E-books Are Overtaking Printed Books

Australia Radio National recently did a radio program on e-books at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Of the four panelists, only one actually owned an electronic book reader. A number of benefits were cited of e-books, including convenience of purchase, lower book prices (especially compared to the prices of printed books in Australia), and better access from rural locations.

However, the overall impression was that printed books and traditional bookstores will continue to exist for some time. Read more

Is Secrecy Always A Good Thing? The Tale of Apple Aperture vs Adobe Lightroom

Apple is known for its penchant for secrecy. Products are developed as top-secret projects and unveiled to the public with great fanfare. This has brought it tremendous benefit, for example with during the dramatic launch of the iPhone by Steve Jobs. However secrecy carries costs, and in some cases the costs outweigh the benefits.

Apple & Its Culture of Secrecy

Yet Apple retains this approach across a whole range of its products; secrecy is apparently “baked into the corporate culture”. Read more

On Intellectual Property and Online Strategy

Major battles are being fought on the internet over intellectual property. The founders of the Pirate Bay now face a jail sentence, the recording industry recently won a $1.92 million verdict against an American woman for downloading 24 songs, and in Australia the internet service provider iiNet is being sued by movie studios for allowing illegal downloads. Read more