Oct 23

Careful, Mr. King, your publisher is out of touch!

In an effort to lose hearts and insult fans, Stephen King’s publisher, Scribner is trying to blatantly manipulate his “constant readers” by withholding the release of the digital version of his new novel. The move is supposed to force sales of the hardcover version (and profits…). Oh, and here’s the dumbest part of their plan: the digital version will cost the same as the hardcover.

$35 for an eBook! 

It’s surprising that King would be associated with this kind of outright banditry. After all, he’s been a driving force of eBooks since The Plant and unofficial spokes-scribe of Amazon’s Kindle with Ur. (I read Ur. An incredibly well written sales job, short on scares.)

Read the full story about King’s new 1,000-page-plus mega-work: Under the Dome at The Huffington Post. It’s just proof that fan loyalty and customer service are secondary considerations to quarterly profits.

Now for the backlash from fans and boost in eBook Piracy…

Oct 22

The NOOK continued…

It’s only fair to keep talking about Barnes and Noble‘s new eBook Reader, the Nook. We burned up a lot of net time on the Kindle, after all.

This link from Jorgen (thanks) that takes us to an excellent display set at engaget.com.  Lots of pictures, even video. Well worth a look.

All this excitement, and we’re still waiting for Apple’s Tablet to appear. Wild times ahead, yah?

Oct 21

Introducing Barnes and Noble’s “Nook”

The Barnes and Noble eBook Reader the “Nook” was launched yesterday at a 4 p.m news conference in Manhattan. Read the play by play on The New York Times Technology page here.

At $259 it’s priced to compete with Kindle, also priced at $259. (That’s a missed opportunity… $239 would have sold a million of them and made an indelible mark on the eBook marketplace.)

I guess the name will grow on me, yah? I like the look of the Nook. Off we go, another machine for your reading pleasure.

Oct 20

Global Kindle Finally Out of the Gates!

Amazon is shaking off those dreams of market monopoly, smelling the coffee and realizing there are some real world-class competitors coming into the game with the same grand ambitions.

Yesterday Amazon started shipping a souped-up Kindle for U.S. and International adopters. Read here at Channel Web for a story about the global Kindle’s migration to one hundred countries with AT&T’s wireless network attached. With a new price of $279, the device promises to deliver an eBook to you wirelessly in 60 seconds in any one of those hundred countries.

I’m glad they’re doing it. (Even if Canada is not yet one of the hundred countries being served…)

But ubiquity doesn’t just depend on access… the price has to be right, and in a market with $199 eBook Readers, the Kindle’s $279 price tag still makes it an expensive adoption, yah?

Oct 19

Que, the ProReader coming January 7, 2010

News at SoftSailor.com seems to confirm the rumors that have been bandied about forever regarding the Plastic Logic eBook reader. Read about it here. Called Que, the proReader, this device features an 8.5 x 11-inch capacitive touchscreen. Soft Sailor’s got pictures, or for more specifics you can take the link here to Que’s homepage at Plastic Logic.

This should be a hit with the business class, and perhaps students. The price will decide that, but we’ll have to wait for them to fill us in January 7.

Sweet looking ride, yah?

Oct 18

European Union Gets into the Act

Watch out Google Books, looks like the EU is going to push back with the launch of the EU Bookshop’s digital library. Announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the library contains 50 years of documents in 50 languages. All FREE. Check out the story here.

Oct 17

Will Your Brain Like This Article?

Here is a thought-provoking read for your weekend. The New York Times offers an opinion piece on whether the brain is willing to go along with the switch to eBooks and eBook Readers.

They asked five experts from different disciplines and areas of study these questions (from the article): “Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium?” Quite an interesting article, actually, and their answers are bound to get your brain comprehending weekend or not, yah?

Enjoy!

(For your pleasure thefreedictionary.com)

Oct 16

Google Editions in 2010

More tough news for Amazon. Google will sell eBooks for any device through an online store called Google Editions that they plan to launch next year.

The development announced in a release here at Reuters is a nice change for Google’s otherwise complicated press life as they battle the many challenges to Google Books. Google Editions will allow Google to start making money from one of its book ventures. (That also includes their controversial index of scanned books through library partnerships…Google Books.)

As yet, they’re not interested in making their own eReading device, opting instead to sell eBooks from publisher catalogues for reading on the various devices already out there.

Not such a nice change for industry leader Amazon’s Kindle that is still coping with a sudden influx of competing eBook Reading devices that are more and more relying on the open EPUB format. Amazon’s still trying to control things with its own (AZW) proprietary format.

Research firm Forrester predicts 3 million eReaders will sell in the U.S. this year, up from a previous total of 1 million. They say it’s encouraged by lower prices, more content and improved distribution. (I seem to remember reading that somewhere before, yah?)

Three words for Amazon: ADOPT EPUB NOW.

Oct 15

Barnes and Noble eBook Reader to Launch Next Week

ZDNet’s got the scoop and apparently pictures of the rumored Barnes and Noble eBook Reader designed and set to launch through a partnership with IREX and Plastic Logic.

Read the story and see the pictures here.

So this is going to heat things up, with Barnes and Noble’s long track record as book seller and distributor, the addition of this eBook Reader will make them a direct and powerful competitor to Amazon’s Kindle.

Now let’s just hope they don’t screw things up by over-pricing it, yah?

Oct 14

Time Magazine cautiously adds its two cents…

Hey, since everyone on the web’s been chattering about eBooks and eBook Readers for years now, isn’t Time kind of imitating us? Anyway, there is a good story at Time about the upcoming eBook Revolution. (Notice how they waited until things got into full swing before commenting…but I digress.) Read the article, it starts out lamenting how poor industry leader Amazon Kindle’s being imitated by all those awful lower-priced, non-proprietary competitors. I still think Amazon only has itself to blame…

And even better the article serves up a sidebar link to a slideshow of nine different eReaders either on or entering the market. (A sweet little showroom…) Check that out here.

It’s getting exciting, yah?