McIlroy--Seybold Announcements Were Aplenty

At previous Seybold shows, eBooks have looked more like novelty than practical technology. At the recent show, eBooks suddenly began to look like a credible alternative to print on paper.

The big news came from a few directions. Microsoft announced that its eBook reader (known as the Open eBook, or OEB) committee reached agreement on the first version of the OEB specification. Adobe threw its hat into the eBook ring by announcing a PDF variant that would allow rights tracking, advanced security features and the ability to sell PDF files via an e-commerce server. The jury is out on whether PDF is an optimal eBook format, but certainly PDF is not currently compatible with the OEM spec.