Apr 28

Amazon Buys Stanza’s Creator

In the “I’m My Own Worst Enemy” department, Amazon has purchased Lexcycle, creator of Stanza eBook Reader for iPhone and iPod Touch. Read the New York Times story here. Why not, they almost forced Stanza into existence?

Have you have been following this? Amazon’s subsidiary, Mobipocket, delayed the release of Mobipocket Reader software for iPhone for over a year. This was Amazon’s attempt, through Mobipocket, to keep a clear field for Kindle to play in, and further to keep competitors at bay for the release of Kindle 2.

iPhone users, used to this sort of corporate manipulation, cried fowl and started digging around the net for something that would allow them to read eBooks. Enter Lexcycle’s Stanza, an excellent application that turned iPhone and iPod Touch into eReaders. The only thing Stanza couldn’t do was read Mobipocket DRM locked files.

It gets funnier when you realize Amazon through Mobipocket, still delayed the release of a Mobipocket Reader for iPhone, forcing the Stanza readers to turn to the black market and/or file sharers for cracked and illegally unlocked eBooks to satisfy their craving to read, further fuelling the illegal trade of digital content that Amazon whines about.

This is what happens when you play god, yah? Now watch as this plan fails. They used to be able to do this in the old world. Buy a competitor and then use him or shut him down. They don’t seem to understand the speed that apps appear on the market, evolve and spread. And they’ve already started a negative relationship with Stanza users (0r millions of iPhone owners) who might prove unwilling to use Stanza with Amazon’s name attached. (And why bother, when a new Stanza will pop up faster than you can say: DRM!) Amazon will not be able to control the market with this kind of thinking.

 The only way to dominate is through excellent prices, products and service.

Apr 27

This Guy’s Defending the ‘real’ Pirates.

An article at techradar.com says it all in this sentence: “There isn’t much illegal content to drive hardware sales, which mean [sic] that the Kindle is some way away from being the iPod of books. If publishers are smart, they’ll keep it that way.” The writer’s premise is that adopting the new technology will make books easily copied and therefore re-sold and shared illegally. The publishers, the writer claims, will be shooting themselves in the foot if they digitize books. Read the article here.

The truth is illegal content will be created by the traditional publishing houses’ stubborn and greedy adherence to outdated business practices and the forcing of that corporate, quarterly-profit-driven business model on the new technology, in a marketplace that favors the consumer with access and choice.

I couldn’t put it more simply: AFFORDABLE PRODUCTS MAKE PIRACY UNPROFITABLE and FILE SHARING A WASTE OF TIME! And people don’t like to waste time. Indeed, as he says, digital technology has changed the music industry, but it has also changed things for the creators of that music and fans through availability, a vastly larger marketplace and affordable prices, yah?

Apr 26

Get Free eBooks!

I mentioned this site before, and thought I’d bring it up again for all you early adopters building eBook libraries. It has to be their name: getfreeebooks.com (just about a perfect!). Anyway these guys are driving a ton of traffic and pushing a lot of e-ink.

Check out getfreeebooks.com. They’ve got a wide selection that cross may genres, available in Mobipocket/Kindle prc, pdf or other. I popped in for a visit and noticed their list is growing in leaps and bounds, so if you haven’t visited, it’s worth a look, yah?

There are public domain titles available, but they’re also offering a growing list of Indie authors from many genres.

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!

Apr 25

A Eulogy of Sorts…

As newspapers approach the brink of relevance, we wisk you over to CNN where Chris Pirillo voices his disdain for yucky, dirty hands in the article: “Why dirty up my hands with newsprint?”

He manages to compile all the reasons the print newspaper industry is on its way into the recycle box with only the bare minimum of snark. You can tell Pirillo is set on his iPhone as evolutionary replacement because he overlooks a considerable collection of eReading gadgets and gizmos rushing onto the market to take the place of paper.

(He’s also mastered the art of claiming he is not elitist while sounding very much like he is.) Give it a read, you’ll see what I mean, yah?

Apr 24

Readius in Doubt?

eBook Rumors mentioned Readius – the first Pocket eReader from Polymer Vision back in January. Read that and view the demo here. Apparently I was lonely back in the dead of winter. It appears I had matrimonial feelings for the little eReader with rollaway view screen. SO cool, yah?

That might explain why the story about Readius’ potential death brings a tear to this blogger’s eye. Apparently the developer is having trouble getting financial backing to launch this beautiful piece of technology. Read the story at PC Pro:News here. They say they’ve got everything in place to build, market and sell this sweetheart, but the economic environment has investors slow to sign on.

