Skip to main content

Viewsonic Viewpad announced – 7″, Android v2.2, £350

Well this is disappointing. Do you recall the OlivePad I showed you a month back? Viewsonic took the Olive Pad and slapped their own label on it. Actually, there’s a better chance that both Olive and Viewsonic licensed the hardware from the same Chinese manufacturer. We don’t know, though.

I didn’t have all that much in the way technical detail on the OlivePad, so here’s what I know from the press release:

  • 600MHz CPU
  • 7″ 800×480 screen
  • 2 cameras
  • Bluetooth, Wifi, 3G
  • microSDHC card slot

They also promised full phone functionality. Note that the press release is for the UK launch. No word on when it will be on the shelf (samples will be available in October), but retail has been set at £350.

4 Opinions on the Chinese ebook market

The Beijing Review posted 4 interviews about ebooks in China. Okay, they only translated one question from each interview, but I think it’s still worth a read. Here are some excerpts:

Ge Xiaozheng, Vice President of the Chinese Writers' Publishing Group:

E-books will not replace print publications, as large numbers of readers are accustomed to reading print materials, but we must embrace the electronic trend without reservation.

Ma Jie, Director of Information with the People’s Publishing House:

Print publishing’s dominance is set to wane, but is unlikely to perish. Chances are e-books will coexist with paper books in the very long term, and each form will enjoy comparable market shares. But the influence of e-books will grow and they will eventually play a dominant role.

Beijing Review

The dangers of enhanced ebooks

I was exchanging emails today with Moriah Jovan and she remarked on the cost of licensing music. This reminded me of an article I read on Techdirt a couple days ago. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, so I thought it worth a post.

Everyone’s talking about how they want to see enhanced ebooks, and of course audio would be relatively easy to do. But the problem with licensing music is that the major record labels like to negotiate by lawsuit:

We’ve heard time and time again from innovative music startup after innovative music startup, that when the major record labels come calling, they do so with outrageous demands for upfront payments, excessively high ongoing royalties and a demand for equity. Quite frequently, the record labels try negotiating through lawsuit, by suing the startup as a part of the "negotiation." While many of these lead to "settlements," the results are ridiculously burdensome, leading many of these startups to go out of business.

Enhanced Kindle Edition format uses HTML5 tags

You probably recall that a couple months ago Amazon announced an updated Kindle app for iOS. The new app gave you the ability to play audio and video that were embedded in books like Nixonland.

I’ve been waiting to hear back from Amazon PR about the tools to make the new ebooks (and the file spec), but who knows when the tools will be ready. So this weekend I decided to tackle this problem the hard way. I bought a copy of Nixonland, and I’ve been using it as a test subject.

Let me answer the question at the top of your mind: I did not find an easy answer on how to make the enhanced ebooks. But I did learn one or 2 interesting details.

Update: You can make the EKE with KindleGen.

First, the Enhanced Kindle Edition (EKE) isn’t a new format. I pulled my copy of Nixonland out of a backup I made for my iPod Touch. It’s a straightforward AZW, and I confirmed that the file is Mobipocket compatible (I found BookMobi in the header). Also, the file is the same size on the Kindle, K4PC, and iPod Touch.

The video files were stored in a sub-directory and referenced from the ebook. They were all MP4 format, and the resolution was the same as that of the iPod Touch.

Here’s an example of the tag that Amazon are using to refer to the video files from inside the ebook:

<video mediarecindex="00010″ controls="controls" recindex="00011″></video>

That is a standard HTML5 tag, but the mediarecindex and recindex attributes are Amazon’s own creations. BTW, there’s supposed to be a src attribute that  names the video file. I wish Amazon had used it; it would have made building EKEs so easy.

Because of how Amazon are misusing the video tag, there is no easy way to make the EKE. I was hoping we could embed a simple tag and use MobiCreator to build the ebook. Unfortunately, we are going to need a tool that understands exactly how that tag is being misused. Seeing as how Amazon won’t share that tool, there’s nothing we can do.

I wonder if Amazon are going to misuse the audio tag like they are misusing the video tag? That would be unfortunate, IMO. But it’s rather telling that Amazon chose to misuse part of HTML5 (rather than use it correctly). I think it says something about their motivations.

P.S. If you know of any details that I have wrong, please let me know. I really don’t like handing out bad info.

P.P.S. If you have any related technical info, please, please, please share it with me. I want to learn how to do this.

