Barnes and Noble tried to bury some very bad news by releasing it during CES-NOOK sales for the holiday season were dreadful. Plenty were quick to blame Amazon’s lower prices, but while that’s no doubt a factor there are some bigger issues here than prices on a few bestsellers…like marketing, and whether B&N plans to maintain the NOOK another year!
Traditional publishing is terrified of the rise of ebooks from Amazon, but it’s not just ebooks that threaten the publishing world. Crowdfunding is useful and disruptive for more than just gadgets, and can be used to fund books as well. In fact, John Bigg’s novel Mytro is being funded successfully via IndieGoGo!
My six month old son received lots of great books for Christmas and Hannukah this year, but the one we reach for more than any other these days is definitely “Goodnight iPad“. For one, he really likes the rhyming and the pictures, and two, I am pretty sure he wonders if the book is specifically about his house!
We recently reviewed the small, light but highly functional Lowepro Streamline 250. (Read the review.) The Lowepro Streamline 150 is a smaller, less expensive bag that offers the same design and features as its big brother. If you carry a point and shoot or a small mirrorless camera, it may be just the thing for you!
It’s no secret that “Amazon” is a dirty word among independent booksellers. They’ve fought against carrying Amazon-published books, railed against Kindles, and fought Amazon’s no-internet-sales-tax stance. But Amazon really wants to win over the indie booksellers, so they’ve rolled out Amazon Source, an affiliate Kindle program for indie booksellers. Because when someone hates you, they’ll totally sell your competing product…
I usually read books on a dedicated eBook reader, typically my Kindle Paperwhite. But lately I’ve done a fair amount of eBook reading via the Kindle app on my Lumia 928, and I’ve discovered an unusual bug. At random intervals the formatting will become wonky, cutting off sentences during page turns, and requiring an orientation swap to fix it.
I am slowly working my way through Doctor Who; I just watched the fourth season episode “The Unicorn and the Wasp”, when the Doctor and his traveling companion Donna meet Agatha Christie. The episode is amusing all by itself, but what really had me cracking up was the end …
Does iOS 7 have you wondering what happened to your iPhone? Is the new OS making you wish you’d never upgraded your iPad? Do you like iOS 7, but wonder if you are getting the most out of it? If you answered yes to any of these, download this free e-book and master iOS! Grab it and get started.
Gorilla Band is for kids. Completely, unapologetically for kids. Like my 5-year old. Who adores this app. Gorilla Band, by the folks at Wasabi (who provided us with a copy to review), is an interactive children’s book for iOS and Android devices. The main storyline, aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 7, is about gorillas who play instruments and form a band. The gorillas don’t like the classical music they’re being taught – they want to play rock ‘n’ roll, of course. Fortunately, their music teacher welcomes their interests. The story begins with two gorillas who don’t like…
FarFaria is a children’s book app for the iPad that has made reading to your children at bedtime easier than ever. FarFaria is packed with over 450 full-color children’s stories for kids aged 2-9. FarFaria is free to download, and you can read one full book per day; a $3.99 monthly subscription will get you access to unlimited reading. Using an interactive story discovery experience, FarFaria allows children to browse the exciting, colorful world of many areas. The areas inside the world of FarFaria include the Animal Kingdom, Adventure Island, Fairytale Forest, Classics Grove, Singalong City, and more. As one…
There’s no better price than free, and that’s how much you’ll currently pay for the book “Notes to a Software Team Leader”. Targeted to anyone with a leadership role in the software business, this book is normally $25. If people look to you for technical guidance, then this book may help makes it easier for you to help. Get it here.
