Nate Hoffelder

Mike Cane noticed earlier today that Sony no longer have their own ebook readers in stock anymore. Right now they’re showing a status as either out of stock or discontinued.

Yes, a couple models (pink 350, red 650) are gone forever, according to SonyStyle.com.

So there’s a good chance that the new T1 ebook reader, the one that showed up at the FCC last week, will make an early appearance. not much is known about the device other than the code name, but it’s supposed to have a microSD card slot, Wifi (n), and a headphone jack.

Let’s see what I can infer from the details. The current and previous Sony Reader models all had 2 card slots, so that microSD card slot is a major change. It suggests that this will be a major hardware revision -the one that ereader advocates have been pining for for the last year or more. It could even put Sony ahead of the competition, depending on what it can do.

Next, the name. Did you catch the significance of the model name? This is the PRS-T1, and all previous Sony Readers had model numbers. The T might stand for tablet, which would suggest that it won’t have an E-ink screen. But the T1 label might also mean that it’s using the same naming convention as the S1, S2 Android tablets. Those are code names, not model names, so the T1 might not be the final name of this ebook reader.

Given that this is probably a major hardware revision, we could be looking at a Mirasol ebook reader. Yeah, yeah, I have an obsession with figuring out which ebook reader maker is working with the Mirasol screen. But that screen has to show up somewhere.

No press event scheduled

I thought it worth noting that Sony haven’t scheduled the launch event for the new Sony Reader. I have been gently bothering the Sony Reader rep for a while now, and I have not gotten even a hint that an event was planned. Even though I believe that a new device is coming, the only definitive sign of its imminent arrival is when Sony throw a press event. Until then the device is little more than a myth.

Pearson released a financial report  for the first half of 2011 today, and business is good. They didn’t release all the details, but the few mentioned in the press release are impressive. FT.com subscriptions are up more than 30%, and Penguin ebook revenues set a new record for the company.

Penguin reported that ebook sales grew by 128%. They now represent a staggering 14% of Penguin revenues worldwide. And that figure factors in the less developed ebook markets. The US market, taken alone, must by an even higher percentage.

In other news, The Financial Times, another Pearson sub, reported that they now had over 230k digital subscriptions and well over 3 million registered members. (make a note of the 6% ratio, it will be useful at some point).  Mobile devices account for 22% of website traffic and more than 15% of new subscriptions.

via Pearson

An interesting piece of news came across my desk a few days a go, and it sounded too good to be true. But it’s not.

I’ve come across a developer (iPubsoft) who is selling DRM removal apps that will work on Kindle, Nook, and Adept DRM (used on Epubs sold by everyone other than Apple and B&N). That means that he offers a solution for all 3 major flavors of DRM (iBooks doesn’t count) and you can get the apps for both Windows and OSX. He’s selling them for $30 to $35 a pop, which is a little high. I’d rather pay $50 for the set.

I’ve downloaded and tested the app that removes Kindle DRM. The process is somewhat clunky but it works. It requires an old version of Kindle 4PC, and it only works on 1 ebook at a time; I’d much rather have it work its way through my entire collection.

I’ve looked over the help and instruction pages for the other apps and based on how they’re written (and the technical details included),  I believe the other apps will also work as described.

Do you realize what this means? We’ve had DRM removal tools since forever, but they’ve always been passed quietly from one person to the next. Now there is a commercial developer boasting about the tools he sells.

I wonder what the feds will do?

I have to say I’m surprised at the gutsyness displayed by the developer. He’s painted a bullseye on his back. Removing DRM is likely illegal even for personal use (it’s a gray area), and selling commercial DRM removal software is certainly a violation of the DMCA.

Publishers might not care that these tools are being sold, but most major publishers are part of media conglomerates. Someone higher up the chain might decide to sic the federal government on the developer. Do you recall late last year when Matthew Crippen was prosecuted for installing modchips in XBoxes? The case fell apart, yes, but it still almost went to trial. That’s what the developer of these apps might face.

We’re going to find out in  the next 6 months to a year whether DRM removal is a crime. Interesting, no?

iPubsoft

And now the other shoe has dropped.

Amazon Kindle pr tweeted just a few minutes that there’s a new update for the Kindle iOS apps. First thing they changed was exactly what you’d expect: the link that used to lead you to the Kindle Store has been removed.

I don’t have an iGadget at hand, so I’m working from the updated listing.

The good news is that even though Apple took away with one hand, Amazon gave with the other. The iOS apps now support subscription content as well as automated delivery.  This is new, and I’m surprised that the Android app got it first.

You can also share quotes and passages with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter while reading.

iTunes

A friend pointed out to me this morning that i really should have checked up on the other content providers in iTunes because ebookstores weren’t the only ones affected by Apple’s greed.

He was right. Last Thursday  saw new app updates from both Spotify and Rhapsody. And guess what? Both listings state that the only change was that the app dropped the subscription link. These streaming music apps are now as crippled as Netflix or the reading apps that fell victim to Apple over the weekend.

