Adobe pushes digital reading again

Adobe's PDF is synonymous for paper-free digital exchange of vast amounts of
information. But Adobe has decided to push the envelope by unveiling 'Digital
Editions 1.0', an improved free e-reader that lets a user 'acquire, manage and
read' digital books and documents on computers.

Compatible with PDF documents, XML documents and Adobe's own Flash format,
Digital Editions 1.0 is a new e-reader, which can be freely downloaded. The
company claimed that over 1,50,000 'commercially available' publications are
currently compatible with this new software, with the added ability of letting
users 'annotate content through bookmarks, highlights and text notes'.

With this product, users can acquire content in PDF or XML format, manage it
and read it, with the layout and flow of the text and Flash elements
automatically changing to suit user environment to guarantee what Adobe calls a
'seamless viewing experience'. Users can enjoy rich audio and video content
embedded into documents, making it a richer multimedia experience.

Adobe claims that members of the public downloaded more than 3,00,000 copies
of the Digital Editions beta, with user feedback influencing the final feature
set of the 1.0 release.