Hi All,

This morning's Morning Edition program on NPR ran a story featuring two of
the latest entries into the arena for the electronic publishing of books.
An audio version of the story can be found at

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/980714.me.03.ram

but I don't know of a text alternative so you'll need the Real Audio player
to listen to the feature.

The article discussed The RocketBook and Softbook.  Web sites for the
respective products/companies are:

http://www.rocketbook.com

and

http://www.softbook.com

My impression is that both of these technologies are closed systems i.e.
that you have to read the books on the devices produced by these companies.
 I suspect that accessibility to peole who are blind hasn't been fit into
the design of these devices.

Eventually one of these electronic book ideas is going to catch on.  I
wonder if, as with .pdf files, a wide spread electronic publishing format
is going to exclude people that are blind, a population that could benefit
greatly from the very medium?

Does anyone have more information on these two companies and what they are
doing?

Kelly


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