TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for July, 2008

By David Rothman

Will the the market for E Ink-style tech double next year? So thinks Scott Liu, chair of Prime View International—the company supplying E Ink screens for the Kindle, Sony Reader and other machines. In fact, his company says the market could grow 10 times in three years.  Details from Digitimes (via MobileRead).

Related: Some other TeleBlog posts on E Ink and demand for it.

By David Rothman

The Associated Press wisely backed off from a major legal fight with bloggers over fair use. But the wire service remains on the S list of many Net folks because of a still-Draconian approach.

By contrast, the New York Times is itself in the aggregation business. The Times routinely pick up headlines from TeleRead and zillions of other Web sites via Blogrunner. Some are even from other big news organizations such as Reuters and the BBC.

If AP’s smart, it won’t just follow the Times’ example. It will also leverage its relationships with thousands of newspapers to present content in new ways. AP in fact could even break into areas such as magazine and book distribution. The key is for AP to think less of itself as the world’s editor and reinvent itself as a platform provider and aggregator.

Potential in mobile readers and maybe desktop apps

Especially in the fast-growing mobile world, a more flexible AP could reposition itself as a leading conduit for different media. Revenues might eventually dwarf AP’s existing ones from the Net and end the need for an RIAAish defense of obsolete biz models. That, in turn, could help fund original reporting, including the investigative kind needed to monitor America’s increasingly arrogant politicians.

In fact, AP’s new Mobile News Network reader for the iPhone is an excellent start toward reinvention. Download it now from the iPhone App Store! I’ll even commit a little heresy in this browser-loving universe and suggest that AP do a desktop version of the reader app. Or how about one optimized for tablets, including the rumored one from Apple?

The  current mobile incarnation of the app is much better organized than the Web editions of most newspapers, and you can scoot from story to story much faster.

What’s more, I notice AP has posted a Web-accessible version of the Mobile News Network for devices besides the iPhone. You can even customize the categories of items displayed on the home page (for example, Technology).

Enticing multimedia blend

The interface of the iPhone version might lack the home-page customization feature for now—at least I can’t find it. Also, AP could improve the news-update feature, so it’s automated with full control over such variables as update frequency.

Still, the app shines. Compared to the pokey New York Times mobile reader for the iPhone, the AP reader seems to load updates much faster. And it nicely blends text with photos and even videos. Study the screen shot. Let’s say you want local news—just click on the second icon from the left at the bottom. You’ll then see the stories nicely organized in a list similar to the one for the Showbiz section. Old-time journalists would say, “But what about different sizes of headlines? How to distinguish the stories in importance rather  than just sticking the latest at the top?” But I can easily see an optional sort toggle to replace the chronically organized display, or even star-style listings, just like movie reviews.

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By Paul Biba

I’ve spent the last couple of days using my iPhone 3G as an ebook reader—trying out all the different software out there. So far the most stable software seems to be Fictionwise’s eReader. The ability to download books directly from Fictionwise, without going the "server" route, is a huge plus over the other products.

A big problem, however, may consign the iPhone to just occasional reading use – battery power. There seems to be no question that my 3G has a lower battery life then my original iPhone. That may not be too bad, but when used in low signal areas the new 3G really depletes the battery quickly compared to the older phone.

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By David Rothman

Correction: The online version of the New Yorkk Times was not as clear as it could have been, thanks to rather confusing layout.  Prof. Boskin correctly says the dog quote actually came from then-Sen. Nancy Kassebaum—with whom I’ll check. – D.R., Oct. 23, 2008 (headline changed).

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd still hasn’t explained how she picked up an iffy quote on March 10, 1989: “If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.” I queried her twice via a Times e-mail form and find her silence rather disappointing. Ah! But there’s a happy twist suggesting that, as I’d hoped, she published the quote in good faith.

Thanks to Garson O’Toole, the nom de plume of a TeleBlog regular, we now know that the quote appeared in the Times at least as early as June 7, 1987. In dispensing advice for Alan Greenspan, then about to chair the Federal Reserve, a Stanford economist used the above quote word for word. I’m going to write Prof. Michael J. Boskin and see where he got the quote. Yet another mention in the Times appeared on October 15, 1987, in a letter from Timothy Norbeck, executive director of the Connecticut State Medical Society, in New Haven, Connecticut.

