Can we put these new eBooks on our PDAs?

Update--looks like it was "operator error" on my part (sorry, Adobe). After rebooting the laptop, I am able to access the book offline.

I just bought an ebook from Wetfeet. Their only reference was to it being in PDF format. When I downloaded it I was without explaination taken to the ADE 1.5 install page. Went through the install and authorization process and now find that I have to be connected to the Internet to launch ADE in order to read the book.

I've got it on a laptop and want to read the book offline while on an airplane and it appears that I can't. Am I missing something here? Not having offline access to the book I paid a premium price for is just outright unacceptable.

Extremely poor product design on Adobe's part. I'm going to return the book, uninstall ADE, advise Wetfeet not to use ADE and get my money back.

Oh and one other question.

Does Adobe understand and appreciate the necessity for ebook readers to be able to UNDERLINE, HIGHLIGHT, and ADD COMMENTS - in a way where these are all searchable?

Okay, so we understand that it's Adobe's policy not to share any plans with its customers. But I wonder if you might be able to share your thinking.

For instance, does Adobe understand the importance of letting customers read their books on however many devices/computers they may have? Personally, I have three computers, one PDA and one iPhone. Sure would hate to be told I can read it "here" but not "there".

Does Adobe understand the necessity and urgency of making ebooks compatible or upgradable to future versions of the software?

Does Adobe understand AND care that apparently thousands of people have now lost thousands of dollars in previously purchased Adobe ebooks that are now UNREADABLE.

Does Adobe understand that millions of people will have iPhones and many of us may like to read books on our phones like we used to read them on Windows-based phones?

And does Adobe have any sympathy for any of the above?

OK - Obviously no pressure from your users is going to change the policy.

But I do like to contrast it with Microsoft's where products are announded early, CTP versions are available early, feedback greatly influences development direction. Beta's become available pre-release. Plans do change, features get dropped, sometimes whole products get dropped and deadlines get pushed back.

But Microsoft engage their customers and provide clear sight of where things are heading. Adobe have choosen not to. Which is very frustrating for the user community. More so than have features being dropped (or even whole products), IMO.

As a software developer myself my policy always veers towards engaging my cusotmers rather than providing the mushroom treatment. Adobe are quite in their rights to make the decision that the latter is best for the corporation. Which can only be respected, albeit reluctantly.

While I know and could layout what our current device plans are for the next year, I'm going to follow the corporate policy and not discuss unreleased products. Not just because it is corporate policy and violating it can get me fired, but also because I agree with it.

My personal belief is that this policy is in place for at least two good reasons:

First, we deal with manufacturers, like Sony, and typically do so under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). Laying out their plans even by inference would not be ethical - it is their choice to discuss their future plans or not. It is also bad business practice - if we were to violate Sony's confidence, they would stop coming to us as a partner and that would be one less set of devices for our end users.

Second, the key word here is plans, and especially in the software industry plans change. A case in point is our lack of a Linux desktop version of ADE. This was in the plans and undergoing development during our 1.0 timeframe. We even said so while we were working on 1.0 and promised that we would have a Linux version "by the end of the year". Unfortunately this did not happen (and there is still no Linux version). Promising and not delivering has left our users feeling more abused, than just not promising in the first place.

BTW Sony released their firmware release yesterday, and will transfer content from ADE on Windows. Hopefully there will be more announcements of device support forthcoming, but you will not hear it first on this forum.

--
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems

Hey Richard, cool response. In defense of Adobe (I have a sense of humour) the software works fully compared to specification, it is just that the specification is half baked.

ANY software house that can't even give a remote indication as to the timeframe they are looking to support the previous functionality within the new REPLACEMENT product is not worth a dime.

Mr Wolfe - I assume your hands are tied from your previous responses. I don't expect you to be able to respond personally any further on this issue. But could you please escalate this issue to whatever level of serious management might actually exist in Adobe who might actually care (even for a second) about what the custoemr wants? In a nutshell what the customer actually wants is to be able to read their digital books on as close a proximity to a physical book as possible. IE broad PDA support is an essential ingredient - indeed, IMHO, if Adobe had any sense they would have targeted PDA platforms FIRST not LAST if they had the remotest idea about why anyone would want to buy a digital, as opposed to a physical, book.

Rant over (for now).

Love & kisses.
P.

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Dawson Springs, Ky 42408,USA
6.) B. MOSLEY
9827 UTOPIA DRIVE
Pensacola, FL 32514, USA
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STEP 2) Open a blank 'notepad' file and place your cursor at the top of the blank page. From the 'edit' menu select 'paste'. This will paste a copy of the letter into notepad so that you can add your name to the lis
STEP 3) Save your new notepad file as a text file. If you want to do your postings in different settings, you'll always have this file to go back to.
STEP 4) Use Netscape or Internet explorer and try searching for various newsgroups (on-line forums, message boards, chat sites, discussions.)
STEP 5) Visit these message boards and post this article as a new message by highlighting the text of this letter and selecting paste from the edit menu. Fill in the Subject, this will be the header that everyone sees as they scroll through the list of postings in a particular group, click the post message button. You're done with your first one! Congra

Can't say/Won't say - what a cop out!!! - "It's our policy" - what a joke, if as a teacher - or any other public servant - I chose to act on a policy like that when teaching your children Mr Wolfe, I can just imagine your reaction. "What did you teach in class today?" "Oh I'm sorry Mr Wolfe. I'm not allowed to say!" "When will my child need PE kit?" "Oh Mr Wolfe, Its not our policy to tell you that, but your child may face detention if they don't have proper kit!"
What a public relations disaster ADE is! Half working software that prevents users accessing material previously bought and restricts new material to Windows pcs only!

"Portability is working" - but only to a device that wont support it anyway or to other named computers - ever tried curling up in bed with your desktop? And while laptops may be suitable for those on a busness trip, taking one camping isn;t exactly a great idea!! Being able to read ebooks as and when and where you want to is the whole point - ebooks on something ths size of a laptop or worse still a desktop are a waste of time - if I'm at home I'll read the real thing. I want/NEED to be able to read my ebooks in a mobile environment. At the momnet ADE restricts my use of legally bought and paid for ebooks, and reading through the forums here, it appears Adobe has no thought for consumers in terms of forward or backward compatability.

Surely Digital Rights Management goes both ways - the purchaser has rights as well as the copyright holder - the right to be able to read material legally purchased?

<<So, as of today is the portability feature working, and if not, why is it being promoted as a reason for upgrading to 1.5?

I'm a librarian, and we offer Adobe e-books through the Overdrive service. I'm just about to buy a Palm device and found a book about using the Palm OS in the Overdrive catalog. It's only in Adobe format. It looks like if I wanted to read the book about Palm ON my Palm, I'd have to jump through all sorts of hoops including possibly downgrading my Adobe Reader to v. 6 from v. 8. How can I be expected to encourage our library customers to try Ebooks when I'm running into these problems myself, and can't even be sure which software to guide them to? >>

Portability is working. But what that really means right now is that in ADE 1.5 you can move your content to multiple computers (assuming named activation). The device side of it is still waiting for compatible devices. Sony has announced support with the PRS-505, but the supporting software hasn't been released by Sony yet (though I think that happens soon.. can't say anything beyond that).