eBooks

Amazon Kindle Plays Rough

Looks like Amazon isn’t taking the iPad/Kindle rivalry lightly. In fact, they are actively playing it up in their latest commercial! Let’s look at where Amazon really came out swinging: •Showcasing how nice the Kindle is in daylight versus the iPad. •Having the kindle user be a hot girl, while the iPad user was a fairly average guy. •Implying the Kindle user was smarter and better with money-she knew her device worked well in the sun and was cheaper, while the iPad guy seemed clueless. This is a far cry from those earlier surreal fantasy style Kindle ads, and I…

eBooks, Editorials

Kindle Is Headed to Best Buy, the New eBook Battleground

Just the other day I was commenting on how I didn’t see the Kindle heading to Best Buy for a head to head against the nook, but clearly, I was wrong. According to MobileRead, Amazon and Best Buy have announced that the big yellow tag will be stocking Kindles for the holidays, so whether you’re shopping for a B&N fan or an Amazon acolyte you’re all set. Unless, of course, you’re Sony. Why is this such bad news for Sony? There are a few reasons. One, look at Sony’s prices compared to the nook and the Kindle. You can buy…

eBooks, News

Yearbooks Go High Tech with Jostens Personal Yearbook Pages™

It was only a matter of time before school yearbooks went digital. Well, that time is now. Jostens, a leading provider of world-renowned yearbook products, programs and services is introducing what they are calling Personal Yearbook Pages™. Through a new application students can now create a more inclusive yearbook by “giving every student the ability to create personalized pages that will appear exclusively in the student’s copy of the yearbook. Personal Yearbook Pages’ online user experience lets students design four unique pages with their own photos, artwork and text. What’s more, student’s can invite friends to collaborate on the design…

eBooks, News

Borders Makes an UnBEARable Decision

In about 5 seconds you’re all going to hate me for the terrible pun in the title. Borders (or, as it was known back in my day, “Borders Books, Music, Movies and Cafe”), has hit upon the solution to their customer and sales woes. Is it to improve their book side? Shape up ebooks into a fighting machine? Nope…they’ve thought waaaaaaaaay outside the box on this one. Borders has made the logical leap that people come to bookstores for books, sometimes a movie or a CD, a good cup of coffee…and a Build-a-Bear??? Yes, they are giving valuable floor space…

eBooks, News

New Study Reveals eBook Readers Buy More Books

Do you own a Kindle or a nook and feel like you’re reading more than usual? As it turns out, it’s not just in your head. A recent study has shown that 40% of ebook reader owners read more than before, while 58% read at least the same amount! No wonder ebooks are growing at triple-digit rates! There are some fascinating statistics cited in the Wall Street Journal regarding ebook readers. Apparently, some studies have shown that people reading ebooks on a Kindle or nook read SLOWER than readers of paper books. Even more interesting, there was a slowdown even…

eBooks, Reviews

Amazon Kindle 3 Unboxing

Amazon‘s newest e-reader, the Kindle 3, just arrived on my door step. Rather than post a bunch of written text listing the specifications and what not I thought you’d enjoy a peak at the new device on video. Check out my quick unboxing and first impressions including a size comparison to the Kindle 2 from my YouTube channel below.

eBooks, Editorials

An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3

The about this time last year I wrote a series of posts about the Amazon Kindle. One of the posts was entitled “An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos”. It discussed some of my concerns with their DRM scheme and the issues that I was having with it. I wasn’t pleased with some of the apparent limitations of the DRM, and I was totally disappointed with the customer service people I spoke with. A year later I want to write another open letter to Amazon. This one I’m going to title, “An Open Letter to Amazon Regarding the Kindle 3” Yes,…

eBooks, Editorials

Awesome Barnes & Noble Coupon Features, But Excludes Nook & eBooks!

Like millions of Barnes & Noble customers, I awoke this morning to a new B&N coupon in my email – this one touting that I can get up to 50% off at checkout! I am getting close to finishing my current book on the nook reader on my iPad, so I figured I would see what great new ebook I could add to the family library. I mean, after all, the coupon has the nook featured prominently in the upper right corner, and lists ebooks along with DVDs and music and so on along the menu. But before I start…

eBooks, News

Kobo Adds “Outside Book Loading” to Their iOS Apps

Kobo has an interesting new feature for iOS users; now you can add non-DRM’d ePUB and PDF files to the Kobo app on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. You can do the same thing through Stanza, so it’s not the feature set itself per se…it’s that Kobo is the first mainstream bookstore to support this feature! If you read your books on an ebook reader, you can load any supported files onto your device. Kobo Readers can load DRM-free ePUBs, as can Sony Readers, B&N Nooks, Jetbook lites, etc. But unless you’re going through Amazon’s Whispersync conversion it’s nearly…

eBooks, News

Amazon Is Having a Great Week

While B&N had some disappointing financial results, Amazon is riding high on some good news this week. They’ve had glowing early reviews for the Kindle 3, and some (unofficial) numbers indicate they’re trouncing Apple in the ebook wars. First, the Kindle 3 reviews. CNET, Kindle Review, and several other sites received review units, and everyone uniformly loved it! It sounds like the new screen and smaller size really help the Kindle to shine. Len Edgerly did a great video review as well: So the glowing reviews of the Kindle 3 are certainly one way to kill the “OMG iPad IS…

eBooks, News

Barnes and Noble Doesn’t Eat Their Own Dog Food

If you knew nothing about Barnes & Noble and wandered into their stores, you’d assume the nook is a huge part of their business. After all, they’re promoting it like crazy, with signage everywhere, big bold displays, and what appears to be major corporate backing…but apparently the corporate backing only goes up to a point. And that point stops somewhere short of their chairman, Leonard Riggio. During an interview with NYMag, Riggio explained he doesn’t like the nook. He prefers physical books and turning pages to eInk, and refuses to use a nook to read. Fair enough if you’re the…

eBooks, Reviews

Book Review: Cooking for Geeks

I’ve long been the cook in our family. My wife admittedly cannot cook and so she let’s me handle most of the cooking duties in the house. Being a Geek, I have always had a love for science as well as cooking. I always strive to find a better way not only to cook the things I love, but in everything I do. Cooking for Geeks, by Jeff Porter is exactly the book for people who love to cook who are also geeks. The book has recipes, of course, but it fills you in on the whys behind almost every cooking…

eBooks, News

eBook Pricing Showdown!

