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Inside the E-Book Wars: The Nook in Depth (Part 1)

By William Stanek
November 23, 2009

William here, continuing the e-reader discussion with an in-depth look at the Nook from Barnes & Noble. Anyone who's been watching the e-reader and e-book market knows, the Nook is the latest entry in this highly competitive space where Sony,...

E-Readers Up Close: Using the Sony PRS-700

By William Stanek
November 18, 2009

The Sony PRS-700 has an internal storage capacity of 420 megabytes (MB) and two expansion slots: One expansion slot for Sony Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo cards up to 16 GB One expansion slot for SD, SDHC, or...

E-Readers Up Close: Using the Sony PRS-505

By William Stanek
November 18, 2009

The PRS-505 has an internal storage capacity of 192 megabytes (MB) and two expansion slots: One expansion slot for Sony Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo cards up to 8 GB One expansion slot for SD, SDHC, or miniSD...

E-Readers Up Close: Getting to know the Sony Readers, Part 3

By William Stanek
November 15, 2009

William Stanek here, continuing with the in-depth look at e-readers and e-books. The recap: In my earlier blog entries, I've explored the ins and outs of e-ink, electronic paper displays (EPDs) and e-readers. Now, I'm examining individual readers as a...

Taking a Detour: E-readers A Soap Box

By William Stanek
November 12, 2009

William Stanek here, taking a slight detour in our continuing e-reader discussion. When it comes to favorite technologies, call me a zealot because I probably am. I'm not afraid to proclaim that I love technology that works, and I think...

E-Readers Up Close: Getting to know the Sony Readers, Part 2

By William Stanek
November 9, 2009

William Stanek here, continuing with the in-depth look at e-readers and e-books. In my earlier blog entries, I introduced EPDs, discussed how the technology works, and delved briefly into ways they're being used. Now, I'm examining the Sony Reader as...

So Long iPod, Hello E-Reader

By William Stanek
November 4, 2009

William Stanek here, talking about electronic paper displays (EPDs). In my earlier blog entries, I introduced EPDs, discussed how the technology works, and delved briefly into ways they're being used. Now, I'll dig in and take a closer look at...

Kindle Device and Clipping Limits Now Lifted for O'Reilly Books in Kindle Store

By Andrew Savikas
October 8, 2009

Earlier this year, one of our authors reported hitting some sort of undocumented limit when using the "Clipping" feature on Kindle. And then other readers discovered they were unable...

Apple, the Boomer Tablet and the Matrix

By Mark Sigal
June 25, 2009

I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers. Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse. One, such a bookish-sized tablet device –...

Thoughts on Amazon's New Whispernet Charge Policy

By Joe Wikert
May 21, 2009

As everyone probably knows by now, Amazon has altered the conversion/delivery fee associated with sending files wirelessly to your Kindle. When I got my Kindle v.1 I was happy to see that I could email PDFs and other documents and...

Undocumented Kindle "Clippings" Limit?

By Andrew Savikas
May 20, 2009

O'Reilly author Shelley Powers is a heavy user of Kindle's "clipping" feature, and has run into an apparently undocumented clipping limit imposed by Amazon: I tried to find information about...

Why $9.99 Won't Always Be an eBook Pricing Ceiling

By Joe Wikert
May 18, 2009

Have you stumbled across any of those Kindle owners who get angry anytime they see an ebook price over $9.99? How about publishers who insist on maintaining their print list price for the e-version? Btw, for the record, at O'Reilly...

Amazon's Physical vs. Digital Dissonance

By Andrew Savikas
May 18, 2009

In March of 2008, I wrote about the frustrating experience of trying to get this blog added to Kindle. Fourteen months later, apparently that "rather large ingestion queue" is still...

Report: Large-Form Kindle to Target Textbooks and Newspapers

By Mac Slocum
May 5, 2009

The Wall Street Journal says a large-form Kindle -- rumored to make its debut tomorrow -- will be partially targeted at the textbook market: Beginning this fall, some students...

