Jan 25
Kevin Purdy at Lifehacker.com offers us the “Top 10 Tools For Better Reading, Online And Off.” An enjoyable and interesting Monday read as we all count down to the Apple Tablet launch January 27.
(I’m not endorsing the Tablet, I’m just curious. We’ve all been waiting so long for the device, yah?
Jan 24
Thanks again to Jorgen who dropped off this link to an excellent article at the Telegraph shaped around the notion that the rumored release of Apple’s Tablet on January 27 may be a way to end the onslaught of new hand-held devices and replace “our heaps of disorderly electronic debris with a single, all-purpose device, to use not only in the home, but at work, school and on the move.”
We’ll certainly have to see it before we believe it. And a price point of $900 keeps it out of the practical range for the average family, at least as it fits the eBook Revolution. Reading has been around too long and the behaviors surrounding it are too entrenched to be predictably co-opted into the future-world of phones, videos and email with the simple wave of a wand (or tablet or market study).
It will be up to that venerable reading culture to decide what devices it needs and prefers, yah?
Jan 23
Many thanks to Jorgen for a link to this gem at the Nieman Journalism Lab. Apparently Amazon has given the go ahead for some authors to publish eBooks for Kindle without digital rights management (DRM). DRM controls how consumers use the eBooks they purchase: how they read them and on what.
The changes in Amazon’s Digital Text Platform were noticed by Kindle publishers around Jan. 15th.
Very interesting development. More preparation for the arrival of Apple’s Tablet?
Jan 22
This is so well written I’m just going to pass the link along. For your enjoyment read Go To Hellman: Offline Book “Lending” Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion.
Jan 21
In a move that many will see as an attempt by Amazon to keep its market-share of eBook sales while soothing tensions between itself and the authors and publishers it ‘serves,’ the Internet eBook giant is going to offer them a bigger piece of the action. June 30 will see authors’ and publishers’ percentage (royalty, share) of a book’s price sold through Amazon bumped up to 70 percent (exclusive of delivery costs). See the full story here at ChannelWeb.
Isn’t that nice–oh wait, here’s the fine print. (Why can’t they just be nice?)Â The new percentage only applies to discounted books ranging in price from $2.99 to $9.99. Additionally the book must be listed at least 20 percent below “the lowest listed price for the physical book.” So, the deal has strings attached.
Apparently authors generally received a royalty of 7 – 15 percent on ‘actual’ books and 25 percent on eBooks. So this story only sounds fantastic until you read the fine print. Then it sounds like more manipulation by a jaded corporate giant–justification for the ill will that has long permeated the pre-digital publishing world. With that thinking, they deserve what Apple’s Tablet is going to give them, yah?
Jan 20
Many thanks to Jorgen for a link this story at the TimesOnline about the future of digital publishing as it relates to the next generation of eReaders revealed by tech companies at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Even though the first generation of early adopters are patiently waiting for their grayscale Kindles, Nooks, COOL-ERs and Sony Readers to arrive in the mail, the CES suggested that the future of digital publishing will be a large-display, colorful affair.
This evolution seems unavoidable when looking at machines like the twin-screened Entourage Edge that offers facing color LCD and grayscale E Ink displays. The future of Que and the Skiff will be a horse of a different color too as magazines make the transition to digital and demand the depth and detail of full color display. Apple’s ‘Tablet’ will have something to say about this too.
Hard to predict outcomes when you’re launching a new technology that will affect culture and behavior, especially when it impacts something as intimate and personal as the act of reading. I still believe the consumers will have the final say, and there’ll be room for both color and grayscale devices, yah?
Jan 19
CNN has a story here about Apple inviting the press to see ‘our latest creation’ at an event planned for January 27 in San Francisco, California.
After a year of online rumors and claims about Apple’s legendary beast, the cocky devils neglected to use the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as their launch site, choosing instead to watch their competition show their wares. (And hands… HP’s Slate was there in all its glory…)
What else could it be? It’s time for the Tablet, yah?
Jan 18
BarcelonaReporter.com reports at this link that 2009 saw the sale of eBooks in Spain increase by 500%. The exciting number results from a wide acceptance of the eBook Revolution by Spanish publishers and consumers.
That’s a most exciting development, yah?
Jan 17
Thanks Jorgen for a link to an article at Resourceshelf.com that features highlights from a survey conducted by the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) addressing how “print book buyers access, purchase and use e-books and e-readers.”
Two things stood out. Apparently 30% of print book buyers will wait up to three months to purchase the eBook edition of a book by a favorite author. That’s interesting news for publishers who try to manipulate the market by withholding the eBook edition to force sales of the hard cover.
And the second interesting point that stood out for me was not all that surprising. Respondents listed “affordability†as the #1 reason they would purchase an eBook over a print book of the same title.
Another VERY interesting point was 47% of those surveyed said their preferred eBook reading device was their computer.
Jan 16
Bill Elder was kind enough to interview me for NaSPA’s (Networks and Systems Professional Association) latest issue of Technical Support Magazine.
You can check out their site here or download the magazine directly here or read eBook Rumor’s copy at this link. Don’t miss my interview (starts page 16) but be sure to check out the rest of the magazine.
I do make some pithy observations, if I do say so myself. Lots to read about “the continually evolving nature of IT, Networking, Telecommunications, Disaster Recovery and other related disciplines.”
