Feb 18

Adobe’s Going Mobile

Adobe Mobile

Adobe Mobile

Adobe is promising support for reflowable PDF technology (“The reflowable PDF technology allows text to auto-adjust as per the device screen size for maintaining the layout integrity” – Techtree.com) and XML-based eBook standard with EPUB file format  in its new ADOBE Reader Mobile SDK.

This news came from the on-going GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. (Feb. 16-19)

That’s good news for eBooks and eBook readers. God you just know something’s coming that will crack and format any eBook for any device. That’s exciting, yah!

You can read the nitty gritty here.


Feb 17

An Imperfect Reader for an Imperfect World

Here’s a link to a very interesting discussion at Gizmodo.com attempting to explain what is seen as the slow adoption of eBook readers. Their reasons are many and well thought out, but the question remains: Why are the masses not grabbing these things up? Continue reading

Feb 16

Freedom for millions…

Happy President’s Day or Family Day or happy what-have-you…depending where you make your home.

China’s authors and readers are taking full advantage of online and digital publishing. The full story’s here. Let’s hope the follow-up headline isn’t about their fun-free government putting more restrictions on Internet access.

So the net’s opening doors to expression for people in less than liberal places, let’s hope writers and readers in the west maintain their freedoms as the traditional publishing industry adjusts to eBooks and online publishing. Monopolies can be as oppressive as totalitarian regimes, yah?


Feb 15

The Price is Still Too High

kindle_2_ad

Kindle 2 is here. You know I think it’s too expensive. And Stephen King signed on for the pillaging tour with an “original” story of a POSSESSED KINDLE! (Can you imagine a machine with special powers? Honestly, Stephen, can you? This is like the umpteenth time…)

I always say there’s nothing that will capture the imagination of the average Joe like a bajillionaire writer pitching an overpriced eBook Reader during a recession. Go look if you want. New functions, old functions, dreamy new lines… I’m sorry, I just think this is piracy. And worse, it is not priced for the average family. GET REAL!


Feb 13

Stretch your head around this…

So, Kindle 2 is available. The overpricing and specs are here. I wanted to mention the debate that has cropped up since its release. You should know that it is a debate that we could only be having in the FUTURE, in some sort of spacey metropolis with robots. Sorry, I love saying things like that.

It goes like this. Kindle 2 has a text-to-speech function that allows you to sit back and listen to your eBook when  your little eyes are tired from all that reading–but you just can’t put the thing down. Early reports suggest Kindle 2’s text-to-speech is better than the average conversion software, but it is what it is.

authors_guild

Authors Guild

So the  Authors Guild got word of this and leapt into action. (I always imagine them wearing capes and masks because it’s more fun than imagining them in frayed sweaters and coffee-stained blouses…) The Guild argued that the process of turning that text into speech was the same as making an audio book. That got the red lights flashing because Amazon.com has the rights to sell the book, not a recorded version of it. Yah?

Engadget.com has quite a funny back and forth on the argument here.

This should be interesting to watch as it plays out. Text-to-speech is the same as reading an eBook out loud so the converted result isn’t an audio book… or is it?


Feb 12

And here comes Android…

Not sure if I’ll say Google is getting into the act, or getting back into the act, or letting us know exactly where they are in the act, but Google, once a favorite of dead authors for digitizing public-domain books, is now making those works available over the phone.

Like Google Needs a Plug...

Google Print

500,000 of these eBooks are now available on Android and iPhones.

The original program, Google Print, was intended for home PC use and viewing. It involved the scanning of millions of pages of literature, etc. These same tomes have now been painstakingly converted to text for display on hand-held communication devices.

Read the whole story here.

That’s a massive libary of public domain works to have at your fingertips, yah?


Feb 11

Adventure in the Palm of Your Hand

Uclick.com has an app that turns your iPhone into a perfect platform for frame by frame comic book viewing. And offering the comics at .99 per download will assure that this idea is going to make a SPLASH!

uclick

Uclick's comic book app...

With all the digitizing going on, this is one of those moments where anyone can see the perfect fit.

The comic book format, generally telling the narrative panel-by-panel, can now be laid out in the palm of your hand. No eyestrain here, you can move your way through your hero’s adventure–detailed nicely on iPhone’s 3.5″, 480×320 hi-resolution screen.

While I don’t share the view that the advance will make traditional comic book reading obsolete, I do see it as one of those advances that makes a perfect marriage of old and new technologies and art form. Yah!

Considering the popularity of graphic novels one can see that this is one marriage that will last.

Read the complete story here.


Feb 10

Of course it’s brand new technology, so they’re still paying for research and development, yah? It’s ridiculous.

kindle_2_ad

Kindle 2 is here. You know I think it’s too expensive. And Stephen King signed on for the pillaging tour with an “original” story of a POSSESSED KINDLE! (Can you imagine a machine with special powers? Honestly, Stephen, can you? This is like the umpteenth time…)

I always say there’s nothing that will capture the imagination of the average Joe like a bajillionaire writer pitching an overpriced eBook Reader during a recession. Go look if you want. New functions, old functions, dreamy new lines… I’m sorry, I just think this is piracy. And worse, it is not priced for the average family. GET REAL!


Feb 09

Amazon Kindle 2 Launch & the King’s Driving?

All the eBook news today will be about the rumored launch of Amazon’s Kindle 2.

The word at Engadget.com here is that Stephen King is sending a horror story with a Kindle-twist along for the ride. The world will be watching!


Feb 08

OH THE HUMANITY!

I tell you this much. If I sold newsprint for a living I’d be thinking of changing careers.

Check this out.

Here we’ve got 24-inch eReader, displaying with e-ink, one in black and white, one in color. I’m blown away by this one. This is absolutely incredible!

Forget video books! This is the kind of thing that impresses me, yah?

Here’s the full story at engadget.com. INcredible.