I’ll admit that I’ve done my fair share of kicking Barnes and Noble. I think they’ve let themselves be run in two contradictory directions (being a digital company versus being a bookstore) for too long, and their half-hearted attempts to bridge the two were too promotional and short-term to make a real difference. At this point, though, criticizing B&N feels almost mean — when so much is going so wrong, is it really helpful to pile on and point out how much worse things really look? What’s looking so scary? Well, for starters, it looks like the company has no…
The other day Judie posted her eBay Influencer review of the Samsung GALAXY S4. It is a great look at the powerhouse S4 and it also include a way you can enter to win awesome prizes. Now Judie has followed up with an eBay Influencer Review of the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. She concludes her review noting that, “Whether you are considering an eReader for use when traveling, sitting by the pool, or for pleasure reading, the Nook Simple Touch is an excellent choice.” And while that is a nice endorsement in and of itself it…
In 2009, several major publishers announced a huge pricing change for eBooks; retailers would sell them only at the price set by the publisher, and no one could apply any discounts or coupons. The move was anti-competitive and clearly aimed at attacking Amazon, but what really struck everyone was the company behind the curtain. Apple had just announced the iPad, and they seemed quite confident that the projected $12.99-$14.99 prices for iBooks would not be undercut, a suspicious claim since Amazon sold those titles for $9.99. The assumption was that Apple had worked with the publishers to create this price-fixed…
Do you order items from Amazon? If so, do you remember your very first order ever? I couldn’t have told you on a bet, but the other day I found out that it is possible to look back and see every order that you’ve ever made. If you sign into your account and go to Your Account/Your Orders, you’ll see your orders from the past six months. But if you go into the drop down menu on the upper right corner, you’ll have the option to go back to the very first year you ordered, and once in, you can easily navigate to…
If you haven’t already discovered how awesome it can be to have all of your magazine subscriptions delivered to your iPad or mobile phone digitally via Zinio, then perhaps this is the deal that will convince you to give it a try: Zinio has just opened up their new Z-Pass service, where customers can choose three magazines for just $5 a month from over 200 of Zinio’s most popular titles. All you have to do is make your selection and provide a credit card, and then each month your magazines will automatically be added to your Zinio library. If you…
Despite many predictions to the contrary, eBook readers are still going strong. They may not be as flashy as tablets, but they are great devices with long battery lives, clear readable screens, and lightweight both in size and on your wallet. Most people tend to pick an eBook reader based on their bookstore preferences, what their friends and family use, and similar criteria. But if you’re the type looking for lots of statistics and specifications to compare and contrast, it can be tougher to find truly technical reviews of eBook readers. That’s where Reader Rocket, a newly launched site, thinks…
Hey, want to buy a NOOK? Barnes & Noble would very much like it if you did. That’s not surprising — they’re fighting hard for marketshare in an increasingly crowded market. But hot on the heels of their “buy a tablet, get an eBook reader!” bizarre promotion, they’ve been reminding everyone of another reason to buy a NOOK: They’ll pay you in NOOK credits. Essentially, they want to handcuff you to the NOOK ecosystem one way or another! But are there better ways to market the NOOK family of products? First, let’s look at the promotions. If you want an…
Amazon announced today that they’re buying Goodreads, a social book site that lets you review books you’ve read, and look for recommendations based on your reading list and the books your friends are reading. Needless to say, this is a slam dunk match for Amazon and Goodreads, as they really can complement each other nicely. There are a lot of reasons why this is good for everyone (Amazon, the Goodreads team, Goodreads users and Amazon Kindle users), but it does strike me that Goodreads being off the market is a potential loss for a few other big ebook players…let’s look a little…
The fine folks at Forbes raised an interesting question this week: are eBooks really books? Their take is that eBooks are more like software, due to their digital nature. And yes, they are looking specifically at the education markets. But this touches on a larger debate, one that comes up quite often. Opponents of eBooks argue that they are not really books because the book experience is not the same. Now, I rarely get to dust off my philosophy degree, but this seems like the sort of debate that lends itself quite well to a simple analysis of the identity…
In general, I tend to shy away from the “app-ification” of eBooks. If it’s a book, I want to just sit down and read it. I like eBooks, but I don’t need unnecessary videos, music, etc. However, the exception is reference books, cookbooks, and anything else where it’s not a linear process to read from point A to point B. These books do very well as apps, and the work to create them is often more complex than just digitizing text. Papertrell is the company that works behind the scenes to take a regular book and turn into a reference…