Please! PLEASE do not let the Readius die. Otherwise, we’ll have to put up with these two self-declared front-runners of the race. Sony and Amazon have certainly created eReaders that are leading in PRICE, both coming to your home at close to $400! (They may be leading in sales, but they can hardly claim supremacy in design and function in a marketplace barely out of diapers…) Apparently, the early count is suggesting the final battle might come down to Sony’s Reader versus Amazon’s Kindle. Read that story here. I think that’s premature, and the article must be written by someone who owns Amazon stock. Just look around the net and you’ll see there are plenty of devices developing in this evolving market. Jesus! The eBook Revolution has barely begun and this Melissa J. Perenson from PC World is almost declaring a winner. She’s certainly inferring it’s a two horse race. (Read that article though…she’s got an excellent side by side comparison of these devices.)

Hang on Readius… we need you now more than ever!

Apr 23

eBook Rumors scoops PCWorld again…

We didn’t have all the facts back then, but we reasoned this bit of mathematics out after discovering in February that Amazon will replace a broken Kindle for $180. So, that pretty much exposed their bottom line. When you look at the $359 purchase price, well you figure out the grotesque profit from there.

Read the proof at PCworld here.

I don’t have a problem with a company making a fair profit, but that kind of gouging undermines the Kindle’s adoption while slowing the eBook Revolution, yah?

Apr 22

Ok. It’s Cool, but old news can’t be New News, can it?

Here’s Random House re-introducing a tried and true technology to the ongoing evolution of the eBook Revolution, and calling it their own ‘enhancement.’  There’s a story about them adding special features to eBook DVD’s. Read it here in the National Post.

I say it’s old news because authors have been using the Internet for this very purpose for well over a decade, enhancing their work with downloadable photos, video biographies, illustrations and animations. (I wonder whether the DVD movie ‘extra features’ wasn’t a similarly re-branded concept.) I’m okay with it, I mean let’s embrace the tech. My only fear is they’ll use it to justify the high prices they’re stubbornly fixated on.

And enterprising authors have been developing these add-on’s, selling their wares and concepts since the dial-up modem. (Remember Flash Intro’s…) Good work Random House, but I’d rather you share the kudos with the pioneering authors out there on the Information Highway. I get a bit defensive when the big corporations try to repackage ideas that authors and creators have developed and paid for with blood, sweat and tears, yah? I know some of these guys and dolls…

p.s. An interesting note is the mention of the number of people who have been reading eBooks on their computers. Suddenly I’m hearing from all kinds of people admitting that they read on their desktop or laptops and have for years. I guess it wasn’t cool before. Welcome aboard!

Apr 21

WATTPAD Available on BlackBerry

Wattpad announced its mobile application is available on APP World at BlackBerry. It was restored after BIM approved the APP’S use on its devices. Wattpad is the world most popular eBook sharing site. Read the full story here at Wireless Developer Network.

Wattpad was founded in 2006 with a mandate to revolutionize the way people consume readable content. Take a look around the site, or the mobile site here. There are hundreds of free titles available. The material on the site is created and uploaded by users in the online community. It’s so nice to see an innovation like this making inroads, yah?

Apr 20

END PIRACY NOW: Stop ripping off the consumer!

These same old arguments and worries always tick me off, yah? They talk about how great the new technology is and then start telling horror stories about piracy and content control. Read the full story at The National here.

Peter Cox, an author and literary agent who founded the online writers’ community Litopia is quoted in the article: “Book piracy will become a huge problem when e-readers become more popular.” (I often think we need to separate the activities of piracy-for-profit and file-sharing-for-free. They aren’t the same thing.)

The article contains a familiar form of fear mongering that has undermined the digital revolution on all fronts: film, music and now publishing. I’ll tell you how to combat piracy: “Sell your product at a reasonable price.”

What is an eBook but content? When consumers see company’s trying to sell content as though it is the whole ‘actual’ bricks and mortar package–the physical thing i.e. DVD, CD, hard cover–they know they’re being cheated. When you strip away the printing, shipping and storage from a book, you’re left with content. True there are the costs of advertising, cover design and promotion, but those have dropped dramatically with the movement of ‘book stores’ and consumers onto the internet.

By the time these corporate bandits realize their prices are too high, the consumer and marketplace has been driven underground, and the piracy is a ‘huge problem.’

The ‘legitimate’ publishing world will create the problem that pirates have the cure for. The truth is, people do not want to deal with pirates, or share files that come from “God knows where” unless the actual value and the price of a product are far enough apart that it’s worth taking the risk.

Apr 19

Nostalgia Already…

Harry McCracken has posted a fun little piece listing the 8 Reasons he’s going to miss books. Read the article here at Technologizer.com.  He’s got a Kindle, so he’s not singing the blues. He’s just looking back at an era with a wistful eye.

Give me a tissue, yah!