The eBook Test

STOP! This Blog Has Moved To WordPress!

2009-09-08T18:09:00.002-04:00

I'm in the process of moving over to WordPress.

No new posts will appear here.

Go to The eBook Test at WordPress.

Update your RSS!

WordPress also has rssCloud!

RSSCloud: This Will Be Huge For eBooks

2009-09-07T20:03:00.003-04:00

Tease! Tease! Tease!

WordPress Just Made Millions of Blogs Real-Time With RSSCloud

RSS in the Clouds

Just two things right off the top of my head:

1) Being notified by a publisher when an eBook from an author you want to read has been put on sale (not everyone gets the months-in-advance Dan Brown hype treatment)

2) Being notified by your local library that an eBook you've been waiting to borrow has just been returned right now

Is Steve Haber and his upcoming 3G-enabled Sony Reader Daily Edition paying attention?

Should I Move This Blog To WordPress?

2009-09-07T19:20:00.003-04:00

The advantage of Blogger is that I can get a post up faster than at WordPress. The posting interface is less cloggy to my browser (which is Firefox 2.x because of my crap desktop hardware).

Trying to divine reader stats for this blog is a royal pain with Blogger.

Also, paradoxically, I've always found WordPress to be incredible for getting my posts into Google and other search engine results quickly.

Last, I don't like the way photos are handled here. I can never tell how or when Blogger will resize something -- or the why of it, either.

So, I've imported all of this blog into WordPress as a test.

None of the graphics have been imported -- they simply link back to here to for now.

Should I move or not? Comment!

The Continuing Horror Of ePub

2009-09-07T18:56:00.003-04:00

Kat Meyer RTed this. After reading it, I got pissed because it was some of the same things I said before and took crap for saying so.

On Formats and Friction

Let me state up front that I think all the current formats suck beyond words. We live in a world where a web app can behave just like a really fancy desktop app… where onscreen design can easily surpass what is economical in print design, and where a great many devices (desktops and smartphones at least) have enough raw power to get the job done. And yet we’re stuck with something akin to a spit-and-polish version of the Mosaic browser.

After expressing my anger on Twitter ...

Not me!

Another Adobe Milestone In eBook History

2009-09-07T18:54:00.003-04:00

Asus Atomic Bomb eBook Reader?

2009-09-07T11:29:00.006-04:00

Two reports today confirming that Asus plans at least two models of an eBook reading device:

Tech news: For the smarter kind of bookworm

The budget version of the Asus ereader will be more in keeping with the Taiwanese company’s reputation for producing cut-price gadgets. Dubbed the Eee Reader, after Asus’s cheap-as-chips Eee PC netbook range, it is likely to take on the competition on price rather than features. The cheapest rival on the market is the Cool-er, which costs £189. Asus is thought to be aiming nearer the £100 mark.

There's many things one can say about Asus, but none of them are what I've heard about the Cool-er. The Cool-er is fall-apart hardware from PVI that lives down to its bottom-feeder reputation. Asus EeePCs, on the other hand, have had generally stellar ratings all across the board.

ASUS planning dual screen Eee Reader: world's cheapest e-book reader

According to president Jerry Shen, the Eee Reader will become the planet's cheapest e-book reader, though a premium model could also be launched to satisfy those craving higher-end features -- probably amenities like inbuilt 3G, a web browser and expandable storage.

Asus is also a company that dares to dream.

It pioneered netbooks, popularized them, churned out more of them in a shorter period of time than Sony did of PalmOS-based CLIEs, put MultiTouch in them, made them easily hackable, and created an entire new category of portable computing device.

They came out of nowhere and created an Apple-like earthquake in digital devices.

And now they are aiming at the eBook.

To say that the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and all other eInk devices have just been sent to their doom is to state the obvious.

Here are a bunch of photos I've culled from the Net of a prototype eBook reader Asus recently displayed:

The Register Click = big

TechArena Click = big

The Register Click = big

Ferra Labs Click = big

As for a screen, really, there is only one choice for Asus: Pixel Qi, which states on its website:

Our first screens will be 10" diagonal screens for netbooks and ebook readers that are sampling now and will ship in high volume in late 2009. These screens rival the best epaper displays on the market today but in addition have video refresh and fully saturated color. The epaper mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode allowing for a high resolution reading experience without sacrifice to super color fidelity for graphics. In addition these screens can be used in sunlight. Look for them in the market in the second half of 2009.

This is a photo comparing the Pixel Qi screen in ePaper mode to the eInk display of the Amazon Kindle in outdoor sunlight:

Click = big

It's obvious the Pixel Qi screen is superior in terms of resolution and contrast.

Asus could crank that sucker out at massive scale and plummet the per-unit cost. It could also then move it into its netbook line, causing refresh upgrades there for people interested in better battery life and outdoor use.

It'd be all-win for Asus.

The one question remaining is: Adobe-DRM ePub compatibility?

Do we need to even ask that?

Asus is the company that brought Microsoft to its knees, causing it to slash the price of Windows XP.

They will do the same with Adobe and its license.

You think Adobe hasn't seen what happened to Microsoft? You think Adobe doesn't realize Asus = jillions of sales?

All of you companies that are planning on eInk eBook devices? Don't bother. Stop now. Liquidate your companies. You're dead.

Qisda (Formerly BenQ) To Do eBook Reader

2009-09-05T17:28:00.004-04:00

Inflate that eBook Bubble!

You wouldn't know it from the Wikipedia entry, but Qisda was formerly well-known as BenQ.

Now their website lists an eBook reader as in the pipeline:

Click = big

Qisda to Carve Out Niches with E-Book Readers

Previous eBook Bubble posts:

Toshiba: We'll Do An eBook Device Too!
Yet Another eBook Device: Oaxis
The eBook Bubble Coming To CES 2010
eBook Bubble Notes

Would A US$50 eBook Reader Be A Disaster?

2009-09-04T14:02:00.010-04:00

Study: Everyone Wants a Kindle–For $50

New Forrester Report: The eReader Price Squeeze

What we found was that the price points for how most consumers value eReaders is shockingly low--for most segments, between $50 and $99.

Emphasis added by me.

I've been down this road once before: Wednesday, October 8, 2008, Sony Reader PRS-700: Part Three:

When it came to Jim Malcolm, Sony's Director of Corporate Marketing for Mobile Lifestyle Products, I brought up the hardware pricing issue.

He saw this poll result:

I've wailed for lower prices. As recently as this week, so has Dear Author.

This is basically what Malcolm told me. The poll results are from those who are tech-savvy early adopters. They already know the price of things and so, of course, would love eBook reading devices to even be as low as five for $20.00. Malcolm claims that Sony's own research shows that hardware price is actually not a factor. Can I argue with their expertise and proprietary, professional research?

Yes. I know. I'm stubborn. Or I'm just an absolute eejit when it comes to real-world marketing, but I can't but help to point once again to the example of Henry Ford and the Model T. Plus, there are the more recent examples of the Commodore-64 and the Asus EeePC.

Since then, that poll has added votes:

But wait, as the bad TV ads say, there's more:

If half the people who own these devices are buying nothing, then there are at least three things happening here:

1) Piracy is rampant. That depends. So far, the only popular eBook format that has not been cracked is Sony's own BBeB. Most people say it's because the market is too small to attract the pirates. Most of the pirated material I've stumbled on has been either plain text or PDF -- not file formats for the Kindle, the Sony Reader, or other such devices. So I doubt piracy.

2) People are reading only free eBooks. Really? I doubt this too. Why spend money on an expensive single-purpose device to read free?

3) There is no market for eBooks people must buy. And yet there's the Kindle Store, the Sony eBookstore, Smashwords, et al. Yet none of them have actually published sales figures. And when writers have, the amounts of money mentioned have been equal to less than a one-month rent payment in New York City. Plus: that earned amount is not sustained over the long run. Is there no real market -- yet?

Would a US$50 or even US$99 eBook reading device explode the market?

That's possible ... but the ramifications of that would not be good for many.

Right now, people are paying at least US$200 for an iPhone (a little more for an iPod Touch) -- and there is resistance to paying for software!

See: iPhone piracy - the cold hard figures.

That app retailed for an impulse-buy price of just US$1.99!

And yet people were stealing it right and left.

So what would happen when someone buys an eBook device for only US$50 or $US99?

Do you think people are going to look at an eBook priced at US$9.99 as being reasonable?

Hell no!

"Wait a minute. If I buy just five (or ten) eBooks, I've paid as much for them as for this hardware. The hell with that!!!111"

This does not bode well for the future. At least in the United States. Elsewhere, such a low price for an eBook reader would be a boon. See: In the footsteps of Carnegie.

And speaking of Carnegie, we don't exactly live in a society where people express the sentiment he once did:

When I was a working-boy in Pittsburgh, Colonel Anderson of Allegheny – a name I can never speak without feelings of devotional gratitude – opened his little library of four hundred books to boys. Every Saturday afternoon he was in attendance at his house to exchange books. No one but he who has felt it can ever know the intense longing with which the arrival of Saturday was awaited, that a new book might be had.

Has anyone ever witnessed a line to a public library to rival, say, one to buy an iPhone?

No, don't bring up Harry Potter and bookstores. That's an event. The lines disappeared after that event.

Learning is not a one-off event. Yet public library patronage increases only during tough economic times. Like now.

So where does this leave us?

1) A public that is generally indifferent to book buying

2) A public that if given an inexpensive eBook reader would likely resist current eBook prices

3) The continued devaluation of the eBook

None of this is good for things as they are currently arranged.

Toshiba: We'll Do An eBook Device Too!

2009-09-04T13:16:00.003-04:00

Toshiba to launch an e-book reader mid-2010 - EXCLUSIVE

Due to launch in "mid-2010", Simons claimed they are "looking at 7 and 9-inch models", however they'll have to "see how much the 9-inch would cost", before that size ever makes it to the market.

Interestingly, Simons said Toshiba won't be going down the touchscreen route like Sony did with its Reader Touch model (pictured), instead preferring a non-touchscreen model. Simons told us "you don't need a touchscreen to make an e-book reader work", with the buttons doing it justice apparently.

Toshiba's JournE touch to get VoIP and ebook functionality, dedicated e-reader planned for 2010

Perhaps more intriguing is confirmation that Toshiba is planning a new ebook device with similar inspiration as the JournE (Toshiba already makes the much different Biblio reader for Japan), but is holding off until a standard book format and distribution model is nailed down by the industry.

I predict it will never come to market. It will be killed in early development after the upcoming Christmas sales bloodbath and early 2010 burst of the Axis of E Bubble.

Google Books Settlement Notes #2

2009-09-04T13:02:00.003-04:00

Publishers Weekly: Authors Guild Slams Amazon Over Its Google Settlement Stance; Other Groups Opt Out of Settlement

National Post: Deadline looms as opposition mounts to Google Book Settlement

Guardian UK: Google tries to sidestep criticism of $125m book project

ZD Net: Sniping over Google Books Settlement intensifies

Library Journal: Library Groups Step Up Criticism of Google Settlement; Some Academic Institutions Support It

“Sony wants to file an amicus brief in support, since they think the Google Book project will boost e-reader sales.”

If you do that, you suck, Sony!

Google Book Search Will Win – But It’ll Be Pyrrhic

Google Book Search Settlement Deadline

Tomorrow: Google Books Settlement Deadline For Writers

2009-09-03T12:23:00.004-04:00

Google Book Settlement Opt-Out page

Advice re: opting-out

Reject The Google Book Search Settlement!

The Capitulation Of Print Publishing

Google's One Million eBooks Of Crap!

Google's Great Writer Rip-Off

None of you who opt-in get to cry about how you've been screwed a few years from now.

You've been warned.

Cooler Adds Google's One Million ePubs Of Crap!

2009-09-02T12:03:00.003-04:00

Click = big
Red underlining by me.

COOLERBOOKS.com announces Google partnership

Wow. Just wow. So eager to proclaim themselves "the largest ebookstore in the world," they apparently don't give a damn that they're palming off utter unreadable crap to their customers.

Previously here:

Suckups, Suckers, And Sloppiness Mislead eBook Readers
Google's One Million eBooks Of Crap!

And Sony Thinks IT Can Format eBooks?!!?

2009-09-02T11:22:00.004-04:00

Just look at this:

It's The Collectors by David Baldacci.

That's done by Sony's people (whether in-house or a service bureau doesn't matter -- these are the Formatting Priesthood Sony blesses with paychecks for their toil!).

That's an eBook in Sony's locked-down proprietary -- and now being kicked to the curb -- format, BBeB. You know BBeB, the format that Sony created just for its Reader. BBeB, the format that Sony wouldn't provide creation tools for everyone to create their own eBooks. BBeB, the format that Sony charges at least two hundred dollars for each title to a publisher to convert into.

Sony still requires publishers to go through its people even for ePub.

How stupid is that?

What kind of world does Sony exist in where there is no Atlantis and no SIGIL?

If Sony had created the Internet, it'd be exactly like AOL was: based on a proprietary and stupid scripting language (Rainman -- I kid you not!) that made grown men cry.

Let go, Sony!

Your own formatting is shown to be crap at times. You think writers who want to succeed would do worse on their own?!

Sony Drowns In Its Own Juices Of Unreality

2009-09-02T10:52:00.004-04:00

Scott McKain clued me in to a post by Bob Lefsetz that is absolutely worth reading in its entirety, but I can't resist quoting two bits of it.

e-books

My inbox is cluttered with mail from people railing against pirates, telling me that music is fairly priced at over ten dollars a CD. Think of all the effort! Think of all the mouths to be paid! Think of all the enjoyment!

What I love to tell these assholes is to continue to stare into the screen… What’s the value of their computer? You can buy one for $400, but the CPU, the RAM, never mind the monitor…what’s the value? Oh, don’t tell me about creativity, the artist toiling in isolation. Do you know how much research, how much effort goes into these technological revolutions? Furthermore, unlike you and your lazy ass, these programmers, these researchers, work almost ’round the clock, not tweeting to the faithful saying how great they are, but focusing on breakthroughs. The work ethic of the average person stinks…and you wonder why he’s broke and complaining.

Emphasis added by me.

Although I disagree with his perspective on how artists work (there is much slack time precisely because it isn't science, like those researchers do), that still made me laugh.

And a stab at Sony, which really deserves it:

Meanwhile, Sony, a name revered only in the minds of oldsters, has a competing product that’s overpriced and under-featured. But Sony just announced that they too will have wireless downloading. With a one inch larger screen, which will be touch-sensitive, yet more expensive. Howard Stringer needs to be waterboarded. Doesn’t he get it, that the old Sony paradigm is dead? Where you overpay for the name, believing you’re getting a premium product? Sony’s TV sales have tanked, the PS3 is a disaster, yet he can’t compete on price with e-books?

Emphasis added by me.

Howard Stringer has been and continues to be a disaster for Sony.

Read the entire post by Lefsetz. It's sooo good.

And what the hell is Sony doing with its Publishers Portal? Nothing as far as I can tell!

Here's a lesson for Steve Haber, who apparently still frikkin needs to learn what the hell to do with that Portal:

Order generated without design can far outstrip plans men consciously contrive.

-- economist F.A. Hayek

Stop trying to plan success, goddammit. Open the gates and let loose the dogs of war!

We now live in a world with Atlantis and SIGIL. Any writer can now create 100%-compliant ePub!

Previous posts about Howard Stringer:

Will Sony Even Exist In Five Years?
Sony's Howard Stringer Is Delusional
When Will Sony Wake Up?
OMFGZZ!!!1 Sony’s Stringer Has Heard Of eBooks!
Sony Fumbles Its eBook Reader
Sony, The New Titanic?
Sony’s In Worse Shape Than I Thought

Yet Another eBook Device: Oaxis

2009-09-01T19:02:00.003-04:00

Because the market hasn't been flooded just yet.

Display
6 Inches Electronic Paper Display

Resolution
600x800 pixel (16bit Greyscale )

Processor
Samsung Arm 9 Core

Operating System
Linux 2.6

RAM Memory
64MB SDRAM

Battery
900mAh Li-ion Battery

I/O
High Speed USB 2.0

Expandable Memory
SD Card/ MMC

Text Format
TXT, PDF, EPUB, RTF, TCR, PDB, PRC,MOBI, OPF, OEB, HTM, HTML, CHM,FB2, DJVU, IW44, IW4, DJV

Supported Audio Formats
MP3 (32kbps-384kbps)

Supported Image Formats
JPEG, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP

Language Supported
English (UK), English (US),Chinese (Traditional /Simplified),German, French, Spanish, Dutch,Portuguese, Italian, Russian

Dimension
178(L) x 128.4 (W) x 9.9(H) mm

Weight
228g

Google Books Settlement Notes #1

2009-09-01T17:22:00.002-04:00

An author's guide to the Google Books flap -- if you have a book in danger, there are only two words you need to know: OPT-OUT. Period!

The Google Book Search Settlement Goes Meta

Symposium Report: The Google Books Settlement and Future of Information Access

The Library of Google

Germany: Google book deal violates copyright law

eBook Notes For Tuesday, September 1, 2009

2009-09-01T17:14:00.001-04:00

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

The eBook Bubble Coming To CES 2010

2009-09-01T14:56:00.004-04:00

Oh is that eBook Bubble inflating, inflating, inflating!

eBooks TechZone Sells out for the 2010 International CES; Additional Space Added to Meet Customer Demand

"The eBook category is experiencing astounding growth, with more than one million units expected to sell in the United States this year," said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences at CEA. "We have received overwhelming response from companies interested in exhibiting in the eBooks TechZone for the 2010 CES. In fact, the original space allocated for the TechZone has already sold out and we are adding additional floor space to accommodate our customers. This exciting new TechZone is sure to draw plenty of attention at the 2010 CES." Consumer demand for eBooks continues to increase significantly, as eBook sales are expected to reach $317 million in 2009, with $647 million in sales projected for 2010. Additionally, shipments of eBooks are expected to increase by more than 100 percent in 2009, with 1.19 million units expected to sell.

