Apr 05

The Vook? Come on seriously…

Okay, you tell me? Is the VOOK a new idea? The New York Times is talking about it here. Seems to me I saw Gil Gerard reading one of these in old episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25TH Century. Spock had one too. An electronic book with video and audio components has been a regular component in  science fiction and fantasy writing since the beginning so the VOOK is not a new idea. (The name is: Vook? What the…)

Until now, it has stayed in the realm of imagination because the technology wasn’t quite there and a Silicon Valley Entrepeneur like Bradley Inman with scads of money hadn’t come along to package it.

I’m not sure if it qualifies as an eBook but it does deserve mention. Frankly, they’ve got to trundle this VOOK thing out and see if people will use it. (Let alone pay for it.) “Son, stop leaving my Vook in the bathroom! You’re always taking it in there…”

Money of course, and payment will be the silver lining for this thing, unfortunately it’s for the established publishers and eBook retailers to enjoy. The VOOK with its “EXTRA CONTENT” of minimovies and audio will at least justify the exorbidant prices they want to charge for titles, yah?


Apr 04

Rupert Murdoch’s Mystery Machine

I’ll say this much. For a guy who once owned a steam-driven car, Rupert Murdoch is an elder statesman of publishing who ain’t afraid of no newfangled gadgets. Go Rupert!

He likes the look of Kindle but thinks he can do better, so he’s investing in a company that will build him a device with a bigger screen and 4 color display–with the capability to do ‘everything right there.’  Now if he’ll just arrange loans for us so we can buy the thing. If it’s going to be anything like Fujitsu’s four-color rival it will ring the bell at about $1,000. So far no one knows who he’s wooing with his millions, but it will be an interesting thing to watch, yah?

Read the full story here at All Things Digital.

I’m on board as long as he doesn’t cook up some mysterious or miraculous retrotech name  for it like Rupert’s Fabulatronic Electrical Book Scope or the Murodocular .

Apr 03

MORE FREE eBOOKS at Online Novels!

I received a note from author Susan Crealock about several hundred free eBooks available at her blog: Online Novels. I’ve had a peek and we’re talking about some 500 titles in a wide selection of genres written by both traditionally published and Indie authors. Check it out.

Some are limited time offers too, so DON’T DELAY, yah!


Apr 02

Xerox getting into the act?

There’s a rumor that just won’t go away about Xerox making a leap into the eBook Marketplace, doing what they do best: printing and copying.

Now this story gives the rumor a bit more weight. Read it here. You know I’ve been talking about Print-on-demand Kiosks. Places where consumers can take a downloaded eBook to print. There have been a number of companies starting up, but none of them have the International Profile and Heft of Xerox.

Here’s a quote from the article at FoxBusiness: “It [Xerox Nuvera (R: 29.21, 0, 0%) 200 EA Perfecting Production System] excels at producing high-volume applications that require precise fine-line detail, high image quality and sharp halftones such as technical manuals, bills/statements and books. ”

The machine offers “perfect binding” too–the kind of binding we see on paperbacks these days. We’ll keep an eye on this story. The company that can create a dependable crossover platform might save the lives of quite a few bookshops, and it creates a “bricks and mortar” option for authors and publishers who sell directly to their readers.

The potential benefits to the reader and consumer are enormous, yah?

Apr 01

Simba Says: Read eBooks!

Simba Information a publishing and media market research firm (take a breath) has released some figures that say 8% of the adult U.S. population has purchased an eBook in the past 12 months and 15% read one. (The 7% discrepancy must have visited Project Gutenberg or another of the growing number of Free eBook Outlets.)

I find those numbers promising and a little startling. Startling, because it shows an interest in adoption, promising because it shows a willingness to adapt. Those polled could not represent a living breathing population of eBook Reader owners, so the interest to read eBooks has driven these individuals to adapt iPhones, hand-helds and desktops to the task.

You can check out the article at AjaxWorld Magazine here. A very positive sign, yah?

p.s. I’m sorry for being catty again but this statement jumped out at me. I’m adding it because I don’t want you thinking I think it’s news or profound or in any way deserving of the consultation fees these firms usually charge: “Norris [Michael Norris Senior Analyst, Trade Group] said the e-book market, in spite of recent advances, still has a lot of growing up to do and should be “cautiously” pursued as long as that pursuit does not undermine the value proposition of a publisher’s content, interfere with other initiatives to encourage engaged reading, or provide too much power to one e-book retailer.”  Well, duh!


Mar 31

Tuesday Grab Bag

In The Trailing Edge of the Envelope department, we’ve got a story at CNNMoney entitled “Amazon: thinking beyond the Kindle” in which the reporter really doesn’t say anything new, or refer to anything beyond what many of us have been thinking about for years. Still worth a look since there are interesting links, yah. Click here to read it.