Reinventing the Book in the Age of the Web

By Tim O'Reilly
April 28, 2009

There's a lot of excitement about ebooks these days, and rightly so. While Amazon doesn't release sales figures for the Kindle, there's no question that it represents a turning point in the public perception of ebook devices. And of course, there's Stanza, an open ebook platform for the iPhone, which has been downloaded more than a million times (and now...

Amazon Acquires Lexcycle

By Mac Slocum
April 27, 2009

Lexcycle, the company behind Stanza, has just announced it's been acquired by Amazon: We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of...

Over 160 O'Reilly Books Now in Kindle Store (without DRM), More on the Way

By Andrew Savikas
April 17, 2009

I'm happy to announce that more than 160 O'Reilly books are now available on Kindle, and are being sold without any DRM (Digital Rights Management). Though we do offer more...

Readers Boycotting Kindle Titles Priced Above $9.99

By Andrew Savikas
April 2, 2009

Pricing is a red-hot topic among publishers when it comes to ebooks. As I said in a Q&A for Forbes.com last week, cost-driven pricing (especially when the costs in question are calculated based on printed output) is a poor approach for ebook publishers. Readers simply don't care how much it costs a publisher to produce an ebook -- they only care how much it's worth to them. (This is especially true for the iPhone, where books must compete alongside games, music, movies, and other "apps" primarily priced well below $10.)

Sony-Google Deal Adds 500k Public Domain Books to E-Reader

By Mac Slocum
March 19, 2009

Sony is adding 500,000 public domain EPUB-based titles to its Reader catalog through a partnership with Google. Paul Biba at Teleread examines Sony's rationale: Sony's apparent intent, meanwhile, beyond...

Jakob Nielsen: Kindle Content Must be Kindle-Specific

By Mac Slocum
March 16, 2009

Jakob Nielsen offers an in-depth look at Kindle formatting best practices: For Kindle, it's certainly unacceptable to simply repurpose print content. But you can't repurpose website content, either. For...

Kindle for the iPhone, a first quick look

By James Turner
March 4, 2009

Out of curiosity, I installed the Kindle iPhone app this morning to poke around with it, and see what a "premium" book reader for the iPhone would be like. It's no surprise that the iPhone screen is a suboptimal display...

Kindle Comes to the iPhone

By Mac Slocum
March 4, 2009

Users of the iPhone and iPod Touch can now tap into Amazon's Kindle store with the free Kindle for iPhone application. From The New York Times: The move comes a...

Consistent With Their "Web 2.0" Philisopical History, Amazon Opens Up Kindle To iPhone; More To Follow

By M. David Peterson
March 4, 2009

In a seemingly bold move by Amazon, on Wednesday support for the Kindle e-book format will become available to iPhone owners via a freely downloadable application. But this shouldn't really come as any shock: Amazon is simply doing what they've always done: Looked to the bigger picture as their guiding light.

Fighting the Status Quo

By Kurt Cagle
March 1, 2009

Seth Godin recently published a rather insightful blog post on how trade groups often work to stifle innovation in order to maintain the status quo. The comments are especially timely now, as industry after industry goes to Washington hat in hand in order to beg a few billion here or there to keep their particular company or even industry afloat.

Unboxing the Kindle 2

By Kevin Hemenway
February 26, 2009

This is the first of a number of entries planned regarding Amazon's new Kindle 2 and, as such, will serve both as an introduction to the series and as the requisite dump of unboxing and first-use photos. The Kindle 2...

How to Save Journalism? Get Rid of the Newspapers

By Kurt Cagle
February 24, 2009

I've recently been following a superb series by Michelle McLellan on the Ideas that get in the way of saving journalism. In this series of blogs, she does a superb job of raising some very uncomfortable questions for newspapers, most importantly, whether they are in fact so wedded to the idea of the newspaper that they've lost sight of the journalism.

Kindle 2.0: Publishing's Killer? Publishing's Savior?