Emphasis added by me.

Future exhbitors that make me wonder:

Onyx International, which has now set up an actual site for the Boox reader first seen at a recent tradeshow. A video at that site shows impressive PDF handling that's clearly superior to what Sony has done. Also, the built-in web browser is based on WebKit. And although ePub compatibility is not mentioned, I'm certain if someone wanted this to be the platform for their branded device, such an arrangement with Adobe could be made.

Entourage Systems, which has a sparse and very vague website that touts it's aiming at the educational market.

LiquaVista, which claims to have a revolutionary color eInk superior to the junk we've seen in the Fujitsu Flepia device. This screen has several display modes, which makes me wonder how it'd do against the Pixel Qi screen we've seen.

Hanwang, whose hardware has been the basis for the ECTACO jetBook reader (ECTACO will also exhibit). They keep putting out new models -- more than any other hardware manufacturer, it seems. Will all eBook hardware eventually be cheap and from China?

Click = big

Freescale, whose chips power the Sony Reader. Hackers might be interested in this PDF datasheet for the Freescale MC9328MXL, which powers the Sony Reader PRS-300.

Ominously, Aiptek is also listed as having an eBook device. Aiptek does very low-end hardware. A $150.00 -- or even $99.00 -- eBook reader in 2010? Good luck putting the squeeze on Adobe, Aiptek, to get that Adobe DRM compatibility!

Finally, a company called Cydle is also listed under eBooks. Their product page is mainly GPS and HD radio hardware. Some of which is running Windows CE 5.x. What do they have in the wings?

Book Covers Turn To Bleh

2009-09-01T12:52:00.006-04:00

Via a tweet from Maud Newton, I wound up at Alison Bechdel's blog and eventually came upon this post.

But since her Flickr item was designated All Rights Reserved, I had to go steal the covers from elsewhere. Which was better, as I came upon a third one.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think the most recent cover lacks character and is very generic. How many other covers sort of, kind of resemble that? Too many, I think! Some cover designs are just too full of themselves, imparting a gravitas that might not exist in the book itself (note that I don't mean this book, which I haven't read and didn't know of til now).

Suckups, Suckers, And Sloppiness Mislead eBook Readers

2009-08-31T18:07:00.007-04:00

On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, I posted: Google's One Million eBooks Of Crap!

On Thursday 27th August 2009, Computer Shopper did: Google turns classic books into free gibberish eBooks

No other coverage of the one million eBooks from Google mentioned they were crap!

And how many linked back to the original story?

Here is the list of shame:

Click = big

Click = big

Click = big

Once again, I can't trust most of the coverage out there.

How much of a suckup do you have to be to pimp free?

How unqualified to write about eBooks are these people that they never even took a simple few minutes to check the quality?

Update: One other site did. Munsey's Technosnarl: Did Google Just Give a Million Reasons for Publishers to Opt Out?

eBook Notes For Monday, August 31, 2009

2009-08-31T17:28:00.003-04:00

How eBooks plan to save libraries, newspapers and make us read: Can DRM be a good thing for once?

How to borrow an ebook: What you need to know -- a very good overview, even if they leave out that MobiPocket books and PDFs are available in public libraries using Overdrive. After reading that, see: Sony Reader 101: Borrowing Public Library eBooks

German Buch News: 65,000 Ebooks Sold in Germany So Far in 09 -- it's a start.

Google English: eBooks will replace print in 20 years -- waiting for the generational shift to happen. (Original item.)

A New Masthead

2009-08-31T16:15:00.001-04:00

Because I want it made clear that I do what I do for them.

I answer only to them.

Cheated, ridiculed, crushed into poverty during their lifetimes.

I am their agent of vengeance.

The Devaluation Of The eBook

2009-08-31T14:20:00.008-04:00

Hachette chief hits out at e-books

“On the one hand, you have millions of books for free where there is no longer an author to pay and, on the other hand, there are very recent books, bestsellers at $9.99, which means that all the rest will have to be sold at between zero and $9.99,” Mr Nourry said.

First of all, the "millions" of books are primarily unreadable crap (Google) or poorly formatted (Gutenberg). They are no true threat.

Second, whining about a $9.99 eBook price is too little too late. The race-to-the-bottom of eBook prices has begun. You got in bed with Amazon's Kindle and now you complain about the blisters? Who forced you?

Third, what makes you think your customers see an eBook as having the same value as a $25.00-$30.00 hardcover? Wake up: they don't!

Fourth, don't sit there like a weakling and whine -- do something!

Really, keep acting like this and my fantasy of buying Random House from Bertelsmann for a measly US$1.00 will come to pass. Thanks!

Victor Gischler A Go-Go

2009-08-30T16:23:00.004-04:00

Victor Gischler's got a new book coming. Suprisingly, it's announced to be available as an eBook the same day as the printed version!

According to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, these eBook stores will stock it: Amazon's Kindle Store, Amazon.com, eBooks.com, ebooksabouteverything.com, Fictionwise, Mobipocket, Palm Digital Media, and Powells.com.

Which is, not surprisingly, a big FAIL from the publisher. Because -- if the following listing is to be believed -- right now it can be bought at the Sony eBook Store. Which isn't even listed!

The first chapter can be sampled here.

Where Victor Gischler will be touring is here.

Victor has also set up a Vampire a Go-Go website.

And this is Victor Gischler's Blogpocalypse.

I've read all of Victor's books. They're a hoot! You'll want to get every single one.

And yes, Marvel comic fans, this is the same Victor Gischler who wrote Punisher and is writing Deadpool.

Previous posts about Victor Gischler:

Victor Gischler
Go-Go Girls Of The Apocalypse
Writer Victor Gischer Gets Library Luv
Transcript: Gischler Vs. Smith Live On Twitter!
Victor Gischler Breaks Under Questioning!
Videos: Out of the Gutter Magazine Party
Austin, Texas: Meet Victor Gischler TONIGHT!!!
I Wade Into Shit For Victor Gischler
Victor Gischler Wants You Punished!
Victor Gischler: Alternate Covers
Victor Gischler’s Next Book
Congratulations To Victor Gischler!
Victor Gischler Has To Get Busy
Victor Gischler Has A New Internet Berth
Someone Tap Victor Gischler On His Noggin

Sony Reader 101: For Mac Users

2009-08-29T20:48:00.005-04:00

There is some confusion regarding the Mac and the Sony Reader.

Some people are confused, thinking it's necessary to use Adobe Digital Editions to transfer eBooks to the Reader from the Mac.

No. Do not use Adobe Digital Editions. Use the Sony eBook Library software exclusively.

See this screensnap of About Sony eBook Library:

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See the red highlighting? This means the Sony eBook Library software now takes over the functions of Adobe Digital Editions. While it's probably still necessary to have ADE installed -- for Adobe DRM authorization -- ADE should not be used to transfer eBooks to the Reader. Only the Sony eBook Library software should be used for that.

Mac owners, feel free to chime in with Comments.

Previously here:

Sony Reader 101: Borrowing Public Library eBooks
Sony Reader 101: If You Insist On Buying One...

Sony Reader 101: Borrowing Public Library eBooks

2009-08-29T18:09:00.010-04:00

This is a companion post to Sony Reader 101: If You Insist On Buying One...

Most public libraries use a system from OverDrive. This presents a semi-standardized user interface across public libraries offering eBooks, so the steps below detailing borrowing an ePub eBook from the New York Public Library will be similar at other public libraries. Here I am using Firefox 2.x as my browser.

Sign into the system:

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As stated above, it requires the library card number and PIN you've supplied.

This is the entry screen shown at the NYPL site:

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Here I will be going straight to my Wish List. This is a list of books I want to borrow, based on my browsing all 450+ ePubs at the NYPL site. You will love your Wish List because the OverDrive system is frustrating!

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Above you can see the status of two eBooks I've highlighted. Request Item means that eBook is currently borrowed. Add to eList means that eBook is available for borrowing. I click on Add to eList and see this:

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Once an eBook is in the eList, it's off-limits to others at the NYPL for 30 minutes. If I don't borrow it within that time period, it's erased from the eList for others to borrow. I can go back to browsing, but this is a primer, so I click Proceed to Checkout and see this:

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The NYPL offers three lending periods: 7, 14, or 21 days.

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Once I've set it for 21 days, I click Confirm Checkout to get this:

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If I've decided to borrow more than one eBook, this will be a list. NYPL offers a maximum of 12 eBooks at one time. Note: Each book will have its own Download button. That can mean clicking twelve Download buttons. There is no Download All option (yet?).

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The download dialog box will appear. Note the file is URLlink.acsm -- every eBook will have that name. This is not the eBook! It's a link to Adobe's content server. The eBook resides there, not at the local library. And this is very important: Have your options set to open with Sony's eBook Library software. If you Save to Disk, you'll be all bollixed. If that happens, just hit the Download button again and select Open with eBook Library.

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The file -- a small link -- downloads in seconds and launches Sony's eLibrary software:

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Above look at the left panel. Status is highlighted in yellow. As the eBook is being downloaded from Adobe's server directly to the Sony software, those arrows will spin. Once complete ...

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It will appear at the top of the list of eBooks. (Strangely, Sony's software lists borrowed eBooks under a Purchased category, not Borrowed.) Double-clicking on it will open the eBook:

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Yes, some eBooks actually lack covers. It's a scandal!

Once the eBook is in the Sony eLibrary software, sync the Sony Reader to copy it over.

Sony Reader 101: If You Insist On Buying One...

2009-08-29T15:50:00.016-04:00

Only God knows what changed in the zeitgeist recently. Suddenly the Sony Reader is Flavor of the Moment.

Even though it's been able to do so for nearly two years, only now have the masses of people awakened to the fact that OMGZ!! You can borrow eBooks for free from a public library to read on the Sony Reader!!!111

I guess Sony is due credit for finally breaking through the wall that's been holding them back.

Even though I'm no longer cheerleading the Axis of E.

Nevertheless, I guess I should be glad that electronic reading is gaining a foothold and that will pave the way to smart digital books that will be worth the money paid for them.

So, with that in mind, this is a mini-guide for all of you thinking of buying a Sony Reader, to get you all ready for that momentous day.

Here's what to do:

1) It might be necessary to download and install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). Although in my own case, I've found that Sony's newest eBook Library 3.0 software (below) now seems to take over all prior ADE functionality (including DRM -- Digital Rights Management copy protection -- and returning eBooks to the public library), that could be due to the fact I already had ADE installed on my PC. If not all Sony eBook Library functions work -- like borrowing from a public library -- then installing ADE would fix that. ADE will prompt you to register the software and authorize your desktop/notebook machine. Do so! This is required to enable your machine to deal with the necessary Adobe-provided copy-protection (DRM).

1b) Note: In Windows XP, ADE puts eBooks in My Documents->My Digital Editions

2) Download and install Sony eBook Library 3.0 software. There are links for both the Windows and Mac OS X versions. See Windows XP installation process in this prior post. Sony doesn't bundle a CD-ROM of this software with the Reader, so you'll have to download it later anyway. Best to get it out of the way ahead of time so you'll be ready. Sony has a tutorial here. You do not have to set up a Sony eBookstore account to use the software. You can create that account anytime, when you want to actually purchase eBooks at Sony's Store.

2b) Note: In Windows XP, Sony's eBook Library puts eBooks in My Documents->My Books

2c) If you're running Windows 7, you'll have to employ a hack to get the software to run. I'm sure Sony will update it for Windows 7 at some point.

3) If you live in the United States, visit the Library Finder site. Enter your zip code to see if your nearby public library is offering Adobe DRMed ePub eBooks and Adobe DRMed PDF files. If it does, and you don't have one already, visit your local library to get a library card -- no borrowing eBooks without one. Your library card's number and a PIN you supply are your login to the library's site.

3a) Note: There's been some confusion on this public library issue. You will be able to borrow eBooks only from your local library -- not any library in the United States! Up until recently, many libraries offered non-resident cards. That window of opportunity has been closing. Part of this is due to the licensing restrictions for the eBooks available for borrowing.

3b) Note: Although the Sony Reader can do PDF reflow, it's not a very satisfying experience. It's a Better Than Nothing proposition and is barely tolerable for PDFs that are only text (such as fiction, or non-fiction that lacks charts and graphs). I expect most people will find PDF displeasing, but sometimes a library has only a PDF file of a book, not ePub.

4) This is a post that illustrates borrowing an ePub eBook from the New York Public Library (NYPL). This procedure will be similar for many public libraries that use the OverDrive system.

5) If you have a library card and have established that your local library has eBooks, then start browsing the library site for eBooks. Don't be discouraged if most of the books have already been borrowed! First, you'll most likely be able to place a Request. You'll get an email when the book is available and will generally have 72 hours to go grab it. Second, your library site might have a Wish List capability. Just add the titles you want to borrow to that list. You'll love your Wish List because searching -- and even browsing -- OverDrive is not fun!

6) When you find a book you want to borrow, you'll be prompted to enter the duration of the lending period: 7, 14, or 21 days. Think carefully! Especially if you're going overboard and taking out several books at once. If you take everything out for the maximum period, you're depriving others from borrowing. eBooks are licensed by libraries on a per-copy basis, just like a set number of printed books are bought. It's entirely possible for your library to have only one copy of each eBook. Most importantly: once you've read an eBook, return it! Don't wait for the lending period to expire. Let others have their turn too.

6a) The one wonderful thing about borrowing public library eBooks: no more overdue fines! When the lending limit is reached, the eBooks "expire" (are locked up) and can be deleted. (Yes, you can go and borrow them again, although some libraries might impose a waiting period between consecutive loans.)

6b) Warning! For this post, I took out about 24 eBooks (NYPL's 12-eBook limit, twice!) for a seven-day period, but returned them all in less than twenty-four hours (so others wouldn't have to wait!). That flagged the OverDrive system (scroll down at that link) and a limit was placed on my account for several days. So, don't cycle through a bunch of eBooks in less than seven days, as I did! If you're a fast reader and gobble a book a day, let the books all expire on their own at the end of the seven days.

6c) ADE and Sony's software handle borrowed eBooks differently. When an eBook is returned via Sony's software, it also deletes the eBook from the hard drive. ADE does not. You must explicitly tell ADE to Delete the book or it will remain on the hard drive, taking up space, uselessly. Most likely, you'll stick with Sony's software to keep things simple.

7) Syncing eBooks between a desktop PC and a Reader does not move the eBooks from the desktop. They are copied. It's still possible to read both on the desktop and the Reader (important if the Reader is lost, broken, or otherwise drops dead).

8) It's not a particularly good idea to carry your entire eBook library in the Reader. This is because its memory can become corrupted. A sign of this is the Reader not turning off. The only solution is to erase everything and reformat the memory (see the User's Guide links below). I know Sony brags about the capacity of the Reader, but that claim is to be taken with some salt until the time no one ever again posts about their Reader going FUBAR. Having a ton of eBooks on the Reader will mean a great big Restore syncing later on (remember: the eBooks are still on your desktop/notebook's hard drive, so they haven't been lost).

9) Back up your eBooks! Especially if you've bought them. It should be the case that every eBookstore should simply allow a purchaser to redownload eBooks, but this isn't always the case. Back them up and preserve that monetary investment!

10) Sony does not include an AC charger with the Reader. That's a separate purchase. Charging the battery via USB is a slow process. There's a rumor of a cheaper Sony charger than the one sold for the Reader, but I hesitate to provide a link to it without yet knowing if it'll work successfully with the new models, PRS-300 or PRS-600.

11) Which model? That's up to you. I say go cheap. To help you decide, use these links:

PRS-300 eSupport page -- has link for PDF of User's Guide

PRS-600 eSupport page -- has link for PDF of User's Guide

Recently discontinued in the United States:
PRS-505 eSupport page -- has link for PDF of User's Guide

12) Should you buy used? That depends on the age of the unit. I say stay away from the original model, the PRS-500. Lithium batteries degrade over time, so the older the unit the more likely it is the battery will not hold a full charge.

13) No, you cannot buy eBooks from Amazon to read on the Sony Reader. The Kindle uses its own file format which is incompatible with the Sony Reader (as well as being incompatible with every other eBook reading device!).

14) No, you do not have to buy only from Sony's eBook Store! Any bookstore that's selling ePub-formatted eBooks will work on the Sony Reader. In fact, it pays to find and bookmark eBook stores to comparison shop. Some stores offer bargains from time to time. Some stores will also offer free eBooks too.

15) Bookmark Mobileread. That site's forums are a goldmine of Sony Reader user information and expertise. Register to become a member. They can solve just about any problem you might run into. It's faster than using Sony's miserable Support system!

16) There are more free ePub eBooks than there are public library ePub eBooks. Don't ignore them because they're old or unknown or free. Why get less than full use out of the Sony Reader? Here are some places for free ePub eBooks:

ePubBooks.com
Feedbooks
Manybooks
Web Books -- not all are ePub
Project Gutenberg*
Adobe Sample eBook Library -- full eBooks and sample chapters
Baen Free Library -- SF & fantasy
Finding Free eBooks -- not all are ePub
eBooks Just Published -- not all are free or ePub
Smashwords -- not all are free or ePub

*Note: Project Gutenberg ePubs too often have a lot of frontmatter to page through before getting to the story!

Note: Some sites will state "Sony Reader format." That's very different than ePub. Ideally, look for ePub. But if that's not available, then take "Sony Reader format."

Any questions or additional tips? Leave them in the Comments.

Nano-Fondle: Sony Reader PRS-300

2009-08-29T11:09:00.012-04:00

J&R had in the three colors of the new Sony Reader PRS-300. I did a quick fondle of it.