In the Old News is No News department we’ve got a piece posted yesterday, at InternetNews of all places, heralding the release of BlackBerry’s eReader. (That’s so last week isn’t it?) I’ll cut them a bit of slack because they go on to mention the impending releases of a reader for Android and Linux. So, they kind of come through in the clutch. Then they fumble the ball when the article goes on to talk about the eBook battle heating up. Honestly! That’s so, February… it’s been heating up here for much longer, yah? Still worth viewing for the Android and Linux talk… Read it here.

Just when you believe you haven’t gone through a time warp, I find the London Free Press announcing that “Virtual books [are] making waves on mobile phones…” Read the article here. Apparently, they just found out yesterday that eBooks are catching on. On the upswing we finally hear something from Indigo, the book giant that is apparently just coming out of a coma. “Indigo says its recently launched digital book service has attracted customers in some 120 countries, and adds that most of the users are doing their e-reading via mobile phone.” Wow…can you imagine?

Sorry if I sound CATTY, but these stories are lagging in the SCOOP department. Could it be that eBooks are finally, really, being embraced by the mainstream as a viable alternative to traditional publishing, if not the future of it? Were all these news sources just biding their time waiting for the whole thing to flop? Sure seems like it.

Mar 30

Whatever They Can Get Away With…

A pledge by Vellum Publishing Inc. to keep their eBook prices affordable highlights a shameful business over at Amazon as it puts the screws to the Kindle 2 first adopters. Prices that used to cap out at $9.99 for new releases have magically crept up to $16.00. Read the full story here. I can’t believe they’re going to get greedy now, especially as other eBook Readers are starting to crowd the market. There’s no place for Amazon’s Information Highway Robbery.

It can only be arrogance born of past success. Reminds me of the eBay mindset, yah? They used to print their own money too…

I love it because the BIG GUYS are going to force the developing eBook marketplace to re-think signing on with any MAJOR reseller that forces eBook prices up to ridiculous heights. (Digital file right…? No printing, shipping, storing costs…no justification for prices equivalent to paperbacks.) Why do that when you can sell directly to readers or search out new (smarter) resellers that have read the iTunes Tea Leaves and understand that the net’s all about VOLUME.


Mar 29

From the Wunderkind at Fictionwise!

Fictionwise.com exec, Steven Pendergrast declared in a Computerworld article that there will be a huge surge in eBook sales in 2010. Read the wise words here.

Now besides questioning the value of Computerworld interviewing someone who has everything to gain by making such an obvious statement, is it really noteworthy? Anybody who has not been living under a rock for the last year will know that:

a) eBooks are becoming very popular
b) eBook readers are finally reaching the marketplace
c) eBook retailers are starting to drop their prices (still too high)

Looking at these points does one need to be an exec to make the prediction? Is this not obvious? If indeed, it is intended to be insightful then it ranks  up there with the kind of statement we’ve been hearing from amateur-hour bonus-worthy executives who are scattering like rats from AIG and every other corporate suite on Wall Street.

Don’t get me wrong. Fictionwise has been a leader in the industry, providing eBooks and eBook reading software for handhelds while the rest of us clung to our paperbacks and scoffed at the idea of electronic books. So Kudos there. But one wonders if their recent acquisition by foot-dragger Barnes and Noble has not started to go to their heads, yah? Stating the obvious just makes you look dull or manipulative in the case of an eBook store exec declaring eBook sales will surge…

Mar 28

Another eBook option…

It’s so fascinating to watch a brand new market evolve. Here’s another site offering free eBooks for download to readers while creating another forum for authors to display their talents.

Check out GetFreeEbooks.com. They’ve got a wide selection that cross may genres, available in Mobipocket/Kindle prc, pdf or other. Worth a look, yah?

Oh… and another thing. They reject all that “Internet Marketing” free eBook junk, so you don’t have to worry about getting hooked into that racket. Enjoy!

Mar 27

Apple in a bit of hot water

This will make Amazon’s day. Kindle is being accused by Discovery Communications of violating its development of a digital rights management scheme (their method of adding locks to digital books) and they feel they’re “entitled to fair compensation.” Read the story here.

Apple is being sued by an overseas communications company for a patent violation because they’re marketing their iPhone as an eBook reader–and the complainant says the iPhone ain’t such a device. Read the story here. Their lawsuit says: “the firm takes issue with Apple’s move to distribute digital book reading applications through the App Store, which it subsequently sees as an endorsement by the Cupertino-based company that its touchscreen handset can serve as a capable eBook reader.”

I love it. Any market that can support multiple lawsuits is a going concern, yah!