May 20
I love this. Bookeen, the people who brought us the Cybook eBook Reader, is releasing the Cybook OPUS e-book Reader. Read about it here at Slipperybrick.com. Lot’s of cool little features including PDF compatibility, but the main thrust is its pocket-sized profile. It can go where Kindle won’t fit.
Just hilarious, if you think about it. Reverse engineering, yah?
May 19
These guys get it, yah?  They know they’re not selling paper and cardboard, they’re selling content. Read the story here about how eBook store Scribd  is adapting to the new eBook market instead of trying to control it.
The author, Kemble Scott, mentioned in the article is making a go of it selling his eBook for $2.00 a copy. And at that price he’s able to make a larger royalty than going the traditional route.
Another author, G. Wells Taylor, has been selling his list of horror titles for $3.00 a pop. Visit his book store here. His eBooks are currently downloadable as PDF files, through Lulu.com, or for order through that company as paperbacks. He says he’s currently prepping an eBook shop that will focus on direct multiformat eBook downloads with even lower prices.
May 18
An interesting article here about the ongoing Kindle Readers’ $9.99 Amazon Boycott. Amazon misled Kindle first-adopters by saying that New eBook Releases would be priced at $9.99. Well, that didn’t last long. Readers revolted.
Caution: THE FOLLOWING IS SNAKE OIL MEANT TO FRIGHTEN CONSUMERS INTO SUBMISSION.
Quote from the article: “How Much Should an E-Book Cost?” by Motoko Rich, New York Times, May 16, 2009
‘Publishers and authors say it is much more complicated than the cost of paper and shipping. The lower e-book price “is not sustainable,†said Mr. Baldacci, [a writer] whose novels regularly rise to the top of hardcover best seller lists. If readers insist on cut-rate electronic books, he said, “unfortunately there won’t be anyone selling it anymore because you just can’t make any money.‒
Never trust a writer who says things like that. Writers rarely make any money, and they continue writing anyway. Readers love reading so there will always be a demand for books and eBooks. Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. Baldacci’s statement is alarmist balderdash. The truth is publishers will have to provide informed consumers with fairly priced products.
Never trust a newspaper that inked a distribution deal with the company in question, Amazon. Never believe a newspaper that is about to make the shift to digital by offering a low-priced Kindle to subscribers. Read that here.
The whole story sounds like collusion by two big companies, yah? They’re ganging up on the consumer to force high-prices down our throats.
Amateur Hour on Planet Earth goes into overtime!
May 17
Alexander Wolfe at Informationweek.com here describes the exercise in futility that has become the debate over the scourge of eBook piracy and content control. I don’t think he is trying to solve the problem, rather it’s an attempt to advance the discussion by invoking some description of eBook piracy’s impact on the content-creator or author.
I am amazed that this discussion has been going on for so long, and yet two vital factors are consistently overlooked and ignored. The article proudly states:Â “As of now, there are no answers to how we properly compensate content creators.”
How can one come to that conclusion without including in the discussion ridiculously high eBook pricing and the consistent use of an old business model on an entirely new marketplace?
The truth is, the old system did not properly compensate or represent content creators. How can we expect the old system awkwardly grafted onto a new technology to bring them any satisfaction, yah?
Piracy will continue as long as it is profitable. Content with jacked-up pre-digital age pricing will be booty for the taking.
May 16
and perfect for eMagazines. E Ink, the people who brought you the gray scale screens you see in most eBook Readers, has developed a functional prototype of color e-paper. There are rumors that the new tech will begin to appear in the next generation Kindle and Sony’s Reader.
Read the full story here at geek.com.
Reminds me of Bridgestone’s (yes the tire people) full color eReader. It’s a beauty with incredible color depth. Read the story and view the video here.
May 15
It has to be arrogance that makes the big guys dismiss all other competition. Honestly, Amazon and Sony are glaring at each other across the table–both nervously waiting for Apple’s next move…
And along comes Interead‘s Cool-er eBook Reader. Read the story at PCWorld here, about the $249 keep-it-simple eBook Reader that might put the industry leaders to shame. It’s still a little expensive for mass adoption by the mainstream, but it’s opening the door to lower prices, yah?
May 14
Following the logic these dolts are using a television, computer and book are the same thing and should be treated the same way. eBook Reader = Idiot Box. Let’s put commercials on it.
Money-hungry corporate ninnies. Amateurs! Poised as they are to give Kindle a run for the money, Sony is going to open its eBook Reader as an advertising platform. Now we’ll see ad and DRM-free pirated versions of eBooks flitting about the Internet.
Read the story here at slashgear. I’d be pissed about this if there weren’t so many contenders ready to storm into the breach this creates, yah?
May 13
Wired has an excellent story here about Mary Lou Jepsen the uber-tech who didn’t leave the drawing board until she produced a $100 laptop. (Something bloated tech-corporations said couldn’t be done…I wonder why?) She is developing inexpensive, low-power, easy-to-read, LCD-based screens that will go into anything from netbooks to low-priced eBook Readers.
This is the kind of innovation the eBook Revolution needs. Starting it off in the ‘non-profit’ sector makes sense, and eventually trickles through to the ‘for-profit’ sector as users put two and two together and realize that most of their tech is overpriced. Smart companies will listen to their demands for the same fair treatment and access to the fairly priced tech. (Again, how many times do we have to pay for the same research and development?)
May 12
A story here at InformationWeek outlines Amazon’s Monday launch of a Kindle eBook Store tricked out for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch users. They declare a ‘mulitplatform strategy’ in the article, but I’m unconvinced. Having watched Amazon’s awkward attempts to monopolize the market with delays releasing a Mobipocket Reader and Kindle Reader for iPhone, the creation of the Stanza App by disgruntled iPhone users (which Amazon later had to buy to control) and the resulting alienation of iPhone/iPod users well, I’m not sure there is any strategy or plan. Looks more like a series of reactions.
I think they’re trying to make up for lost ground, yah? Still a boon for iPhone and iPod Touch users to get access to all those expensive books.
May 11
Honestly, other than a few stories about people debating copyright (yawn) and digital rights management (when will they learn?) it seems to be a slow news day for the eBook Revolution. After a week of exciting KINDLE DX mania…what can we expect? Announcements are definitely in the pipe. And rumors suggest something is coming from a major competitor of Amazon’s. Something BIG is going to happen, yah?
In the meantime, to show you how slow it is, we offer this article (for the ubergeeks and science-types among us) about E-ink offering a Broadsheet Prototype Kit for companies and developers who are keen on creating KINDLE competition. The idea is, you get the tech out there and see what the techies come up with… Read about it here. Seems to me E-Ink, the company with tech in pretty much every eReader out there, did this a year before KINDLE DX’s appearance.