First, let's get that Rose Red color out of the way: It's PINK! Some photos showed it approaching actual red, but it's not. It's a nauseating, vulgar pink! It's even lighter than the above image. It's a shame Sony didn't reprise the luscious Sangria Red of the 505.

Second, the other two colors: Navy Blue and Silver. The Navy Blue is better than the Dark Blue of the 505. It actually looks Navy Blue, and not black. I like this blue better than the 505's. The Silver is still silver, although it doesn't have the gloss of the 505's Silver. I came away with the impression: Navy Blue = Corporate, Silver = Machine.

This thing is made primarily of plastic. The front is aluminum -- but the matte color finish makes it feel like plastic. The back is all plastic. The strip that runs along the side and top/bottom is glaringly plastic. Did it feel cheap? No. But it did feel as if it was really pushing that $199.00 price tag to the limit.

My initial impression was one of weight. It felt dense and heavy. Heavier than I expected to be. It's also thick. I was very surprised by its thickness. The 505 was thin and sleek. How did Sony manage to pork it up? This might be uncomfortable to carry in a jacket pocket -- especially with the added weight and thickness of the slipcover or optional flip-cover. Though YMMV, as they say.

Sony has deleted the wonderful lower left-corner page turning button in favor of the 4-way in the center. I didn't find it particularly onerous to use the new control. But given my past fondles of the Readers with the corner control, it took some getting used to doing things so differently.

Two things about this new button scheme:

1) You'll need a second hand to set a Bookmark. No way will your thumb be able to crawl over to hit that Bookmark button without the risk of dropping the Reader.

2) Man, having a fold-over cover on the PRS-300 is going to be Teh Suck! Because your thumb is no longer at the bottom left to keep that cover standing up. With your thumb in the center, that damned cover is going to flap down and be annoying as all hell. So, you can either hold it in one hand to prop up the cover and change pages with the other, or be annoyed over and over again by the flapping cover.

It's a laggy little beast! To me, it seemed as if Sony took the original slower 500 and repackaged it with more memory in a smaller form factor. The CPU specs seem to bear this out:

Sony PRS-500: FreeScale Dragonball MC9328MXL (ARM920T core, 200MHz)

Sony PRS-300: Freescale i.MXL MC9328MXLVP20 (ARM920T core, 200MHz)

It felt slower than the 505 to me. Books opened slower and the first pages turned noticeably slower than moving several pages in. It seemed as if it was still loading the book or still waking up. This caused the 4-way button to seem unresponsive at times -- and when it finally kicked in, I wound up overshooting the page I was aiming for and going two and even three pages past!

The eInk was ... eInk. I didn't see much difference than the 505's screen. Blacks were dark and grayscale images were OK -- in terms of eInk.

Sony used to bundle several free eBook samples on the Reader. All of them would be excerpts from recent books, to entice you to buy them. Sony includes eleven freebies on this -- but they are in English, German, and French! I suppose this reflects the new internationality of the Reader and it saves Sony additional effort to cater to each region. Not all of these are recent for-pay books, either. Only one of the English ones was recent (if my memory is correct, it was The Strain by Guillermo del Toro). Two of the French books were freebies from Feedbooks! -- one by Dumas, one by Stendahl.

What I found interesting about the samples was the strangeness of the typeface size. Feedbooks looked simply gorgeous at the Small font setting. It looked like a mass-market paperback page, with lots of type on the page. A BBeB eBook at Small setting had type that was twice as large as the Feedbooks text at the same setting. I don't know what accounted for that.

I didn't test for things such as glare or viewing angle. I was too busy moving around the wrong way due to the new 4-way navigation system. I also didn't pop into Settings or anything other than the sample books. This was a nano-fondle -- and at that it took a good ten minutes due to having to "unlearn" my prior Reader button use.

If you want to fondle the PRS-300 head to J&R in lower Manhattan. I hear that SonyStyle at 55th Street has both the PRS-300 and PRS-600 out for fondling too.

My verdict is to hold off buying this until Apple's September 9th announcement. I still expect an iPod Touch with a six-inch screen to be unveiled. At even triple the price of this, it'd be a better buy in so many ways.

UPDATE: It didn't hit me til later. The PRS-300 lacks Rotation. Every model of the Sony Reader has been able to rotate the screen 90-degrees, which was helpful for wide PDF files. The PRS-300 lacks that feature.

SECOND UPDATE: Yes, there is Rotation. This is from the Owner's Manual:

It's now using a different button and it's also under Settings, which I already stated I failed to check.

Google's Great Writer Rip-Off

2009-08-28T15:35:00.004-04:00

Google's One Million Books

Imagine that your home and the homes of millions of your neighbors are burglarized. Now, say you catch the perpetrator and the case goes to trial. What would you expect--the return of all of your valuable possessions, stringent penalties for damages and jail time for the perpetrator? But instead, the judge agrees to a settlement that lets the perpetrator avoid any penalties, jail time or probation; he lets the perpetrator use the stolen contents for as long as he wants, provided he pays each victim a one-time fee per item; and, for those victims not knowing that their contents were stolen, the perpetrator can keep and use it, without any compensation or penalty at all. Would such a settlement seem fair?

While just an illustration, there are similarities to what is happening now in a court case involving online scanning and use of millions of books, which is in direct violation of copyright protections given to authors and, in this case, the Department of Justice has taken notice, as have a number of state attorneys general and the European Union's competition commission.

Emphasis added by me.

While I'm glad to see more voices opposed to the Google Book Settlement, I have to ask, What the hell took these people so long?

Previously:

Google's One Million eBooks Of Crap!
Where I Stand Now
Reject The Google Book Search Settlement!
The Google Book Robbery: I’m Not Alone
The Great Book Bank Robbery
Is Another Suit Against Google Book Search Coming?
Reference: Google Book Search Settlement Site
Google Book Search: Medialoper FTW [-- where I woke up!]
Google Book Search: Now Legal [-- which I now retract!]
Read Nathan Singer — Like A Thief!

The Root Of Why Print Is Dying

2009-08-27T17:08:00.003-04:00

The Plight of Print's Lucky Ones

"Basically," he goes—and Q was being totally serious when he said this—"I'm 31 and at a professional dead end. And so are most people in here."

And:

"I'll be 35. What the hell am I gonna do with the rest of my life?"

And, the root of it all, entitlement:

When I graduated from college several years ago, the boilerplate career arc in publishing went a little something like this: pay your dues as an editorial assistant for a couple years, biding your time until you either 1) got promoted and became an associate, or 2) jumped ship to a magazine (or newspaper, or book editing shop) where a better gig opened up. Hang in that new station for a couple years before rinsing and repeating, upwards and onwards. It was an arc that, if you played your cards right, culminated with a six-figure job you'd stick with for the rest of your professional career.

An article filled with self-pitying spoiled brats.

You deserve to lose it all.

Welcome to real life.

Google's One Million eBooks Of Crap!

2009-08-26T16:11:00.003-04:00

Today Google cut itself loose from the exclusive arrangement it had with Sony to offer one million free ePub-formatted eBooks.

This is not something Google should brag about. The eBooks are utter crap!

Exhibit One, the original image scan:

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Exhibit Two, the ePub text:

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A typo right at the start. And it gets worse! There are typos throughout and paragraphs are even broken up too!

Exhibit Three, the Table of Contents is just an image scan with no links:

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I really don't know why I expected this to be worthwhile. I've been down this road before: Google Book Search Goes Mobile: Teh Suckage

Now all you Google Book Settlement supporters: How about considering that this is what will happen to the millions and millions of Settlement books too!

For those who are technically minded, here are two screensnaps of the underlying XML:

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Sony eLibrary 3.0 For Windows XP

2009-08-25T18:57:00.007-04:00

Even though I looked on Sony's site, I couldn't find any links for the 3.0 version of the Sony Reader eLibrary software. Nevertheless, those wizards over at Mobileread did! UPDATE! Mobileread now has a link for the Macintosh OS X version too!

This is the installation process, which shows me upgrading from the prior version.

The 2.x desktop shortcut icon:

This is what the 2.x software looked like minutes before:

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Install dialog:

Intermission dialog:

I did click on Details for the Just In Case. This is the web page. Note this still:

Using the eBook Library software with 64-bit versions of Windows® XP operating system is not supported.

And after a few minutes, behold 3.0:

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Ignore what's in my library. Most of the links were actually dead! Just look:

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By now, your reaction is probably the same as mine: Wow! That's fugly!!

Strangely, it had cached the covers of the dead links!

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FeedBooks ePub in full-screen view:

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Sample ePub via Adobe in full-screen mode:

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Unlike 2.x software, the bottom controls no longer fade away when the pointer isn't touched. The controls seem to persist.

Cover of an Adobe DRMed ePub borrowed from the New York Public Library in full-screen mode:

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First page of same in full-screen mode:

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After I cleared out all the dead links, I was left with this small list. And here I am returning that ePub to the library:

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The new XP desktop shortcut icon:

Well, the software is still fugly. It's still unintuitive. It launches slower than 2.x but seems to run OK. This hasn't been a beat-down stress test, just a quick documenting of the upgrade.

I was really hoping for some user interface and eye candy improvement. I guess such things are beyond Sony's ability. Too bad.

iPod Touch II On September 9, 2009

2009-08-25T16:25:00.004-04:00

The two tablet rumors make absolute sense to me.

1) Six-inch screen Tablet that is based on the iPhone OS

2) Ten-inch screen Tablet that is based on Mac OS X

I believe we will see the first next month. It will have an iPod branding. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a rather plain name like the iPod Touch II. "Now Double the Fun."

Why do I see this happening next month?

Because of Cocktail.

If Apple wants to replicate the fun of album covers and liner notes, they're not going to settle for having people look at that on a wee three-inch screen. People would react with So what? and Why do I need that?

So I'm certain a bigger screen is in order for that.

Plus, it will be an iPod, not a Mac.

This distinction is crucial. It means none of us can look forward to it being a productivity device. It will be an extension of the iPhone and iPod Touch continuum -- which emphasizes fun and leisure.

In short: no Bluetooth keyboard for it. Give up that notion right now.

And eBooks? I don't see Apple giving Adobe money for its ePub DRM scheme. People will have to rely on Stanza for DRMed ePub.

I still believe that Steve Jobs has nothing but utter contempt for ePub -- as well he should! -- and so should everyone! -- so if Apple is going to do eBooks, it will be via the Cocktail platform.

Yes, I do believe that Apple will get into digital books. Steve Jobs can't help but to look around and see how absolutely pathetic his so-called competitors in the field are. It's wide open for Apple to take. And it doesn't require a full-blown Mac OS X notebook for that. An iPod Touch II would do just fine.

A Tablet based on Mac OS X will most likely appear next year, probably in Spring or Fall. There is no compelling reason to rush something as important as that. We've all seen what rushing a tablet to market did for Microsoft's failed Tablet PC plans.

Apple will be making money hand over fist with an iPod Touch II in the meantime. And learning a lot in the process too, which it can incorporate into a Mac OS X tablet.

ePub: The Death Of The Index?

2009-08-25T14:45:00.004-04:00

Screensnap from the Appendix of an ePub eBook borrowed from the New York Public Library. This is not the first one to have a worthless Index. But it is the first one to offer such an insulting suggestion!

This is unacceptable.

One more nail in the coffin of the Axis of E.

Sony: Not All Words Allowed!

2009-08-25T12:19:00.009-04:00

Of course I wind up pushing the envelope once again.

I've joined Sony's new Words Move Me site.

But the first literary quote I put in flagged the bluenoses!

The quote was this:

I disliked them all immediately, sitting around acting clever and superior. They nullified each other. The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers. Like flies on the same turd.

-- Women by Charles Bukowski

This is how it appears on Sony's site:

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Now I ask you, which is worse? The word "turd" or making people think the actual word was "shit"?

Nevertheless, I went on to add nineteen snippets to the site:

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I'm mikecane there.

What I like about the site is the crawl of quotes on the main page:

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One other person has begun to add quotes too after I did.

It will be interesting to see if Sony leaves the Bukowski quote looking so damaged or if they'll realize that "turd" is better than what people can imagine in their own filthy minds.

Assorted eBook Notes For Monday August 24, 2009

2009-08-24T16:32:00.008-04:00

Publishers Weekly: Jane Friedman Raises $3 Million

Paid Content: Jane Friedman’s OpenRoad Gets $3 Million Funding For eBooks Venture

Raising three million dollars is not an insignificant task. But I predict failure.

Above is Jane Friedman captured in a video embedded at the Paid Content site.

As innovative as Friedman may have been in her career, I think she is ill-suited to the new world of digital publishing. She is someone who has made her mark, risen to a certain level in life, and is not about to get into the down-and-dirty guerilla tactics of digital publishing. If Jane Friedman was on Twitter, I think we'd see that blatantly. I think Jane Friedman is the type who would do Twitter by proxy.

This is not to be disrespectful of her achievements, but to acknowledge reality. Apple, Google, Amazon, et al, were not founded by Jane Friedmans. And yet the kind of people who created those companies are the very ones Friedman will have to compete against. Three million is a mighty war chest, but if you really think you need that amount of money, you'd either better have one hell of a business strategy or else requiring that amount is an admission of failure at the very start.

Friedman's OpenRoad Integrated Media -- which doesn't even have a website! -- will be going up against agile startups such as Quartet Press. In a year, I think it will be obvious which of these two companies has made a mark. If I had to put real money down, it'd be on Quartet Press.

Over at Munsey’s Technosnarl is a post that raises very uncomfortable questions: Questions For Sony viz Kindle.

I'm not attending tomorrow's Sony event. I wasn't invited and since it's in the bloody morning, I don't want to go anyway (only Steve Jobs could command morning attention from me -- and thank god he's on the west coast, so me being on the east coast works out well). But if I was going, I'd bring along a printout of this and corner Steve Haber and slash him with them.

Another reason, aside from my lack of faith in the Axis of E, for not wanting to go to Sony's event is that I think they've already conceded my point they stubbornly resisted less than a year ago:

When it came to Jim Malcolm, Sony’s Director of Corporate Marketing for Mobile Lifestyle Products, I brought up the hardware pricing issue.

He saw this poll result:

I’ve wailed for lower prices. As recently as this week, so has Dear Author.

This is basically what Malcolm told me. The poll results are from those who are tech-savvy early adopters. They already know the price of things and so, of course, would love eBook reading devices to even be as low as five for $20.00. Malcolm claims that Sony’s own research shows that hardware price is actually not a factor. Can I argue with their expertise and proprietary, professional research?

Yes. I know. I’m stubborn. Or I’m just an absolute eejit when it comes to real-world marketing, but I can’t but help to point once again to the example of Henry Ford and the Model T. Plus, there are the more recent examples of the Commodore-64 and the Asus EeePC.

Emphasis added by me.

Less than a year later, the PRS-700 is gone and Sony is diving in with a $199.00 Reader. I win.

I particularly like this question in the Munsey's post:

Your latest ebook strategy has you making the device and actually selling titles, Adobe providing DRM, Bowker supplying "neccesary" ISBNs, Overdrive on the back-end, and conversion houses like PublishingDimensions producing the content on behalf of a publisher. What manner and quantity of drugs must one take before one can actually believe that strategies involving said middlemen, required by "standard" and all taking their cut, will somehow result in lower ebook prices for readers, and more money to publishers and authors, when compared to the Kindle model of publisher+Amazon?

So much for the world of disintermediation! Hey, Sony! This isn't 2008 anymore. We now have Atlantis for creating ePub and SIGIL for editing ePub. Which part of that sentence don't you guys understand?

Next, both the PRS-300 and the PRS-600 are out in the wild somewhere in Canada. There have been stills and videos posted. I grabbed two screensnaps from a video to make this:

What disturbs me about the 300 is the big text gap at the bottom of the screen. There should be room for another sentence there. The page margins also look to be wider than those on the 505. See a larger version here.

And, finally, a head's-up for those of you with a public library offering eBooks via the OverDrive monopoly system. Returning too many eBooks too soon can get you in trouble!

Shortly after doing this post, I was greeted by a message that prompted me to email OverDrive:

My local library is giving me

Error code: 710
Error details: Early return error

Which aborts the Checkout process.

What does that mean?

OverDrive replied:

We are sorry you are having trouble with your Adobe eBooks. This error is being shown because you have returned an excessive number of Adobe eBook titles in a brief period of time. Please try checking out you Adobe eBooks again in a couple of days. However, you should still be able to check out titles of other formats without difficulty.

Well, look. I don't have an eInk device and didn't want to hold on to all of those titles for the seven day loan period when other people likely wanted to read them.

So let that be a warning to everyone: you cannot even browse eBooks!

The eBook Cover Scandal

2009-08-19T15:58:00.016-04:00

Who can deny that a good cover plays a part in the overall book buying and even reading experience?

I've done several posts about the necessity for direct publishers to pay attention to good cover design. After all, just because a book is electronic doesn't mean people won't be attracted to -- or repelled by -- its cover.

One of the few things I haven't complained about with print publishing is the design of book covers. This is because it's an art that stretches back for decades and there have been some seriously great covers (see The Book Design blog for some samples).

There is even a science to book covers!

But with print publishing turning to eBooks, all of that learning is being flushed down the eToilet.

I submit these exhibits as proof. They were ePub eBook loans from the New York Public Library. If these reflect what eBook purchasers get, there's trouble ahead!

