Liquid, solid, gas, iPad is kicking ass!

The world of eBooks has taken a different turn not just in terms of book publishing but also in the eBook readers coming to market. One such piece of hardware is Apple’s iPad. The iPad is not an eBook reader but a tablet. However, the iPad has taken a position within the eBook space as it is. This has caused a stir in the industry and the imagination of the public.

Regardless of how we all might look at it, the iPad has set new standards in what the tablets do from now on. In addition to this, the iPad has changed things forever. The changes made that are what make it the kick-ass piece of hardware that it is. Here are just very few characteristics that make my claim so:
 

Ease of Use
I knew that the iPad was a hit the moment I saw my older brother get excited while using it. He (big brother) is a complete technophobe and hates using anything that will make him think too much. He just does not have the patience. The iPad came natural to him. The use of the fingers to carry out operations is simply a masterstroke. Using the fingers is not new, but the way Apple put it together is something else.
 

Expense
Many – I was one of them – have complained at how much it cost to buy any piece of hardware from Apple. What I did not get at the time was that people did not care about the price they wanted the user experience. For those who might sneer at my statement, you should have seen the queue for those waiting to buy the iPad at Apple’s twenty-four hour store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Enough said!
 

Productivity
Now some of you might wonder about this statement but I tell you I have. I receive PDF documents on a regular basis. My biggest problem has been reading the documents. This is something I am sure you have experienced at one time or the other. I wrote a short piece a while ago titled “One reason why the iPad could be the eBook Reader Killer. (http://bit.ly/dl0wgq).” I really did mean what I wrote as my MacBook Pro screen was easier on the eyes. The iPad has made things simpler especially when I decide to read in bed. I know read my documents within hours instead of days, and the MacBook gets to rest.
 

The Reading Myths
The first of these myths I believe I have answered – reading PDFs. One the first things you hear is that you cannot read PDFs on the iPad. I assure you that the iBooks software is more than capable of handling PDFs. Secondly; you cannot read in the sun using an iPad. Let me assure you that that is nonsense. I now live in Pretoria in sunny South Africa. I took the iPad out into the sun on 28C hot and humid day. The auto-brightness feature kicked in and made reading delightful.
Now I have not read using either the Kindle or Nook so I am in no position make a comparison. However, there is nothing wrong with the iPad.

Satisfactory Battery Life
eBook reader purists will always point to the fact the Kindle or Nook have battery lives in the weeks. I must remind people that the iPad is a tablet not an eBook reader, and has a satisfactory battery life 
 

eBook Market Space
I realise that this part of the discussion is two-fold. First, Amazon has access to 450,000 books, Barnes & Noble 700,000 books, while Apple just over 60,000 books. By the sheer size of books, this is a no contest. However, what the non-iPad users do not realise is that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have both released eBook reader applications for iPad. We must not forget other reader apps from Wattpad, Kobo, and Free Books to mention just a few.

This can only mean that they (Amazon & Co) realise the importance of the iPad in the scheme of things. Moreover, despite the fact that the iPad is a tablet in a different market, it cannot and must not be ignored. Again, I go back to user experience. They (Amazon and others) realise that people might just not be interested in buying a Nook or Kindle if they are happy with an iPad. Because of this, Amazon and others realise that it would stupid not to take the initiative in the iPad market.

Secondly, although some companies have seen their fortunes turn for the worse in the eBook reader market, this does not mean that the shakeout has ended. In addition, there is already a price war brewing between Amazon, Barnes & Noble and of course Sony. Amazon has already fired the first shot with a $139 Kindle. It will be interesting to see what the others do. We can only speculate where all this will lead to as time goes on.
 

The Chrome Factor
This I must admit also has commercial considerations but with a difference.  Google has now decided to enter the tablet space with the Chrome OS Tablet. Many others have announced and entered the market without much as a care from the consumers. It (Google) has announced that it will be releasing the table on November 26 (Black Friday to those in the US). Google might take comfort in the fact that its Android phone recently surpassed the iPhone in overall sales. This does not mean the same will happen in the tablet space. We must not forget that Google has made several concerted efforts in the social media space and lost to Facebook. Only time will tell how things work out.
 

Innovation
Developers have taken a leaf out of the iPhone book with a plethora of new applications. Many of the apps are free while some you will have to buy. One of the most interesting apps I bought was the Vook (http://vook.com/). Some of you might remember a blog piece I put out on June 22 titled “Forget eBooks: The Future of the Book is far more interesting”. Adam Penenberg, a journalism professor and contributing writer to FastCompany, wrote this piece.

