Mar 31

Smashwords taking a bite of Apple?

There’s a rumor going around out there that Smashwords has inked a deal with Apple to distribute its growing list of titles by independent authors and publishers at the iBookStore. Now we’ve got ars technica talking about a letter going out to participating authors to confirm it. Read about the letter here.  We’ve talked about Smashwords before here and here when founder Mark Coker finalized similar rapid fire deals with Sony eBook Store, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books (formerly Shortcovers) and Amazon.com. Now Apple iPad. 

Kudos, Mr. Coker!

When one considers that within the ranks of independent authors you will find the next Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer and Michael Crichton, then readers are about to experience a renaissance of talent and selection. The eBook Revolution continues to grow, yah?

Mar 30

Pioneer Computers Unveils their $149 eBook Reader.

Dreambook Color eBookHere we go. I think it’s a horserace. I’d put Kobo’s $150 eBook Reader first out of the gates but Pioneer Computers didn’t waste any time getting their DreamBook Color eBook Reader W95 into the race.

Their machine offers a 5-inch TFT (LCD Display) screen with a native resolution of 800 x 480. It offers a portrait and landscape mode, supports eBook formats (EPUB, PDB, TXT, PDF, HTML and FB2), the photo formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP), video (MOV, MPEG, MPG, WMV, RM, AVI, RMVB, 3GP, FLV, MP4, DAT, VOB and MKV) and music (MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, AAC, OGG).

Read the announcement here at smarthouse.com.au.

This is where price and multifunction delivery begin to bottleneck. It’s offering a lot on a fairly small screen, but the price will make it a perfect first adoption for the curious mainstream. And it satisfies the color, video and music fix for many who want all the bells and whistles.

Mar 29

If it didn’t work with music, why would it work with eBooks?

Here’s a story at Geek.com about Apple’s plans to add DRM (Digital Rights Management) to the eBooks they sell at the iBookstore. We’ve gone over this so many times I can sleep-type it. Locking a digital item promotes piracy and file-sharing. (Especially if the prices are too high–and why else would you digitally lock an eBook?)

Now, we’re also hearing that they’re using the ePub format, but with their own added code to make the titles iPad-friendly only. This on top of Amazon and Barnes and Noble’s plans to deliver a free App for iPad (so iPad owners can access the titles at those stores) leaves me wondering why they don’t just go for a single open format. (Like ePub was before they started adding code…)

Oh, I forgot. These companies are unable to learn from history. Look at the damage that overpriced, digitally locked songs did to the music industry. (Same thing is happening to the movie industry.) I guess they always have to see how dumb we are, before they can just get down to doing business.

Ah well, as I’ve said many times, things are getting interesting.

Mar 28

The eBook Revolution for Writers

I found an excellent story here at Daily Finance about the effects of the eBook Revolution on writers and their changing relationships with publishers.  For any scribes in the audience, the article gives an overview of some winning strategies. Enjoy!

Mar 27

More on Kobo’s $150 eBook Reader

This time Gadget Lab picks up the story and puts Kobo’s $150 E Ink eBook Reader on a collision course with Amazon’s Kindle. I mentioned the device the other day and called it a game changer for the eBook Revolution, but I have to agree with Gadget Lab. This $150 machine is going to be more painful for eBook reading devices that offer grayscale E Ink displays like Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader but cannot match Kobo’s low price. Read the complete story here.

Mar 26

Is it time to re-invent the eBook?

Thank you Jorgen for pointing us to a post by R. David Lankes at the School Library Journal titled: “Ereaders, the iPad—Is That All There Is?” Seems Lankes was under-impressed by the recent launch of iPad. (And it sounds like he was none-too excited by the eBook Reading Devices that were already on the market.)

None of his discontent has to do with the machines themselves. He accepts that they perform admirably as viewers for digitized avatars of earth-bound volumes. His desire, it seems, is to see the actual eBooks re-invented. So far, he contends, we’re missing an opportunity to redefine among other things: How they display, what they contain and how we interact with them.

