eBook Rumors scoops PCWorld again…

We didn’t have all the facts back then, but we reasoned this bit of mathematics out after discovering in February that Amazon will replace a broken Kindle for $180. So, that pretty much exposed their bottom line. When you look at the $359 purchase price, well you figure out the grotesque profit from there.

Read the proof at PCworld here.

I don’t have a problem with a company making a fair profit, but that kind of gouging undermines the Kindle’s adoption while slowing the eBook Revolution, yah?

Ok. It’s Cool, but old news can’t be New News, can it?

Here’s Random House re-introducing a tried and true technology to the ongoing evolution of the eBook Revolution, and calling it their own ‘enhancement.’  There’s a story about them adding special features to eBook DVD’s. Read it here in the National Post.

I say it’s old news because authors have been using the Internet for this very purpose for well over a decade, enhancing their work with downloadable photos, video biographies, illustrations and animations. (I wonder whether the DVD movie ‘extra features’ wasn’t a similarly re-branded concept.) I’m okay with it, I mean let’s embrace the tech. My only fear is they’ll use it to justify the high prices they’re stubbornly fixated on.

And enterprising authors have been developing these add-on’s, selling their wares and concepts since the dial-up modem. (Remember Flash Intro’s…) Good work Random House, but I’d rather you share the kudos with the pioneering authors out there on the Information Highway. I get a bit defensive when the big corporations try to repackage ideas that authors and creators have developed and paid for with blood, sweat and tears, yah? I know some of these guys and dolls…

p.s. An interesting note is the mention of the number of people who have been reading eBooks on their computers. Suddenly I’m hearing from all kinds of people admitting that they read on their desktop or laptops and have for years. I guess it wasn’t cool before. Welcome aboard!

WATTPAD Available on BlackBerry

Wattpad announced its mobile application is available on APP World at BlackBerry. It was restored after BIM approved the APP’S use on its devices. Wattpad is the world most popular eBook sharing site. Read the full story here at Wireless Developer Network.

Wattpad was founded in 2006 with a mandate to revolutionize the way people consume readable content. Take a look around the site, or the mobile site here. There are hundreds of free titles available. The material on the site is created and uploaded by users in the online community. It’s so nice to see an innovation like this making inroads, yah?

END PIRACY NOW: Stop ripping off the consumer!

These same old arguments and worries always tick me off, yah? They talk about how great the new technology is and then start telling horror stories about piracy and content control. Read the full story at The National here.

Peter Cox, an author and literary agent who founded the online writers’ community Litopia is quoted in the article: “Book piracy will become a huge problem when e-readers become more popular.” (I often think we need to separate the activities of piracy-for-profit and file-sharing-for-free. They aren’t the same thing.)

The article contains a familiar form of fear mongering that has undermined the digital revolution on all fronts: film, music and now publishing. I’ll tell you how to combat piracy: “Sell your product at a reasonable price.”

What is an eBook but content? When consumers see company’s trying to sell content as though it is the whole ‘actual’ bricks and mortar package–the physical thing i.e. DVD, CD, hard cover–they know they’re being cheated. When you strip away the printing, shipping and storage from a book, you’re left with content. True there are the costs of advertising, cover design and promotion, but those have dropped dramatically with the movement of ‘book stores’ and consumers onto the internet.

By the time these corporate bandits realize their prices are too high, the consumer and marketplace has been driven underground, and the piracy is a ‘huge problem.’

The ‘legitimate’ publishing world will create the problem that pirates have the cure for. The truth is, people do not want to deal with pirates, or share files that come from “God knows where” unless the actual value and the price of a product are far enough apart that it’s worth taking the risk.

Nostalgia Already…

Harry McCracken has posted a fun little piece listing the 8 Reasons he’s going to miss books. Read the article here at Technologizer.com.  He’s got a Kindle, so he’s not singing the blues. He’s just looking back at an era with a wistful eye.

Give me a tissue, yah!


Automotive tires and eReaders…makes sense… Now give it a name!

This is an amazing piece of machinery from Bridgestone (the tire makers, yah…). Read about the 13-inch color e-paper display that handles pen input at Engadget.com here. There’s a quick YouTube video link that’s worth seeing where the guy writes right on the screen. Very cool.

Maybe it takes a tire company to come up with an innovative approach to the eBook Revolution. Up until now, color eReaders in development have looked like slightly modified versions of the regular black and white eReaders. This machine from Bridgestone knocks all those preconceptions aside, and frankly looks perfect for reading eBooks, and more importantly with its full color depth is ready to display the fine photography found in  eMags and large format publications.

Excellent! I wonder if they’re going to get into mousetrap design…

More Consumer Control from Amazon

Someone please tell me how the behavior of this ‘legitimate’ corporate entity is more benevolent, more creator and consumer sensitive than the torrent services offered at Pirate Bay?

Interesting story follows  exposing Amazon’s ulterior motives for Digital Rights Management and their Whispernet. I think we’ve all dated a control-freak like this.

The story follows an individual who was buying eBooks remotely from Amazon.com, and returning items he was unhappy with. Amazon thought his return-rate was too high so they suspended his Kindle account effectively wrecking half the $359 Amazon Kindle eBook Reader’s functionality.  Read the whole shocking story at Gizmodo here. I mean, the guy bought their machine…and then they put the boots to him, yah?

While reading this article repeat the words: Pirate Bay! Pirate Bay!

Little wonder file sharing is such a roaring success. Amazon’s as much as promoting it here.

Reid Minion Release for iPhone

Reid Minion 1.0, the iPhone application offering enhanced document and book reading for the iPhone and iPod is now available from Minion Software. prMac has the full story and specifications here. Reid Minion 1.0 includes a wide array of interesting adaptations including special font settings for speed readers and the visually impaired.

(Minion. I like the name, but it’s got a Clive Barker ring to it, yah?)

eBook 101 – For New Recruits

Okay, I don’t want those in the know to be offended, but there is a HUGE and CURIOUS group of people out there searching the Internet with a lot of questions. (The mainstream?) And they’re coming to eBook Rumors for answers. (The smart ones anyway…yah?)

It is still so very early in the technology. Word travels far and fast these days, but everyone is so busy it takes time to absorb the news. Those of us who have been in for a while rooting around for information might easily forget that the vast majority of web surfers are just starting to ask the question, “eBook, what’s an eBook?” And others still: “What in the hell would I do with one of those?”

The people at Pocket-lint.com have been kind enough to run over the basics here. For the early adopters, forgive the recap, for new members to the eBook Revolution, welcome.

Another Good Reason to Join the Revolution…

I really enjoyed this article at xkcd The blag of the webcomic. An intrepid eBook Reader and Kindle owner hangs a low-tech solution on a hi-tech revolution. You have to love the camera work. I hope it’s not too technical, yah!