In the piece, he talked about how the eBook would evolve from just stagnant word on the page to the addition of video throughout the text, photos, hyperlinks, and the engagement of social networks. The same would be true of works of non-fiction. Imagine for a moment you were reading about the Second World War. While reading, you get to hear an mp3 track from that era which you end up liking; why not buy that song there and then within your book. Just imagine the commercial opportunities.

The Vook app is just the beginning of this era as it combines photos, video, hyperlinks and social media connections to its books. I am currently reading, “Unleashing the Superideavirus” by Seth Godin. The book allows you to tweet sections of the book, email your friends or share on Facebook, not to mention the interesting videos at the beginning of each chapter. There are also hyperlinks to the web strewn all through the book. Once again, it will be interesting to see where all this leads us.

Conclusion
Many already have the misconception that the iPad is an eBook reader. People it is not! The iPad is a tablet while the Kindle and Nook are eBook readers. There is a difference between the two. I do not think that the iPad is a direct threat to the eBook readers; however, it is a threat by the fact that consumers want it and it is quite a good piece of hardware.

There is absolutely no question that Amazon and Nook will battle it out with a few other smaller players for the soul of the eBook market. We will all have to wait and see what happens. As Google comes to the party later this year, it remains to be seen what their tablet will do in the market place. At this time, I cannot call it in favour of Google for one simple reason, customer desire. Despite the fact that Apple has always charged a bit more than most, customers have still flocked to the brand. It is obvious to most that the brand has brought something extra to the table, user experience.

Although Google is known for its innovation and its recent triumph over the iPhone with Android, there are no guarantees of the Chrome OS Tablet’s success. As a friend of mine put it recently, except the Chrome OS Tablet is sh$#ting gold nuggets, it can forget about beating the iPad. As a recent convert to the Apple brand, I say long live the iPad and long live interesting times ahead. And regardless of what anyone might say, the iPad is kicking ass.

Let the Comic Book Rise again, All Hail the iPad, Marvel, and DC

I am one of those men who read the Marvel Comics as a kid and had secretly fantasised that the super heroes would make it to the big screen.  Thank God they did, and in spectacular style. The massive improvements in computer technology and special effects have ensured that any super hero can be brought to life.  However, does this mean that the comic book is dead? 

 
Many of the comic book establishments like Marvel found their sales fall with unimpressive figures over a few years. Hollywood might have contributed to this but this is debatable. I am sure that computer games did contribute to an extent in this decline. Suddenly kids were able to interact with their favourite characters. Although I am no fan of computer games (I just could not get into it), I am not against them either. I am fascinated though when I watch my nephews play games on their PlayStation. They seem to be in a world of their own, making the characters do all sorts of manoeuvres.  
 
The last time I read a comic book I was fifteen years old. Some thirty or so years later, I find myself reading them on an iPad. There are still outlets that sell comics but I would not be caught dead going into one. Why you may ask? I felt it was childish. Is it so wrong for a man of almost fifty to go into a comic shop? In some cultures (like mine), it is considered childish, while in others it is not.  In mine, however, a man my age could come up with the excuse that he is buying them for his kids. While plausible, it is still unacceptable especially if your children are old enough to do that for themselves. 
 
You might ask – and quite rightly, so – what it is the shame in buying comics for your kids. Absolutely nothing is the answer to that. I just found myself conforming to the norm (shame on me!). 
 
As time went by, I forgot completely about comics until a piece of hardware showed up. That hardware known as the iPad changed everything. I got one about two weeks ago from the UK and I unashamedly say it has not left my side since then except when having a shower. 
 
I am not going to go into any details; most of you already know how this delightful tablet works. As I studied the use of my iPad, I read an article on the Internet about the ten best iPad apps to have. One of the top ten apps mentioned was the Marvel Comics app. I immediately proceeded to the iTunes Store to download the app more out of curiosity. On installing, I downloaded a few of the free comics. I cannot tell you what a delight it was to read about the super heroes again. 
 
One such download was Civil War (2006) #1. I enjoyed it so much that I went on to download all six other episodes. The six episodes cost $1.99 each but I did not care. I wanted more; I began to think of what else I could read. I recalled battles of the past such as The Defenders versus The Avengers. I remembered characters like the Lizard and the Green Goblin. I remembered how we waited with baited breath on what the new episodes would hold. I found myself feeling the same way. I began to wonder whether men my age across the World felt the same way. I did not have long to wait. My older brother called me to say he had read a few of the comics and wanted more.