American Rust, A Novel by Philipp Meyer; Publisher: Random House Publishing Group; Imprint: Spiegel & Grau

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Black Boy by Richard Wright; Publisher: HarperCollins; Imprint: HarperCollins e-books

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Burn by Sean Doolittle; Publisher: Dell Publishing; Imprint:Dell

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Business Stripped Bare, Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Richard Branson; Publisher: Random House Publishing Group; Imprint: Virgin Digital

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Fault Line, A Novel by Barry Eisler; Publisher: Random House Publishing Group; Imprint: Ballantine Books

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Gang Leader for a Day, A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh; Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.; Imprint: The Penguin Press

The print cover:

The eBook title page (yes, this one does not have a cover!):

Lincoln Unmasked, What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe by Thomas DiLorenzo; Publisher: Crown Publishing Group; Imprint: Three Rivers Press

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

The Civil War, The complete text of the bestselling narrative history of the Civil War--based on the celebrated PBS television series by Geoffrey C. Ward, Kenneth Burns; Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Imprint: Vintage

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

The Real Deadwood, True Life Histories of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Outlaw Towns, and Other Characters of the Lawless West by John Ames; Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.; Imprint: Chamberlain Bros.

The print cover:

The eBook title page (another one that doesn't have a cover!):

I picked these eBooks because they were of interest to me.

Some of you at this point might be saying, "Well, these are generic covers because these are library copies." Then explain these:

Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys by Neil Oliver; Publisher: HarperCollins; Imprint: HarperCollins e-books

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

Lowboy by John Wray; Publisher: Canongate Books

The print cover:

The eBook cover:

If they can do that, why not everyone else?

And understand this too: An argument cannot be made that the electronic rights for the covers haven't been secured. Because the print versions I'm showing are displayed electronically in the NYPL catalog (OverDrive system)!

I consider this to be a scandal. It's tantamount to bait-and-switch and I foresee the day of many eBook buyer complaints and perhaps even inquiries by State Attorneys General.

And it's another reason why I think the entire Axis of E will fail.

Prior posts elsewhere about covers:

The Topic Of Covers ... Again!
eBooks: The Issue Of Covers, Again
Free eBook: Password Incorrect
Book Covers: Murder
Book Cover: What?!
eBooks: More About Covers
eBooks: A Cover Test
They Don’t Write These Anymore

Hewlett-Packard BookPrep Trademark

2009-08-19T14:52:00.003-04:00

Reformatted for posting clarity.

Word Mark
BOOKPREP

Goods and Services
IC 040. US 100 103 106. G & S: Printing; print-on-demand services

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Publishing of books; online electronic publishing services of books

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code
(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number
77606098

Filing Date
November 3, 2008

Current Filing Basis
1B

Original Filing Basis
1B

Published for Opposition
August 18, 2009

Owner
(APPLICANT) Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. HPQ Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TEXAS 11445 Compaq Center Drive West Houston TEXAS 77070

Type of Mark
SERVICE MARK

Register
PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

HP also has a webpage about this service.

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #6

2009-08-17T13:35:00.014-04:00

ePub eBooks are a dead-end for all publishers.

ePub:

1) Standalone
2) Flat
3) Static
4) Unconnected
5) A pirate's paradise

Smart Digital Books are what print publishing need to continue existing:

Smart Digital Books:

1) Nodal
2) Multi-dimensional
3) Dynamic
4) Connected
5) A pirate's worst nightmare

In the above graphic of a smart digital book, I'm briefly illustrating the value of metadata connectedness to readers and especially to publishers. Axiom 3:

3 - Connections between books add value to all books

So a smart digital book from publisher A leads to two other books from the same publisher (A), as well as a book from two other publishers (B and C). (Note de Bono's rule here, however: "Patterns are asymmetric. The route from A to B is not the same as the route from B to A." So it might not be likely that the books on the right would lead back to the book on the left. This, however, is irrelevant in the overall network.)

The work of Dave Winer, father of RSS, is most likely important in all of this. Start paying attention to him, especially his rssCloud formulations.

@doctorlaura will probably again wonder about metadata versus marginalia in this example, but I'm blunting her objection here. I am not parsing out the underlying metadata that would make this connection. I'm saying this is the type of connection metadata will make possible.

The following statement made by a noted criminologist illustrates the point: "When men first come into contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it, and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it."

-- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, published 1937

And:

But you don’t think about these trade-offs anymore. You’ve already made this decision many times in the past, so you now assume that this is the way you want to spend your money. You’ve herded yourself -- lining up behind your initial experience at Starbucks -- and now you’re part of the crowd.

-- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, published 2008

I grant 99.9% of people will find this connection to be too obscure. That's because the Predictably Irrational story is too long for a Fair Use quote, so I've cut to the end of the tale. Also, people looking at this are seeing it from the outside, unlike someone -- um, me -- who has recently read both books and can see how they fit together. (While reading PI, I immediately thought of that passage from T&GR.)

The point is metadata will allow conceptual linking. Anyone interested in concept "A" will be able to extract that concept from within other books.

This is a knowledge cascade effect that adds value to the original book and opens the way for sales of other books for everyone.

To bring up Outliers once again. It has a chapter about the 10,000 hours required to achieve distinctive mastery. There is an entire book about that subject alone. How many people reading Outliers as a print book or as an eBook know that or would bother to find out? Such a connection would be possible with smart digital books, eliminating the friction current print and eBooks create for such discovery.

It's this connecting of smart digital books that will save publishing. It will lead to on-the-spot discovery for readers, it will require human expertise, the metadata and connections become a new capital asset, and all books increase in value to readers because new connections are being added all the time.

That race to the bottom pricing with flat, static ePub eBooks comes to a halt with smart digital books.

Moving on ...

A good overview of HTML5.

XML is being used for voice applications: VoiceXML at 10: Fueling Growth in Voice Apps and Hosting.

Previously here:

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #5
Metadata Is Money
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #4
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #3
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #2
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #1
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #5

2009-08-15T18:50:00.008-04:00

Via France: Beyond Google ... The ways of collective intelligence

This is an interview with Pierre Lévy, of the University of Ottawa.

I'm quoting the original French via Google Translate, without tweaking, so the syntax is rough but the ideas are still understandable.

It must be understood that the major funders of the W3C. The main objective of return on their investment and return the maximum value for their shareholders, not to develop the collective intelligence of mankind. If their goals through an increase in collective intelligence, so much the better, they are not against a priori, of course, if not, too bad! The result is a focus on this very focused on the so-called "click stream marketing, and therefore the revenue per click.

Emphasis added by me.

Understand that. A world ruled by Google and its ethos is one ruled by a marketing scheme: revenue per click. Anything else is secondary. And how to increase revenue per click? Offer as many damned clicks as possible. Hence Google Book Search: trillions of other possible clicks, from which Google makes it daily tens of millions of fractions of a cent that add up to a collection of billions of dollars at the end of the year.

Finally, new modes of computation and social organization of collective intelligence emerge from the spontaneous activity of Internet users.

One of the first of these was Dave Winer's RSS. More will sprout up as an increasing number of people wake up to the fact that having any one point of the Net in centralized hands is detrimental to the overall good. (My own use of Twitter as a source of research through Favorites has revealed to me that I cannot leave such data solely in Twitter's hands and just this week started feeding Twitter into Google Reader [Google again!] and finding ways to locally store my tweets.)

I'm looking in the same vein, a digital encoding of meaning, whose effect could be an extraordinary increase in the power of expression and interpretation in the hands of users and their collective intelligence.

Emphasis added by me.

Yes. In my original post, the entire point of smart digital books containing metadata was to encode the meaning within the text.

And this:

We must not forget either that a huge amount of metadata are not organized by ontologies. I am thinking particularly of tags produced spontaneously by Internet users on their blogs, on applications like Flickr, Delicious or YouTube, or to "hashtags" used on Twitter.

I would expect, and made room for in my original post for, user-contributed book metadata too.

(Not quoted above, but of personal interest to me, seems to be the less-than-favorable reaction some of his prior work received in France. I'm very surprised by this. France, which gave the world Balzac, Baudelaire, Hugo, Nerval, and others, not seeing the point?)

Lévy has been working on something called Information Economy Meta Language. There's a website for that. Pierre Lévy is also on Twitter.

There is also OWL: Web Ontology Language, which seems to fit into RDF. With OWL and RDF working together, what support should there be for EAD, then?

Unfortunately, when it comes to smart digital book metadata, people tend to immediately think fiction. And while there is applicability to fiction (it is no less vital to fiction than to any other kind of book), the first thing to consider is non-fiction. I recently read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It was a startling book to me personally because it turned out to be a missing puzzle piece that fit together so many other books I've read over the years -- years meaning decades. Outliers would be the perfect expression of the book metadata idea in that it would -- with a complete dataset (which it's not possible for me to create, not recalling the titles of every book over those decades) -- reveal how one book could relate to so many other books; not just ones in the past, but ones not yet written too, that seemingly have zero connection to it.

That connection between present and future books is also part of the concept expressed in this post, Defining the Big Shift:

From knowledge stocks to knowledge flows. We are moving from a world where the source of strategic advantage was in protecting and efficiently extracting value from a given set of knowledge stocks -- what we know at any point in time. As knowledge stocks depreciate in value at an accelerating pace, the focus of economic value creation shifts to effective and privileged participation in knowledge flows. Finding ways to connect with people and institutions possessing new knowledge becomes increasingly important. Since there are far more smart people outside any one organization than inside, gaining access to the most useful knowledge flows requires reaching beyond the four walls of any enterprise.

Emphasis added by me.

To take Outliers as an example, the smart digital book metadata model would have connecting metadata added to the book as other books in the future are published. I could, for example, be looking at a passage in Outliers, go to its metadata, and see two new books have been published that somehow connect to that very passage. If I'm interested, I could then immediately buy and read those books. This is also an example of Axioms 3 and 7. Note that I wouldn't have to rely on reviews (which would be likely to miss such a connection) or slow Word of Mouth. The connection would come to me.

Metadata used dramatically in the movie Fight Club:

Previously here:

Metadata Is Money
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #4
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #3
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #2
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #1
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

Metadata Is Money

2009-08-14T20:29:00.002-04:00

New "find at" links on book pages

Goodreads owes a debt of gratitude to Amazon for this, as you would not believe the price to purchase book meta-data from other sources.

Emphasis added by me.

There is a controversy over at GoodReads, which has had to change its linking policy due to Amazon's Terms of Service.

Amazon gets prime e-commerce positioning now.

One Commenter states:

Book publishers and distributors have failed to realize the importance of making free/ cheap book meta-data available thereby handing Amazon a near monopoly in this space. I will gladly pay a reasonable fee for good clean book meta-data.

Emphasis added by me.

Today, someone on Twitter I Blocked recently for abusing his position of trust denigrated my assertions about the value of metadata.

I guess some people never heard of R.R. Bowker.

He Understands Something Is Missing

2009-08-14T17:32:00.004-04:00

Don't book in a revolution just yet

Jose Borghino, from the Australian Publishing Association, said the industry was currently in discussion to develop a unified system to deliver book titles.

"The publishing industry is very ready for this, it's just the matter of finding that killer app which will shift people's understanding of what a book can be and can do," Mr Borghino said.

Emphasis added by me.

Unfortunately, the context is that of the Axis of E: eInk, ePub, and eBook.

But just his phrasing there makes me hopeful that he senses the Axis of E is not there, not good enough, and will not succeed.

Someone else grasps that:

Dr Jason Sternberg, lecturer in media and communication at the Queensland University of Technology, said he didn't think the industry in Australia should brace itself for a revolution in the consumption of the written word .

"These things have been around for a while, one of the initial predictions was how we would get digital newspapers on these tablets but the internet kind of killed that," he said.

"I just do not see these replacing the book on a mass scale."

Emphasis added by me.

Exactly.

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #4

2009-08-14T13:17:00.013-04:00

Another throw-it-all-in-the-pot post.

The diminishing returns on data

This surprised me because there's a fairly widespread assumption out there that Google's search scale is an important source of its competitive advantage. Varian seems to be talking only about the effects of data scale on the quality of results and ads (there are other possible scale advantages, such as the efficiency of the underlying computing infrastructure), but if he's right that Google long ago hit the point of diminishing returns on data, that's going to require some rethinking of a few basic orthodoxies about competition on the web.

I was reminded, in particular, of one of Tim O'Reilly's fundamental beliefs about the business implications of Web 2.0: that a company's scale of data aggregation is crucial to its competitive success. As he recently wrote: "Understanding the dynamics of increasing returns on the web is the essence of what I called Web 2.0. Ultimately, on the network, applications win if they get better the more people use them. As I pointed out back in 2005, Google, Amazon, ebay, craigslist, wikipedia, and all other Web 2.0 superstar applications have this in common." (The italics are O'Reilly's.)

I don't see how he can lump together what are clearly several different things in this post. To take just two:

1) Google does "dumb" connections; not even its vaunted algorithms are as smart as any human being

2) O'Reilly is still correct because he is talking about the connections made by human intelligence -- and he is even right about Google in that it takes humans clicking on results to improve ranking accuracy

However, this (A) ...

But Varian's argument goes much further than that. He's saying that the assumption of an increasing returns dynamic in data collection -- what O'Reilly calls "the essence" of Web 2.0 -- is "pretty bogus." The benefit from aggregating data is actually subject to decreasing returns, thanks to the laws of statistics.

... ties in with this (B): When less is more

Because something can be done does not always mean it should be, though. Back in the 1980s, Richard Gabriel, an expert on Lisp programming, noted that quality in software development does not necessarily increase with functionality. "Worse is better" was the phrase he coined in a seminal essay on Lisp. There comes a point, he argued, where less functionality ("worse") is a more desirable ("better") optimisation of usefulness. In other words, a software program that is limited in scope but easy to use is generally better than one that is more comprehensive but harder to use.

Mr Gabriel's paradox was really an attack on "bloatware" -- in particular, the kind of feature-creep that forced Apple to abandon its Copland operating system and buy NeXT for the Unix software that became Macintosh OS X. In the process, "worse is better" has become one of the pillars of efficient software design and much else. Regrettably, it is not practised as much as it should be. But when it is, the process embodies simplicity, correctness, consistency and completeness.

But what the A bit lacks that the B takes into account is the human element.

Dr. Edward de Bono put it best:

We produce value through design.

And:

There is no natural route to simplicity.

Design and simplicity are human creations. To expect our coarse software tools of today to produce elegance and intuitiveness is to invite disaster and to look for shortcuts that might never exist. (Sue me: I favor human intelligence and imagination over their by-product -- algorithms.)

Out of France: Towards the convergence of bibliographic formats? [Google English link] -- which is about the rise of ONIX. Although nuances are missing in the translation, I was surprised to learn that bibliographic data "over there" (France and Europe broadly) is not handled the same way it's been done in the United States. So much for my thinking librarianship and archivism had become a universal practice.

What troubles me is this bit:

It seems that XML in this regard, much more promising, as evidenced by the implementation of EAD for the world of archives, based on an XML declaration 8. Created in 1993 at the library of the University of California at Berkeley, EAD is a DTD for encoding archival research instruments and records we would insist on "and", which proves that we can use the same format for structuring both the primary information and secondary information.

EAD, as you will shortly see, is not considered the best flavor to bet on. There's RDF. I don't know if they can co-exist or if one must topple the other.

Via @doctorlaura and someone else on Twitter: Linked Data and Archival Description: Confluences, Contingencies, and Conflicts, presented at the Encoded Archival Description Roundtable at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 12, 2009. A slideshow from which I am extracting some interesting ones:

What also must be taken into account is third-party client software that can create new relationships on the fly. To use another Wall Street analogy: think of how hedge funds take the raw data and metadata of finance and create proprietary trading systems. They see things others don't. So it will be with book metadata.

It looks forbidding when it's illustrated like that. But the thing is, it's all built one step at a time.

Yes. And to be able to see what the underlying definition is helps to ascertain the original assumptions that were made!

I'm not so sure about that. If that's true, then something is possibly wrong. Again Dr. Edward de Bono:

Patterns are asymmetric. The route from A to B is not the same as the route from B to A.

A chart such as that makes me think of my reaction to reading Theodor Nelson's mind-blowing Literary Machines back in the early 1980s. People laughed at me for grasping that information became spherical in nature. Well, that's a flat sphere.

This next slide is for @doctorlaura:

She raises many questions (in a Comment here) about how to do all this. I think such questions are asking for answers before all the questions themselves are known. Plus, we're not looking at a Big Bang phenomenon here. It's accretive, like the Internet itself.

Including the assumptions behind the labels!

Inheritance of concepts is an interesting idea.

But will everything necessarily be hierarchical in nature?

What I need someone to show me -- or to create (for everyone!) -- is a flowchart showing the hierarchy of metadata production, current methods, and the proposals vying to become standards. Beginning with what publishers use, then bookstores, then libraries, then other archival outlets, and finally where book metadata would fit in (somewhere right below publisher, I think) and how that would flow to everything/one else.

Previously here:

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #3
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #2
Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #1
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

The Eleven Axioms of 21st Century Book Publishing

2009-08-14T08:19:00.001-04:00

1 - All publishers are information engines, not producers of objects

2 - A book is no longer a thing in itself

3 - Connections between books add value to all books

4 - A non-fiction book is only the beginning of its story

5 - Even fiction books connect to all other books

6 - A book's deep metadata is worth more than the book itself

7 - Every dollar invested in deep metadata is worth a hundred dollars in future sales

8 - A book's function dictates its file container

9 - Readers are no longer passive customers

10 - Readers sell more books than any publisher

11 - To see only today is to forfeit tomorrow

Will Everyone Have To Re-Buy Sony eBooks?

2009-08-13T13:46:00.007-04:00

UPDATE!
I have questions about today’s Press Release (regarding conversion to EPUB)

What will happen to previous purchases from the eBook Store from Sony, or to additional purchases that occur before the conversion?

Books that have been purchased from Sony’s eBook store in Broad Band eBook format (BBeB) will continue to work on existing devices. When the store is converted, customers will be able to re-download their previously purchased books in EPUB format.

Current Reader owners can continue to purchase and read their BBeB eBooks in the meantime.

Emphasis added by me.

Sony For The Win!

