May 15
It has to be arrogance that makes the big guys dismiss all other competition. Honestly, Amazon and Sony are glaring at each other across the table–both nervously waiting for Apple’s next move…
And along comes Interead‘s Cool-er eBook Reader. Read the story at PCWorld here, about the $249 keep-it-simple eBook Reader that might put the industry leaders to shame. It’s still a little expensive for mass adoption by the mainstream, but it’s opening the door to lower prices, yah?
May 14
Following the logic these dolts are using a television, computer and book are the same thing and should be treated the same way. eBook Reader = Idiot Box. Let’s put commercials on it.
Money-hungry corporate ninnies. Amateurs! Poised as they are to give Kindle a run for the money, Sony is going to open its eBook Reader as an advertising platform. Now we’ll see ad and DRM-free pirated versions of eBooks flitting about the Internet.
Read the story here at slashgear. I’d be pissed about this if there weren’t so many contenders ready to storm into the breach this creates, yah?
May 13
Wired has an excellent story here about Mary Lou Jepsen the uber-tech who didn’t leave the drawing board until she produced a $100 laptop. (Something bloated tech-corporations said couldn’t be done…I wonder why?) She is developing inexpensive, low-power, easy-to-read, LCD-based screens that will go into anything from netbooks to low-priced eBook Readers.
This is the kind of innovation the eBook Revolution needs. Starting it off in the ‘non-profit’ sector makes sense, and eventually trickles through to the ‘for-profit’ sector as users put two and two together and realize that most of their tech is overpriced. Smart companies will listen to their demands for the same fair treatment and access to the fairly priced tech. (Again, how many times do we have to pay for the same research and development?)
May 12
A story here at InformationWeek outlines Amazon’s Monday launch of a Kindle eBook Store tricked out for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch users. They declare a ‘mulitplatform strategy’ in the article, but I’m unconvinced. Having watched Amazon’s awkward attempts to monopolize the market with delays releasing a Mobipocket Reader and Kindle Reader for iPhone, the creation of the Stanza App by disgruntled iPhone users (which Amazon later had to buy to control) and the resulting alienation of iPhone/iPod users well, I’m not sure there is any strategy or plan. Looks more like a series of reactions.
I think they’re trying to make up for lost ground, yah? Still a boon for iPhone and iPod Touch users to get access to all those expensive books.
May 11
Honestly, other than a few stories about people debating copyright (yawn) and digital rights management (when will they learn?) it seems to be a slow news day for the eBook Revolution. After a week of exciting KINDLE DX mania…what can we expect? Announcements are definitely in the pipe. And rumors suggest something is coming from a major competitor of Amazon’s. Something BIG is going to happen, yah?
In the meantime, to show you how slow it is, we offer this article (for the ubergeeks and science-types among us) about E-ink offering a Broadsheet Prototype Kit for companies and developers who are keen on creating KINDLE competition. The idea is, you get the tech out there and see what the techies come up with… Read about it here. Seems to me E-Ink, the company with tech in pretty much every eReader out there, did this a year before KINDLE DX’s appearance.
May 10
Of course, we knew this would happen… all that giant Kindle talk, and now Sony’s rumored to have a bigger (and color version) of its eBook Reader in development.
Read the full story here at techradar.com.
On a more original note, Sony is releasing a Danielle Steele Special Edition Reader. The story’s here at slashgear.com. Costs the same, but includes downloadable titles with the purchase.
This is a fun and exciting move for Sony, yah? They tested the waters before releasing a James Bond/Ian Fleming Limited Edition Version.
Originality breeds content.
May 09
It seems every time Amazon does something with Kindle, we get a bunch of new eReaders jumping onto the market, and the debate over copyright and paying for content flares up again.
