Apple released the first beta version of iOS5 a little over 2 months back, and it turns out there’s a problem. Stanza won’t work on iOS5.There are no reports from several different beta releases that Stanza will only just work – so long as you don’t try to download more than one ebook at a time.

Okay, we’re talking beta releases here, not the public release, but this isn’t good. The app is clearly not compatible with iOS5. And when the final version of iOS 5 is officially released, you’re not going to believe the screams of rage.

Update: And now that iOS5 is out, we can see that I was right. Stanza is dead.

Update: It took Amazon a month to release it, but there is an update for Stanza.

If you read this blog then you probably know that Stanza used to be a great reading app for iOS. Back when the app was released in late 2008, it was quickly haled as one of the first great successes of the platform, and the app was so good that Amazon bought Lexcycle just to make sure no else could. Unfortunately, Amazon never really supported the app, and it looks like the little ongoing development supported  by Amazon has now stopped.

You might think it’s too soon to start mourning the app, but I’m not so sure. There’s a two month old  complaint thread on the official Stanza support forums about this issue, and even though 8 people have confirmed this problem and 11 have responded in the thread, there’s no word from anyone with Lexcycle on whether the stability issue will be fixed.

It’s been 2 months and there’s not even a vague hint that it will be fixed. I’d say that’s pretty damn conclusive that no one’s awake at Lexcycle. Then again, Stanza was never more than an after thought for Aamazon, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s going to limp off to a slow death.

On the other hand, maybe this post will prod Amazon into making an announcement.

Stanza via MobileRead

image by tstadler

For far too long, bookstores have sold stuff besides books. It’s time that publishers banded together and attacked bookstores, their business partners and primary retail outlet.

Yes, that idea is crazy, but then so was an article I just read in the Chicago Tribune. A misguided book fetishist wants publishers to start an ad campaign to promote paper books and attack ebook readers like the Kindle, Nook, and the Kindle. Aaron Gilbreath rails against the cleverly designed Kindle commercials that show all of its best features vs paper books, and he thinks it’s time for publishers to strike back.

Publishers should tantalize consumers by evoking books' sensory pleasures: the smell; the feel in your hands; that crisp, appealing crinkle of a turned page and smooth snap of a dust jacket. Publishers should elicit the joys of "curling up with a book," the satisfaction of seeing your library on a shelf in your bedroom — the years of your life marked by rows of colorful spines, the pages covered with marginalia. To do this, publishers could borrow vinyl enthusiasts' lines like, "Records have a certain smell. You can’t smell an MP3," and, "I associate certain records' smells with a certain summer, a particular girlfriend." Audiophiles also discuss fidelity, how records sound undeniably better than MP3s. Surely there’s a book analog waiting to be developed.

I wrote the first paragraph like that just to show you how ridiculous the idea is. Publishers shouldn’t take a position for or against any format; it’s not in their best interest. Their job is to sell as much as possible, not to try to convince people one format (unless one format is a more expensive luxury item, but that’s another matter).

It would make as much sense to attack bookstores as it would to attack the Kindle. At best it would simply shift funds from one of income stream to another and at worst it would alienate customers. Attacking one of your products in favor of another is self-defeating. All it accomplishes is to move money into the ad agency’s pocket while shifting a handful of change around in yours.

But if you really want to go through with it, let me suggest a couple themes for the campaign:

via Mimi and Eunice

via GoComics.com

The Sina Tech news blog reported earlier today  that Baidu, China’s home-grown version of Google, now own about 40% of Fan Shu, maker of the Yambook ebook reader. Details haven’t been confirmed, but the deal is reportedly worth 47.6 million yuan ($7.4 million USB).

Fan Shu have a number of different Yambook models on the Chinese market, with specs ranging from Wifi to 3G. They also have their own ebookstore as well as a PC and Android reading apps. The Baidu deal would value Fan Shu at 120 million yuan.

IMO this rumor is very likely true. A couple weeks ago Baidu signed a distribution agreement with a number of Chinese publishers that gave Baidu the right to sell their ebooks. The deal legitimized Baidu’s Wenku  books portal, which had previously been accused of wide-spread piracy.

Baidu are clearly making a push into ebooks. Buying Fan Shu would be a good way to bring the new content to market in the minimum time.

Twitter just rolled out an unannounced update tonight.

If you’ve used twitter for any length of time then you probably know that it can pull content from links in your tweets and show them on the twitter website, right?  I have seen this work with Youtube, Twitpic, and Tumblr (sometimes).Tonight that feature started working with product listings for iTunes and Amazon.

About an hour ago a friend of mine noticed this feature for the first time. We spent the past hour trying a number of retail sites and so far the feature seems limited to Amazon (example) and iTunes (example).

It only works on the Twitter website, not the apps. But it’s still pretty cool.

Update: A reader informed me that iTunes had been enabled months ago, but this i the first I’d seen it.

CBS posted their Q2 financial report yesterday, and one of the high points was Simon & Schuster.

In spite of profits being down 3% last quarter ($183 million from $189 million Q2 2010), ebook revenues were up.  They’re now reported as being ~15% of revenue for that quarter. That works out to about $27.5 million, which is a pretty penny. It’s more than double last year’s reported sales.

Let me put the growth into perspective. Last year the US ebook market averaged around $30 million in reported sales each month. This means that S&S reported sales for Q2 would have been around a third of the ebook market for last year. Considering that they’re significantly less than a third of the general book market, it should tell you how fast the ebook market has grown. Of course, the S&S figures are from the quarter ending in June  and thus they are too new to be considered reliable.

On a related note, Pearson released their earnings report last week, and Penguin reported that ebooks were 15% of revenue.

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image by Alun Salt

The Ukrainian ebook reader maker Pocketbook held a grand opening this week for 3 new retail locations in and around  Moscow, CIS.

The stores, hopefully staffed by technical experts, sell Pocketbook ereaders as well as ebooks. I recall that the first stores, which opened in the Ukraine  in January 2010, had a web kiosk where customers could buy and download ebooks from Bookland, Pocketbook’s ebookstore.

This is Pocketbook’s third set of retail stores. They also have a couple  mall stores here in the USA, with one in Seattle and another in Kansas City, MO.

via The-eBook.org

The September issue of Consumer Reports arrived on my door step today, and guess what the cover article was? Actually the lead article covered the human heart and related topics, but one of the cover articles was CR's review of ebook readers.

You might recall a few months back when everyone was talking about how the new Nook Touch was the first ebook reader to dethrone the Kindle. That report, and the ratings it contained, was just published in the September issue.

As you can see, the Entourage Pocket Edge ranked behind all the current gen ereaders. But it also managed to beat the Sony 650, which is something of a surprise. I would have thought that the weight and battery life would have taken it down another notch or 2.

BTW,  think I know why the Nook Touch shipped so fast. Look at the list and note which ebook reader isn’t on it. According to CR, the Kobo Touch wasn’t included because it shipped just a few days too late.

That’s a stupid reason, IMO. They should have pushed the article back a month; that would have given them the time they needed. I think a delayed report would be better than an incomplete one, don’t you?

As it stands, the chart is not complete and thus I’m not sure it’s valid. We don’t know where the Kobo touch would have ranked, and that throws all claims about device superiority into doubt.  We don’t really know which is best because they weren’t all tested.

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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