Mike Cane found this oddity on Youtube. It’s a basic 6″ e-reader from Serioux, a consumer electronics company based in Europe.
There’s no mention of price or availability.
Here are the specs: [Read more →]
Serioux DigiBook E10 e-reader (video)
September 7th, 2010 · hardware news, video
Docs2Go for WebOS canceled, developer got bought out by RIM
September 7th, 2010 · software news
I’ve been hearing the rumor about RIM buying DataViz for about a week now. Crackberry found some evidence that made up my mind that this almost certainly happened:
DataViz, makers of the popular Documents To Go application, announced sad news today for Palm fans. Though the company started out developing for Palm, they are not going to proceed in developing the Documents To Go solution for Palm WebOS. You can read all about that here.
More interesting than this news from DataViz though is the news they didn’t announce….. they were bought by RIM!! Though neither company has publicly announced it (yet), multiple sources have confirmed to us that RIM recently acquired DataViz for a reported $50 million cash (not material to RIM, so they didn’t have to disclose it publicly as they have done with other acquisitions like the QNX one). Jump on to LinkedIn and you can also quickly find that lots of former DataViz employees have recently switched up their profiles to Research In Motion as their current employer.
It might sound flimsy, but I can see people updating their LinkedIn account without thinking about it.
→ No CommentsTags: bought·canceled·developer·docs2go·rim·webos
Textbook Publishing vs. Lifelong Learning Publishing
September 7th, 2010 · opinion
by Joe Wilkert
The textbook publishing industry certainly has its share of challenges. It’s hard telling whether upstarts like Flatworld Knowledge will ever fully disrupt this sector but as the textbook-buying parent of two college students I admit I’m pulling for underdogs like Flatworld. Everyone knows textbooks are ridiculously expensive but I’m not here to lobby for a price cut. What I’m wondering about is why the textbook publishers are so focused on the school years but then they largely ignore students after they’ve graduated from college. [Read more →]
Product placement in 19th Century British novels (humor)
September 7th, 2010 · humor
Normally I’d just link to an aritcle like this ,but I’ve already seen this reported as fact. The following is a joke, but the satire is subtle. I don’t want you to think I’m taking this seriously.
There’s an article in today’s Seattle PI about the first in-book advertisements:
What is little known is just how far back this practice dates. Recently, the Annenberg Center for Communication, established to cleanse the family name of patriarch Moe Annenberg’s highly dubious activities, has been conducting a survey of nineteenth century British literature. To their surprise, they have, in the process, discovered advertising so subtly placed within classic texts that it has hitherto gone unnoticed by scholars and readers alike. Many of the ads, it has since been learned, were part of an ongoing campaign by Ogilvy & Mather, the ad agency originally established by Patrick Ogilvy and Cotton Mather in the 17th century, with offices in Edinburgh and Boston, to promote fire, brimstone, and treacle for everyday use in the home.
…
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Chapter Three
I Have a ChangeThe carrier’s horse was the laziest horse in the world, I should hope, and shuffled along, with his head down, as if he liked to keep people waiting to whom the packages were directed. I fancied, indeed, that he sometimes chuckled audibly over this reflection, but the carrier said he was only troubled with a cough. If only he’d given the horse Dr. Locock’s Pulmonic Wafers. They provide perfect freedom from coughs within ten minutes and instant relief and a rapid cure of asthma and consumption, coughs, colds, and all disorders of the breath and lungs. The carrier had a way of keeping his head down, like his horse, and of drooping sleepily forward as he drove, with one of his arms on each of his knees. I say ‘drove’, but it struck me that the cart would have gone to Yarmouth quite as well without him, for the horse did all that; and as to conversation, he had no idea of it but whistling.
You can read the rest of their spoofed examples here.
→ No CommentsTags: 19th·british·century·humor·novels·placement·product
Ebooks.com now have an iOS app
September 7th, 2010 · iPhone app, ipad app, software news
Ebooks.com are one of the ebookstores I have bought from occasionally. They’ve been quietly developing their own reading apps.
The iOS app came out a couple weeks ago. It’s an okay app, but it only works with Epub. The one ebook I bought from ebooks.com is in PDF, and I’m a little disappointed that I can read it with Amigo Reader but not the iOS app.