I have a new yearning in my soul; I want Marvel Comics to make holiday specials of three or even four hundred page long episodes. I know; Marvel could republish Spider Man versus the Lizard epic battles. Why not create a rift between the Fantastic Four and the Defenders? I am sure Marvel has all sorts of weird and wonderful characters we can enjoy. Eh, maybe I have gone too far in this request. Please tell me. 
 
So what are your conclusions I hear you ask. For one, the iPad has given me a gift I would not have had – reasons for an adult to read a comic again. The iPad has also put paid to the shame of going to a comic store – Marvel App Store. I also realise that I need to read works of fiction once again. I have not read fiction since I was eighteen. I can do nothing but thank the iPad for that. I also found that I have taken life a little too seriously. It is time to loosen up. 
 
As I mentioned earlier, I wonder how many more people feel the way I feel. I am convinced that the iPad could revive comic book reading even to those who never really did so as children. I hope someone from Marvel Comics might read this blog and consider what I have written. I am sure there are more people who would gladly pay for some good old-fashioned super hero entertainment. By the way, the same goes for DC Comics; I downloaded the app and have read a few stories, my experience, one word, awesome.

Comments from all the old men out there who are still in the comic book closet would be most appreciated. 

Why Nobody Will Buy a Color E-Ink E-book Reader

E-ink is one of the more unusual technologies to spring up in recent years. It's both more expensive and less versatile than LCD, a long-established product seen in everything from iPods to TVs. It's incredibly specific, but also incredibly good at its one job: reading text. 

E-ink e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook offer, in the opinion of myself and many others, the best digital book-reading experience available. The battery life is astounding (the new Kindle gets up to a month of battery life. An entire month!), they can be used outside without glare, and they quite simply look more like printed, physical ink and paper than any other display ever created. You can lose yourself in e-ink, which is about the best compliment I can give to a digital reader.

On the other hand, LCD devices in a similar package, including tablets like Apple's iPad, offer a passable reading experience on top of a whole host of features e-ink will never, ever be able to handle. E-book readers are better for books; tablets are better for everything else. So tablets and e-book readers exist in an odd sort of stalemate right now: neither can quite replace the other.

But I do believe that LCD and other, more modern displays (including Pixel Qi, LED, AMOLED, and countless other acronymic display types) will advance to the point where they offer a reading experience at least comparable to e-ink. Some have already been made--the iPad's IPS LCD display is better than expected in outdoor use, for example--and that's the wave of the future. And at that point, e-ink will die.

E-ink will die mostly because it fundamentally can't compete with tablets. That's why announcements like today's, in which E-Ink (it's a company as well as that company's main--or only?--product) claimed it will release both a color and a touchscreen version by early 2011, is so confusing. But color and interface are hardly the only obstacles e-ink has to overcome to compete with tablets: Its refresh rates make video largely impossible, it can't cram in enough pixels to make still photos look any more crisp than a day-old McDonald's french fry, and, most damnably, it's still extremely expensive.

I've used both color and touchscreen e-ink displays before. Before its untimely demise, I saw a prototype version of the Skiff newspaper reader with color, and I've used Sony's Reader Touch Edition as well. The Skiff's color was faded, like a photocopy of a photocopy, an extremely unimpressive display closer to old four-color comics than crisp digital imagery. Sony's Touch Edition suffers from enjoyment-killing glare and a slow response rate. While I'm sure the technology for both color and touch can be advanced, I'm not the least bit convinced that it'll ever get to the point where those features are competitive. By the time e-ink catches up to modern-day LCD (and that's assuming it ever does, which is a hefty assumption), LCD will have advanced as well.

Amazon showed that the way to make e-book readers sell like blazes is to lower the price to near-impulse-item territory. Its new $140 Kindle sold out of pre-orders almost immediately, and there's been more buzz around the next version than can be explained through hardware upgrades alone. It's a great reader, don't get me wrong, but its incredible sales numbers are due in large part to the price cut.

Color and touchscreen e-book readers would require a substantial increase in price, to accommodate the new technology. But that's exactly the wrong way to advance e-ink--the price needs to remain as low as possible. 