Original post:

Sony Press release: SONY CONVERTS eBOOK STORE TO EPUB FORMAT

SAN DIEGO, August 13, 2009 -- In an effort to take the confusion out of digital book formats, Sony today announced its plan to convert its eBook store to the industry-standard EPUB format by the end of the year. Adopting an industry-standard format and Adobe® Content Server 4 (ACS4), a popular, cross platform server software solution that copy protects downloadable eBooks, allows Sony to make its eBook store compatible with multiple devices and its Reader devices open to multiple sources for content.

"Our intention is to lead by example," said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division. "Our Readers have long supported industry-standard formats such as EPUB and PDF. Now, what is quickly becoming the de facto standard for eBooks will be available in our store."

Emphasis added by me.

Additional coverage at the New York Times in a story written by Brad Stone (he who outed Fake Steve Jobs two years ago): Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books.

Teleread doesn't let the Times get away with anything: Adobe-DRMed ePub isn’t 'open': Why the New York Times urgently needs to clarify its Sony eBook Store article

Sony's store has been a mixture of BBeB and ePub format for over a year. Sony has never bothered to place any identifiers in listings so people would know exactly what they were buying.

All I have for Sony is one important question: Will people have to re-buy their failed BBeB books to get ePub format?

If it is indeed Steve Haber's intention to "lead by example," he can start there.

The Capitulation Of Print Publishing

2009-08-12T14:53:00.005-04:00

Self-deluded Authors Guild rep waving Google Book Search Settlement agreement

Self-deluded Authors Guild rep standing next to Google

Oh yes this bombastic analogy is apt!

1) Neville Chamberlain signed an agreement giving away property he did not own -- just as the Authors Guild has done

2) Hitler knew what he wanted -- so does Google

3) Hitler had a long-range plan -- so does Google

4) Chamberlain was clueless -- so is the Authors Guild

Stop this madness. Now.

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #3

2009-08-12T14:11:00.007-04:00

How much metadata?

Look:

Click = big

That's a series of screensnaps from the ePub editor, SIGIL. Those designations are just for Author.

A example of possible user-contributed metadata linking:

I once had a wise and honest teacher; I asked him one day to explain a certain matter; and he replied: "I haven't time now. If I knew it thoroughly I could tell you in a few minutes, but as I know it only imperfectly, it would take me an hour."

-- Footnotes to Life by Dr. Frank Crane, published 1920

connects/relates loosely to:

I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. --Blaise Pascal

-- quoted in The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, published 2004

Where I Stand Now

2009-08-12T13:47:00.005-04:00

I need to do this post to make everything clear.

Most of this has been covered in recent posts, but this is the short all-in-one summary.

1) eInk = monochrome non-backlit display suited to viewing lightly tarted-up text files.

2) eBook = lightly tarted-up text file exemplified by the "industry standard" of --

3) ePub = an alleged "standard" pieced together by a committee without teeth, now a footstool of Adobe.

4) Axis of E = 1 + 2 + 3.

5) Digital book = multi-dimensional interactive book with a rich back-end metadata component that can connect to other digital books. What books need to be.

6) Google Book Search = there is no need to rush into this, it is based on a false understanding of what an "electronic book" is. Google understands the difference, so they want to rush.

People also wonder if I still endorse something like the Sony Reader (I have never endorsed the Kindle). Only conditionally:

1) You do not purchase any "eBooks" for it (because it's likely you will have to repurchase those in digital book format)

2) You use it for library loans

3) You use it for public domain books

4) You use it for free eBooks

5) You use it to view your own material (manuscript, RSS feeds, etc)

I am, in short, now opposed to buying anything called an "eBook," because it's contributing to a "standard" that is doomed to be swept away.

Save your money. Borrow print books from a library.

It will be worth the wait.

So No Digital Books From Apple After All?

2009-08-11T13:54:00.004-04:00

I should have known it was too good to be true, Apple acting as if it was entering digital books.

The "Cocktail" project that led me to believe Apple was creating a new digital book format turns out to be, diplomatically speaking, a defensive move by Apple to counter a competing strategy by four big music labels, a file format called CMX.

Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI to launch CMX album download format

It is understood that the record labels approached Apple, maker of the iPod, about 18 months ago with the plan to revitalise album downloads by bundling together extra features in a single download.

Industry insiders say that their project, with the working title CMX, was rebuffed by Apple. The technology giant is now understood to be working on its own format, codenamed Cocktail, which it hopes to launch within two months.

One senior record label insider said: "Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on."

Emphasis added by me.

Sadly, this behavior seems to be in Apple's DNA. Direct your attention to The god of iPod

Later, Robbin told C&G about his idea to develop better MP3 player software. The result was SoundJam MP. The Apple engineering staff jumped in to help C&G with advice.

"They really liked what we were doing; it really showed off the Mac's math co-processor," Kunysz says. SoundJam quickly grabbed 90 per cent market share, pouring revenue into C&G's coffers.

In a short time the three-man company grew to a staff of about 30, taking in as much as $US5.5 million annually, with the lion's share coming from SoundJam.

And then one day, Kunysz says, "Apple comes to us like an 800-pound gorilla". The message, he says, was: "Sell the rights or we'll develop a competitive product and put you out of business."

Emphasis added by me.

Right there is the dark history of the iTunes software.

So where does this leave us?

1) Apple creating a new format called "Cocktail."

2) Could "Cocktail" be part of a larger digital book strategy?

3) Could Apple have seen CMX, already had digital books in mind, and decided that this was the ideal entry strategy?

4) Could Apple have rejected CMX as being too limited in format, unable to accommodate other things, less graceful than Apple's fabled simplicity?

We won't know until we see "Cocktail" and Apple talks about how it was developed and if it's open at all to independent music publishers.

And whether "Cocktail" is in fact a framework for actual digital books.

Reject The Google Book Search Settlement!

2009-08-10T10:35:00.007-04:00

William Morris Advises Clients to Say No to Google Settlement

“Now they’ve got this license to sell your books at a pre-negotiated one-time royalty that you’re stuck with unless a court changes the settlement,” Eric Zohn, an attorney in business affairs at William Morris, said in an interview. “It’s like a legislative change. Under copyright law, you don’t have anything without express written consent from the copyright holder. Now the court is saying Google is free to sell your book unless you expressly tell them not to.”

Emphasis added by me.

Opt-out, opt-out, opt-out!

The shortsightedness of writers will come back to haunt them for the rest of their miserable lives (and those lives are guaranteed to be miserable by opting-in!).

Who other than Google has been rushing towards this idea?

Show me the single writer who ever said, "Gee, it'd be nice if the full-text of my book was available free for anyone in the world to read via Google. Just think of all the bills I'd never be able to pay again!"

Show me the dying dinosaur of print publisher who ever said anywhere at any time, "You know, let's just give away the history of our company, let's just grab all of this backlist and throw it away! Or better yet: let's allow someone else to get rich from it!"

Show me the agent who ever declared, "I'd really like to put myself out of business by helping to destroy the publishing industry in its entirety!"

Stop this madness!

There has been no societal or writer or even corporate impulse to do what Google wants to do. There has only been Google!

Let me show you what having foresight means. Actress Audrey Meadows played Ralph Kramden's wife on the 1950s TV series, The Honeymooners. Out of the entire cast, she was the only one with a contract to specify rerun royalties.

Audrey Meadows was the only cast member whose contract had a royalty clause. Her brother was a lawyer.

Her brother was smart! He dared to ask, "What IF?"

Audrey Meadows never had to take another job for the rest of her life!

Now contrast that to a personal idol of mine, TV producer extraordinaire Gerry Anderson. He sold his rights to the Supermarionation television series he produced in the 1960s. He never figured there would ever be a repeat market for them. Was he wrong!

Thunderbirds creator fighting to reclaim rights from ITV

Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson has made a public plea to ITV bosses to return the rights to his iconic 60s puppet show, after being locked in a legal battle.

Here is a man who created iconic television programs that are still watched decades later, that still create new product licensees virtually perpetually, and he is locked out of his own creations! In his own biography, he admits to being just about penniless at one point! Penniless!

Money started to run out and Gerry found himself living on the breadline.

Every writer has this ask this question right now: What kind of life do I want to live? One like Audrey Meadows, or one like Gerry Anderson?

Stop being shortsighted! There is a larger future for books than just being books!

Google knows that! You should too.

The Axis Of E Book Holocaust

2009-08-09T18:25:00.018-04:00

The Axis of E: eInk, ePub, eBook.

"What have you done? Thousands of years of building and re-building, creating and re-creating, so you could let it crumble to dust! A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams -- "

"-- for what?!"

"So you could swim, and dance, and play!"

We are nowhere near smart digital books. What we have are lightly tarted-up text files that are flat and linear and contemptible. In other words, "eBooks."

There has never been a real effort to create smart digital books.

Commercial interests -- Peanut Press, MobiPocket, Microsoft -- were the forerunners of what is today the alleged Independent Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), which promulgates the ePub "standard." In reality, the IDPF is nothing more than Adobe's bitch, cringing at its feet, praying that Adobe will stop ignoring "eBooks" and deliver an ePub rendering engine that isn't the equivalent of digital swine flu.

What we've been told to accept is the inevitable product of any self-interested and lazy committee: the lowest-common denominator. In short: FAIL.

I have taken to looking forward to reading -- as much as it's possible to do so via Google Translate -- blog posts from France.

Unlike America, the French actually think about the book and its place in society and its necessary future.

Here are just two examples I came across yesterday alone at L’édition électronique ouverte.

In a post titled Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS), a technology that addresses a social issue [Google Translation link], the title itself takes a stance! Then, commenting on the necessity for the OPDS:

The challenge is economic. It is cultural. It is political. It is a social issue which should not be reduced to a technological issue. On the contrary, it is a societal choice. Do we want to entrust the control of the distribution of eBooks to 5 or 10 players in the world (at random: Apple, Amazon, Google) or do we want to allow the birth of multiple emission of books and multiple channels distribution of books?

Emphasis added by me.

Here in America, the importance of digital books -- the future of stored knowledge and learning! -- has been reduced to "a technological issue."

And then, in a post titled CSS, epub and typography of the eBook [Google Translation link], I am again shocked to see the French mention an issue that is waved away by my so-called fellow Americans -- the issue of hyphenation.

The CSS does not currently manage the hyphens, which can result in unsightly white text justified. To remedy this lack, the proposed CSS3 property, hyphenate, which could prove interesting, particularly to control the number of characters before and after each word (before-hyphenate, hyphenate-after), and the maximum number lines with hyphens (hyphenate-lines). Obviously, make hyphens in the presence of a dictionary according to the language of the text: it is something provided by the specification (hyphenate-dictionary). It is possible to refer to an internal dictionary to the machine or the browser with the value auto, which would avoid burdening each file (however, the presence of this dictionary is essential.

Hyphenation of machine text was an issue back in the early 1980s when microcomputers began to be used for word processing. It's nearly thirty years later and this pops up to be an issue with "eBooks?" That should seal the verdict on my earlier assertion: what we've been told to accept is the inevitable product of any self-interested and lazy committee: the lowest-common denominator.

And like everything else before it that has been uninspired, unimaginative, and the lowest of the low, it will fail.

eInk, ePub, and eBooks are products of a corporate contempt towards the good of society.

The Axis of E deserve the failure they will receive.

All that money you're putting into buying ePub eBooks will disintegrate just like that.

English-Subtitled Editis Smart Digital Book Video

2009-08-06T18:43:00.002-04:00

Twitter Follower @DoctorLaura actually did an English translation transcription of this video for me, but I was swamped and never got around to posting it here.

In the meantime, a Comment was posted here today informing me of a new English-subtitled version of the Editis video, which I analyzed in a prior post.

Here it is.

I'm at a disadvantage here. I can't watch the video as it's presented on YouTube because XP updates have crippled video playback on this PC. I must rip and convert the video to watch it. So all of you are seeing it well before I will.

Now you know why dumb eBooks must die and the Axis of E (eInk, ePub, eBook) will fail.

Smart Digital Books Metadata Notes #2

2009-08-06T17:16:00.011-04:00

No time for an involved post today. Just want to get some links down.

What is a Platform?

A platform must have potential, or open space. I call this blue sky. The platform's API must show thru enough power so you can do *anything* on top of it. That's a very elusive idea, hard to define. You want an API to put limits on the problems it deals with, but you also want to leave open the possibility that any developer could pervert the API to make it solve problems that the inventor couldn't imagine. The author of an API is offering a challenge, saying "blow my mind," to everyone who might take a stab at implementing something on top of the API.

And:

Want to understand the Internet? Once you understand the platform concept, you now have all the concepts you need to understand the Internet. It's just a system for inventing new platforms. You could call the Internet a meta-platform, or a platform machine, because it contains all the collaboration tools a platform proponent needs to define and deploy new platforms. Got an idea that no one has thought of yet? Put out a RFC paper. Boom. It's a platform!

Emphasis added by me.

That's Dave Winer. Who everyone should start really listening to.

Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what?

In all my previous work in memetics I have used the term "meme" to apply to any information that is copied between people, including stories in books, ideas embodied in new technology, websites and so on. The reason was that there seemed no way of distinguishing between "natural" human memes, such as spoken words, habits, fashions, art and religions, and what we might call "artificial" memes, such as websites and high-tech goods. So on the grounds that a false distinction is worse than none I stuck to the term "meme". Yet an email encrypted in digital code, broken into tiny packets and beamed around the planet does seem qualitatively different from someone shaking hands and saying "Hi". Could there be a fundamental principle lurking here? If we ask what made memes different from genes, would that help us decide what would make a new replicator different from memes?

Putting it that way makes the answer easier to see. Memes are a new kind of information - behaviours rather than DNA - copied by a new kind of machinery - brains rather than chemicals inside cells. This is a new evolutionary process because all of the three critical stages - copying, varying and selection - are done by those brains. So does the same apply to new technology?

Metadata memes?

my next book: "evil plans"
Illustration #1
Illustration #2

Browsing for Godot

By keeping potential customers away from the books they're looking for, sloppy categorization can kill bookstores. So why must everything be so needlessly confusing? Don't stores want to connect their customers to sales? I decided to ask around.

Orlean says she's found The Orchid Thief shelved in fiction, true crime, current affairs, and gardening, the victim of an ongoing literary identity crisis that rankles her to no end. (Before our interview, she said she hoped that this article "started a movement.")

cognitive m-app-ing which ties into writer Christopher Fowler: Bryant & May’s Mystery Map and Bryant & May’s London Map Starts Here
Pay attention to that, especially in light of a note here later on.

Making The Web Smarter

I spent Monday morning talking to the engineers at Zemanta. It was a great discussion and I learned a lot about how their system works. I learned some interesting facts, like how reliant the “semantic web community” has become on Wikipedia. Zemanta and many others use Wikipedia as a kind of expert system. For example, if a page is linked to from a Wikipedia page, you can be pretty sure that page is relevant to the topic of the Wikipedia page. That kind of approach can be used for many different tasks, all with the goal of making the web and web services smarter.

Tagging up pages, posts, videos, images, and other objects on the web is a critically important part of making the web smarter. Thanks to google and the SEO industry many web services have gotten religion about tagging. But tagging is not a simple problem either. It reminds me of speech recognition in some ways. If you are working in a specific domain, auto tagging is easier to do. Infongen does it well in the financial and pharma verticals today and will be adding more. Outside.in does it well in the geo domain with help from Zemanta and Calais.

But my experience suggests that humans are still better at tagging than machines. One important development is the idea of "recommended tags". Zemanta provides this to users of its blogging add-on tool. I never used to tag my blog posts. Then I started using Zemanta. It does not auto tag my blog posts, but it does give me about fifteen recommended tags and it’s simple for me to select four to six of them that are the most relevant. That’s an example of a hybrid man/machine approach that works really well.

Emphasis added by me.

Open data is the future of web discovery

Think about the data that represents everything you do online, including web visits, searches, ads clicked, purchases, time spent, location, etc. Web products like the Google browser toolbar return data to Google about the websites you visit. Browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer can get even more data about what you do. For this piece, I’m referring to all this toolbar, browser, search and email data as “toolbar data” for short.

What you typically discover on Twitter and Facebook is limited to your connections and what you search. More, better data is needed to learn about what you’re missing. You might have a lot of interests – sports, music, technology, books, movies, TV, food, travel, etc. – and things happen around you and around the web related to them that you probably want to know about. Surprise concert by your favorite band tomorrow night? New travel website? Cutting edge phone being released? We don’t even know how much we’re missing until we see it.

With more data, developers could build services or apps with toolbar data to see what’s hot now, this week, month or year for any thing broken down by age, location and more. One app might focus on the most popular content about travel to Asia based on unique visitors to specific web pages and the number of links shared by email or social networks. Another app might cover the most engaging communities online based on growth in time on particular parts of each website compared to peers. The data could look at user session activity across sites and specific content on web pages. In contrast, Google Hot Trends only reports on search terms and typically free data from analytics services like Compete report only by website unless you pay for web page level reports. Entrepreneurs could use the toolbar data to identify unmet needs, then build products and services to meet them. Without a more complete picture of the data, it’s hard for entrepreneurs to know what users really want.

“Books: The Liquid Version” — Kevin Kelly

What Happens When Books Connect? - This is the title for one of the sections of Kelly’s article from which most of the quotes above are taken, and it is really an overriding theme for all of the them — The digitized books of the future will talk easily to each other, which will transform books in the same way the Web has already transformed other aspects of culture.

The digital transition really IS harder for trade publishers than for other publishers

Trade publishers, much more than their counterparts in school, college, academic, and professional, are bound to the format of “the book”. That is partly because the “value adds” that other publishers can use to justify different (higher) pricing are not natural adjuncts to trade books. Trade publishers can’t boost prices and margins by adding homework helpers as is done for school books, self-testing as is done for college texts, and value-added aggregation, searching, and productivity tools as is done for academic and professional publishing. So the lessons being learned by other publishers just don’t port to trade, any more than the new paradigm for music (give away the content to sell concert tickets) can transfer to books.

