The Unofficial Apple Weblog has an article about ePub, listing it's strengths and shortcomings, as well as the tools (for Mac users) that are available for creating ePub documents: All about EPUB, the ebook standard for Apple's iBookstore
File Sharing
I missed this post from Macrumors that points to file sharing between the iPad and a Mac or PC, providing a way to easily share files (particularly iWork files) between the device and your home computer.
I suspect, however that Apple will be pushing hard on the iWork.com (beta) as a way to share iWork files with others. They won't be assuming that every iPad user will actually have a desktop/laptop computer.
ePub sucks for formatting
Henry Melton at Idle Thoughts blog has mixed feelings about ePub. Not because of DRM; he really wishes Apple had come out with a better way of formatting electronic books:
When an ebook is displayed, the source material has no layout, and relatively inexpensive web browser like software quickly lays out the text line by line. An individual line of the text may look good, but the screen as a whole may look poor. Add to that, a limited font selection, chosen by a reader based on the whim of the moment or personal taste rather than with an eye to compliment the words, and even a perfectly created source ePub file can never be expected to look as good as a well designed paper page.
Kindle is Safe
Meanwhile Best Tablet Review reckons that though the iPad may be a success, the Kindle has nothing to fear.
The iPad will be a success (mostly due to the diluted price). It just won’t be a success when it comes to reading. Out of our three criteria it solidly hits the price element, fouls off on the eBook delivery method and disastrously strikes out on the display. It’s like The Natural (the book version, not the uplifting movie). It swings for eReader fences but comes up short.
But how many Kindles are there?
MacDailyNews last week spent a bit of time trying to figure out how many Kindle's Amazon has actually sold. Their article dissects a previous article on Reuters that estimate Kindle's sales, and compares the numbers to Apple's sales of iPhones:
As Phil Wahba reports for Reuters, "Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. is testing Wall Street's patience by repeatedly touting the success of its Kindle electronic reader without providing specific sales figures."
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