Jan 08

Consumer Electronics Show (eBOOK HEAVEN!)

With the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) going full guns, we’re getting swamped with new devices competing for space. In light of that and in an effort to give equal time, I’m just going to bomb you with a bunch of links. Check them out for pics, video and more. Anyone suggesting that 2010 is not going to be the Year of the eBook Reader is nuts, yah?

eBookNewser.com highlights the enTourage eDGe eBook Reader here. Cool looking machine with a double screen format.

Liliputing.com is showing us Samsung’s surprise entry of four new eBook Reader models at this link. Check out the pictures. There’s a Buck Rogers look to the device, but it grows on you.

TorrentBomb.com is talking about the Liquavista Full-color eBook Reader here. Don’t let the color fool you, apparently it’s not LED but uses the same E Ink technology used in other readers.

Notebooks.com has video on Fujitsu’s long-anticipated full color eBook Reader at this link. A sweet looking ride there.

Pocketlint.com talks about the Plastic Logic Que proReader. We’ve been waiting for this sleek piece of machinery for a year now. Check out the story and pictures here. Apparently, the Que has a deal with Barnes and Noble to share shelf space with the Nook.

I’ll bomb you with another list of machines tomorrow.

Jan 07

Blio – The Future of Electronic Reading?

Thank you Jorgen for a link to a story at APPSCOUT fresh from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2010 about Blio, a platform that boasts a wide range of options for publishers that include adding text-to-speech, color photos, and video content directly to their eBook formats.

Its designer, voice-recognition inventor, kngb founder, and The Singularity is Near author Ray Kurzweil says “the future of electronic reading won’t be on dedicated hardware, but on a wide range of multifunction devices.” Despite his obvious street-cred I still consider this an opinion.  A lot of people have talked about this integration of function, but it’s such a volatile marketplace full of so many new advances in hardware and software that it’s impossible to predict with any degree of certainty. I think the truth and the future of electronic reading will reflect the diverse interests of those who adopt the devices and formats.

The site proclaims Blio is: “the new touchstone for the presentation of electronic books & magazines. Stunning, full-color pages come alive in brilliant 3D. Even image-rich books are now at your digital fingertips — because Blio preserves a book’s original layout, fonts, and graphics.”

Sounds great, but it looks like we’re going to have to wait until February for an operational model, yah?

**THIS JUST IN: (Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas) – Microsoft and HP have unveiled their own SLATE PC ahead of APPLE’S much rumored Tablet. It’s tricked out to read eBook and do a whole lot more. Read the story and get video here. – JC

Jan 06

The History of Publishing 2010-2020

P. Bradley Robb has written a fantastic serial (series?) over at Fictionmatters.com called “The History of Publishing 2010-2020.” If you’ve been keeping up with recent developments in the eBook Revolution, and if you’re the least bit serious about the technology or what it promises for the future, you MUST take the time to read this.

It’s a well-written look at future-history that I think will be bang-on in most of its predictions. It’s chock-full of irony, too. Enjoy!

Jan 05

Skiff Reader for News and Magazines

Jorgen put me onto this machine with a link to a story at Earthtechling about a large format eReader configured to display electronic versions of newspapers and magazines in a “quasi-traditional” format.

Apparently the Skiff Reader is all the rage at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show where its 11.5-inch e-paper display and thin .268 inch thick body make it impossible to miss.

Go to the Skiff Reader site and take a look at it or peek at the specifications here. If it makes good on the promise of wirelessly delivering newspapers and displaying them in near-traditional layout, then it looks like a late Christmas gift for the beleaguered publishing industry, yah?

Jan 04

Apple Tablet Any Day?

It’s been at least a year since the constant rumors about Apple joining the eBook Revolution started to take solid shape in the form of a ‘tablet,’ now we find ourselves with a ‘rumored’ release happening very soon. And believe me, all of us are waiting for the Kindle-Killer to come out of hiding.

Here’s a link to a story at True/Slant outlining the pros and cons of the fabled Apple Tablet. Is there really a place for it (Apple offered one before to lukewarm response…), or is this just an old idea hoping to get some traction in the eBook Revolution?

We’ll soon see.

Jan 03

A follow up to yesterday’s link…

Jorgen has been kind enough to point us to a story at the Sydney Morning Herald that takes yesterday’s post regarding eBooks outselling ‘actual’ books and runs with it.

It brings in a number of disparate elements in an attempt to introduce us to one of “the most fundamental technical revolutions in human history.” The writer, Guy Rundle puts an extremely negative spin on things, and there’s no doubting his view of the eBook Revolution.

There are dangers inherent in any cultural change, and people have a habit of overindulging before they find a balance. Unfortunately, that balance rarely happens as quickly as the technological changes.

Heady stuff, yah?