This from someone who is putting on a conference next year. Get out of the way. You have nothing to say.

The Impact of the Digital World on Cataloging Systems

These are some of the impacts that the digital world is having on library systems. I am looking forward to the library systems of the future: interactive, mobile, and easy to use. I am intrigued by the possibility of a new information profession that invites the user to participate in information creation, organization, and discovery. If this is not where we are headed then we may be left behind.

TILE: Text-Image Linking Environment

Text-Image Linking Environment (TILE) will over two years develop a new web-based, modular, collaborative image markup tool for both manual and semi-automated linking between encoded text and image of text, and image annotation.

Why Cloud Computing is the Future of Mobile

Saying that "mobile cloud computing" is the future doesn't mean phones will be filled with links to websites that work in any browser instead of special, downloadable applications, some of which you can even purchase. Instead, mobile applications will exist in both formats. As for the downloadable applications themselves, they will still appear to be your typical mobile app - end users won't even notice a difference. However, there will be a difference - it will just be on the back-end. Mobile applications will begin to store your data in the cloud as opposed to on the mobile device, and the applications will become more powerful as processing power is also offloaded to the cloud.

Emphasis added by me.

Yes! So will smart digital books.

Some people have expressed concern over the complexities of smart digital books metadata linking. This is how to think about it:

People tend to think linearly: Start at A, and end at B. Technology doesn't work like that. After you begin at A, there's a time interval that can change which B is the final destination. Think of the quantum physics experiments with photons. Everything is entangled. Initial conditions do not predict outcomes. (I will have quantum physicists after me for those abusive analogies.)

I like to remind people of Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation:

The management meeting on June 24, 1992, was critical. The fate of the project would be decided at the meeting, which was chaired by Sony president Ohga. The situatIon seemed hopeless. Nearly everyone present argued that Sony should pull out of the games market. Kutaragi thought the situation had reached a critical juncture and said: "Having listened to what everyone is saying, I can see three options. First, to continue indefinitely with the traditional, Nintendo-compatible 16-bit game machines. Second, to sell game machines in a format proprietary to Sony. Third, to retreat from the market. I believe Sony should choose the second option of selling proprietary-format machines."

"What reasons do you have to justify pursuing that option?" Ohga demanded.

As if on cue, Kutaragi explained, "We've been secretly developing a new format using 3-D computer graphics separately from the Nintendo-compatible machine. Using this technology, we can produce astounding 3-D graphics that the Super Famicom can't hope to compete with."

"What scale of LSI Chip do you need?"

"In terms of gate arrays, about one million."

"What? A million gates?"

"We already have a basic design concept, though it's still at the architecture stage."

Suddenly, Ohga burst out laughing. Kutaragi had shaken Ohga's composure by citing a figure beyond his comprehension. "You're dreaming! A million gates is impossible! The best we could do is twenty to thirty thousand, a hundred thousand at most" Ohga's estimate was based on figures he had heard from Sony's semiconductor division. With Sony's capabilities at the time, the best LSI chip it could hope to build was one with 100,000 gates.

But having done his own research, Kutaragi knew that the figure of one million gates would soon be an achievable target in the industry. "lt's by no means impossible to integrate one million gates on an LSI chip. Unless we can do that, we can't produce three-dimensional computer graphics. Are you just going to sit back and accept what Nintendo did to us?" He appealed intensely and repeatedly to Ohga in this manner, provoking the Sony president. Finally, having reignited Ohga's rage against Nintendo and stirred up his emotions, Kutaragi demanded: "PIease make a decision!"

Unable to control his fury, Ohga replied, "lf you really mean it, prove to me that it's possible." Then he formed a fist, pounded on the desk, and shouted: "DO IT!"

-- Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony Playstation and the Visionaries Who Conquered the World of Video Games by Reiji Asakura; hardcover printed pages 36-37

Emphasis added by me.

He didn't wait. He began.

The Issue Of eBook Pricing

2009-08-06T16:41:00.003-04:00

Software Pricing: Are We Doing It Wrong?

While there's an odd aspect of race to the bottom that I'm not sure is entirely healthy for the iPhone app ecosystem, the idea that software should be priced low enough to pass the average user's "why not" threshold is a powerful one.

Emphasis in original.

If software that does something is priced at just ninety-nine cents, of what monetary value is "software" -- ePub eBooks -- that does nothing?

Previously here:

Why eInk, ePub, And eBooks Will Fail

Apple Stabbing eBook Competitors?

2009-08-06T15:21:00.006-04:00

Well, what else can be made of this?

App Store rejections tied to third party rights infringements

[A] developer who built an e-book reader received a recent rejection along the same lines. The application might be used to read copyright infringing books, so Apple will not let it in App Store.

Emphasis added by me.

Hey, the Safari browser built-into the iPhone can be used to read infringing material. Does Apple plan to ban that?

This latest lunacy from Apple makes me believe in ulterior motives, not plain stupidity.

First Apple banned all apps that can use Google Voice.

Some wag on Twitter said that wasn't due to the phone portion, it was because Apple planned to create a search engine.

However, given the Voice Command app now included in the latest version of the iPhone OS, it does make me wonder if Apple harbors its own VOIP ambitions. Dave Winer complained early on (and I berated him about it -- shortsightedly, I now see!) about the lack of VOIP in the iPhone.

But we have rumors of a new iPod Touch on the way, and it makes me wonder if it will debut with some sort of built-in VOIP capability.

In addition, someone on Twitter today noted the ongoing conflict between Skype and eBay:

@mikecane Considering the Skype boys are threatening license nonrenewal on eBay, an Apple VOIP isn't all that farfetched.

So, what better way for Apple to ensure its VOIP plans go through than by locking out competition?

Which leads me back to eBooks.

Apple is already rumored to be entering the digital book field in a roundabout way.

Given that Steve Jobs has a very refined aesthetic, he can't help but to have utter contempt for all current eBook reading software. So what better way to discourage its further development than to deny it access to the App Store?

Could Stanza, the Kindle Reader, and other such apps -- and even standalone eBooks -- also be in jeopardy?

We'll have to see.

A warning note to all, however: Apple is at the top of its game. Many things that Steve Jobs considers Ugly or Wrong are now ripe for his taking. I wouldn't put it past Apple to create a Google competitor. It'd be done in a back-handed fashion first: as an adjunct to the Mobile Me service.

Update:

More details about the eBook reader rejection:

The most ridiculous App Store reject I’ve ever seen
iPhone ebook reader rejected for... being an ebook reader?

Free eGalley: Footnotes To Life

2009-08-06T14:52:00.002-04:00

Footnotes to Life by Dr. Frank Crane

I was reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill for the fourth(?) time and was curious about this “Dr. Frank Crane” he quoted.

The Internet Archive had several of his books, which had fallen into the public domain.

I decided to grab one of them and clean up the Google Books OCR so I could format it for reading.

I then decided to upload the cleanup result to Smashwords so that no one else would have to endure the process I went through.

Unfortunately, the Smashwords TOS prohibits public domain texts and Mark Coker gave me good reasons in email why.

So, this alternate method. Hosting space has been generously provided by the indefatigable Moriah Jovan, the Wizardress of “eBooks.”

There are two versions available:

1 – MobiPocket (so I can read it myself on my LifeDrive)

2 – ePub (for those with rotten eInk displays)

This is not a finished “eBook,” and is more of an e-galley, just for reading.

I’ve deleted the Table of Contents because it was very long. Some people might read this on an eInk screen and paging through all that would be a torment.

I’ve moved the Google OCR frontmatter for that same reason. It is now at the end.

Link to the file directory.

Why eInk, ePub, And eBooks Will Fail

2009-08-06T11:54:00.013-04:00

I'm reading The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki.

I came across a sentence that perfectly describes why the current paradigm of eInk, ePub, and eBooks are doomed to failure:

The TAM [Total Addressable Market] is the true size of the potential market you can go after, not the totality of every nickel that's spent in something related to your product or service.

Let me illustrate that:

A = Total number of print book buyers
B = Number of people who use eBooks
C = People who have not yet bought an eInk device
D = People who have bought an eInk device

The chart is illustrative and not necessarily to scale (otherwise B, C, and D would be virtually invisible!).

We can perhaps expect a doubling of the current number of eInk devices. Perhaps even a tripling (though given the continued deterioration of the worldwide economy, that would be extremely optimistic). But that's it. They will ultimately fail.

Why?

As was stated earlier:

... all the electronic reading gadgets on the market are subpar, if you ask me, making the reading of books, newspapers, magazines, and even cereal boxes painful. The resolution is poor. The fonts are crap. The navigation is chunky. Not since the eight-track player has modern technology produced such a heap of garbage. If you're looking for the reason e-books constitute just 1 percent or 2 percent of all book sales, stop the search.

-- Does the Book Industry Want To Get Napstered?

Emphasis added by me.

What's beginning to happen right now -- with so many new eBook publishers and eBook devices -- is a classic Bubble.

This is what I saw happen back in the early 1980s with videogames.

See: North American video game crash of 1983 and Video game crash of 1983. (There is a minority dissenting opinion -- The Video Game Crash of 1983: myth or truth? -- which is best ignored as it's from the point of view of a customer, not the industry participants.)

Videogames are in fact a great analogy to eBooks: "software" that can only play on certain "consoles" (Sony Reader, Kindle), publishers having to strain to produce "software" for each "console" (MobiPocket, BBeB/LRF, Kindle, PDF), and consumers being hyped to get on board The New New Thing.

But understand what happened back then in the videogame industry itself: it died!

It wasn't just major players exiting a market. The market itself dropped dead.

Buyers woke up to the fact they were being deluged with too much too soon -- and most of it was utter crap.

This is precisely what's happening right now.

eInk devices are slow, linear, and use flat and static files. They are simply less efficient than printed books and offer no advantages other than never having to buy another bookcase ever again.

People will wake up that they are shelling out an entry fee ($200-$400) in order to do something that's "built in" to printed books: the ability to read.

They will also wake up to the nightmares of DRM, format incompatibilities, and the insufficiency of ePub eBooks over printed books.

Now let me address B in that graph. Those are the people who are currently using eBooks in two ways: desktop reading of mostly PDFs and the millions of people who have eBook capability on their smartphones (and iPod Touch). That market has the ability to still grow because the reading "entry fee" has been amortized in the cost of the device itself which is primarily used for other purposes.

However, to continue to believe that flat, static, and linear ePub files will triumph there is to invite delusion.

ePub eBooks (as well as Kindle and all other markup-based eBooks) lack respect. People regard them as teeny-tiny files that are a collection of words. The effort, energy, and thinking that are the ingredients of such things -- books -- are lost in the containerless translation.

Piracy will ultimately doom eBooks.

Publishing will try to counteract that with a foolish strategy of ruthless price-cutting. It will lead to a race-to-the-bottom that will ultimately destroy book publishing -- not just as we know it, but period.

Writing will be reduced to a marketplace of talentless deluded amateurs and outright con artists. The few true writers who will try to survive in this uninviting swamp will basically be holding out a tin cup hoping for spare change.

Those inside print publishing who can't see this coming to pass deserve the unemployment that awaits them.

Previously here:

Another Memo Print Publishing Will Ignore
Smart eBook Metadata Notes #1
Apple's Absolutely Brilliant eBook Strategy
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live
ALL eInk Devices: BAD For eBooks!
eBook Bubble Notes
Amazon Kindle, Amazon ePub, The eBook Bubble

Impulse Buying For The Win

2009-07-30T18:44:00.002-04:00

I now pronounce you monetized: a YouTube video case study

First, if you haven't seen the video, watch:

Now ... the rest of the story:

Last week the world watched in wonder as Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something spontaneous and just flat-out fun. The video, set to R&B star Chris Brown's hypnotic dance jam "Forever," became an overnight sensation, accumulating more than 10 million views on YouTube in less than one week. But as with all great YouTube videos, there's more to this story than simple view counts.

At YouTube, we have sophisticated content management tools in place to help rights holders control their content on our site. The rights holders for "Forever" used these tools to claim and monetize the song, as well as to start running Click-to-Buy links over the video, giving viewers the opportunity to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes. As a result, the rights holders were able to capitalize on the massive wave of popularity generated by "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" — in the last week, searches for "Chris Brown Forever" on YouTube have skyrocketed, making it one of the most popular queries on the site:

It continues from there.

Basically the bottom line is:

1) Give people a fast, affordable, and easy way to buy something now now now and they'll do so.

2) Don't be stupid and run to issue a DMCA Takedown notice!

New Sony Reader Models: PRS-300 And PRS-600

2009-07-30T16:12:00.006-04:00

PRS-300: 5" screen, no audio, no card slots.

PRS-600: 6" touchscreen, audio, two card slots (SD/MS), touchscreen, stylus, no sidelighting.

Two PDF service documents for these models were leaked. Since this is the Internet, I was able to track them down to view even though Sony killed the URLs that had been posted.

The configuration of the 300 is a repudiation of all the careful thought that went into the design of the original 500, with that thinking refined for the 505. Apparently Sony caved in to the inability of people to figure out how to hold the unit by its lower left corner with the thumb over the page control. In this case, utter stupidity has been victorious in the marketplace once again.

The 600 is the 700 downgraded. The sidelighting has been removed. Perhaps this will increase the contrast of the screen, a point many people raised about the original 700. Everything else about the 700 is most likely otherwise retained, including things such as Search and taking Notes.

Both models will be for sale in the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Colors will be the usual Silver, Black, and Red for both models.

Neither model has any kind of wireless capability built-in.

Both models also reject the classic book-like fold-over cover in favor of shipping with protective sleeves. It's unknown if covers will be available as options. The left-side straight-edge design of both units seems to indicate that possibility -- as do embedded magnets in both. I guess not including a lush cover helps to lower the retail price.

Rumors are the 300 will hit the $199.00 price point. The 600 is rumored to be $300 or maybe even $349 (don't be surprised if it's $399, however; these are rumors!).

Both models will have Macintosh OS X compatibility. How this is accomplished is unknown. Perhaps through the Sony eLibrary software or firmware that allows simple drag-and-drop using Adobe Digital Editions. Or perhaps both: one for Sony's BBeB format, one for ePub format. Sony does not have an Apple-like record for uncomplexification.

I'm trying to get excited over these, but I can't. Static ePub is dead. eInk displays are dead.

If the mythical Apple Tablet does indeed materialize in September, both of these new Readers are dead too.

Another Memo Print Publishing Will Ignore

2009-07-29T15:31:00.002-04:00

Yahoo committed seppuku today

Nintendo didn’t give up when Microsoft came into the video game space–they innovated. Now the Wii outsells the mighty XBOX 50 million to 30 million. That is how you fight Microsoft: you innovate. Steve Jobs knows this, Nintendo knows this, and Oracle knows this. Yahoo, apparently, did not get the 40-year-old memo.

Aggression and innovation wins. Period.

Emphasis added by me.

And:

The lesson for all startups–and BDC’s (big dumb companies)–is that innovation is all you have. Once you stop innovating you lose your talent and you lose the race. Never. Stop. Innovating. Never. Never. Never.

Emphasis added by me.

ePub is not an innovation.

Smart eBook Metadata Notes #1

2009-07-29T13:08:00.005-04:00

No time for an exegesis. Just some rough notes to further tease out some details first presented in Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

Static ePub is dead. Accept it or embrace the death of current print publishing. There is no other choice other than smart eBooks.

Levels of metadata

- Level 1: Can be incorporated quickly into an eBook
-- general standardization
- Level 2: Requires copyeditor-like specialty to extract from manuscript
-- manual, helps to create metadata categories
--- at some point semi-automated, "drag & drop"-like
- Level 3: Queries to writer(s)
-- manual, extract enhanced meaning from author(s)
- Level 4: Deeper metadata via metadata specialists
-- manual, with some automation (query of metadata databases)
- Level 5: Coarse connections to outside metadata
-- automated with manual refinement; semantic web meshing
- Level 6: wikimetadata, incorporation of metadata from readers/outside specialists
-- manual, creates an additional and participatory experience (WikiPedia)

At least 3 levels of metadata can be included in published books at the start.

Levels 5 and 6 transform the static object of "book" into a ticket to further experience. This fundamental point would justify higher eBook pricing.

Since not all metadata is included -- and really can't all be included, ever -- the book remains open-ended, living, and a portal to further, growing, and dynamic information. The value of the book actually increases over the course of its ownership.

People would understand they are not buying a "thing" any longer. Instead of regarding the thickness or thinness of a paper object to judge its monetary value/price, people will judge the amount of intelligence in the book.

An illustration of some of the connectedness that's possible between books will be shown when I finally get around to doing a series of posts about several books I've read recently.

Final thought: Which would people prefer to pay for today? A printed map? Or a live, connected Google Map with dynamic/customized points of interest overlaid as well as intelligence?

Each contingency branched at several places; she learned them all until she could close her eyes and see the entire great structure, decision tree after decision tree branching and rebranching, dozens of them. As new data came to her from hard-copies or from Sandaleros, she mentally redrew every affected branch. For each decision point she assigned a text from the Quran or, if there were conflicting possible applications, more than one text. When she could see the enormous balanced whole spread out behind her closed lids, she opened her eyes and taught herself to see it in three dimensions within the cell, filing the space, palpable growing branches like the tree of life itself.

-- Beggars from Spain by Nancy Kress

Links:

Metadata will Rule the World
Rushdie’s Stream library & Borges’ Print library
The Book of Sand
Experimental DML over digital repositories in Japan

Editis eBook Hearts Apple!

2009-07-27T15:42:00.003-04:00

Snowbag, in an excellent Comment, pointed out something I saw but didn't see in the Editis video:

Oh, did you note the apple postmark on the iCard/ecard?