Why is E-Ink pretending that features like color and touch interfaces are important, necessary, or even desirable for its product? E-ink readers like the Kindle offer the best digital reading experience on the market--why muck it up with expensive and useless features?

E-ink may not have a long future, but until LCD can learn some very difficult new tricks, it'll survive. Diluting that purpose for half-baked progress to compete with tablets is the wrong direction for e-ink.

Original post by Dan Nosowitz and can be found here: http://bit.ly/cs8u3v

Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader (Updated)

If you just ordered a Kindle, stop reading now or you’re in for a giant dose of buyer’s remorse. Barnes and Noble unveiled a new e-book reader called ‘Nook’, and it is hot, both inside and out. 

Nook looks a lot like Amazon’s white plastic e-book reader, only instead of the chiclet-keyboard there is a color multitouch screen, to be used as a keyboard or to browse books, cover-flow style. The machine runs Google’s Android OS and it will have wireless capability from AT&T.

The $260 Nook–same price as the Kindle 2–is expected to be on sale at the end of November.

The Nook has the regular black-and-white E Ink display and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen. The latter allows users to browse books. The Nook also comes with built-in WiFi, 2GB of internal storage, MP3 player and supports open formats such as EPUB. Nook users have features such as bookmarks, and the ability to share books with friends for up to a fortnight through other e-readers, smartphones or computers.

Barnes and Noble has said Nook customers will have access to its online bookstore that includes books, newspapers and magazines. The Nook itself can hold up to 1,500 e-books.

Gizmodo, first showed leaked images of the Nook last week. The blog said that B&N will be discounting titles heavily in their electronic format, which is as is should be (no paper, printing or shipping costs). The Nook will also be able to get books from the Google Books Project.

Earlier Tuesday, Wall Street Journal, had a peek at an at ad set to run in The New York Times this coming Sunday. The ad features the line “Lend eBooks to friends,” and this has the potential to destroy the Kindle model. One of the biggest problems with e-books is that you can’t lend or re-sell them. If B&N is selling e-books cheaper than the paper versions, then the resale issue is moot. And lending, even if your friends need a Nook, too, takes away the other big advantage of paper.

In fact, this loaning function could be the viral feature that makes the device spread. Who would buy a walled-garden machine like the Kindle when the Nook has the same titles, cheaper, and you can borrow? The Nook is already starting to look like the real internet to the Kindle’s AOL.

Original blog by Charlie Sorrel and can be found here: http://bit.ly/30kb4g

Barnes & Noble Debuts NOOK For Android As eBooks War Heats Up

Barnes & Noble is launching an Android app for its e-reading platform, Nook, today. Barnes & Nobile already has NOOK apps for the iPhone and iPad. The new app also represents a shift in B&N’s branding; the company will now be brand all of its e-Book platforms and apps with the NOOK name.

NOOK for Android allows users to browse and shop in Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore of more than one million eBooks directly from their mobile device. Any customer’s personal Barnes & Noble eBook library, if it is purchased on a NOOK eBook Reader, online at BN.com or on another BN eReader-enabled device, will sync to their device in so their library goes wherever they go.


NOOK customers can also share some eBooks for up to two weeks with friends, who can read the digital titles on the NOOK eBook Reader, or on any of the NOOK’s mobile apps. The app itself has much of the same functionality as its sister iPhone app, including the ability to access your personal B&N library from the app, the ability to customize your eReading experience by font, size, landscape view, or portrait mode. You can also sort and filter your eBooks by author, title or recent reads. New customers downloading the Android app will get free versions of Dracula, Little Women and Pride & Prejudice as well as samples of two current bestselling eBook in their library.


While it’s good news that Barnes & Noble is expanding beyond Apple’s mobile platform, the space is fiercely competitive. Amazon recently launched an Android app, and slashed the price of its Kindle device. And Apple is now playing in the space with iBooks and the iPad. Plus, Google is expected to launch Google Editions, their e-Book platform soon.
Barnes & Noble recently rolled out a new pricing for NOOK with Wi-Fi at $149, and a new lower price for its NOOK 3G model at $199.


Original piece from TechCrunch and can be found here: http://tcrn.ch/9WmQ0q

The Fast Company Guide to E-Readers

Although it seems that all we ever talk about these days is the tablet--how gorgeous the iPad is, how the tablet will kill off the netbook, a little bit more about the iPad--the more dynamic market of the moment is e-readers. Not a day goes by without the launch of a new model--latest being Asus's Lumibook, and with Marvell muscling in on the Chinese market--and, to be honest, it's all a bit confusing.