Lankes makes some excellent points, but I’m afraid he’ll have to be patient. He’s describing the future of the eBook.

Mar 25

Kobo eBook Reader $150 – The Game Changer

Kobo eBook Reader

To people who would be happy simply reading an eBook, we introduce the Kobo eBook Reader for $150.00.

Kobo announced the device at the MobileFocus event in Las Vegas with what eBook Revolution historians will call PERFECT TIMING. Instead of going head-to-head with iPad, here they’ve given us a basic eBook reader at an extremely affordable price, hooked up to a world class eBook retailer Kobobooks.com. While other designers reel back to the drawing board after iPad’s flashy full-color release, Kobo gives us a fairly priced device that people can comfortably read with.

Kobo, formerly known as Shortcovers, is the far-reaching digital arm of the Canadian bookselling giant Indigo. Bookseller Borders is another investor in Kobo, so we’re looking at some shrewd decision making by industry leaders at a time when the right decision might translate into market dominance. The Kobo eBook Reader will be available at Borders stores summer 2010.

The relatively small price tag makes the device a must-have for early adopters and the curious mainstream.  While the designers do battle with the multi-function iPad, the rest of us can get reading.

For $150 you get 6″ E Ink screen, Bluetooth connectivity (no WiFi or 3G to keep cost down), 5 font sizes, 1GB internal storage, expandable SD card slot and a battery rated for 8,000 page turns. Read more about the announcement at Technologizer.

THIS is the game changer.

Mar 24

The Same Old Song and Dance at Amazon–er, from APPLE this time!

Remember when almost a year ago Amazon started fooling around with pricing, allowing publishers to raise their prices until there was a massive consumer backlash? (The $9.99 Boycott by Kindle owners, where they refused to buy eBook titles that were priced over $9.99)

Anyway, get ready for the Apple iPad iBook Boycott. Having already signed on six huge publishers who’ve been allowed to charge higher ‘agency’ rates, Apple has announced the inclusion of two more publishers: Perseus Books Group (they offer titles from 330 smaller publishers) and the Workman Publishing Company. This deal heralded in a New York Times post here, looks like the same shakedown where publishers are allowed to set their own agency rates.

Okay, this is the destructive quote from the article: “In talks with publishers, Apple has said it would not let other retailers sell any book for a lower price than the price in its new iBookstore. Several of the larger publishers are seeking to renegotiate agreements with Amazon and other e-book retailers to mirror the deals with Apple.”

Amazon could say: “Been there, tried that…Didn’t WORK!”

This is how you throw cold water on a hot market. The publishers are working deals, and the eBook retailers are offering the moon… and then they expect the consumer to pay anything they ask. There’s a reason that Amazon sold titles for $9.99. (Which many consumers still consider unjustifiably high.) The consumers made it very clear that $9.99 was all they were willing to pay for an eBook title, especially after they’d just forked out hundreds of bucks for the eBook machines to read them on.

Stop trying to manipulate the market APPLE! The Consumer has the final word.

Mar 23

iPad Web Addresses for Sale…

Some forward-thinking entrepreneurs (aka good-guessers) are hoping to make millions from the sale of iPad web names. CNNMoney has the story here. To get you started, one chap listed the web addresses: ipaddownload.com, ipaddownloads.com and ipaddownloads.net at eBay for a cool million each.

In case anyone was wondering why the iPad’s a little pricey.

Mar 22

Apple iPad More than Hype?

Joe Wilcox at BetaNews is stirring the pot in his post: “Be smart, don’t buy into the iPad hype.” Any time you want to stir the pot, say something negative about new Apple products. You’ll always get burned by hardcore fans and early adopters.

I don’t think this article is an attack on the iPad–just its delivery. Wilcox is suggesting that a product needs more than ‘hype’ to achieve market ubiquity. Read the article here. It digs into the roots of the phenomena.