Update: They know about the PDF problem and they’re currently weighing the benefit of adding PDF support vs the cost (automated PDF conversions are usually horribly ugly). [Read more →]
→ No CommentsTags: app·ebookscom·ios
Good News for Readers: Amazon Might be Winning Its Battle with Traditional Publishers Over Prices
September 7th, 2010 · ebookstore news
While it has been increasingly clear over the past year that Amazon is dominating the market share and price wars among dedicated ebook reader devices, it is now clear that Amazon is also winning its tug of war with traditional book publishers over ebook pricing. [Read more →]
→ No CommentsTags: Amazon·battle·good·news·prices·publishers·readers·traditional·winning
Is This the Time to Take the Plunge? New Reading Devices Appear
September 7th, 2010 · opinion
by Rich Adin
Within the last 60 days there has been a bevy of announcements of new ereading devices. Amazon announced what is popularly called the Kindle 3 and Sony has announced 3 new models — the 350, 650, and 950. How far behind other makers will be is hard to tell, but the upcoming holiday season should be a good one for device buyers.
So the question is this: Is this the time to take the plunge and buy a dedicated ereading device if you don’t already own one? The companion question, of course, is if you own one that is more than a year or two old, is now the time to “upgrade”? [Read more →]
HarperCollins to create global SF & Fantasy program under Voyager imprint
September 6th, 2010 · press release
It looks like HarperCollins have made a start on fixing the insanity of regional book rights. From the press release:
Announced today at Aussiecon IV (the 68th World Science Fiction Convention), Eos Books, a U.S. imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, will be rebranded as Harper Voyager, joining together with the celebrated Voyager imprints in Australia/New Zealand and the UK. The move is anticipated to create a global genre-fiction powerhouse.“We are already globally publishing some of the biggest names in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, and horror, including Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Kim Harrison, and Sara Douglass,” said Brian Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Worldwide. “Uniting our sister companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand allows readers globally unparalleled access to books and authors. This move enables us to offer authors a strong global publishing platform when signing with HarperCollins – whether the acquiring editor is in New York, Sydney, or London.”
The Voyager/Harper Voyager editorial leaders are: Executive Editor Diana Gill in the U.S., Editorial Director Emma Coode in the UK (working with Publishing Director Jane Johnson), and Associate Publisher Stephanie Smith in Australia.
Each country has a vibrant, robust list of science fiction and fantasy icons; merging the lists under one imprint will bring readers around the world access to the masters of these fiction genres.
Two authors, Karen Azinger and David Wellington (writing as David Chandler), have recently been signed and are expected to publish with Harper Voyager and Voyager for a worldwide debut.
The Eos imprint will officially change to Harper Voyager starting with the January 2011 hardcover, trade, mass market, e-book, and audio publications.
→ 1 CommentTags: create·fantasy·global·harpercollins·imprint·program·sf·voyager
10 bucks a chapter? What a ripoff!
September 6th, 2010 · ebookstore news
I noticed something the other day while I was working on a post. Ebooks.com have started selling some titles by the chapter (I don’t think this was an option the last time I shopped there).
I have no problem with selling by the chapter; it’s the prices that have me pissed. They’re selling the chapters of one ebook I own for anywhere between $5.59 and $10.34. The whole ebook only costs $16!
→ 2 CommentsTags: 8·bucks·chapter·ripoff
What to do if you buy a Kindle book by mistake
September 6th, 2010 · Uncategorized
This may seem obvious to some of you, but yes, it is possible to get a refund on a Kindle book. Whether you accidentally bought a title, bought it at the wrong price, or thought it was something else entirely when you bought it, all you have to do is contact Amazon within seven days and request a refund. Amazon will refund your money and automatically delete the book from your Kindle account.
There are a couple of times when this is really handy. The first is when the price on a Kindle book changes and you don’t notice, which is something that I suspect happens frequently with on-sale and promotional copies. I see those titles jump from the Top Free to Top Paid lists every week, and just last week I heard from a reader who clicked through on a daily bargain and hit “Buy” without realizing the price had jumped from $0.00 to $4.99.
It’s also a nice option to have when you thought you were buying a full book but end up with a preview, excerpt, or short story. Without being able to see a physical copy, it’s sometimes hard to tell, and since pricing is all over the place you can’t use that as a guideline either.
As an aside, a good way to tell if you’re buying a full-length book is to check the File Size and Print Length attributes under Product Details (the section that usually comes right after Editorial Reviews). Short stories tend to be under a couple of hundred KB, while novels tend to be 300 KB or more, although this is only a rule of thumb.
But back to refunds: if you’ve bought a book directly from your Kindle device, you’ve already seen the option to cancel the purchase right then. If you decide you want the refund later, just go to the Kindle Support section of the Amazon Kindle Store and look for the orange “Contact Us” button in the right column.
→ No CommentsTags: book·buy·kindle·mistake
