Mar 09

This didn’t take long…eReader for iPhone comparison…

…and it couldn’t come too soon. This all reminds me of the early days of digital photography and web design when there were multiple image file formats fighting it out for dominance.

Windows Bitmaps versus GIF’s and TIFFS and little ole’ JPG’s brawling it out in the back alleys of the Internet Highway. While we know the market finally put all of these formats into their proper places, we know who came out on top, dominating both display and printed imaging.

So here is the competition as it applies to iPhones. A comparison of eReader Apps is a must-read over at cnet news. Read the article here.

You know the publishers are blowing a bundle prepping and organizing their backlists in the various formats. They use that necessary redundancy as an excuse, one of the reasons at least for the high prices they’re charging for eBooks. Let’s see if the price drops as the format field narrows. Yah, right!


Mar 08

Okay Q, I can read on it, but will it light my ciggies?

Sony is offering the Ian Fleming Limited Edition Reader Digital Book. Check it out here.

007 eBook Reader

007 eBook Reader

Model Number: PRS-505SC/007  this bad boy is built to enjoy more than it’s intended to break any boundaries. I’m just pleased the technology is already being co-opted by Hollywood… or advertisers… (What’s the difference, yah?)

Next up: Something from Hogwart’s.


Mar 07

BeBook 2

 It’s amazing…I don’t know how this has happened! But there are second-generation eBook Readers out there other than Kindle 2 …  BeBook 2 e-reader is revealed at CeBIT 2009! Read the story here over at engadget.com.

No slouches at one-upmanship, BeBook 2’s creators (Endless Ideas) are dropping it on the market at a yet undisclosed price, but we’re watching to see if it stays under or near BeBook 1’s introductory price of $279.99 ($80 less than Kindle 2.)

And to even the playing field they’re releasing it tricked out with WiFi and 3G! On top of that, they’re not forgetting owners of the original BeBook. Click here and read that they’re promising a firmware update and WiFi-enabling SD card so users can shop at eBook stores and collect RSS feeds.

God! This stuff’s just exploding, yah?


Mar 06

Barnes and Noble Stops Drinking DeCaf…

All right. They’re waking up over at Barnes and Noble. I hate to say I told you so, but Dec. 30, I kind of inferred it so, in my mildly catty way, that the old flagship Barnes and Noble was missing the boat.

Read this story. Barnes and Noble has acquired Fictionwise (15.7 million cash) in an effort to ‘ramp up’ their own electronic book store this year. (In place of ‘ramp up’ I’d put, ‘recreate because we were sadly lacking in foresight and imagination’…)

What’d I tell you about the arrogance of the status quo? (Now I’m sounding catty, yah?)

Mar 05

BUZZKILL ALERT!

time_fossil1

Blast from the Past

This article about eBooks and eBook Readers from the snooty bastards at Time Magazine got my dander up. Read it here.

I don’t offer it to venerate the snobbish tone, but to illustrate the kind of mocking resistance eBook and other technologies face from the establishment. (When I say “establishment” I mean, powers-that-be, status quo… that type of thing.)

Any journalist who can write: “Readers under 30 are scarce. They were raised on spending time on PCs and playing video games. Many are under-educated and can barely read at all,” is playing with generalizations that discount any value one could find in the article. And frankly, it shows a lack of respect for Time’s readership, many of whom have raised these “under-educated” under 30’s.

It’s also important to note this piece was published on Time’s online presence–a presence that I’m sure was predicted to fail by similar insecure pundits …

Also important to note that Time is a partner of CNN’s… yah? And they’ve got to be a bit nervous, since a company with a parent so entrenched in the digital world (TIMEWARNER) should have been out of the blocks long ago with its own eNews reader… 

Can you say: asleep at the switch?


Mar 04

First iPhone, now this rumored challenge to AMAZON’s attempt at eBOOK EMPIRE!

Over at the theiphoneblog.com you can hear rumbling that is being felt deep inside the Amazon, and might be the reason the tribe there is getting ready to launch a new touch-screen Kindle 3 in the fall.

The growing phenomena of iPhone & iTouch eBook reading has the people at Apple watching with great interest, but what are they doing? There’s a rumor in the pipe (read it here) that they’re going to be bringing out a bigger version of the iPhone or iTouch architecture, a tablet, for reading and display. It makes perfect sense and might be just what the languishing large format, newspaper and comic book publishing industries need.

There is also a rumor that they’ve been secretly converting truckloads of books into text for the possible launch of an Apple eBook store.

I’d say I’ll be watching with bated breath, but that always sounds like I had tuna for lunch. Yah?

We’ll find out more March 25th when Apple has scheduled a BIG announcement.



Mar 03

And They’re OFF!

Ok… I’m just going to put up a couple links to new eBook Readers. Why two at a time? They’re coming that quickly. It’s like everyone in the tech industry has been waiting for the release of Kindle 2, because it’s been one after the other ever since.

The latest development in the evolution of eBook Readers is a trend toward touch screens. Rumor has it Kindle 3 will be similarly endowed.

First: Onyx International of China is debuting the Boox eBook Reader at CeBIT 2009 taking place from March 3rd until March 8th in Hannover, Germany. Here’s the link to the Boox story. There’s a list of specifics as well.

Engadget.com has photos and video of Boox here.

When I look at the formats it supports: PDF, TXT, HTML, MOBIPOCKET, EPUB, CHM, PDB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, MP3, and WAV, I’m amazed that it was only a few months ago that some of these designers were trying to create proprietary formats. (Nice try, yah?)

Second: iRiver from Japan is planning to release its own eReader. Read the story here. It’s supposed to handle PDF files and use a simple joystick control. The story doesn’t mention price, but it’s got the look of a machine that is intended for a mass-market.

More to come tomorrow. SONY is up to something with their eReader. That baby’s a sweet ride.


Mar 02

I’m sorry, but I have to report this rumor…

kindle_3

Kindle 3?

God! Just when I thought all the Kindle-talk was winding down, yah?

Honestly, there are other eBook Reading devices…

If this rumor is true, it proves that the eBook Revolution is kicking into high gear. (and suggests that Amazon is already feeling the heat…)

Read the story here.


Mar 01

Gadgets and Gizmos out the Ying Yang…

bookreader

Plustek BookReader

Here’s another interesting piece of machinery that can be applied to the eBook Revolution. Plustek has the BookReader, a device that will scan in printed text (your books) and convert it into a lifelike voice (voice options there…).

 At $699 you’ve got to be serious about converting books into MP3 audio files, but the application is perfect for the visually impaired while offering hours of hands-free entertainment for commuters.

The full story is here. Might be time-consuming to scan the books, but worth it, if you’ve got favorites that you don’t want to replace with eBooks, or others that are out-of-print. The literature says it will read PDF files, so there’s a crossover tech to eBooks. Very cool, yah!


Feb 28

Digital Divide Narrows

Author Patrick Carman (wow…mental gap there…at first I thought Eric Carmen…) is flogging a new multimedia book, Skeleton Creek. See the full story here. The children’s ghost mystery is a hybrid that takes the form of an ‘actual’ book that is also an online movie. Both elements depend on the other for the complete experience. It is Carman’s way to keep kids interested in books, and drag some of their net time toward reading.

It’s a great idea, and one that will truly flourish when he offers the book component as a tricked out eBook–something that links out of an eReader and interfaces with an online experience.

I can see this working well for kids and the adult market. This type of interface has been around for some time, perhaps in a less interactive form, with a paperback’s story augmented by online components like clues, illustrations and maps.

I can’t wait to see story ideas like this evolving until the reader is flipping between a hand-held reader and a wall-mounted flat screen. Too cool!