Quote still iffy—but you never know

The quote and a predecessor are still problematic—the Harry S. Truman library couldn’t find anything before playwright Samuel Gallu used, “You want a friend in life, get a DOG!” in 1975 play. Dramatic license? But who knows? Maybe we can surprise the Truman Library and find that the quote is authentic. If not, might the Times want to do a retraction? At least as recently as last year, the line was still popping up there. Both the library and Ralph Keyes, author of The Quote Verifier, mentioned Ms. Dowd’s 1989 use of the quote, also cited by Bill Clinton.

Related: Earlier TeleBlog items on the quote, which I wanted to confirm for use in a forthcoming  newspaper novel.

By Joe Wikert

I was anxious to try out this new Cuil search engine everyone’s buzzing about.  The management team is loaded with former Google-ites, and they’ve promised to deliver "the world’s biggest search engine," meaning all those sites Google ignores will now be included in Cuil search results.  Further, content and relevance are king, which should provide a much more satisfying search experience.

To be honest, I don’t have any beefs with Google.  I use it throughout the day and I generally find what I’m looking for in the top half of the first page of results.  Then again, I was happy with Lycos many years ago before shifting to Yahoo.  Then I abandoned Yahoo to jump on the Google bandwagon.  Although I’ve pretty much stuck with Google for the past several years you can see I have no search engine loyalty.  I’ll use whatever suits my needs.

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By David Rothman

E-book stores are starting to promote their thousands of existing PDF titles as viewable on the Sony Reader PRS-505. Here’s an example, a press release from eBooks.com.

The difference: The Reader can now read DRMed PDF, and the reflowable format of Adobe Digital Editions makes it easier to enjoy PDF books in your favorite font size. Earlier the 505 could read nonDRMed PDF. So could and can the PRS-500, which, however, you can’t upgrade to handle DRM or reflow PDFs. (Via MR.)

By David Rothman

Sad news. NAEB’s store is closing, at least for now. Here’s a note—in the Baen’s Bar forum—from Derek Benner, one of the leaders of the buyers club for Cybook shoppers:

"Nothing like negotiations is going on. We’re closed. (I guess we couldn’t keep it quiet much longer.) The last units of this shipment have shipped and we’re going out of business. We didn’t get near the price break we would have needed to stay in business. I would like to stay open and order Jinke V3 or Netronix EB-600 units, but the consensus is ‘no’. Of course, if you, the customers want us to stay open and sell the other devices, you should let us know – because we’d have to work something up. (And yes, having invested so much of my desire and energy into this, I’m perfectly willing to keep going even if the others aren’t.) But at this time, we’re going through the process of shutting down. Derek "

The TeleBlog connection: Yes, NAEB has been an advertiser, although, except for a Cybook for Robert Nagle, we haven’t formally charged it so far—being a big supporter of the buyer’s club concept.

Meanwhile, yes, I’m aware of the challenges that NAEB has faced. A Google ad for a Sony reader priced at $295 is appearing below this post at times. That said, the Cybook has certain glories of its own such as the ability to bold text to make it more readable. What’s more, for a little more than the Cybook’s normal price, the buyer’s club offered certain extra such as a memory card.

(Big thanks to TeleBlog regular Fred Kiesche for the news tip.)

By David Rothman

Coming in days, as summed up by jkOntheRun:

• download ereader PDB from any website from within the app. This works for any site that actually has links to PDB files, such as manybooks.net
• option to lock screen orientation
• option to reverse video
• option to tap instead of swipe for page turn
• option to turn off page animation
• sort by author or title or download date in bookshelf
• a few bug fixes and minor improvements here or there

Yet another update will come in a few weeks.

Related: iPhone app updates: Stanza, BookShelf, Bookz, N.Y. Times reader, NetNewsWire and Tuner Internet Radio.