Kindle 3 wireless speed test – 3G vs WiFi

Len Edgerly, host of the Kindle Chronicles podcast, compares the speed of 3G vs WiFi on a pair of Kindle 3s set up with identical configuration except for the wireless connection. Both are set to enable Java and Images, and cookies and history were cleared before the test. WiFi at the cottage in Ocean Park, Maine, where the video was filmed is averaging 9 Mb/second download and .22 Mb/second upload.

Cruz Reader hands on (video)

Velocity Micro have just let a gadget blog get a first peak at the Cruz Reader, a 7″ Android tablet. Do you remember when I first posted about this tablet and I said that this looked a lot like the white Novel? I was right.

There isn’t that much in the way of new detail, but they did shoot a video and it’s worth watching. There’s also a gallery, but since we already know about the hardware it doesn’t actually tell me much.

Gadget Nutz

Kogan raised the price on their e-reader as a stunt

One of the Australian tech blogs I follow is Oz-E-Books, which is run by Darryl Adams. He noticed last night that Kogan, an Australian electronics retailer (similar to Newegg) had raised the price on the ereader they had just started selling.

It was a stunt:

I was caught out by the Kogan ereader price hike, so I emailed Vuki from Kogan for some info.

Kogan ran an advert during the Ben Cousins show on Channel 7 and the "gimick" was that Ads add cost to a product, to pay for it Kogan was pumping the prices up by 20% until sunday.

This is a clever but risky play on Kogan’s part. Part piss take, part serious commentary on prices.

Here’s the commercial, in case you were interested:

Zinio now pitching digital textbooks

I’m not sure I beleive it either, but that’s what the email said. I’ve looked over the selection, and all of the titles I checked were selling for about half the list price. Of course, I could also get a paper copy for half the list price, so Zinio’s prices  weren’t all that good.

I have the latest version of the Zinio Reader, and I would strongly discourage anyone from trying to use it for digital textbooks. It works okay for passive reading (magazines), but active reading (textbooks) is beyond what it can do. It has no highlighting, bookmarks, or annotation abilities.

This makes no sense. Zinio are selling a product that their software can’t adequately support. I’m going to assume that they didn’t make a mistake here, and that there is a second Zinio Reader I don’t know about. I’ll go look for it.

If I find it I’ll post a review.

Zinio Digital Textbooks

Samsung to stop developing epaper screens

From Trading Markets:

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s largest maker of mobile phones and memory chips, said Monday that it has recently decided to withdraw from the electronic paper (e-paper) business due to cost issues.

The company, however, will not completely leave the market for electronic book (e-book) readers, and plans to launch next year an electronic reading device using a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel as a screen, according to the company’s spokesman.

"We will launch a new e-book reader next year but it will use an LCD instead of e-paper," said spokesman Kim Se-hoon by phone, refusing to say when the company halted e-paper production. He also declined to elaborate further on the size or other specifications of the forthcoming model.

Wow. One of the heavyweights just dropped out of the market.

Samsung were an exhibitor at SID Display week, a screen tech trade show. They weren’t just making devices; they were doing original research on new screen technology.

TDR covered SID Display Week back in late May early June. Now I’m really glad we did. We probably won’t have a chance to see their screen tech again.

New Sony Library hints at PRS-950

Igorsk posted over at MobileRead that the new version of the Soy Reader Library s now available for download. Some of the improvements listed on the download page include:

  • Support for PRS-350 / PRS-650
  • Support for new languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese)
  • Support for new regions (Australia, Spain, Italy)
  • PRS Device registration without Adobe ID

He also reported that the XML config files also mention the PRS-950. I haven’t found it myself, but I will take igorsk at his word.

I guess this means Sony really is going to try to compete with B&N and Amazon. I wish them luck, but I frankly don’t see them lasting much longer.

via MobileRead

Viewsonic VEB-620 now in stock at J&R, Amazon

I think I threw my back out dancing for joy. This is the first time that I’ve seen this ereader in stock in the US. Why is that important? Because now I can start bugging the US division to lend me one.

This is your typical 6″ ereader (no Wifi or touch screen). It comes with 2GB Flash, SDHC card slot and support for Adobe DE DRM.

This ereader first showed up back before the Nook wifi was announced. At its original retail ($269), it was a little over priced but still in line with Sony and Pocketbook. Now that it’s selling for $179 and you can get the Kindle Wifi for $139, I think you should avoid the VEB-620.

Amazon

J&R

I think Murdoch’s tablet newspaper will fail

Peter Kafka has the scoop over at AllThingsDigital. He’s reporting that Greg Clayman, formerly of Viacom, is going to head NewsCorp’s new tablet news unit (or whatever they end up calling it).

I’ve pretty much assumed that this would happen, and I’m pretty sure it will also fail. But I never really explained why. It comes down to competition, cost, and news coverage.

