I was walking down the hall in my office the other day and found two coworkers engrossed in a discussion about their iPhones. They were comparing apps and enthusiastically discussing Dragon Dictation, Google Maps, and a barcode scanner app. What was really shocking is that while one of them is a big techy, the other one was definitely not. But they both were excitedly talking about their smartphones and comparing the iPhone to the Droid, etc.
Hello and welcome to this week’s State of the eBook! We’ve got news and reviews, so let’s get started!
The Electronic Frontier Foundation today released a chart outlining the potential privacy issues surrounding eBooks. It’s an interesting read, but I recommend taking it with a very large grain of salt.
Hello and welcome to another State of the eBook! The end of the year hasn’t slowed the eBook world down; we have news, more news, and a bit of debate! Let’s get started!
Do you have a GPS in your car? I do, and sometimes it gets to be too much in traffic; between stop and go, lights, construction, and the sound of my GPS droning away, it can become a bit overwhelming. I’ve even been known to threaten to throw the yappy thing out the window a few times when it all becomes too much. According to a Tech.view column in the Economist, it might not be me. Apparently, we can only process so much information at once, and beyond that, the brain simply cannot take it all in clearly. So as…
Stephen Covey is proving one of the habits of highly successful people is playing hardball; he’s struck a deal with Amazon to make them the exclusive providers of his eBooks, in exchange for at least 50% of the sales revenue. Amazon will also be promoting his books heavily. What does this mean for publishers, authors, and the concept of royalties in the digital age? We convened a Gear Diary chat session to hash it all out!
This video is awesome. It’s a mashup of the trailers from the last year or so, stitched together to make them look like one movie. See? Gear Diary just saved you the trouble of digging your way out from underneath your overstuffed Netflix queue! via Seattleist
Teleread received a tip from one of their readers that books downloaded from the Barnes and Noble eBook store are coming in ePUB now, instead of the legacy PDB format used by eReader/Fictionwise. It also seems that Teleread is jumping on the “eReader is generic” bandwagon, since they point out that even Barnes and Noble can’t keep them straight.
Unless you really hate Verizon. Engadget broke the news that the Pixi has been cleared by the FCC for Verizon, and it includes WiFi!
Do you have a library of books that are not available in eBook form? Do you love combining power tools with classic novels? Then give this DIY book scanner a shot! Apparently it can scan up to 1200 pages an hour, depending on how fast you can manually turn the pages. I highly recommend watching the video, as not only does it explain the reasons why the inventor created his book scanner, but he also gives a succinct, persuasive argument for the proliferation of eBooks over paper books. Plus it’s always worth watching when the instructions for how to build…
(image courtesy fromoldbooks) Welcome to another State of the eBook! To start off, the big news this week was publishers plotting to make eBooks second-class citizens by delaying their release. You can read all about it here. It isn’t pretty and it is time to let publishers know how we feel! Then there is the other big news… It’s NOOK WEEK!
We have an official date for the Sony move to ePub… this Friday, December 11th. Going forward, ALL Sony eBooks will be available only as ePubs, and the proprietary BBeB format will be removed. If you did not opt into the PRS-500 upgrade/trade-in program, be sure to back up your library! Also on Friday, the Sony Reader software is coming to Macs and PCs, so presumably you can read your Sony content on your laptop if e-ink drives you nuts! Finally, Sony is renaming their eBook store the “Reader Store”, to better tie in with their Sony Reader line. What…
(Gates courtesy of JKMedia) We all had that one device that led us into the world of true gadget loving. It’s that one device that you obsessed over, read about, joined forums to discuss…once it starts it’s an addiction. Since it’s the holidays, I thought it might be a good time to head down memory lane and see what gadget was our first geek love…
Welcome to another State of the eBook! First and foremost, a nook update: As Dan reported yesterday, Spring Design has been denied an injunction that sought to prevent B&N from selling Nooks! This is good news and will hopefully stimulate Nook availability. Teleread argues that if Barnes and Noble doesn’t get nooks out to stores, the backlash could undo all the goodwill and positive word of mouth they’ve built so far.
When I first downloaded and played with Questia, I thought, “I don’t get it.” I understood that it offered access to loads of academic humanities texts, and had a free public domain section, but what was the value in it? You could hit up your university library if you needed to do research, and public domain books are available in loads of places. Then I had the chance to talk with Tim Harris, CEO of Questia, and that’s where I learned the true value of this application. “We are a research library, for people who want to access as much…
I bought a Prius over the summer. Halfway through the test drive, my fiancee asked the salesman if he was aware that electric cars have caused issues for blind pedestrians since they don’t hear the cars coming. His response (after an awkward silence where he no doubt considered whether his answer would lose him the sale) was “Well, it comes with a horn.”
Judie and I were discussing the concept of immortality this afternoon. She pointed out that our legacies live on long after we’re gone thanks to the internet. This, of course, led to a side discussion about how if you don’t show up in a Google search you are immediately a bit suspect. Why doesn’t Google know who you are? Even scarier, what does Google know about you? So I googled myself…and found one link that still has me laughing. Remember Barnes and Noble’s conference call about the nook? And Spring Design, makers of the Alex Reader, who are suing B&N over…
Yes, it is that time of the week again. State of the eBook is back to bring you the latest eBook news and commentary, just in time for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season.
Welcome to another State of the eBook! This week we’re bringing in an expert to share some thoughts on eBooks, music, and movies, and where the future is taking digital media. Read on for Gear Diary’s interview with K.C. Blake of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.
I had to share this example of fantastic customer service. A friend of mine is an avid runner, and for her birthday I bought her a RoadID gift certificate, to be delivered electronically to Gmail account.
(courtesy of Amazon.com) Just a few short weeks ago Amazon announced the Kindle was coming to PCs, and today it landed! Windows-only for now, with Mac OS X support promised “shortly”, Kindle for PC represents Amazon’s first attempt to strike back against Barnes and Noble’s eBook expansion. Does it succeed? I’ve been playing with it all day, read on for my review and thoughts!