By David Rothman

"A low-cost laptop being developed by the Indian government in tandem with two leading Indian education and research institutions will cost US$100 when available, and not $10 as was earlier stated by the government." – PC World.

Details: An updated news release is here, and, no, it isn’t exactly teeming with e-book references. Will India repeat the mistakes of One Laptop Per Child and not play up books as much as it should? I’d hope not.

The Indians show more interest in traditional pedagogy than OLPC has, and presumably that means books, not just Webcentric activites and the like. Here’s to balance! Kids need both. I hope that the Indian equivalent of the OLPC XO-1 (photo) will come with a nice library icon in the middle of the screen.

In implementing the project, India should keep in mind the big three elements: Content, technology and integration with existing schools and libraries.

Related, from OLPC News: Why Give 1 Get 1 is going to be a much harder sales in 2008 and Windows XO: A detailed Microsoft XP video dissection. I agree with the independent OLPC News and commenters: trouble’s ahead, alas. The XO-1 isn’t that upgradeable.  Just why the devil should people buy it with the XO-2 on the way? Better to give some money directly to OLPC, then get the newer, better model for yourself and a child in a developing country.

Also of interest: eBay listings for XO-1s and On CIA families, public libraries, and the ‘right books’ for the e-focused young. Just how much does India value the creation expansion of a book-focused culture? Or will it fixate on tech alone? Again—balance, please!

By David Rothman

Stanza, BookShelf, Bookz and eReader, four promising iPhone e-book readers, have been updated. So have the New York Times reader and NetNewsWire and a gem of an app called Turner Internet Radio. Updates by update, here are a few highlights:

• As Paul Biba just noted, Stanza 1.1 has added such features as the auto opening of the last-opened book, when you start up again.
• BookShelf’s 1.1.903 font-changing works, and I can read Mobipocket files that I couldn’t before.
• Bookz 1.0.2 is more stable and should be handy for browsing Gutenberg and other public domain site and downloading titles directly for reading within the same app.
• New York Times reader version 1.3 offers stability improvements. No more articles missing after synchronization. Speed improvements as well?
• NetNewsWire 1.07 is said to be less crash-prone. "Performance is much improved."
• Tuner Internet Radio 1.2, as with the earlier version, gives you hundreds of Net radio stations. Among other changes, connections should be more reliable. Now if only Apple can upgrade the iPhone/Touch operating system so I can enjoy WETA while reading.

Fire up iTunes and search for these apps by names if you want complete lists of the updates.

One not on the above list is eReader—Fictionwise promises a number of improvements. I’m looking forward to page turning with a quick touch, do I don’t have to mess with thumb swipes.

Meanwhile free to weigh in with your own opinion of the above apps.

Of interest (added): An earlier eReader update, from July 9. Also see Paul Biba’s update tips.

Coming later A few words on the Associated Press news app, which might have the best interface of any reader, including the Times.

Related: Reading books on your iPhone—why do it?, at jkOnTheRun. Among the reasons: Make use of your spare time while waiting for the eye doctor. All the better to read the small fonts, JK, eh? Just joking? I couldn’t agree with you more: many people will prefer all-in-one devices over Kindles. Each to his/her own!

By Paul Biba

For our iPhone/Touch users, the iPhone application has been updated. According to the Application Store the changes are: “Added the ability to edit the title and author of a book. Changed the behavior so that when Stanza is first launched, the last opened book is automatically opened. Fixed a bug where Stanza might crash when listing books that do not have an author set.”

To update any of your apps go to the App Store icon and then look at the bottom right and you will see an Update button.

By Joe Wikert

Several people have e-mailed me about the use of a Kindle outside the U.S. I haven’t made any overseas trips since I got mine, but obviously the wireless capability disappears once you leave America. Amazon covers this in one of its FAQs and asks customers outside the U.S. to be patient.

There are, of course, workarounds to the situation. This post on the Nerdgirl site does an excellent job providing a step-by-step solution. It involves the use of an Amazon Gift Card although you still need to provide a valid credit card during the setup process. The trick is you must enter a U.S. address for the credit card, even if that’s not really your address. Amazon apparently doesn’t confirm the credit card billing address unless you actually use it to buy a book…for now.