This new tablet news service (TNS) is going to have to compete with all of Newscorp’s established blogs, websites, and daily newspapers, most of which are freely available online. And a lot of them already have apps, too, which will only  make things harder for the TNS.

My guess is that the TNS will be a general news source rather than have a specialty (finance, tech, gossip, etc). Why would I pay for the TNS when I can get the same general news coverage elsewhere for free? Heck, I can even get good coverage from other parts of Newscorp for free.

Unless they’re going to lock down all of Newscorp’s blogs (including AllThingsDigital), their subscription based TNS will be competing with other divisions that are giving the content away. When you look at it that way it doesn’t make much sense, does it?

Why the "I hope Epub kills Kindle format" fanatics are fighting the wrong battle

Di you catch the Epub/Kindle editorial on ZDNet on Friday? The authors are wrong, but it’s still worth a read.

Here is the part that caught my eye:

But there is one thing that’s keeping me from whipping out the AMEX and clicking the “Buy Now” button at Amazon, and that’s the lack of EPUB support.

Frankly, I really don’t understand why Amazon would leave this out of their current generation of devices. I can understand why they would want to continue with AZW and their own DRM for content sold on their own store, but frankly, Amazon doesn’t sell every electronic book that you can possibly buy.

The problem with this type of article is that they are written by geeks, not the average user. I know the authors are geeks because the average user isn’t aware of the file format.

You see, there’s one thing that Amazon learned early on that most some  geeks haven’t realized yet: the file doesn’t matter. It’s the user experience that matters. The ideal UX is one where the user never has to know any technical info beyond basic operation, and Amazon have pulled that off. That’s why the Kindle format is winning.

Everyone who has been arguing Epub vs Kindle needs to step back and rethink how you’re advocating your preferred format. If you want Epub to win then start hawking the tools, not the file.

The file doesn’t  matter.

Apple’s Nefarious plan to dump the reading apps has been revealed!

Update: They’ve resubmitted the app and it was approved on Monday. Just so you know, I meant this post as a joke.

Read it Later just tried to submit their new iPhone app to Apple on Friday. (I bet you can guess what the app does from the company’s name.) Today they were told that it was rejected. They were given a rather odd explanation:

We’ve reviewed your apps, but cannot post these versions to the App Store because they require customers to register with personal information without providing account-based features. We have included additional details below to help explain the issue, and hope you’ll consider revising and resubmitting your application.

Applications cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app features and content; such user registration must be optional and tied to account-based functionality.

The mind boggles. They didn’t add anything new, so I have to wonder if the reviewer was on drugs. The other alternative is that Apple has a new rule that "applications cannot require user registration prior to allowing access to app features and content". There goes almost all the reading apps . You can’t use Kindle, Kobo, B&N, or a lot of others without an account.

Perhaps this is a nefarious plan on the part of Apple. Naw. They’re not that competent.

The Kindle Store still has the best prices in the post agency market

The developer behind Inkmesh apparently had a break in his day job. He just ran another ebook price survey similar to the one he ran back in November 2009. FYI: Inkmesh is an ebook search engine. It’s the best way to find out which ebookstore has a given title, and more importantly which store has the best price.

First, a little background. The survey only covers titles that were available in all 5 major stores (Kindle, B&N, Kobo, Borders, Sony). This gave a sample set of 16,931 titles.

The following chart shows the number of titles for which each retailer had the lowest price (among the 16,931 titles in the survey). A lower score means that a store had the best price less often than a store with a higher score.

Note: if 2 stores had a titles at the same low price they each got the point.

He added a footnote of other statistics he found interesting:

As we found with our previous analysis, there were only 1270 (7.5%) ebooks that were free amongst these top selling ebooks. Thus, contrary to popular belief most of the top selling ebooks are actually not free.

Along with Amazon, and B&N, BooksOnBoard and Kobo put up a strong showing by beating Sony and Borders in terms of ebook pricing. Another interesting fact was that unlike before when Amazon had lowest price for 74% of the ebooks, this time the number dropped to 48%. A possibility could be that some smaller ebook vendors are yet not following the agency model and pricing their ebooks more aggressively than Amazon. A deeper analysis would be the subject of another blog.

In summary: when it comes to ebook pricing, Amazon is still the best, but B&N is close on heels. Sony is much better than before, but still far behind and needs to tighten up it’s pricing to start making a big impact. Borders is coming up, and Kobo had a surprisingly good showing. The landscape will continue to change as both newer and more established ebook vendors continue to lure readers to their sites.

Inkmesh blog