Sep 28

Research In Motion offers the PlayBook Tablet

BlackBerry PlayBookResearch in Motion broadens BlackBerry horizons by offering the PlayBook tablet computer. The Monday announcement came at a developer’s conference where the new full-color tablet is positioning to compete directly with Apple’s popular iPad.  Proof of this confrontation comes in RIM co-chief executive, Mike Lazaridis’ comment that the PlayBook would “offer an uncompromised Web experience.”

That’s a dig at Apple’s unfathomable decision to ban Flash plug-ins, Apps and components from the iPad. (Unbelievable considering the near total web adoption of the Adobe Flash developing software.)

The PlayBook features a 7-inch screen, Flash-capable video and a front and rear high-def camera. Thin at just 9.7 millimeters and weighing in at 0.9 pounds, the device is slated for a 2011 release. No price for the PlayBook was mentioned.

BlackBerryRocks.com has the full specifications of the PlayBook here.

GearDiary has a post entitled: “Kobo And Amazon Confirm eBooks Will Be Big On the PlayBook” so that’s as good as a starter’s pistol, yah?

The eBook Revolution continues to explode!

Sep 27

Adapt or Die in the eBook Revolution

In any revolution, the old guard must adapt to the new order or risk becoming irrelevant. Here we’ve got a link to a Winston-Salem Journal post on book giant Border’s shrewd moves to stay in the game. As digital publishing suggests an end to bricks and mortar locations, we see property owners and book sellers like Borders and Barnes and Noble joining the eBook revolution while pressing the advantage they have over Amazon and other ‘virtual’ stores.

They’ve all got physical locations to bring their readers to, remembering that all readers are not created equally and while some have embraced the ease of the wireless download others still enjoy the social aspects of reading like browsing shelves and talking titles at book clubs.

Sep 25

eBooks Lighten the Load for Students

The Western Front Online offers some words of wisdom here about the future of eBooks and gives some compelling reasons why textbook publishers should get into the game.

Sep 24

The Future of the Book by IDEO

Ok. Many thanks to Jorgen for this video from IDEO. It’s an interesting look at (possible) futures of the book.


The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Sep 23

eBooks and Agency Pricing

Thanks to Jorgen for this link to FutureBook.com and a story that explains the negative impact of the agency model for pricing eBooks, and how it’s set to help publishers and nobody else.

Hey, that just leaves readers and writers out in the cold, which is a setup that dragged traditional publishing into the sewer. The difference now is piracy will pick up the slack the same way it did during the early days of digital music publishing.

Let’s hope that thoughts of the agency model for pricing will die a quick and quiet death.

Sep 22

The eBook Market Continues to Prep for Christmas

Back in July we mentioned Borders selling the Aluratek eBook Reader Pro for $120. Well, they’ve now dropped the price of the Aluratek Reader to just $99.  Check out the specifics at Borders here.

Its exclusive Reflective Light LCD Screen Technology is not the E Ink display used by industry leaders Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Sony, but the makers claim it is easy on the eyes, good on batteries and delivers the goods without any flashing or flickering.

Having read eBooks now on the Sony Reader, Nook and my HP Mini via Adobe Digital Editions I can easily see the jump to the Aluratek device. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s just a delivery system for eBooks, and each has its own pros and cons. In this case, the extremely low price makes it perfect for mainstream consumption.

Sep 21

More Expensive Kindle 3’s for Canadian eBook Revolutionaries…

There’s a great Vancouver Sun article about the price of Kindles for our Canadian friends. Looks like they’re not going to enjoy the recent Amazon Kindle 3 price drop to $139 WiFi and $189 3G versions in the same way that their American cousins can. Because they have to order direct from Amazon.com rather than Amazon.ca, shipping and import fees are being dumped onto the new Kindle price and spoiling some of the fun.

Check out the article here. Perhaps things will be different whenever Kindle finally gets into stores.

Sep 20

Tablets, Printers, eBooks and Bandits!

Hewlett-Packard is taking things to a new level offering a $399 all-in-one Photosmart eStation that includes a web-browsing tablet. The tablet comes with WiFi and 7-inch diagonal screen pre-loaded with Barnes and Noble eBookstore, Facebook and music player among other Apps. Read the Seattle Times post for pictures and video here.

And, our friend Jorgen dropped off a link to a Futurebook.net story about moves in the publishing industry that might start a dangerous climb in the price of eBooks as publishers again chortle over the idea of adopting the expensive agency pricing model for eBooks.

It’s a great idea if they want to encourage piracy and file sharing. But the truth is the move is nothing short of a money grab. Sadly, the consumer pays for this needless manipulation of the market. (At least until the black market gets into the swing of it.)

Sep 19

Blio – Free eReader launches September 28

We talked about the Blio eReader platform way back in January when it was announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics show.

Now Singularity Hub says Blio creator K-NFB announced the September 28 release of the long-awaited Free eReading program that they’re calling a game changer.

The full color Windows software allows you to read books as they were originally formatted with options for displaying on various devices that use Android and iOS systems (iPhone, iPad, etc).

Check out the full story here.

Sep 18

Barnes and Noble Shareholder Drama

The BookSeller.com reports on Barnes & Noble C.E.O. William J. Lynch urging shareholders to reject a bid by billionaire investor Ron Burkle to take controlling interest in the retail book giant’s business, a move deemed unnecessary with expectations of $1-billion in eBook sales projected by 2013.

Read the full story here.