I think it’s great that workarounds like this exist, but it’s important to note that Amazon could change their registration policy at any time and then you’d be hosed…until someone else comes up with a new strategy!

Honestly, knowing how great the reading experience is, if I lived in another country I too would be using any workaround I could find to use my Kindle outside the U.S.!

By David Rothman

Okay, so Jossip isn’t the Columbia Journalism Review.

And the headline is a tad overdone: New York Times rocked by Maureen Dowd’s Harry Truman quote scandal—even if there’s a qualifier in a smaller font, "According to a loose definition of the word ‘rocked.’"

Still, it’s good to see more people wondering if Harry Truman actually said, "If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog," a quote that appeared first in Ms. Dowd’s work for the Times. The TeleBlog is simply the most recent outfit to revive the issue, having been preceded over the years by USA Today and presumably others. The Truman Library can’t find such a quote, just a similar one in a play whose author probably used dramatic license: "You want a friend in life, get a dog!"

The real news: Times public editor ignoring issue—while the NYT still uses the quote

Here’s the real news, the fresh twist in the controversy. The office of Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt shrugged off the matter when I queried him. Michael McElroy e-mailed me that it was outside Hoyt’s jurisdiction because "its use was before Mr. Hoyt’s tenure and therefore outside of our purview."

Wrong. As I showed earlier this morning, Times writers are still using Ms. Dowd’s memorable Truman quote on occasion, even if just paraphrased (here, for example).

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By David Rothman

Women are probably the biggest book-buyers. But could e-books help the industry find new male readers? And might newspaper book review sections get closer to E? Remember, if you buy an e-book advertised online, you get immediate gratification.

Besides, the same reader gizmos used for enjoyment of e-books can work for newspapers—with possible help from services such as Feedbooks, so that even e-machines without wireless and display the news.

The wireless-equipped  iPhone and iPod Touch are naturals for certain e-book fans, news junkies and mixes of the two. Both AP and the New York Times have promising apps for e-reading on those two machines. Check out the iPhone App Store. Other goodies are on the way—the image to the right is a screenshot of FBReader for Android phones.

Women, E and the demise of the LA book section

Such thoughts occur to me in the wake of Booksquare’s observation that a "No girls allowed" sign might as well have appeared on the LA Times Book review, now shutting down. Point well made. That’s not the only mistake. Suppose the Book Review had aggressively gone after e-bookers and promoted the medium. By itself, such measures wouldn’t have saved the Review but would have helped. (An aside: You can hear an MP3 of Booksquare’s Kassier Krozser on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.)

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By David Rothman

The Telegraph in the U.K. has published an excerpt from The Last Theorem, written by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederick Pohl. Summary in Slashdot:

"It’s a reassuring chunk of old-fashioned sci-fi, describing an Olympics that’s set on the moon. Typically for Clarkian sci-fi, is very much about the practicalities of mounting a Lunar Olympics, rather than any wild fantasy."

So far, alas, I can’t find TLT in E.

By David Rothman

"The Impulse NPX-9000 laptop has a 7-inch screen and comes with the Linux OS. It has a 400MHz processor, 128M bytes of RAM, 1G byte of flash storage and an optional wireless networking dongle. It includes office productivity software, a Web browser and multimedia software. " – Network World.

The catch: You can’t buy the NPX-9000 except in batches of 100. Still, it just might be the world’s cheapest laptop—beating the OLPC’s XO-1 (shown) by $58. Just the ticket for e-books for schools in, say, Bangladesh?

Related: AMD passes on low-cost notebooks, in eWEEK News. But, hey, didn’t the XO-1 use an AMD processor?

By David Rothman

Yahoo angered Yahoo Music consumers by deciding to shut down a DRM server.

This would have prevented them from moving the songs to other machines, in the wake of the closing of YM.

Luckily Yahoo has wised up, and people will get refunds or DRMless music.

Yes—the inevitable question. A lesson for publishers? Books are a medium of permanence. Don’t muck up the works with DRM.