Jan 02

Amazon Sales Questions…

Thanks Jorgen for a link to a story at DailyFinance.com about the sketchy figures Amazon is using to build the Kindle success story.

It’s an excellent article and well worth the read. One has to suspect the worst when these mega-corporations start in with the feel-good news. Especially when they’re less than forthcoming with actual sales figures, yah?

Dec 31

Astonishing Adventures Magazine #8 – FREE Online Reading

As 2009 winds down (by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!), we received a release for Astonishing Adventure Magazine’s 8th and it looks like ‘final’ issue. I’ve had a look and it’s a HUGE gathering of exciting stories and excellent illustrations arriving just in time to ring in the New Year. So take the link to your holiday weekend read online or as downloadable PDF. We talked about their last Issue ‘7’ here in an interview with editor Katherine Tomlinson.

The Press Release for the new issue follows. Enjoy!

Issue #8 of Astonishing Adventures Magazine is now available for FREE download at two online locations: Issuu and [as a PDF] MediaFire. A print edition will be available at Amazon.com early in January at a price still to be determined.

At 172 pages, the magazine is jam-packed with pulptastic content from contributors living in five different countries. “I am particularly pleased by the international flavor of this issue,” said editor Katherine Tomlinson. “We have writers from the US, UK, Canada and Tenerife and artists from the US, the UK and Greece. There’s literally something for everyone in issue #8—from the wackiness of Tony Thorne’s “Teething Pain” to the poignant sea story “A Coral Pillow” offered by G. Wells Taylor.”

The mix of content includes new stories in Michael Patrick Sullivan’s long-running Auslander series and a new entry in Roger Alford’s adventures of the Black Spectre. Novelist Brian Trent is back with his two-fisted adventurer Rylan Mathis. Frequent contributor Christian Dabnor provided the cover story, a cat-and-mouse tale about a fox and a bear. AAM’s mainstay Cormac Brown offers up a noir homage to Dashiell Hammett in “The Tsar’s Treasure” and also interviews writer Kelli Stanley. The multi-talented Sarah Vaughn and Joanne Renaud both contributed stories and illustrations for this issue with Joanne Renaud doing double duty as the cover artist.

In addition to the usual suspects (Christine Pope, Kat Parrish, Blue Jackson, Peter Mark May, Ron Capshaw, Mark Caldwell), several promising new writers made their debut in Issue #8—J. Jasper’s politically charged “Fair and Balanced” led the way, with brothers V.J. and Justin Boyd contributing a dark fairy tale, Berkeley Hunt offering up a story of sibling hostility and R.C. Barnes providing a tale based on the legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. All that plus editor Tomlinson’s usual “I Want to Sleep With” feature, starring Yul Brynner.

Issue #8 is a special double-issue to mark the magazine’s second anniversary. Publisher John Donald Carlucci has also announced that it will be the quarterly periodical’s last issue. The founder of Darke Media, Carlucci is currently producing a web series called “Fierce Cravings” now available on YouTube.

Dec 30

TWO Full-Color eBook Readers in the Pipeline…

Many thanks to our intrepid Jorgen who continues to scour the net for interesting eBook Rumors and information. Here we’re offered a link to a story at Twice.com where we’re told that next month Paradigm Shift Sourcing and Manufacturing will introduce full-color eBook readers with 5-inch and 7-inch screens at the International CES .

Paradigm Shift’s 5-inch model, No. EER-051 runs ANSI, UNICODE TXT, DOC, PDF, HTML, FB2, PDB and EPUB (non-DRM) eBook formats with MP3 player and photo viewer functions. With 1GB of onboard memory plus an SD card expansion slot the EER-051 is very tempting for early adopters, especially with its suggested retail of $150.

Its 7-inch sister-ship, No. EER-071WF, has a full touch-screen interface and Wi-Fi, with optional DRM encryption to format compatibility. The unit is comparable to “a full ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) or tablet PC” with support for Word, Excel and PDF files. The eReader functions as a photo viewer, plays Flash video, MP3 and MP4 files. More specs in the article here. All that with 2GB of internal memory, a Flash expansion slot and $200 suggested retail makes the EER-071WF a guaranteed market-shaker as the eBook Revolution expands into a crowded 2010.

Not everyone’s going to want color. In fact, there is a consistent round of voices that are very happy READING on their eBook Readers in good old shades of gray; but, something like these with their relatively low price tags and multi-functions might make it a hit with the curious, the early adopter and the gadget crazy.

Dec 29

An eReader Overview

This eReader Overview by Oliver Masciarotte in the Blogcritics Sci/Tech section is a must-read for any curious, early or late adopter in the eBook Revolution. Well written and covering all the basics, this article is the most comprehensive I’ve read yet.

The eBook phenomena, marketplace and cultural shift is going to explode in 2010, so arm yourself with knowledge, yah?