But I do know that Steve Jobs has an amazing RDF, and if anyone can figure out a way to do it, he can. After all, before iTunes, everyone figured there was *no way* large record companies would climb on board and support an electronic format. Whether Jobs wants to do something similar with eBooks, I have no idea; he simply *won’t* return my calls.

With regard to eReader software on iTunes, I was just suggesting that Apple say to B&N–”look: if we want to be able to have inter-operable books, we need some monetary incentive. How’s about you charging a buck or so for your bookreaders, so we can get a little revenue off of that?” I agree with you that it would be suicidal for Apple to do it behind their backs (so to speak).

Yes, very much so. They were mired in piracy issues and were too tech-heavy for ‘normal folks’ to be comfortable using and the PC interfaces were awful. Apple brought a usable device with a nicely integrated computer app to organize music, and later the store with DRM and low prices to allow pirates to ‘go legit’ but companies to feel in control.

Right now I still see ebook readers as a marginal market – and I use my wife as an indicator of that, she is a big reader, but very utilitarian in devices, and doesn’t have my sight so she can’t stand reading on PDA’s and other smaller-screen devices. We played with the Nook and she thought it was pretty crappy (and I don’t disagree – I get more responsive reading on a 10 year old WinCE PDA!) … and because she and her sister regularly exchange books, that pretty much kills ANY ereader. Also library-type lending needs to happen.

Also, Apple doesn’t set the prices for ebook readers, the companies that release them do. So Apple would have to go to B&N, Amazon, etc and demand they start charging…or just charge them behind the scenes. Both of which are, frankly, crappy ideas if you don’t want to burn bridges, and reek faintly of extortion. And if Apple started doing it for free ebook readers, why stop there? Why not demand a back-end fee for all popular free games too? I think they either need to make peace with the free programs, find a way to get a cut of book sales, or just boot ‘em. Anything else wouldn’t gain Apple anything, IMO.

Thought 2: I can think of a few enhancements that would make me willing to pay a bit more for a book on an iTablet. Think about having a illustrated, color (or rather, colour), “Annotated Sherlock Holmes” on the iTablet, where you can reach every annotation with a hot link from inside the text, and have the annotation appear as an overlay, instead of following a link. Think of full-color illustrations from the original stories in The Strand. Think about embedded links to zoomable maps for the “Lord of the Rings”, so with just a tap you can call up maps of Middle Earth. Or audio clips that play the Elvish songs.

Really, you could go hog-wild. For all books converted to movies, you can embed links to appropriate video clips from the film version. Embed links to *stream* the movies to your iTablet by clicking the “Stream Now” button and paying $2.99. Background music that the author thinks appropriate to play with certain sections. Links to online book-specific wikis, like Neal Stephenson tried with his Baroque Trilogy books. (You could edit a wiki entry in an overlay pane, close it, and go right back to reading the book.) The ability to put in *your own* video or audio clips! Believe me, if I were in charge, I’d be doing all this and more. Of course, Steve Jobs won’t return my phone calls . . .

I think the “Vook” is an okay try, but it doesn’t go far enough, and its implementation is only so-so. If I had a Steve Jobs to negotiate the business nonsense–how much for film clips; how much for streaming movies; how much for audio clips–I would be hard to hold back.

So, um, uh, sorry. I guess I’ll shut up now.

But even if I am unsure, I am still very curious/excited about what Apple plans to announce!