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commentary

12.02.08

It begins: publishers starting to hike prices on Amazon ebooks News, commentary | (1)
Kindle owners, prepare yourselves. As ebooks grow in market share, you're going to be hearing a lot of arguments from publishers--all of them deeply suspect--about why they have to price their books higher. If you were around for the whole mp3 revolution--from its tiny birth pangs in '98 and '99, through the iPod's first really disruptive years in '03 and '04, to the fairly mature market we have now--you'll have heard all of these arguments before. If you're not a technophile and don't even think of your beloved Kindle as a disruptive technology, the arguments might be new to you. ...
07.18.08

Rumor: new Kindle models in 6-12 months? News, commentary | (0)
CrunchGear has posted a rumor that Amazon might release one or more new Kindle models over the next year: The first is an updated version with the same sized screen, a smaller form factor, and an improved interface. The source told us that Amazon has “skipped three or four generations,” comparing the old Kindle to the 1st gen iPod and the new version to something like the sexy iPod Mini. The second new model, which is shaped like an 8 1/2 x 11-inch piece of paper, is considerably bigger than the current model and should be available next year. This is an unverified ...
06.19.08

Will you people please stop writing that ebooks will “kill publishing”? News, commentary | (1)
What is wrong with you people? You readers and authors out there who say you love books, but then wring your hands about "the future of publishing" and behave as if ebook technology is somehow anti-literacy--what is it you really love? I suspect it's the book as an object, not as a device to transmit the written word. Are you avid readers, or simply book fetishists? The latest nonsensical fear about the future of publishing and the threat of the Kindle comes from an opinion piece in the New York Times this week. Eleanor Randolph writes (emphasis mine), There are darker questions ...
05.23.08

David Pogue is superstitious about ebooks News, commentary | (0)
Of all people to be emotional to a fault about digital publishing, I wouldn't expect it of David Pogue, the technology writer for the New York Times--and yet this week he published an anti-ebook column where he said that because his books can be pirated at all, they should never be available in digital format. What? Because it's his own hard work at stake, suddenly everything we know about digital piracy--that its effects on sales are complicated and not always negative, and that it doesn't always cannibalize existing markets--is thrown out the window by Pogue as he obsesses over raising his ...
04.30.08

Suggestions For Kindle 2.0 commentary | (0)
Give me the ability to turn the page buttons on and off. I like the option of page buttons on both sides of the device, but odds are high each user will use one side most of the time. Accidental page flips could be avoided if you could go into Settings and, for example, tell the Kindle to ignore any presses on the long "Next Page" button on the right hand side. Put the volume buttons on the face of the device. There are so few edges on the Kindle where you can grab it or rest it against something. The bottom is ...

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