I saw it ... but didn't see it.

Now that he's pointed it out -- wow!

Closer and bigger;

Apple's Absolutely Brilliant eBook Strategy

2009-07-27T12:18:00.009-04:00

Apple joins forces with record labels

Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.

Emphasis added by me.

And some details about that:

Apple wants to make bigger purchases more compelling by creating a new type of interactive album material, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes that allow users to click through to items that they find most interesting. Consumers would be able to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple’s iTunes software, executives said.

Emphasis added by me.

That's Apple entering eBooks. Right there.

Some history to lay the groundwork for this.

In my seminal post, Steve Jobs Is Up To Something. Probably Big., I quoted Jobs. The key sentence in his dissing of the Amazon Kindle is this:

The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Emphasis added by me. Those words are the important bit.

You're Steve Jobs at Apple. You know that doing eBooks is inevitable. It's part of the ding in the universe that you know you still have to make.

But how to do it?

Saying "book" is like saying "PBS" for "TV" or "NPR" for "radio." "Book" does not say fun, exciting, engaging -- to those who do not buy books. (That's exactly how the current eBook conception is "flawed at the top.")

And those people -- those who aren't book buyers -- are a huge percentage of the customers at the iTunes Store, who are daily downloading millions and millions of fun, exciting, engaging songs and videos.

To win the eBook battle, he has to get those people to buy them.

The cliche way would be do to limp eBooks about bands and musicians. But what good would that do? They'd be instantly recognized as books.

So to grab those people, to show them what an Apple eBook will be like, Apple will use the Trojan Horse method.

Which is brilliant!

Here is that brilliance:

“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.

If you don't understand the importance of that, let me introduce you to writer Martin Millar, who blogged about this very thing back in February: The Modern World Continues to Disappoint:

No longer having a record deck, I have records I haven't heard for many years. One of these being Hawkwind's Space Ritual, their live magnum opus from the 70s. As a young teenager, I spent a lot of time in my bedroom listening to this, nodding my head to the endless repetitive riffs, and marvelling at the mighty record sleeve. This folded out into six sheets, full of entertaining words and images. Well, they were entertaining if you were a teenage boy and sort of imagined it would be fun to fly around the universe in a space ship with Hawkwind. (I didn't have a lot of girlfriends in those days. OK I had no girlfriends.)

After considering buying this for some years I was finally overwhelmed with nostalgia, so I bought the CD. I knew it wouldn't be the same but I wanted it anyway.

It wasn't till this CD arrived that I realised what a tremendous disappointment the packaging would be. Gone is the mighty album sleeve which folded out into such a huge item, replaced by a puny little booklet, which isn't the same at all. The whole thing is a great disappointment.

Here's a picture of me holding the original sleeve, and the modern equivalent. You can see why I'm not happy.

Anyone who has ever bought an LP with an extensive sleeve immediately understands this. It's a huge part of the fun that Compact Discs took away.

But there are people who have never bought an LP. There might even be iTunes Store customers who have never even bought a CD!

So the way to grab them, to introduce them to the dimension of music they've been missing -- and to introduce them to eBooks The Apple Way -- Apple will do this to woo them into the fold.

This has the additional added benefit of making everyone STFU about the question, "What could Apple do with eBooks?"

This "interactive booklet" will be Apple eBook 1.0.

Mark the 1.0 bit. Because I want all of you to consider how much more iPhone OS 3.0 towers over the original 1.0.

Apple will be bringing a 1.0 eBook to market. But unlike crappy ePub and all the crappy eInk devices, Apple will be able to go on to bring an eBook 2.0, an eBook 3.0, and beyond.

Starting today, everyone can ignore these things: Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, all eBook hardware devices, ePub, and all the ways so-called "eBooks" have been done.

The Age of the eBook has not even begun.

It will now that Apple is doing it.

How Steve Jobs Wins, Part Two

2009-07-26T13:28:00.007-04:00

Originally published at Mike Cane’s No Flickr Blog:

Jobs illustrates just how "complex" a program should be. Apple wins, thinking like that.

See Roughly Drafted: iDVD hung out to dry as Apple pushes movies online

-- originally published on Flickr January 30, 2009

I repeat this because people seeing the Editis post are probably scoffing at how "difficult" it would be to create Intelligent eBooks such as those.

Yet look at how Apple managed to bring movie creation and DVD authoring to the masses:

It's all been made drag-and-drop simple.

But what does this have to do with eBooks? It's what I've mentioned before: Pages.

Hop to 3:22 in this video to see a demo of Pages:

If you've watched that, and you're a writer who has struggled with HTML, XML, ePub or any other eBook format, you must be drooling at the mouth over the utter simplicity and obviousness of that approach.

No coding, no dicking around with screwy CSS, no "Let me try this and then go into Preview Mode to see if that works" nonsense.

As the opening quote stated, people drag and drop their stuff and hit Burn.

Apple could easily extend Pages so after everything has been assembled, the final button to hit is Make eBook.

I don't know a single writer -- including Moriah Jovan -- who would choose manual labor for building an eBook over an automated approach.

Plus, Apple lists resources for commercial and community-created Pages templates. When Pages has been extended to handle eBooks, sites such as ePub Zen Garden will be a quaint (though still nightmarish) memory.

That day cannot arrive soon enough.

For writers as well as readers.

Previously here:

What REALLY Delayed The Apple Tablet
Part Of The eBook Vision
What One Big Change Would An Apple iTablet Bring?
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live
ALL eInk Devices: BAD For eBooks!

What REALLY Delayed The Apple Tablet

2009-07-25T16:25:00.014-04:00

... all the electronic reading gadgets on the market are subpar, if you ask me, making the reading of books, newspapers, magazines, and even cereal boxes painful. The resolution is poor. The fonts are crap. The navigation is chunky. Not since the eight-track player has modern technology produced such a heap of garbage. If you're looking for the reason e-books constitute just 1 percent or 2 percent of all book sales, stop the search.

Emphasis added by me.

I agree with that quote.

It's from Does the Book Industry Want To Get Napstered? at Slate.

Not only do I agree with that quote, I'm here to say he is absolutely correct.

Who have been the majority of eBook hardware buyers? Not the young!

the total number of Kindle owners [are] between the ages of 40 and 69[,] an incredible 58.6%. Owners above 70 make up an additional 8.1% -- Kindle Demographics

What generally characterizes those age groups? It's usually this sentiment: I know what I want and that's all I want.

That is the perfect profile of the oldster buying an eBook device: I know I want to read and that's all I want to do.

Well, good luck! Because, with crappy eInk, that's about all you'll be able to do -- and that's after first undergoing a screen-refresh initiation period. And then undergoing a beating so you'll know never to expect any sort of fast, randomized access to text.

You are, ultimately, taught to lower your expectations to those below that of print.

And what's the gain? Sure, fewer boxes to pack. Less clutter. In some cases, lower than print prices.

But in all cases, you're locked into a dumber-than-paper format that's also handcuffed with pernicious DRM.

But hey, at your age, does that matter? You'll be dead soon!

Fortunately for the fate of the world, not everyone in those age groups surrenders their repugnance for lower standards. Some people will not accept anything less than the best.

Such a person is Steve Jobs.

You just know at some point he had to have handled a Sony Reader or a Kindle.

And found them far less than Insanely Great.

He's discounted reading and eBooks before. And I was the first to call BS on that.

What I think has gone through Steve Jobs' mind is this: We have a lot of work to do to get the iPhone to its next Insanely Great phase. In Getting It Done, there are many little things we've had to leave out. And we're All Hands On Deck with just the submissions to the App Store. Plus, I don't think an iPhone-sized screen is the best eBook experience.

But now that the iTablet has been in development, now that the chip fab has done its job, and the device is in the active pipeline for a real introduction, Steve Jobs can begin to turn his attention to eBooks.

Because there will finally be a device that will be superior to the paper reading experience: a wireless iTablet.

October has been touted twice as its date of introduction. Now the latest date is first quarter 2010. Dissatisfaction with the capacity of the AT&T network has to account for part of this delay, but I really think another part of the delay is Apple developing eBook reading software that will be worthy of the Apple logo.

In the past, Cringely has called for Apple to buy Adobe. That would have given Apple the high ground in eBooks.

But what high ground would that have been?

ePub. Which is basically a created-by-committee method for lightly tarting-up text files! Serial, linear, and a godawful PITA for writers to really deal with if they want to do direct publishing (Atlantis notwithstanding).

ePub is a format unworthy of the Apple logo.

Why would Apple want to do what everyone else has been doing?

That would have been akin to the joke iPhone:

Where does any part of ePub bring to mind these words:

Not any part of it.

There are other precedents for Apple dismissing the herd and going its own way, but the standout one has to be QuickTime. Apple was faced with fierce competition from Microsoft (and also Real) for the dominance of Internet video. Apple didn't knuckle under. Adobe ultimately managed to slip in to dominate Internet video with Flash -- but many times when you see a movie trailer on a Flash site, that video has been ripped from Apple's own site offering MP4 trailers! Today, really, who aside from malicious porn sites uses Windows Media Video? (And does anyone even bother with Real?)

Apple has the courage to say All Other Solutions Are Wrong -- no matter how many people have adopted something, no matter how pervasive another method currently is.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he said Apple was out to:

ePub in no way "reinvents the book."

But next year, Apple will.

And maybe a little bit of it will resemble this.

But you can expect it to be even better. Expect to "Read Different."

Part Of The eBook Vision

2009-07-23T17:49:00.048-04:00

I think it was @bshermcincy who made me aware of this video. It was in his own backlog and he finally got around to seeing it, then tweeted it. Since the Copyright date is 2007, he must have a backlog like mine.

The video is from Editis, which is described in this Google-translated French as:

Activity and strategy

2,600 employees, nearly 44 brands Edition occupies leading positions in three editorials universe: Literature (large format paperback), Education (school, extracurricular activities, college, college, university, legal and medical) , Reference (dictionaries and encyclopedias) and in the field of publishing services (promotion and distribution). Prestigious homes, services are performing cutting Editis the second french publishing group and a major player in publishing in Europe. The ambition of Editis is to strengthen its positions on the french market, continue to grow and expand its influence in the francophone world.

In other words, this is a major print publisher.

And yet, though mired in print, they had the vision to commission the follow video. (Has any American or British print publisher done this? No!)

Watch this, then see the screensnap commentary afterwards. You'll want to read the commentary. There are things not apparent simply by watching the video.

If that was too chunky for your liking, go directly to this Editis page and select from two non-chunky versions.

And now the screensnaps and commentary.

First, I'm hobbled here. I don't understand spoken French, so my comments are based on trying to derive meaning from the context. Expect some errors.

A woman returns home from work. Her man is busy typing. (I can't say husband -- there are no wedding rings.)

Notice his touchscreen monitor!

He can scroll the screen.

And it's somehow set to zoom the current page too.

The woman pulls a leather-bound thin book out of her shoulder bag.

It's an eBook device with dual color touchscreens!

In the video, you can see the page-turning animation, which is captured here a bit in the skewed text on the left side of the first snap. A bit of a UI inconsistency with what's presented later, as I'll point out.

The guy scrolls through his document using his fingertips. If you haven't caught on by now, they are making a larger point about handling information.

The woman continues to read.

What's interesting at first glance is that the notion of a "page" is preserved.

And when she pinches out to enlarge the text, you can see someone gave this some real thought. This isn't just a Gee Whiz video. The margins go away. See? The margins were there all along not simply for aesthetic value, but to provide space for type enlargement while still preserving the page!

The guy scrolls through his document ...

... types a title page ...

... and when he touches the first page, all the other pages go away, seemingly to indicate it is now a document (an excellent UI touch!) ...

... which he drags to the upper right corner of the screen. What is not evident here but becomes clear later, is that there's a Mail icon up there and he is sending this manuscript file to ... someone. To his publisher, Editis?

He visits a ... bookstore?

He buys eBook editions by running his black-leather eBook device ...

... over the bar code (RFID?) on a paper book's back cover.

An in-progress list of his purchases ...

... with the last purchase added.

This screensnap is for @HarlanCoben -- his work really gets around!

I'm going to repeat these two screensnaps because you might have missed it in the video:

... highlighted in red, that's a ginormous flatscreen pimping books. (Something Moriah Jovan left out of her bookless bookstore scheme.)

The tab for the eBook purchases and the merchant's touchscreen system. Notice the prices! They seem to be the same as ones for print books.

This is a nice UI touch ...

... the covers ...

... "fill up" as they are transfered to the customer's eBook hardware.

His eBook hardware is interesting because it folds down like a steno pad. More thought put into this, showing a variety of form factors.

Now dig this ...

... when she opens the book, she gets a CoverFlow-like auto-animation of the book covers. This happened the first time she used the book earlier, but it was too brief a shot to be seen clearly. Notice this is the first time we see pages scrolling across the dual screens like that. Also notice the book she chooses: it's the one her guy just bought in the bookstore!

Now look carefully here:

... two points. First, the pages scroll from one screen to the next. This is unlike the opening behavior we saw with an all-text book at the beginning, with conventional page-turn animation. Second, not shown in the snaps, she is able to drag an item off the screen to save later. (Why she does that instead of simply bookmarking isn't clear.)

Aside from him reading poetry, it's unclear if that is from his manuscript or an eBook he is reading.

Apparently the eBook hardware envisioned here has GPS but cannot take pictures. During their walk, the guy is receiving audio from the hardware via a wireless (Bluetooth?) earpiece. What's not clear is whether it's the eBook he just bought that's leading him around. Has the content been geotagged? (Something I will have to add to the smart eBook metadata!)

They visit a museum ...

... and purchase an eBook and guided tour.

With the graphic filling up as the data is transfered to the eBook hardware.

Look at the size of that paper book! He buys it ...

... in eBook form ...

... with a swipe.

Later he's apparently sent the cover to the book he wrote ...

... and it's animated! This has been an on-and-off debate I've had with others. Do we really want animated covers? Currently, such animation would suck battery life. They'd also suck up CPU cycles. And what if somehow the cover managed to crash, preventing access to the eBook? What if an animated cover from a sample eBook contained malware? Also, would it be possible to dismiss the cover before it has completed its little jig? And where exactly would these dancing covers stop? Would we also have covers with video, with the writer pimping the book? It'd also be possible to have a cover that's several times the filesize of the text alone! This is not a debate that will end anytime soon, I think.

Look carefully at these next two sequences. The first:

She's doing a vertical scroll! Does she actually have two eBooks open? That's a real possibility, because look at this second sequence:

She simply drags items from the left page to drop onto the right page. I'm guessing what she's doing is creating an on-the-spot scrapbook of places they intend to visit. But what if it's a scrapbook of places they've already visited? That brings up the questions of Why? and What for? Would she refer to it if they visited again, to see any changes? Is the scrapbook something she could share with others, to recommend those places to see? That seems like a lot of work for sharing. Importable bookmarks would be lighter-weight and easier.

Another interesting sequence:

I'm guessing he's received an eGalley from his publisher and is making last minute changes. I cringe at the idea of using a stylus on that screen, but let's pretend these future screens are truly scratch-resistant or scratch-healing.

And then he scrolls vertically...

This change in UI makes sense here, in that it would distinguish the file from an eBook.

And then he drags it to the corner of the screen ...

... which, since no icon is shown, perhaps we can assume is a default behavior for emailing something?

I like this shot:

That's an In Your Face to all the people who've said, "But I'd never take eBook hardware to the beach like a cheap paperback book!"

Some more thinking that went into this video:

He's using his steno pad hardware in single-screen mode. The text crawls to the next page. Look closely at the upper right corner. He's listening to music while reading and a crawl of the music's title is appearing in the banner there.

Now watch this and weep, you owners of that pathetic Kindle:

She's reading a book review and clicks on a link for more information ...

This causes a block of text to slide aside ...

... revealing the book being reviewed ...

... and brings up a transaction page ...

... where she buys the eBook ...

... and it's right there.

Here again we see the un-booklike behavior of the pages crawling across the screens.

Notice again the margins around the text, for pinch-out text enlargement that preserves the page.

Time is greatly compressed for this next sequence. At a cafe, the writer meets someone ...

... apparently his eBook has now been published ...

... the other fellow pulls out his eBook device ...

... it's steno pad-like too. And look at the icons!

The writer touches his eBook ...

... and drags it to one of the icons ...

... and this time ...

... it's a book icon. Does that initiate a transfer to a nearby eBook device set to receive?

Later on, the woman is in that neighborhood bookstore ...

... and she sees ...

... the cover of the eBook written by her guy!

In this sequence, don't look at the man, look behind him:

Yet another flatscreen advertising eBooks/books!

Final sequence. The writer is outside and his eBook device rings!

... he pulls it out ...

... and he has received ...

... an ePostcard of congratulations from the woman. The graphic has animated fireworks in it too.

There's lots to consider here. What kind of eBook framework, for example, would allow a block of text to move? I don't see that being possible with the current ePub spec. Does anyone?

I also don't believe there will be any place for a physical store that displays books. That's what a library is for. Besides, who would really want to venture outdoors to buy something that can be purchased in your own home? That's just screwy. That's a make-work method a Soviet-like regime would design!

At the beginning, where the writer is moving things around on his desktop monitor -- that highlights what a huge FAIL Windows 7 already is. hp, Asus, MSI, and others are already shipping all-in-one desktops and nettops with touchscreens. That's the future. But what is Windows 7 really designed as? A facelift of the same old stuff Microsoft has been flogging during the 20th century! With the news that 91% of computer purchases over $1,000 are going to Macintoshes, Apple is going to bury Microsoft by devising the touch-friendly desktop interface Microsoft ignored in Windows 7.

Finally, what I love about this video is the absolute frictionlessness of the eBook experience. No one has to dick around with stupid hardware buttons. No one is looking at a dumb vertical list of all-text titles. The idiotic file format wars have been solved and people can just go ahead and buy and read!

