By Graham K. Rogers

A Tweet reminded me this morning that I had not yet read the Leander Kahney book on Jony Ive. I like Ive. He is British like me and in those videos that feature his comments on product design, you can see his Britishness coming through as he tries to conceal just how good he is.

Kahney also has a good track record with books on Apple:

• Inside Steve's Brain
• Cult of Mac
• Cult of iPad

He is also the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.

Needless to say, the reminder from Horace Dedieu (another contributor not to be ignored), prompted me to click on the link and display the browser page on the book: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products, by Leander Kahney ($11.99).

I should look at this - at least that was my thought.

Clicking on the link there was the immediate red card from iTunes: not available in Thailand; try the US Store. No thanks. I tried Amazon instead.

Like many books, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products is available for sale and download via the Amazon store, although the price ios much higher at $17.05. Hardcover and papaerback vesions are also on sale. I complain about this operation too from time to time as many products, such as some camera equipment (hit and miss here) and certainly computer hardware and computer software have never been available to those based in Thailand.

The only books that users here are allowed to download are the free ones - the copyright free ones - and some special offers, like Winnie the Pooh. The same books that are not available through the iTunes store - the iBook Store - may be bought on Amazon and that is one of the main reasons I have an account there. It also dilutes the reasons for having an iPad: as we are constantly reminded, Content is King.

It took years for music to be made available here, and that has not caused a major disruption in the Universe. The books (in hardback or paperback) can usually be found in some of the many bookstores here, like Asia Books, or Konokuniya - both usually busy - so where is the blockage or the will?

And as a note on content on this page, the cover image was a screen shot from the Amazon pages.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.