Apple has so blurred the boundaries between e-reader and tablet because of its iBook Store, that one could almost argue that the traditional, monochrome version (think Kindle) is almost obsolete. Almost--but that's down to the wondrousness of electrophorectic technology, the fancy (and un-trademarked) name for e-ink, that uses minimal power and is ace for reading in natural daylight. You can see the effects that the iPad has had on the market, however: Engadget uncovered a half-sized iPad simulacrum from Asus (it runs Android, so hints of the B&N Nook there) and, although Jeff Bezos recently claimed there's a color version of the Kindle lurking somewhere in Amazon's labs, it's E.T.A. is "some ways out."

So, when it comes to choosing the right e-reader for you, whatchoo gonna do, Willis? FastCompany.com has separated the wheat from the chaff, and please find, for your delectation, a selection of what we consider to be the most interesting upcoming (and already available) e-readers around. And not an iPad in sight. Well, almost.

Best browser: Bookworms among you may not even be aware that some of the models have Web-browsing capabilities, including the Kindle and the Nook. However, I'm going to blow the black-and-white thang out of the water and say, how about the Pandigital Novel? It's color, it's got Barnes & Noble's half-a-million-volume library, it browses, it's not out yet, but oh ho ho, expect this one to do well. At $200, it's less than the price of a--no, my lips are sealed.

Best book store: They're all pretty damn good, really--although you've got to wonder just how Google will sew up the market if they ever dare to dip their toes back into the hardware market, following their contretemps with the Nexus One. Sony has just announced it is to launch a content-distribution service in Japan, China, Australia, Spain, and Italy. I'll let both Nook and Kindle carry this one off jointly, as they've both got Gut--that's Gutenberg's 1.8 million free books on top of their 500,000 titles--and as I'm a nice girl.

Best for light travelers: As recommended by fellow FC-er, Dan Nosowitz (a more seasoned voyageur you will not meet) the $155 Sony Pocket Reader is, with a mere 5-inch screen and no bulky keyboard, significantly smaller than the competition (even pocket-sized, if you're not wearing skinny jeans). Its memory is beefy enough to allow you around 350 books on it, and it supports books lent from public libraries (any major city library should have an ebook lending system). It's a bit barebones--no search, no annotations, no wireless connection--but it's beautifully designed, absolutely teeny, and it can sometimes be found for $110, nearly impulse-buy territory. If you're not already in hock to the Kindle or Barnes & Noble stores, it's a great option.

Best for someone with a bag-carrier: Oh, without a doubt Plastic Logic's Que. They call it a ProReader, it looks just dreamy, and if ever you want to best someone with an iPad, then this is the e-reader to do it with. It's the business--I'm in no doubt that this is the kind of thing that Tom Ford's minions would be carrying for the great man himself. Price is a little sticky, however--$649 for the 4GB Wi-Fi version, rising to $799 for 8GB Wi-Fi and 3G. I asked, but it doesn't come in a cut-price 1GB version that you pedal yourself. Sigh.

Best apps: If apps is really the only reason you want to buy an e-reader, then why don't you just go to the Apple store and buy the--no, no, I won't say it. If, however, $500 is not the kind of wonga you're planning on shelling out, might I suggest the Nook? Although Android is not quite as hot on the app front as Apple, Barnes & Noble recently churned out a firmware update that lets you upload all kinds of fun and games on its second, color screen. Cost is, like the Kindle, $259.

Best value: If it's all about the money, then plump for the Libre Pro, Borders' riposte to Barnes & Noble's Nook. Costing $120, it comes with 100 free books and a Borders' desktop app. It reads the pretty universal e-book standard file, ePub, as well as .pdf files, has room (via an SD card slot) for 40,000 titles, syncs to your computer, and you can listen to pre-downloaded MP3s on it.

Best for bookworms: It's got to be the Lumiread, Acer's Kindle-esque e-reader, which should be out next month. Acer is staying schtumm about the price so far, but they're known for not beating too much money out of the consumer. Plus, it's got a dinky little scanner that you can use when you're in your local bookstore on a book's ISBN number and which links you to online sites where you can download the e-version of whatever tome it is caught your eye in the Macabre Horror section.

Best if you're not that into books: All right, I'm going to say it--the iPad.

Original piece by Addy Dugdale and can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/32av5rk