Oct 27
Jorgen dropped by with a link to an interesting Pocket-lint story that says a survey found one in eight women 35-years and older (up into their 80s) admit to pirating eBooks.
This follows a growing trend as eBook Readers and tablets make their way into the mainstream market with an accompanying increase in piracy across the board.
Oct 26
A PRWeb press release from Shop e-Readers promises that the online retailer will be offering all the brand name eReaders by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, etc. to markets in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Oct 25
Liliputing has a story about a hack that turns Sony’s $150 PRS-T1 E Ink Reader into an android ‘tablet.’ Â The details and video at the link.
Oct 24
GoodeReader has a post and leaked video of the Dell Latitude ST tablet.
The Latitude ST runs Windows and from the video appears to be positioned for entrepreneurial, professional and institutional work. It’s got all of the expected tablet bells and whistles including integrated cameras front and back.
Since they haven’t released the price, it’s hard to predict how this machine will be received on a market that’s showing wholesale adoption of Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet, and cooling sales on Apple’s more expensive iPad.
One thing I will say, the video sure makes the Latitude ST look expensive.
Oct 23
GoodeReader’s Michael Kozlowski digs into the notion of advertisements in eBooks. Amazon.com’s recent release of its $79 Kindle with special offers (subsidized by ads on the Kindle) suggests there might be compromises in the future that could make digital publishing affordable for everyone in the mainstream marketplace.
It will be a question of balance. And it’s a very slippery slope.
Oct 21
Our friend Jorgen dropped by with a link to a Lapham’s Quarterly Roundtable feature by Curtis White on the future of Literature in the digital age. It’s well-written and certainly worth your time. It might be a nice read to start your weekend.
Oct 20
The HuffingtonPost has a detailed feature by Robert J. Elisberg that looks at the newest crop of competitors in the eBook Revolution. He talks Amazon Kindle(s), Barnes and Noble Nook(s) and the Pandigital Nova.
Oct 19
eBookNewser has the story on the Kobo Vox Tablet now on sale for $199. (The same price as Kindle Fire. Can anybody say tablet war? Or Price War?)
The Vox has a 7-inch color touch screen with Android and is ready to play eBooks, apps, video games, music and just about everything other than movies.
The Vox has a October 28th shipping date, a good two weeks earlier than the Kindle Fire’s November 15th.
One wonders what Barnes and Noble is cooking up?
Oct 18
The New York Times has this story about Amazon.com skipping past agents and publishers and approaching authors directly with offers of lucrative publishing deals.
This is something that the publishing status quo has long feared, and the rest of us know is overdue.
While the old power brokers lament this development, one wonders what they are doing to stay relevant and current? Forcing eBook prices up, and clinging to their old stables of authors?
It’s time for them to think outside the box and start looking for dark horses in the long list of Indie authors who are publishing and selling at Amazon. (I’m sure they’d all consider a book deal… if the status quo remembers how to publish an unknown author…)
Oct 17
The BBC reports on a recent dispute between the British Library and British booksellers over a recent move by the institution to allow links from its list of 13-million titles to Amazon where readers can order the books for purchase.
The booksellers say that the British Library has a responsibility to support the independent bookseller instead of a “aggressively commercial organization.”
While the story doesn’t specify ‘Kindle‘ sales, one can imagine it will just be a matter of time.
