent ebook reader which will allow me to set things like font sizes and margins.
You never figured out how "to set things like font sizes and margins?" I'm beginning to wonder just what you did with your four hours. . . .
What is it you want?!?!?!? You haven't SAID you want anything I haven't found for you. Yet you have refused to acknowledge those efforts.
I have checked them out and at least according to their own documentation
No, you haven't. . .not what most people mean. . .you never went back to see how reality compares with the docs.
they don't work. What I want is a slate like device with wifi where I can download epubs and mobis from the internet or from my intranet, read them, perhaps lightly edit or annotate them, and I want to be able to do so as seamlessly and as painlessly as from my netbook -- given that a slate is simply a netbook minus the keyboard.
Ah, now, at this late stage, you have added that you want to edit eBooks on the iPad.
Are you saying you sent to gutenberg.org and tried this without success?
Yes.
Are you telling us what program you used in that effort?
Safari
Are you willing to do what it takes to get what you want?
I already have done so three different ways:
1) Using a desktop. 2) Using a netbook.
Not any different in this respect, just padding your bibliography.
3) Using a Kindle.
If you spent the same four hours' worth on a Kindle, and liked it so much you were already programming with it, I can't imagine why you are having this conversation at all. Unless it is just to moan and complain in front of an audience to somehow "get even" with Apple for being. . .well. . .Apple. You like Microsoft and Kindle. . .go. . .Bon Voyage!!!
The question then is NOT whether I can find iPad "workaround" to get to some subset of what someone might be doing somewhere in the ebook world. The
Sorry, but that is pretty much the entire essence of running computers. I'm betting you have just forgotten the steep learning curve you climbed to get to know the ones you now say you like. I'll bet you ranted and raved about them just like you are doing now!!! I did. ;-)
question is whether or not there is some iPad reader app that allows at least as good and as complete an experience as I am already experiencing via 1) 2) 3) above. 1) has the problem that its not portable. 2) has the problem that it has a keyboard that gets in the way. 3) has the problem that it has slow and unreliable whispernet rather than fast and reliable wifi. Is iPad better? Presumable not, or you would not keep emphasizing work-arounds. Perhaps when HP comes out with the Slate it will be "unlocked." Perhaps not. But I'm not going to pay $500 for the privilege of hack work-arounds!
Sure you are! You do it every time you buy a computer, or somebody pays for you to use. It's all built on that sort of thing. Get used to it. Don't ever look under the hood, you will be terribly disappointed as to a plethora of "hacks and workarounds" that make every bit of this work.
You still have refused to name what programs you tried on what sites, and what you tried to do with them.
I think I've told you, actually. When I say I used the web browser, I think its pretty obvious that the web browser on iPad is Safari? I told you we used iBooks, because we both discussed the PG limitations of what is there.
At first you denied using iBooks at all, don't you remember???
I told you we tried Stanza, because I told you about the large blurry iPod
Actually, you spoke of that as if it were a hypothetical, so there was quite literally no way to know you had actually tried it or not, or were reporting once again what various manuals and reviews told you.
simulator that brought up. I told you I spent an hour reading the Goodreader documentation about crashes and having to reconfigure ones computer and router to either support reading from the internet or from a local computer, and having to reconfigure to switch between the two...
Same with your cell phone and most other such devices. However, if all your systems use plain 801n, or 801g, should be no problem, it certainly hasn't been for me.
Tell me, honestly, have to asked Apple for the documentation on how to write for the iPad?
I have researched the issue of developing for Apple, yes, and was turned off having to pay subscription fees up front. Even Big Bill doesn't require that.
So, you are admitting you never asked for what you didn't get. "You Never Know What You Might Get If You Don't Ask For It."
It's not the "programs" or the "ebooks" you are complaining about, it's "how badly 'locked down` their device is". . .!!!
Same thing since they lock the books to the programs...
Not, it's not the same thing. Learn to speak specifically when you say such things, ask such questions, etc. Otherwise you are just wasting a lot of people's time.
You haven't even gone back and tried ONE of them.
Again, how would I test them more than I have already tested them without spending my $500 up front?
Gee, I would think that obvious to someone who already did it once before.
Let's deal with reality before dealing with the other stuff, ok?
The reality is that people had bought iPods using Stanza and expecting to be able to share books and Apple took this away from them. Same "1984" kind of deal as the student who had purchased "1984" for their Kindle, was relying on that to do his homework, and without warning Amazon took off the purchased book without permission.
You seem to be bringing up something new, and of great interest. I'm sure we'd all like to hear more about this!!!!!!!
Four hours??? And you never managed to download ONE eReader App???
Sure we did, I told you we downloaded Stanza.
For the iPad specifically! Now, just above, you said you were using iBooks, doesn't that count?
I have a strong feeling you didn't ask them for very much help.
There wasn't much help to be had, truth be told. I will go back and see if they will allow me to install Goodreader, since that is your top suggestion.
You keep short-changing Wattpad, which I think I mentioned first. When at the Apps Store, just search for "ebooks" and "books" etc. How many times have I said that???
I did mention Goodreader earlier, did I not?
Perhaps, but you didn't mention that it could download directly from any particular website, in fact you have said repeatedly you don't care if it can download from any particular website.
You download it from the Apps Store. . . .
And just how do think most of the great apps in history got started???
Most of them got started somewhere where a mere say-so from Steve Jobs isn't enough to get them *stopped!!!*
No, they just worked around their current version of Steve Jobs, such as working around IBM, then Apple, then Microsoft, and Intel, and ADM, Sony and all the rest. . . .
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