TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Casey Bisson’ Category

By David Rothman

Strange, isn’t it? The OLPC laptop is in beta and could be great hardware for e-book reading in U.S. schools and libraries, but so far I don’t hear any talk from the feds about, ugh, encouraging Nicholas Negroponte to launch a domestic effort—ideally without fixating so much on telling teachers how to teach. CC-licensed photo is from library automation expert Casey Bisson. Thanks to Wayan at OLPC News for the pointer.

By Roger Sperberg

The PepperPad (at pepper.com) is way bigger and $500 more expensive than my Nokia 770. But Casey Bisson persuaded me that the keyboard and bigger screen are better suited for an in-library device, where its bulk won’t be a barrier either.

The PepperPad is a Linux device and GTK+ based. Screen resolution: 800 x 600. All similar to my 770. And that got me thinking. Would FBReader run on the PepperPad? Or rather: Why wouldn’t it?

In fact, it seems to me that the Linux desktop version of FBReader should run on the PepperPad without any changes necessary. And even if some changes were needed, FBReader is open-source and the Pepper folk could make them. (more…)

By David Rothman

TeleBlog contributor Casey Bisson has just received a Pepper Pad for review. He says: “The Pepper Pad, I believe, is the type of device we need to drive information services into the mainstream.” Casey hopes the device will help foster “Internet access well beyond the 100 million US subscribers who have at-home internet access today and start approaching the nearly 200 million US subscribers who carry cell phones. That’s why I’m interested in their applications in libraries, and that’s why I’m looking at [a] demo unit….”

Related: More on MIT’s $100 linux laptop for the Third World, via CNET.

By Casey Bisson

The recent talk about DRM in Windows Vista has finally got people thinking about the matter in competitive terms. While Digital Rights Management does little to prevent real piracy, it largely eliminates the legal me2me fair use that we’ve taken for granted. Publishers and manufacturers are pushing DRM instead as a mechanism to ‘lock-in’ customers. Don Marti, one of a growing number of people arguing this, says in Copyfight:

Isn’t it time to drop the polite fiction that MSFT and other incumbent IT and CE [CE = consumer electronics--Casey] vendors are only doing DRM because of big, bad Hollywood? …[Having] “Hollywood” clamoring for harsh DRM (based on technical facts from the IT industry) actually helps the current market leaders…

With DRM, MSFT and Apple can keep their customers from switching back and forth (or maybe to Linux), and CE vendors can’t lock out $39 Chinese DVD players, but can at least collect a tax on them.

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By David Rothman

A new Pepper Pad owner was unhappy–but it looks as if the company is very much open to suggestions. Check out a note from Jon Melamut, VP of sales and biz developent. No e-book software is running on the Pepper now, but that’s expected in the fall, at which time Pepper’s Mark Metzger hopes to send me a review unit. I myself suggested I wait until then. Meanwhile, if the planets are in the right orbits, TeleBlog contributor Casey Bisson should be receiving an eval Pepper before then.

Related: Pepper Pad writeup in NoSheep.

By Casey Bisson

TeleRead received its first reports of the Pepper Pad in the wild yesterday, and it kicked off some good conversation. I had replied to the post with a comment saying:

The difficulty Pepper, or anybody entering this space, will face is expectations management. If people start to think about this as a “computer,” rather than a toaster, then the jig is up. Sure, there are some experienced users who will use the Pepper Pad for all its linux goodness, but most users don’t complain about getting root on their TV remotes or microwaves.

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