Tuesday, September 1, 2009

eBook Notes For Tuesday, September 1, 2009

iRiver's new e-book reader 'Story' -- at first glance, it looks like a K2 clone. But the buttons look flat, hinting at a touch-sensitive area below the screen (shades of Palm Pre's Gesture Area!).

Pass the lubricant as we’re getting fucked by Apple too
Stories of developers being absolutely bent over the barrel and fucked hard aren’t new, but I’ve got no other recourse so I’m throwing Blunder Move’s story into the ring. What makes our story different? I’m lucky enough to personally know people at the iTunes store. People who actually work at Apple that I drink beers with. I’m guessing most iPhone developers are in a different boat, but it doesn’t matter (just look at the Facebook app, which was featured in an iPhone commercial, taking 10+ days to get approved) that I know people there. At least Apple are equal opportunity ass fuckers.

When is Apple going to grow up and start getting this corrected? Application updates should have their own Express Lane. Apple is opening itself up to lawsuits for contributing to the besmirchment of developers. They are ruining reputations.

Lookout Kindle, Here Comes CellStories.net
The future of digital reading, says Sinker, is the cellphone, not dedicated reading devices like the Kindle and the Sony Reader.

He's right.

Nick Cave joins publishers' push for phone ebooks
The novelist and music legend Nick Cave is sprinkling a little rock'n'roll glamour over publishing's latest front in the battle for readers, by releasing an iPhone version of his new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. The text, which scrolls downwards on chapter-length virtual pages, is accompanied by readings and music specially recorded by the author himself.

Try that with eInk.

E-texts roil market
"If it catches on, we’re doomed," said Iowa Book manager Joe Ziegler.

You're doomed.

Adobe makes mystery web buy
Adobe Systems quietly acquired web platform outfit Business Catalyst (BC) for an undisclosed sum on Monday.

The software maker has remained silent about the deal, but BC said that Adobe had bought Business Catalyst and its sister firm, GoodBarry, according to an official statement on the company's site.

Business Catalyst, which was founded in Australia in 1997, offers a one-stop-shop to internet businesses that want a single platform for their developers to work on.

This sounds like B-2-B, but I think Adobe has something else up its sleeve here.

Japanese boffin boasts electrospray OLEDs
Displays created using self-illuminating organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology "could be manufactured as inexpensively as printing newspapers," according to one of the researchers involved in developing the new manufacturing process.

Emphasis added by me.

That's a claim we've heard over and over and over. When the hell does it actually happen?

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive: The Edmund Blunden Collection
Edmund Blunden was born in London on 1st November 1896, the eldest of nine children. When Edmund was four the family moved to Yalding, Kent, where he discovered the love of rural life and natural history that were to be a major influence on his writing.

100 Useful Online Libraries for Nurses and Nursing Students

UT Health Science Center (San Antonio): PDA Resources

The Great Web Site Die-Off: Why It Matters -- not even the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is permitted to capture everything. History is being lost.

Despite changes, Wikipedia will still "fail within 5 years" -- wikipedia becomes the new Politburo of the Internet. This is a story that should be read by anyone engaged in social media. There is a lesson here.

And to end this post on a cheery (yes, really!) note, go see this at Maud Newton's blog: Scene from the era of the supposed Death of Reading

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