At this point I’m not sure what’s left to be said. I had expected this as far back as March, actually. All the news stories talked about the ebookstores, but Apples vig applied to all the content distributors on iOS.

The really absurd part was that this outcome was completely predictable. None of the major ebookstores could have afforded to pay Apple’s vig, so they had no choice but to tell Apple (politely) to go piss up a rope. And if you have Amazon and B&N refusing to comply, was it any surprise that other content providers ducked behind them as well?

I don’t know if Netflix, et all could have afforded to pay Apple’s vig, but I do suspect that Amazon’s intransigence kept everyone else holding out just long enough that Apple changed the rules again.

And so Apple’s greed has left us with this broken customer-hostile system where you can use the apps but you can’t actually spend any money.

iTunes, iTunes

This was not the weekend to go to the lake.

I was looking through the app store on my iPad this morning and I was prompted to update Nook Kids. It looks like B&N has decided to go along with Apple’s demands.

I can confirm that the link to the B&N ebookstore was removed. I checked before updating and there was a link in the upper right corner of the screen. It’s not there anymore, and so far as I can tell that was the only change. Curiously enough, this wasn’t an announced change. According to iTunes, the only differences  were "minor fixes". But B&N also updated the listing with new screenshots; the ebookstore link is gone there too.

The Nook Kids app also shares one interesting detail with the Kobo app. You can no longer create an account from inside the app.  I’m not sure it was there before,but right now I’m looking at the related Nook app (not Nook Kids) and I can create an account inside that app.

BTW, B&N haven’t updated the Nook app yet, but they probably will push out the update some time this week. They’ve already changed 1 app, so they are probably already doing the same on the other.

The Tally

As of Sunday morning, we have Bluefire, Kobo, Borders, and Nook Kids all updated. Google Books got pulled and we’re still waiting to see what Amazon plan to do.

On a related note, there are other companies responding to Apple’s threats. The Financial Times chose to respond by launching an HTML5 app, and both Netflix and Hulu updated their iOS apps to remove any way to connect with their respective websites and create an account (much like the reading apps above).

I just heard this morning that the Google Books app is no longer available through iTunes, and after some digging I can confirm this is true. Google Books is no longer listed in iTunes.

Curiously enough, the app running on my iPad still works. I fired it up and I can still read all the ebooks including the couple I bought. The app still has the link to the Google eBookstore website, too, which is probably why Apple pulled it.

Interesting. I really expected to see this sooner.

The market research firm Strategy Analytic have released their estimates for world tablet sale for Q2 2011.

Much to no one’s surprise, Apple reportedly sold 9.3 (ish) million iPads last quarter, and they captured over 60% of the market. Android tablet sales came in a distant second, with around 4.6 million units sold. Of course, the really surprising numbers was the bump in Windows tablets, and that they outsold the BB Playbook. That’s not what I was expecting.

The global tablet market is estimated to be 330% larger this past quarter than it was last year (3.5m vs 15.1m units). But if you look at the numbers, you’ll see that Android tablets are quickly catching up to the iPad; their growth was over 4,000%. And no, that is not a typo. Android tablet sales increased by over a factor of 40.

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This is a follow up post to one I wrote last week.

Like many people, I use Google Reader to follow RSS feeds. Also like many people, I’ve noticed that it is sometimes slow. I had always assumed that my sources weren’t  providing content in a timely manner.

Last week I learned that the problem wasn’t the source feeds; the problem lies with gReader.  There are times where it neglects to check a source feed for new content, and I’ve noticed some surprising delays. This morning gReader rose to a new height of FAIL.

I’m now looking at the RSS feeds from one of my blogs, and gReader neglected to update that feed for  close to 50 hours. That is a new record.

And I know for a fact that the problem was not the source feed. This particular feed came from Feedburner.  I also follow the email sub for this feed, and it was picking up new posts on time and sending them by email on schedule.

It’s time to look for an alternative. Any suggestions?

The Story HD was officially launched in Target stores today, and I got mine as early as possible. It’s an okay ebook reader, but I’m never one to be satisfied with the legit features. This evening I started looking  for the web browser. And I found it.

It turns out that the Story HD uses a mobile version of the Google eBookstore, and you’re visiting the site in a web browser. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an address bar. But if you know which links to click on you can get out of the ebookstore.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures; I didn’t find the trick until late at night. There just wasn’t enough light to shoot better photos.

My trick involves first entering the Google eBookstore, then going to the Help pages. When you’re on the first Help page, look at the links across the top. The one labeled Books will take you to books.google.com, and that is one of Google’s home pages. You can jump from books.google.com to Google.com by clicking on the "Web" link at the top. And once you’re on Google’s home page, you can search for a site and go just about anywhere.

The web browser doesn’t have an address bar, but it does have some basic features (previous page, next page, refresh, cancel). You can access them by pressing the options button.