(image courtesy Inkmesh) eBook pricing has been in a huge state of flux since the “agency model” went into effect this past spring. With many top titles pricing being set by the publisher it becomes a case of what store you prefer, and not necessarily what store offers the best price. However, there are still many publishers (Random House being the biggest) who don’t follow agency pricing, and the fine folks at Inkmesh did some number crunching to determine which store offers the best bang for your buck. Amazon was the winner, but by a lower margin than the pre-agency…

eBooks, Editorials

Geek Squad Tackles eBooks

Best Buy’s Geek Squad offers a whole litany of services, and now they’re offering to set up your ebook reader for $29.99. While some might balk at paying almost 20% more for an ebook reader+setup, I think this brilliant and could lead to more ebook marketshare. One of the big obstacles, as I have said before, is simply getting the average person comfortable with ebooks. Turning on a nook or a Kindle and downloading books over the air is relatively easy, but what about adding your own documents? Or if you have a device that supports Adobe DRM, sideloading books?…

eBooks, Editorials

Blockbuster: A Canary in the Media Coal Mine?

underlying image courtesy TheBridgemaker.com I was in New York yesterday visiting a friend who just moved to the area. During a tour of his neighborhood, we stopped to see if there were any good deals at a Blockbuster Video that was closing. It sparked a discussion of Blockbuster’s business model and why they were struggling for survival. My friend was surprised to hear that Blockbuster may end up in bankruptcy, and he commented that it seemed like they had kept up well against Netflix with their online DVD rental service. I pointed out that it had turned out to be…

eBooks, Editorials

Is the Paper Book Dead?

There’s been quite the firestorm of debate over the future of the printed word recently. With the new Kindles selling out and Apple selling iPads like crazy, everyone is tripping over each other predicting the end of the road for paper. But is it really time to say goodbye, or are predictions of paper book’s death greatly exaggerated? In my opinion, there are a few areas that need to hit a “tipping point” before ebooks truly overtake paper books in all areas. Price, audience, software, and content all need to come together. And it’s important to remember that ebooks fall…

eBooks, News

Google Has Quantified the Number of Books in the World

I pity whoever had to sit down and do all the work, but the Google Books project has calculated there’s something in the range of 129,864,880 books. They must be fairly certain if they felt comfortable nailing it down (as opposed to just rounding and saying 129,000,000+, since I for one am not quibbling over a few thousand). It’s sort of an awe-inspiring number! Personally, this means I really need to get cracking if I want to read as many as possible. Sadly, unless I find the fountain of youth, it’s unlikely I’ll get through them all. At a book…

eBooks, Editorials

Sony’s Murky eBook Future

With Amazon’s Kindle 3 and Kindle WiFi selling out, and B&N seeing the nook as their major bright spot, it’s pretty clear that Amazon and B&N are dominating the ebook market. So where’s Sony in the mix? Apparently, not competing at all. Sony was out at the end of July with this comment to the blog ReadWriteWeb: “Pricing is one consideration in the dedicated reading device marketplace, but Sony won’t sacrifice the quality and design we’re bringing book lovers to lay claim to the cheapest eReader,” said Phil Lubell, VP of digital reading at Sony Electronics. “Our global customers expect…

eBooks, News

Rolling Stone and Zinio Launch Interactive New Issue and Subscription Bundle Deal

Thanks to the iPad I have moved further than ever away from using paper. When I want a new book I buy it to read with my Kindle app. When I want to take notes in a meeting I use one of a few different iPad apps. When I am doing serious writing I use the app Notebooks and then sync it to my MobileMe account so that it is available everywhere. When I need to create a voice note I do it in Evernote. That way it is available to me everywhere and, thanks to new integration with the…

eBooks, Editorials

Barnes and Noble Looking to Sell, but to Whom?

The big bookstore news of the day is that Barnes and Noble is looking to sell themselves. Everyone is wondering who or what will be snatching up B&N, with rumors and speculation flying. Who are the likely and unlikely suitors? Here’s my take, from least likely to best fit. Microsoft (or Apple, or some other pure technology company): This is a completely insane idea. If B&N were solely looking to sell the ebook division, I could see Microsoft being a good fit. But why would Microsoft, or any pure tech company, be interested in buying 700+ retail bookstore locations? Putting…

eBooks, Editorials

On Piracy and Copyrights: The Stupidity of Delay and Denial

The folks here at Gear Diary are in lots of different industries: financial, tech, rabbinical, teaching . . . me, I’m a technical writer. I write books and “topics” about technical topics for a living. Computer manuals, network system reference pages, instructions on how to install everything from giant Cisco routers to that teeny 2Wire modem some of you may be using in your houses. That’s my trade; it’s how I make my living. As such, I am a believer in copyright, and the rights of content creators to a reasonable and fair return on their work. These folks (and…

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