Price vs. Protection

I wanted to talk about an issue with you today. I'm bringing it up because I hear people complain about this subject when it isn't something I can control. In describing the situation, I'll present both sides of the issue and I'd appreciate it if you can post a comment (please don't send e-mail as I'll be the only one to see it) and let me know which of the two you prefer.

What we're talking about is whether you prefer to pay more for an application that has limited security or whether you pay a lot less for a product that has very tight security. Let me describe two very similar products along with their price and the security they impose.

Product A costs $400 and can be transferred to different machines, though it is limited to a single computer. Product B costs $70 but can only be installed on a single computer. If you buy a new computer, you will have to purchase another copy of Product B. For the sake of this discussion, let's say that both products do exactly the same thing.

Now I'm sure some of you will say you want the best of both. Sorry, that isn't an option. You either pay the higher price of Product A and have the ability to transfer your license or you pay the lower price of Product B and it is locked to a single machine. So which of the two would you prefer? If possible, explain why you selected the product you did. Again, please post your answer as a comment.

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Does ePub Matter to You?

Before I get into asking the question posed in the post title, I guess I should step back and tell you a bit about the ePub format. According to Wikipedia, ePub is a free and open e-book standard, by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). OK, so that definition probably still doesn't really clear it up for anyone. Let me tell you where you can read them and that might make it more clear. On your computer, you can use the free Adobe Digital Editions. If you don't have a laptop to lug, you can read on a Sony Reader, a COOL-ER Reader, a Bookeen Cybook Opus, an iPod and an iPhone. And has become so famous in product introductions, there is one more device--the iPad.

The publications we create all include full color and heavy use of graphics. Because of this, I've never considered making anything for Amazon's Kindle (or Kindle DX) since they only support 16 shades of gray. The Sony Reader, COOL-ER Reader and Bookeen Cybook Opus are also grayscale devices and thus not of interest for our publications. Not to mention their sales have been pretty limited. Adobe Digital Editions is nice, but all of our publications are now readable in Adobe Reader which is installed on most all computers. The iPod and iPhone have screens too small to be useful for reading our publications. So really this all boils down to one relevant device at this time, the iPad.

I'll talk more about the iPad in a future post when I've had the chance to learn more about it. In short, Apple is hoping that it will bridge the gap between a smartphone and a laptop. As someone who carries a laptop quite often, the smaller size definitely is appealing. Yet it can't run my Windows software. One of the things it can do very well is read ePub files, or at least the launch makes it sound like a great ePub reader. Of course it can also be used to surf the Web, send/receive e-mail and run all sorts of other apps. As a consumer, I'll at least consider getting one. But the real business decision for me is whether there are enough people desiring ebooks in ePub format to consider making some/all of our publications available in that format.

That leads back to the question I posed in the post title. Does ePub matter to you? Post a comment and give us all your thoughts. As a side note, I know some of you e-mail comments directly and I appreciate that. But when you post a comment here, everyone can participate in the discussion.

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What Processor is in Your System?

Today I have three short questions I'd like to ask you. If you could please leave a comment with your answers, that would be great. I'd prefer that you not e-mail me your answers because I would like for everyone to be able to see the results. The developers at Corel are very curious about this, so please take the time to answer if at all possible.

1. What version of CorelDRAW do you currently use the most?
2. What processor is in your computer(s)? Go to Control Panel | System and look for information similar to my computer information shown at right. If you regularly use CorelDRAW on more than one system, please list what each of them contain.
3. Do you plan on upgrading the machine(s) on which you use CorelDRAW? If so, when?

I'll start out with my answers. I use CorelDRAW X4 the most on both my desktop and laptop. The desktop (as you can see above) has an Intel Corel 2 6600 CPU running at 2.40 GHz and my laptop has an Intel Corel 2 T7400 CPU running at 2.16 GHz. I'll also throw out that I use XP on the desktop and Vista on the laptop. I plan to upgrade the desktop in the next 2-3 months and the new machine will run Windows 7. I don't have a timetable for updating the laptop though it will probably be in the next 6 months, at most a year.

OK, your turn! Thanks in advance for your participation!!!

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Pick Your Brain: Online Photo Editors

Last week the folks at CNET did a comparison of 15 online photo editors. I gave the list a brief glance and couldn't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to do photo editing on a Web site.

You, the readers, probably all have at least one high-end image editor on your system. That could be Adobe Photoshop or Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Then there are consumer level image editors like Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro. Those are definitely not the only editors out there, so if I have missed your favorite, that doesn't mean it isn't a good tool.

My original thought was that the online photo editors just don't apply to graphics pros since we have better tools on our systems. But there are some good, FREE, tools out there like Irfanview that can do a number of different adjustments on images. Yes, you need to pay a small amount if you use it commercially ($12 US or 10 Euros). But that wouldn't apply to the typical home user. I'm sure I could find at least five to ten other tools that can make basic adjustments to images with little or no cost.

If you use an online image editor, you have to deal with the upload time of getting the image to the site. For many users, they won't know to downsample the images before uploading so it will take longer than needed for most images. And if they know how to downsample, then they already have tool for editing the image.

Therefore, I want to hear from you. Do you use an online photo editor and why? Hey, nothing wrong with it, I just want to understand. If not you, do you know someone else who regularly uses such a site?

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