Tag Archives: amazon

Sony held a press conference today announcing a new addition to it’s eBook Reader family, as well as some interesting partnerships.

Earlier this month, Sony announced the adoption of the ePUB format for its stores, making me seriously consider switching from the Kindle. Now Sony has upped the ante a bit. There are now several eReaders in the family.

The Pocket Edition has physical buttons and is smaller, sporting a 5 in display and 512 MB internal memory. It’s a perfect candidate for someone’s first foray into eBooks and is priced at $199. The Touch edition has a touchscreen, 6 in display, 512 MB internal memory and a slot for a Memory Stick Pro Duo SD card. It also includes an audio player and picture viewer. The Touch is priced at $299. Both of these devices are available now (and were actually announced earlier this month).

The big news is the Daily Edition, announced today and available by the holidays. The  Daily Edition is the top of the line, selling for $399 and is comparable in many ways to the Kindle DX. That includes 3G access via AT&T but unlike the Kindle, you can’t surf the web, just the Sony store. The Daily Edition includes a 7-in touchscreen and can be used in portrait or landscape mode. I’m not sure of the exact specs, but the press release states that the reader “has enough internal memory to hold more than one thousand standard eBooks and expansion slots for memory cards to hold even more.”

If I understand correctly, these devices are in addition to the existing Digital Book PRS-505, which sells for $279, but I suspect they may be phasing that one out and replacing it with the similar Pocket edition.

The really excellent news is Sony’s deal with the public libraries of the world. Believe it or not, your public library most likely has an eBook library available. For example, I have access to the Ohio eBook Project. Unfortunately, because my Kindle won’t read DRM’d .mobi or ePUB files, I can’t read any of the books available to me. Sony is making sure that its users can easily access the libraries and check out books, all from their eBook device.

Thousands of libraries in the OverDrive network offer eBooks optimized for the Sony Reader, and visitors can now find these libraries by typing their zip code into the Library Finder. Through the selected library’s download website, visitors can check out eBooks with a valid library card, download them to a PC and transfer to their Reader. At the end of the library’s lending period, eBooks simply expire, so there are never any late fees.

Sony has another major advantage over Amazon – it has physical stores. It’s one of the reasons that I am constantly asked about the Kindle in airports. “Is that a Kindle? Can I see it?”  Sony makes it easy. Not only can you walk into any SonyStyle store in your local mall to play with an eBook reader, you can also wander into any Borders to experience one. eBook Readers, whether Kindle or Sony, are hard to explain until someone actually has one in their hands, sees, the eInk, and “flips” a few pages.

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Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

I’m not loyal to my electronic devices and brands. I’m happily leaving behind Apple to grab a different mobile phone. (This week I’m playing with a Blackberry Tour, but I still want to get my hands on a Pre.) And now, I’m considering leaving my Kindle behind to pick up a Sony eReader sometime this year. After all, I can sell the Kindle on eBay.

In the same way that Apple has irritated with iPhone/App Store quirks, Amazon is irritating me with Kindle quirks. In the last 6 months I’ve been rubbed the wrong way by several things:

• Inability to read formats other than DRM-free MOBI, DRM-free PDF, and AZW (Amazon). This keeps me from using the eBooks from my local library, all available in ePub and DRMed MOBI files.
• Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle 2 by $100. Yes, I paid $400 for the thing back in February. I should have waited a few months and saved some case.
• Amazon took back the George Orwell book. Now, I didn’t have it on my Kindle to begin with, but it does make me sort of shudder. Please don’t Big Brother my eBook Reader.

Today comes the news that Sony will be adopting the ePub format for their digital store. ePub is the open standard for eBooks and its a great sign that Sony is moving to the format. According to the New York Times,

After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub. Those include the Plastic Logic eReader, a thin device that has been in development for nearly a decade and is expected to go on sale early next year.

“There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices, with different features and capabilities and prices for a different set of consumer requirements,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading unit. “If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”

Sony is going out of its way to let other readers into its store. It smartly sees the value in selling the books and not just the device. Wait a minute. Haven’t we gone through this before with music players? It’s worth mentioning that Sony will be switching to the Adobe DRM. Just because these are ePub, does not mean that they will be DRM free. But they are available for other devices, which is key.

The ePub format will be compatible with all of Sony’s available eReaders, including the PRS-500 (1st generation), which my husband happens to own. See? No brand loyalty in this house.

Amazon needs to get in the game. They cannot play the Apple card in the eBook field and hope to survive. Not with so many low-cost readers heading to market within the next year, all of which support the open ePub standard.

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

If you don’t care about Windows 7 and are focused in on the new Apple update, you can now pre-order 10.6 Snow Leopard from Amazon. Snow Leopard is the refined OS X, making little quirks to the interface and speeding things up.

The upgrade is available for $29 (single license upgrade) and will be shipped sometime in September. If you purchased your Mac anytime after June 8 of this year, you can get a copy of Snow Leopard for $9.95 from Apple.

Amazon pulls no punches, choosing not to list a release date and reminding you that “only Apple OS X Leopard users are eligible for the Snow Leopard upgrade. Tiger & earlier OS users will need to purchase either versions of the upgraded Mac Box Set. Also, Snow Leopard will only run on intel-based Mac computers.”

So if you need to enjoy pre-ordering software at an affordable price (thank you Apple!), then head on over to get your copy of Snow Leopard reserved. And yes, I indulged my inner geek and pre-ordered my own copy.

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

This is a rumor folks, but what a juicy one it is.

Gizmodo points us to an article in today’s Financial Times about the rumored launch of an Apple tablet just in time for the Christmas Shopping Season this year. The  device sounds an awful lot like a giant iPod Touch, so I’m not sure how much credence I put in this. I’ve travelled a lot lately, so my mindset is sort of “How could I use this on a plane?” and that would be pretty handy for movies. (Although the iPod Touch/iPhone takes up a lot less space.)

This will compete directly, I would think, with the various “netbooks” that are out there. Apple has done enough with touchscreens to be able to support a tablet, and the keyboard would be more usable to those of us with fat finger syndrome.

According to the Financial Times,

Apple is racing to offer a portable tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution.

The device is expected to be launched alongside new content deals, including some aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project. The touch-sensitive computer will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally.

The article takes great pains to mention that this could also be a competitor to the Kindle, with book publishers already interested. My thoughts on that? Unless it’s e-ink, which is easy on the eyes, I don’t see it as a challenge to e-Book Readers like the Kindle and/or the Sony.

Estimated pricing is between $600-$1000 (did I mention it’s a rumor?). Would you buy an Apple tablet in that price range or is this just another random tech gadget?

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Cheers!
Send Michelle technology news at Michelle at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Actually, this is sort of brilliant.

In the same way as pilots are often available as free [promotional] downloads on iTunes, you can now download the pilot script of Showtime’s new “Nurse Jackie” starring Edit Falco. The free download is available through August 31.

It’s a different way of looking at things – and to a degree, it might also be grabbing a slightly different audience.Or maybe not. After all, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can install the Kindle App and access the pilot script as well.

According to Ad Age, Showtime is also giving you scheduling information and displaying banner ads on Amazon’s site.

Working with its media shop, Omnicom Group’s OMD, Showtime will use banner ads throughout Amazon.com and on the Kindle storefront to promote the free download, which will be available until Aug. 31. Along with cover art and a title page, the script comes with show scheduling information and a call to action urging readers to visit Sho.com to watch the premiere of “Nurse Jackie.”

It’s an interesting take on mobile. Oh, and in case you thought they were just focusing on the Kindle, you can download a 30-minute edited version of the show, plus behind-the-scenes action, on iTunes.