I’d recommend searching for a site called Kinstant. That’s a site  that hosts webpages designed to work as start pages for the Kindle. The Story HD needs the help.

BTW, if you let the Story HD go to sleep, it will kick you out of the browser. So don’t let it sit too long.

This isn’t all that useful of a feature, but finding it was a neat trick.

A new ebook vending machine was on display at the Tokyo Ebook Fair last week. Japan is a country known for selling almost anything in vending machines (you should see the model that dispenses other vending machines), so it should come as no surprise to see one for ebooks.

A Japanese company called Glory had their prototype on display. From what details I can glean, you select and pay for the ebook on screen. The machine will print a receipt with a QR code and other info you’ll need to download the ebook.

The system is geared towards smartphones, which makes sense. There aren’t any ebook readers that can support downloading 3rd party DRMed ebooks in this manner.

There’s no word on when the system will be available or if it will make it out of Japan.

click to enlarge

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Byte Magazine, one of the better tech news sources of the ’90s,  has been brought back to life after a 13 year hiatus. It’s being relaunched on the  Information Week website as a prelude to launching byte.com, its new home.

Byte actually launched over 2 weeks ago, but it looks like this was a quiet launch (so the bugs could be worked out). (The inaugural post went up back in June but there’s a gap between then and the new stuff posted yesterday.) The writing staff is already lined up, and it’s going to be a mix of old and new (mostly new). The most important name (for me, at least) is Jerry Pournelle, who will be reprising his column from the print edition.

I couldn’t get a firm answer on future plans, but it doesn’t look like this incarnation of BYTE will have a print edition. The status of apps and digital subscriptions is also still up in the air.

Byte

That’s what Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo, told Bloomsberg earlier today.

The German language ebookstore starts tomorrow, and their ebook reader will be available from a local retailer sometime in August. The other 4 ebookstores that I told you about a month ago will be opening later this year.

Note that while tomorrow is the official launch, Kobo have actually been selling German language ebooks for a month now. You can find them here.  Right now I can see around 8 thousand titles, and that’s a far cry from the 80,000 that are supposed to be available tomorrow. It’s also a big difference from the 30 thousand German language titles in the Kindle Store.

I don’t know yet whether an ereader will ship to Germany tomorrow, nor do I know which one. I’m also still tracking down the price.

Tomorrow Kobo will be launching with German versions of their iOS and Android apps. The latest word is that the Kobo touch won’t be available until August, and the retail will be €149 (same as the Kindle).

image by adamblang

I’m only repeating this rumor so I can snicker at it, loudly.

According to the ZatzNotFunny blog, they have a source who sat next to an unnamed Amazon exec on a flight somewhere. This Amazon exec is supposed to have said  a few things about the new Kindle tablet:

Most notably that it features two displays: e-Ink on one side, color LCD on the other. And he seemed quite clear that this is front and back, versus the stacked displays seen on the original Barnes & Noble Nook or a dual mode screen, à la Pixel Qi. Which sounds pretty far fetched… How thick would the device have to be to support two screens and reasonable battery life?

Dave Zatz didn’t believe this rumor, either, which is to his credit.

This is a rumor that you can write off as an impossibility. We’ve seen 3 dual screen ebook readers come and go over the past 18 months. All were failures, and 1 never even made it to market. Not even Amazon could succeed after 2 other companies failed. Heck, I’m not sure that Apple could pull off a success for a dual screen tablet. Also, there’s no way that this would be cheaper than the NookColor.

I’m sure Amazon played with the concept, but I don’t see how they could plan to release one.  As much as I like the idea, a dual screen tablet proves the rule "jack of all trades, master of none". You have to admit that a dual screen tablet will not be better as a tablet than a single screen Android tablet, nor will it be better than the Kindle as a reading device. Do you think Amazon would want to make a second rate device?

Augen burst on the gadget scene last year when they released The Book, their Kindle clone with a 7″ screen. While they got a lot of attention at birth, their demise has gone unnoticed.

I was first clued in to the story by an owner of Augen’s The Book. She was supposed to have gotten her device back from a warranty repair, and while she had an estimated delivery date she never got the ereader. She checked Augen’s website, and it was down. No one responded to her emails, so she reached out to me for help.

It turns out that Augen’s website has been down for over a month. I’m not getting any responses to any of the emails I sent – not from either of the Augen email accounts I know. I asked about the problems with their website, and they said nothing. I didn’t even get a response when I asked them if the company had died.

I know that’s not based on anything solid, and there really isn’t any proof. But the company looks dead to me.

That’s a pity. I was looking forward to Augen’s line of tablets and their new ebook readers. Last fall Augen unveiled a line of 6 tablets ranging from entry level to a couple high end models. They were quite pretty and I admired the ambitiousness of trying to get 6 devices on the market all at once. And then there were Augen’s ebook readers, which were supposed to be shipping in April. I was so looking forward to them.

image by amandabhslater