The only thing missing is the justification for print-like prices for eBooks. Ah, but this was made in 2007, not this week.

Well done, Editis!

What One Big Change Would An Apple iTablet Bring?

2009-07-22T15:06:00.010-04:00

Mockup by Rex Hammock

More than two years since the introduction of the iPhone, it's difficult to recall what smartphones were like before it.

I recently rewatched the video of the iPhone's introduction and I didn't have the same OMFGZ! reaction to it. Because, as is usually the case with Apple nailing a UI, it felt like that's the way it always should have been done and therefore all other possibilities never existed prior to it.

What changes did the iPhone bring?

1) It created the never-before-seen phenomenon of a phone generating lines for its purchase

2) It created an App Store where users can easily buy and install programs

3) It made The Internet In Your Pocket a reality

4) It brought capabilities no other released device ever had: multitouch and an accelerometer

5) People use it so much, it has just about brought an entire national phone network to its knees

In short, because of the lack of friction in its UI, it has empowered people as no other device ever has.

Will this be the case with an Apple iTablet too?

Yes, and I expect it to have a larger impact than anyone is currently imagining.

First, let's settle the screen size. I twisted myself into knots with some bad math (my usual math!), trying to resolve the current iPhone screen into the same size as a netbook screen. I did this while staring at the iPhone screen in portrait mode. That was the key mistake.

Once I rotated it 90-dagrees and had a Big Hint from @stroughtonsmith, an experienced developer, it became clear: four iPhone screens in landscape mode = iTablet screen. It works. The diagonal is about nine inches.

You can try this for yourself with some copying and pasting and a printout, using the actual screen dimensions blueprint provided by Apple in this PDF. (PhotoShop wizards, if you do an actual-size iTablet mockup, drop a PDF link in Comments for all to share!)

Holding this printout in my hands is very exciting. (OK, so I excite easily. Shut up.)

First of all, it's really not much to hold in the hand. It doesn't scream bulk. It screams cute. It also screams Take Me With You Everywhere. This would have no problem being dropped in my shoulder bag. With a sleek thinnish bezel around it, it really wouldn't be larger than a hardcover book. Being far thinner than a hardcover book, carrying it around would be trivial.

Second, all that screen real estate would make all current applications even more breathtaking than they are on the iPhone. Google Maps, for instance, would show more information. Websites would require less tap-and-zoom. Photos would pop -- and I can see people using it as a photo frame while charging. Video at that size would replace television for even more people than a desktop screen does today.

But all that is obvious. What isn't obvious?

The increased real estate can lead to some very interesting new software.

For example, while held in landscape mode, an eBook reader could display two pages, side-by-side, just like this current online software at The Internet Archive:

But not just that. Imagine having two eBooks open at the same time. This would be great for those who need to do research and deal with more than one book at a time. (Yes, I know Apple does not allow multitasking, but I think they will update the iPhone OS for the iTablet to allow specific and very limited instances of it. This will be yet another test the inscrutable App Store scrutineers will run before approving an app for sale. Prepare for more delays, developers!)

Of course, comic books would then be possible in ways that are superior to the current wee iPhone screen. Maybe even Warren Ellis would finally be enticed into them. (FreakAngels the downloadable eComic, perhaps?)

Anyone who invested in an eInk eBook reader would soon discover they should have waited out the so-called "eBook Revolution." As for the Amazon Kindle, there would be no reason to buy one. Just download the software from the App Store.

Although one developer I mentioned it to hated the idea, I still maintain that games with twin screens will become the new thing.

Also imagine a blogging interface divided in two. On the left side the fill-in form. On the right elements that can simply be dragged and dropped into it.

But really, even all this everyone has to admit would be mere decoration.

So what would be the revolutionary change the mythical iTablet would bring?

More website reading.

Wait! Don't touch that dial yet.

If you're like me, you absolutely hate sitting at desktop uncomfortably staring at a screen that is just about perpendicular. It's very, very annoying. This is why I think the Internet tends to make people impatient and want things to move along quickly.

With an iTablet, however, everyone would be able to lounge, at ease, and time would begin to slow down. The pressure of Go!Go!Go! would melt away.

I sit here at my desk daily, overwhelmed with links to sites tweeted to me. I wind up just grabbing text and chucking it onto my LifeDrive (no, I don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch ... yet), to read later, away from the desktop. The pressure to click on something else is off. The spinning wheel of time slows to the speed of thoughtful reflection.

And that is the one huge change an iTablet would bring. It would be an invisible revolution too. Because reading the Net that way will seem so natural, everyone will forget the torment they went through before that point.

That's why the CrunchPad has been in development. But who will want that when they can get an Apple iTablet?

Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

2009-07-21T14:30:00.010-04:00

In a prior post, I withdrew my support for all eInk devices as being detrimental to the development of eBooks.

Let me go further and repeat what I have been stating on Twitter:

It is so.

All eBooks -- so-called -- are right now nothing more than a lightly tarted-up text dump into a specific electronic container. They're objects with less capability than print (go on, riffle through those pages with eInk's refresh rate!) and even dumber than print (uh, which page are you actually on?). They are linear, they are stupid. They are the lowest common denominator of what an eBook can be -- and even at that they are simply atrocious.

They are unworthy of serious consideration. Selling them is tantamount to legalized robbery. And the future will look back on them and wonder just what the hell we were thinking.

Here are two bits I've cloned from the blog of writer Warren Ellis:

When I showed this tiny, heavy thing [an original Sony Walkman cassette tape player] to Lili [his young daughter], I’m wondering now if she was thinking, "yeah, it plays music, but what else does it do?" She didn’t ask, but, knowing her, I wonder if that was going through her head. Whether that’s what goes through the heads of her Western generation, the third (?) internet generation. Where’s the controller? What else does it do?

-- from A Sony Walkman, By God

And:

As a coda to the previous post, Jamais Cascio notes how the touchscreen generation interacts with a Kindle:

They try to "turn the page" by flicking a finger across the screen. But the Kindle doesn’t have a touch screen….Which means that the second thing that people checking out my Kindle do is get a funny confused look — why doesn’t it work?

-- from Shipping Broken

It's not unreasonable to expect people to look at an eBook today and wonder, What else does it do?

No, not the hardware device -- the eBook itself.

I can imagine the interior monologue: "Wait, you mean I can start here at the beginning and read through to the end -- and what else? That's all there is? That's stupid! That's dumb! That's like a printed newspaper!"

Yes: Like a printed newspaper! Exactly.

And what has the health of the printed newspaper industry been like in just the past year?

This post is my attempt to:

1) Save book publishing

2) Save eBooks from the fate of printed newspapers

3) Justify a ten-dollar (American) price (and sometimes more than that) for an eBook

4) Create an entire new industry

This post will also delineate two groups. The first is the one we know already: the dying dinosaurs of print, who can't figure out this "eBook thing."

The second group I'm designating second-stage dinosaurs. These are people who think they "get" eBooks -- and see today's pathetic excuses for eBooks as being eBooks.

Concomitant with those groups, there is an implied third group: those who will understand this post and all of its implications and see that, yes, this is part of what an "eBook" actually should be -- and it's time to begin to bring this about.

What I am about to describe is best illustrated by a short, two-word sentence:

Jesus wept.

There is more information contained in those two words than most people would imagine.

And it's that information that should be extracted. That hidden information is the foundation of part of what an eBook should be -- and is meant to be.

Below is an illustration of at least part of the invisible information contained in that short sentence. I don't intend this to be comprehensive nor to be professionally correct within the disciplines I'm bumping into. This is illustrative and a place to begin.

I'm using very rough markup language here. It's probably incorrect as all hell -- but it's a start.

Jesus wept.

<book-title=Christian Holy Bible>
<sub-book-title=Book of John>
<book-author=X>
<book-editor=X>
<book-publisher-company=X>
<book-publisher-company-country=X>
<book-publication-year=X>
<book-copyright-year=X>
<book-publication-country=X>
<book-type=religious>
<book-origin-language=Greek>
<book-translated-language=English>
<book-edition=King James>
<book-origin-publication-year=X>
<book-origin-publication-month=X>
<book-origin-publication-location=X>
<book-edition-publication-year=X>
<book-edition-publication-month=X>
<book-edition-publication-location=X>
<book-series=X>
<book-series-number=X>
<book-dedication=X>
<book-acknowledgement=X>
<book-footnote=X>
<book-sidebar=X>
<book-caption=X>
<book-photo-caption=X>
<book-part=New Testament>
<book-chapter=11>
<book-area=verse 35>
<book-paragraph-number=#>
<book-sentence-number=#>
<chapter-paragraph-number=#>
<chapter-sentence-number=#>
<factual-person-name=Jesus>
<factual-person-name-alt-01=Joshua>
<factual-person-name-alt-02=Yeshua>
<factual-person-sex=male>
<factual-person-identity=man>
<factual-person-age=32>
<factual-person-eye-color=X>
<factual-person-hair-color=X>
<factual-person-skin-color=X>
<factual-person-nationality=X>
<factual-person-role=leader>
<factual-person-occupation-01=carpenter>
<factual-person-occupation-02=preacher>
<factual-person-race=Semite>
<factual-person-religion-01=Judaism>
<factual-person-religion-02=Jewish>
<factual-person-label-01=Messiah>
<factual-person-label-02=Son of God>
<factual-person-label-03=Son of Man>
<factual-person-label-04=Word>
<factual-person-label-05=Lamb of God>
<factual-person-label-06=Saviour>
<factual-person-label-07=King of Kings>
<factual-person-label-06=Lord of Lords>
<factual-person-father=Joseph>
<factual-person-mother=Mary>
<factual-location-galaxy=Milky Way>
<factual-location-planet=Earth>
<factual-location-nation=Israel>
<factual-location-city=Jerusalem>
<factual-location-rule=Roman>
<factual-location-politics=Imperial>
<factual-location-ruler=Pontius Pilate>
<factual-location-year=32>
<factual-year-designation=A.D.>
<factual-local-time=day>
<factual-local-time-hour=unknown>
<action-01=weep>
<action-02=cry>
<body-item-implied=eyes>
<body-item=tears>
<emotion-01=sorrow>
<emotion-02=regret>
<emotion-03=disappointment>
<emotion-04=frustration>
<emotion-05=sympathy>
<emotion-06=empathy>

And all of that sample data above is just within a two-word sentence! How much more resides in full paragraphs?

Some people bailed or skipped down to this paragraph when they saw the tag, "<factual-location-galaxy=Milky Way>." Too bad for you. Put yourself in group two, as a second-stage dinosaur. Because you're not grasping the idea that tag can also be used in books about astronomy and the like.

And also because that tag has as its mirror, "<fictional-location-galaxy=>", which is applicable to what is broadly and coarsely termed "science-fiction."

All of this hidden information -- exploded out like that, made explicit -- turns an ebook from a dumb object into a smart object.

Further, it's then possible to associate it with other such objects in ways that are not currently possible. It would enable queries such as these:

Show me all mystery fiction books set in Los Angeles in the year 1945.

Show me all romance fiction books set in Maine in the year 2009.

Show me all fiction books set on Mars in any fictional year, published between 1940 and 1960.

Show me all books with alcoholic leaders.

Show me all books with alcoholic leaders who drink American whiskey.

Show me all books with Abraham Lincoln as fictional character.

Show me all mystery fiction books originally published in Portuguese in 1960 and translated to English with antagonists who are political activists with left-wing affiliations.

Show me all fiction books that mention writer John Straley.

Show me all first paragaphs from fiction books published in May 2009..

Show me all time-travel fiction books set in America in the century 1800.

Show me all time-travel fiction books that are set in Yugoslavia with any character who is Jewish.

Show me all fiction books with dedications to a wife.

Show me all fiction books with acknowledgements that mention Charles Bukowski.

... and many, many, many more.

This would open up book discovery in a way that's just not possible with today's crude and coarse methods. It would enable scholarship that has been impossible. It would give eBooks more possibilities than anyone today can envision -- or should try to envision.

Remember the Walkman cited above. What else can it do?

With such exploded data, an eBook is not just an eBook -- it becomes a ticket for admission to a vast collection of databased information.

An eBook becomes a local terminal connected to a growing and living cloud of associated information, with meanings and implications no publisher or writer can currently imagine. It lets the reader make those connections. It's an eBook that can do something.

And this is precisely why Google wants the Book Search settlement to go through: it sees that as the future. Google is staffed by geeks who juggle information with an expertise that print publishers lack.

Google makes information do things.

Print publishing freezes information into a static object -- an object that dies a little with each passing day. An object that stands alone, disconnected, unable to do anything.

Right now, the hierarchy of print publishing's stops at the Publisher. That's the pinnacle. There needs to be another layer slathered over that. The information geeks. The ones who will take the static objects, extract the hidden information, and database it. They will set the standards across the entire industry. They are new publishers for a new age.

This metadata and thin-sliced denotata has value. And that value will increase, not decrease, as it ages. As new connections are formed, and new data is added, its value increases exponentially.

The metadata value of a publisher could equal, if not surpass, that of the works on which it's based.

Metadata will become a multi-billion dollar business.

The entire global economy is built on metadata.

And it's accessing to that metadata that would justify more than a five-dollar (American) price for an eBook. Consumers would understand the additional value that justified the higher price. They would see an actual investment has been made to turn a crudely-decorated text data dump into something active and intelligent.

It'd no longer be a flat, linear collection of words. Dimensions have been added to it that breathe and grow. The eBook price --again -- becomes a ticket. People are no longer buying an object -- they are also buying into an ongoing experience.

And this is not only applicable to non-fiction. It's just as important to fiction too.

In the early 1990s, Oxford University Press published a hardcover collection of the Sherlock Holmes stories which were filled with descriptive and historical notes -- another kind of metadata!

And J.K. Rowling went to court over what was in some senses metadata (although too much of it actually turned out to be outright infringement).

If you've gotten this far and you can see all of the implications of this, good for you.

If you've gotten this far and you're asking, "But who would use this? What good is this?" then you're a second-stage dinosaur. Because you've just asked the kind of questions that executives at IBM and Hewlett-Packard asked when confronted by the MITS Altair and the Apple II and all those other "toys" of the late 1970s. What did those "toys" lead to?

It's beyond the scope of this post to delve into all the threads that lead from this: such as who owns the metadata, should writers have any rights to publisher-created metadata, etc.

It's also beyond my technical capabilities to suggest how this can be constructed. My instinct is the eBook resides locally and the experiential data resides in the Cloud.

And that data must be able to cross-query across all publisher databases for this to work. Imagine a thousand Googles, all having to speak a common language to present results to one UberGoogle.

My aim here is to help push eBooks into what they should be and today must begin to be.

Oh, one more thing: Cost. Yes, it will cost. But would publishers rather go out of business? Or would they like to have third-parties springing up to do this for free? Jump while the window of opportunity is open! Save publishing and advance eBooks.

Related:
Your taxonomy is your future (portion; most behind member wall)
Managing taxonomies strategically
On the front lines in knowledge base publishing (Google Cache HTML of .doc file)
Developing and Creatively Leveraging Hierarchical Metadata and Taxonomy
Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!
Semantic Publishing
ownership of metadata

eBooks: No More Ownership?

2009-07-17T13:50:00.008-04:00

App stores are not the future, says Google

Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering vice president and developer evangelist, told the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco on Thursday that the web had won and users of mobile phones would get their information and entertainment from browsers in future.

On June 16th, I had this epiphany:

This led to a discussion with @jane_l of Dear Author and we concluded the eBooks would probably all be cloud-based. No one would be able to download them to keep. This is what Shortcovers does right now.

Given what Google's Gundotra says in the above article, it seems that downloadable-to-keep-forever eBooks are going to be a passing artifact of digital history. Google is clearly all about the Cloud. And the dying dinosaurs of print would love the Cloud too, because then they wouldn't have to do anything except collect the money that came in. No worries about stupid eBook formats or all that tsuris from readers about DRM.

But this raises some serious questions.

1) If people can no longer own eBooks, what does the price of an eBook "buy?" Only access?

2) If eBooks become access-only, how long is that access granted?

3) Will there be levels of access, with the most expensive one granting "perpetual at-will" access? ("At-will," of course, would have the usual escape clauses about Acts of God, domestic disturbance, asteroids falling on the server farm, etc.)

4) What happens to the role of public libraries? Would they simply be a gateway to access a subset of eBooks for free, just like they offer today with proprietary databases (Books In Print, etc.)?

5) What about highlighting and notes?

Those who are skeptical about HTML5 adding true eBook-reading functionality to browsers should consider the power of the Palm Pre, which Palm claims is built entirely with CSS, JavaScript, and HTML5 over a Linux core.

This also puts Google's ambitious plan to power hardware with its Chrome browser in a new light.

And, if you stop to think about it, it opens some social opportunities for eBooks, such as group reading and group annotations (but I wouldn't want to see group highlighting -- I'd bet most pages would wind up rainbow tinted!).

ALL eInk Devices: BAD For eBooks!

2009-07-17T11:50:00.007-04:00

Do not buy any of these:

Or any other device that uses an eInk display.

I am also including this in the Do Not Buy list:

It uses a transflective non-backlit LCD display. But it's no good, either.

I have seen what eBooks could and should be -- and these devices are like an MITS Altair compared to today's computers.

How many of you want to be stuck with that?

These devices are not good for eBooks, they do not represent anything other than a blind and ill-fated attempt to create an eBook market, and the more people buy these, the more they prevent true eBooks from emerging.

Using these devices is a vote for the past. Don't head that way.

Save your money. Save your time. Save the frustration each of these devices will create as you wrestle with them.

You are not missing out on eBooks by not having these.

But those who have sunk their money into these and eBooks for them are at risk of missing out on eBooks.

Pity them.