Nick sent me a link to the COOL-ER reader, and I have to say I’m impressed. Somehow the launch of a totally new, and if I may say so, totally sexy, device passed me by. This is launching at BEA right now and is available for pre-order in the UK, shipping later this month. [...]
Don’t Write Off Ereaders Just Yet
on 10 March, 2009 – 4:36 pm
Posted in Reading devices
This picture, taken at the R&D labs of the New York Times (featured on the TOC blog), seems to be saying that far from reading devices going away, they are now on an unstoppable trajectory: investment, diversification, rapid innovation, everything is there.
Yet in many ways, other than the blip that was the Kindle 2.0 launch, [...]
Kindle 2: Return of the Design Conscious
on 10 February, 2009 – 10:56 am
Posted in Reading devices, eBooks
In hindsight it was always going to happen: we had seen the leaked pictures and the sheer weight of good taste pressuring down on the product development team at Amazon meant that the Kindle would have to get a redesign. But it was still a relief to see that the “retro cool” of the original [...]
Crunched: the Next Generation
on 13 October, 2008 – 3:54 pm
Posted in Publishing, Reading devices, eBooks
Everyone seems to be writing about how the economic crisis will affect their small part of the world, so I think I should do to, especially now that Robert Peston has transcended to a higher state of being and will be unlikely to comment on ereaders. Usually this would be a little too obvious [...]
Tethered Reading
on 17 July, 2008 – 3:10 pm
Posted in Copyright, Reading devices, eBooks
The recent noise about the iPhone highlights a trend recently discussed by Jonathan Zittrain in his book The Future of the Internet; namely how “generative” IT platforms are giving way to closed “tethered” appliances. The iPhone is such a device, in that it is ultimately policed by Apple and is capable of being controlled [...]
Observing Change
on 27 May, 2008 – 4:16 pm
Posted in Blogging, Publishing, eBooks
In Sunday’s Observer it was announced that the long serving literary editor, Robert McCrum, was to stand down. He talks about how publishing has changed, how the clubby atmosphere of yesteryear has given way to the blazing lights of the corporate future. In ten “chapters” he gives us some of the big changes and [...]
Will the Kindle spark an eBook device surge?
on 28 February, 2008 – 10:53 am
Posted in eBooks
I’m grateful to Peter Brantley for pointing out to me that over at engadget, a student design competition gives insight into how to usefully combine multitouch into a reader. Which leads me to wonder whether the advent of the Kindle is stimulating an upsurge in the development of eBook readers. This one looks closer to [...]
eBook pricing: what’s fair / what will fly?
on 28 January, 2008 – 4:29 pm
Posted in eBooks
Till now, eBook pricing policy discussions have been theoretical at best, most proposals prefaced with a flippant, “Of course, it doesn’t really matter all the time there’s no market.” The ground has ever so slightly shifted in 2008: a subtle combination of the Kindle launch in the US (it didn’t light the world on fire, but [...]
I want to be a digital reader
on 17 December, 2007 – 11:32 am
Posted in Reading devices
On 26 November, A. N. Wilson wrote an article in his Word of Books column entitled ‘I don’t want to be a digital reader’, a review of the Kindle, and in the current issue of PC Pro there’s another. I want to compare them because PC Pro, as one might expect, gets it about right, [...]
Kindle Update
on 19 November, 2007 – 4:01 pm
Posted in Reading devices
News has been coming through all day. Firstly its well worth checking out the main Amazon.com Kindle page. Includes a video demonstration of the Kindle, interviews with Jeff Bezos and a range of high profile writers, a detailed spec, explanations of what functionality are on offer, lists of publications and blogs that can be subscribed [...]
