Jan 30

Compare Apple iPad and our old friend Kindle

CRAVE the gadget blog from CNETnews offers this cool little chart here comparing Apple iPads and Amazon Kindles as eBook Readers. Nice to see it all laid out there.

I have to say, I’m still waiting for Apple to clear the air about the Apple iPad App iBooks. We know it will read EPUB format, but what else does it read and how do you add non-Apple books.

I’ve got a feeling we can attribute the gray areas to the major publishers who signed on. Those publishing dinosaurs still believe eBook sales cannibalize hard cover sales and appear to have agreed to the iPad platform with lots of reservations and strings attached. (The eBook pricing says as much, yah?)

Jan 29

An Opinion on the Apple iPad

More reaction to the release of Apple’s self-described ‘game-changer’  iPad. Thanks to our friend Jorgen for this link to an opinion piece by the Telegraph’s Justin Williams entitled: “Why I don’t want an Apple iPad.” (nuff said?)

It’s just the hype-hangover talking, yah?

Jan 28

iBooks on the Apple iPad

It stands to reason that we’ll all be inundated with stories and articles about the Apple iPad. As the dust settles, we’re starting to get to the specifics.

Ok. We’ve all heard that it’s just a big iPhone, but it does have eBook reading capability and that’s what we were waiting to hear. PCWorld goes into more detail here about the eBook reading APP called iBook. It looks like they’re going to offer titles between $8 and $15 from five major publishers: Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book Group. (More about the Apple iBook pricing story here at MediaMemo. Did Apple learn from its own digital music lesson?)

The iPad also reads EPUB format, so that tells us that despite the (still-too) high eBook prices they haven’t designed themselves into a corner with proprietary formats. More as the story unfolds, yah?

Jan 27

Apple iPad- More at Engadget.com

Here is a link to Engadget.com (again, great job covering the launch!) where they get their hands on the Apple iPad and give it their ‘first look.’ Sounds like they are both impressed and disappointed. They’ve got a full video walkthrough too…

The eBooks with the ‘flipping’ pages looks very cool, but it’s got to eat into the battery life, yah?

Jan 27

More iBooks Functions at Engadget

Click Image to visit launch at Engadget Liveblog.

Jan 27

Here’s the eBook Shot (iBook)on Apple iPad we’ve been waiting for. (Thanks Engadget…)

Click the image to visit the launch at Engadget liveblog.

Jan 27

More Cool Stuff about iPad (Thanks Engadget!)

Jan 27

It’s called the iPad.

There’s confirmation on the name from Jobs himself…

Jan 27

Apple Tablet (Pad or Slate?) Launches in minutes…

Here’s a link to live updates from CNNMoney. Apple is launching a ‘secret’ device that everyone believes is the rumored ‘tablet.’ This is touted as an eBook Revolution game changer.

Here’s another link to the launch at Engadget.

Check it out!

Jan 26

Is the Apple Tablet coming Wednesday, or the Messiah?

Talk about living up to your hype. The Apple Tablet (pad, slate, take your pick) certainly has a high bar waiting for it. After months and months of rumor, the ‘rumors’ have it that we’ll finally meet the device January 27th. For some reason, I suppose it’s iPhone’s amazing capabilities and growing ubiquity, everyone is predicting drastic change once Apple’s rumored Tablet takes center stage. We’ve even got the Los Angeles Times suggesting the Tablet’s impact on top of the ongoing eBook Revolution “will be a seismic change in the literary culture.”

Read the Times opinion piece here. It’s a fascinating if predictable read. Almost, one could suggest, a well-ordered reiteration of everything the Internet has been saying about eBooks and the devices that read them for the last year, or so.

Tomorrow’s the big day.