In what should be good news for publishers, Adobe’s ubiquitous PDF file format has been accepted as an ISO standard meaning that an international committee of experts, not Adobe, will control its future development. The move to make it an open standard should give some comfort to users who rely on it for both publishing [...]

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A new category of PC, the so-called ultramobile PC (UMPC), is creating buzz in ebook land as it potentially provides an alternative to the dedicated ebook reader (a la Kindle or Iliad). The UMPC has more features but still retains book-sized portability and a decent battery life. It’s something to watch while the jury is [...]

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Aussie PC mag PC Authority has just published this review of the Iliad iRex ebook reader, the same one that Dymocks will be selling through some of its stores. In summary, PC Authority was impressed with the device’s screen, its portability and general ease of operation in book-reading mode. But it was less impressed with [...]

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I just noticed a press release issued last month by Macmillan Australia which has begun the process of digitising its local list with the help of MPS Technologies Inc. MPS is an affiliated publishing services and technology company that’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Macmillan India and is based in Chennai. They’re creating ebooks in [...]

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A piece in Wired magazine from ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne looks at how digitisation has changed (in some respects) the structure of the music industry and the opportunities available to artists. Byrne’s analysis probably offers some interesting insights into what might happen in the book market as digitisation starts to reach the meaningful levels [...]

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