I can understand why they’re talking about it all over the news and here at CNN.  KINDLE DX is ‘perfect’ for displaying large format content like newspapers and magazines… That’s right, the same newspapers and magazines that are going extinct. The news publishing world is desperately trying save its own skin by making Kindle DX (and others) into a savior. They’ve got the forum and lack of journalistic integrity to champion their own cause, too. I understand it. They want the headline to read: NEWSPAPERS SAVED by KINDLE DX, rather than have the headline declare: NEWSPAPERS GO OUT OF BUSINESS.
They might be able to save themselves, but they’ll never make it using their old business model. The Problem: How do you get people to pay for something they can get for free? The solution: You can’t, so don’t even try.
Instead, adapt to the market. Find a way to make it pay.
May 08
Amazon’s Kindle DX is sweet, but overpriced. (How many times will we have to pay for the same R&D.) Predictably, the other kids on the block step in to steal a bit of thunder.
Sony is making its eReaders available to purchase online through BestBuy.ca and Futureshop.ca. Check out the press release here. This is a great move because Sony’s Readers are not tethered to the U.S. market with Whispernet the way that Kindle is and any new technology needs to be available everywhere to be fully adopted.
These companies need to get their eBook Readers into the consumers’ hands. Traditional books go hand-in-hand with, well hands, and people need to touch an eBook Reader to get the picture. They’re just newfangled thingamabobby phones or gameboydealies, otherwise, yah?
And Rupert Murdoch confirms that he is indeed working on his Mystery Machine again. Read the story here at the Guardian UK. Flushed out of the lab by Kindle DX’s arrival, the article suggests Rupert has refined his plans for an eReader. (Though his discerning observation: “The current days of the internet will soon be over” has us concerned.) Other than past glories he’s thinking newspapers and magazines and broadsheets. Oh… he also plans to start charging for online content again…which will not work in a million years…unless he plans to subvert the free Internet as we know it. The truth is the business has changed and it needs a new business model. Profits will never be the same for poor Rupert. Sniff…
May 07
Big Price Too...
So Amazon is releasing a very expensive and somewhat larger version of their Kindle tricked out to read magazines and newspapers as well as eBooks. Okay. It looks beautiful. Nice piece of technology. Read the story about the announcement at CNNMoney here.
The Kindle DX features: 9″ screen, a built-in PDF reader, enhanced Internet navigation, storage for up to 3,500 books. It’s priced at $489. Lots of other features too.
I thought I’d point out that they’re repeating the mistake they made with the smaller Kindles. They came out too expensive and too restrictive and opened the door to cheaper and more flexible competitors. They believe that with the name Amazon attached, people will pay anything, blah, blah, blah… it’s not true. The Internet is not a local hardware store (Remember those…) where people have to buy what’s on the shelf. People can shop all over the globe now–a dangerous behavior to encourage for a company like Amazon that only sells Kindle online, and usually requires ordering and shipping delays.
And remember, before we get too excited about Amazon’s business acumen, onboard PDF capacity was absent in its first Kindle versions. (An attempt to control content by pushing their own format, and boosting profits by charging to convert PDF to that format.) It took them two versions of Kindle to realize that PDF is the most pervasive, (if unloved) form of document formatting on the planet used by government, business, the legal profession, universities, etc. It was obvious then, that they were trying to control how buyers use the Kindle. No developer born after 1955 could have accidentally overlooked adding PDF reading capability to the earlier Kindles.
Please don’t mistake my discontent with Amazon as a dig at their machine. I just hate to see such a beautiful piece of technology in the hands of monopoly minded profiteers.
Inexpensive, adaptable eReaders and low priced content means better profits for creators and greater selection for consumers, yah?
May 06
According to a story at cnet.com here Amazon’s new large format Kindle, the “KINDLE DX,” will be introduced Wednesday morning at Pace University in Manhattan. No word on price but some of the specs are listed in the cnet.com piece. 9.7″ inch screen compared to Kindle 2’s 6″, that type of thing.
We’ll be watching this one, yah? Hopefully, the price will reflect the competitive marketplace. (Why do I have a hard time believing that?)
