I got my first Ebook from Apress yesterday - Simon Robinson's "Expert .NET 1.1 Programming". I'll be doing the actual reading of the book on my upcoming 6 month round-the-country trip which I'm going on from 24 June till around Christmas, but thought it would be worth a quick post of the actual Ebook process itself. I'm happy to report the Apress has really delivered well with their Ebooks. The good points:
The book is available immediately after purchase. It can take Amazon up to half an hour before a book is available for download (which can be a pain if you leave the purchase until just before a long flight). There was no delay between purchase and download availability.
The book is available in PDF format, with full book and chapter download available. The PDF pages are exactly as per the printed book.
The security lock-down on the PDF is pretty minimal. The file is password protected by the email you use to set up your Apress account, but that's about it. You can print and copy from the file with no restrictions, which is critical to get the book onto the Smartphone using readers like RepliGo which uses a print-driver to convert the file.
The only addition I'd like would be Microsoft Reader availability, but given Microsoft themselves do such a crappy job of promoting and developing Reader, I can't blame Apress for not supporting this format.
Well done to the whole Apress crew for a great effort.
Posted
Jun 04 2005, 03:58 AM
by
nick