By Kurt Cagle
February 17, 2009

The new Kindle 2.0 is a cool enough-looking gadget - its hyper-svelt profile (just over a third of an inch) is thinner than most of the books it holds, at ten ounces it's also lighter, and the silvery/white casing (among others) manages to take scuffs and dirt better than its predecessor. The e-ink paper, sporting sixteen shades of gray, is also a compelling testament to what looks like the next major display technology - e-ink retains its state after it's configured, which means that you only have to refresh the page when you move beyond the buffered page content ... which in turn means that you can run the Kindle for days without recharging.

Amazon Announces Kindle 2

By Mac Slocum
February 9, 2009

I've got just enough time between TOC tutorial sessions for a quick Kindle 2 post. As anticipated, Amazon unveiled Kindle 2 this morning. The $359 update is thinner (0.36...

Amazon Dropping Non-Amazon Ebook Formats (Sort of)

By Andrew Savikas
January 27, 2009

Via Publishers Weekly, Amazon announced Monday it will stop offering ebooks in formats other than Kindle and Mobipocket: In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer...

"Kindle Killer" Might be Hyperbole, but a Lot to Like About Shortcovers

By Andrew Savikas
January 20, 2009

The email invitation I received to check out shortcovers -- a new hybrid Web/mobile reading site from Canada's Indigo Books & Music -- touted it as a "Kindle Killer."...

Report: 300,000 Sony Readers Sold

By Mac Slocum
December 12, 2008

The e-reader guessing game may be in its final stages. According to theBookseller, Sony confirms it has sold 300,000 Readers since 2006: So far three million books have been...

Interstitial Publishing: A New Market from Wasted Time

By Joseph J. Esposito
December 12, 2008

To grow, publishers must either battle other publishers over market share or identify and serve new markets. Which brings us to interstitial publishing; publishing between the cracks.

800 Newspapers Coming to Iliad E-Reader

By Peter Brantley
December 6, 2008

iRex Technologies scores scores of newspapers for its new iLiad e-reader. From E-Reads: Digitally delivered news is gaining momentum and as we turn the corner to 2009 it's gotten...

The Oprah Effect and the Kindle

By Mac Slocum
October 24, 2008

Chris Nuttall from the Financial Times says Oprah Winfrey will likely "endorse" the Kindle on today's show: Amazon is featuring a trailer of her Friday show on its site...

Report: No Kindle Launch in UK This Year

By Mac Slocum
October 16, 2008

Europe's complicated mobile landscape will prevent the Kindle from launching in the UK this year, reports The BookSeller: In an interview with The Bookseller, Brian McBride, managing director of...

Newsweek Repackaging Candidate Coverage for Kindle Bios

By Mac Slocum
October 14, 2008

Newsweek will aggregate its coverage of John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden into four Kindle-only biographies. From Amazon's Kindle Blog: The book-length biographies contain archived reporting...

New Sony E-Reader Has Touchscreen, No Web Connection

By Mac Slocum
October 3, 2008

Web connectivity has always been the key difference between the Kindle and Sony's Reader. With Sony's release of its third-generation e-reader, Web connectivity is still the big separator. The PRS-700...

The Kindle, the Cloud and Mixed Signals

By Mac Slocum
September 25, 2008

Adam Hodgkin notes a discrepancy between Amazon's cloud-computing efforts and the Kindle. From Exact Editions: If Amazon decides to switch tack on the Kindle and treat it simply as...

Kindle vs Sony Reader: Battle of Distribution Channels

By Mac Slocum
September 16, 2008

Sony is distributing its e-reader through Target, Borders and other retail outlets, while the Kindle remains Amazon-only. Does Amazon have enough pull to trump Sony's traditional model?

Open Question: All-in-One Devices or Single Use E-Readers?

By Mac Slocum
September 12, 2008

When it comes to reading digital books, do you prefer a dedicated device (e.g. the Kindle) or an all-in-one gadget (e.g. the iPhone)? Please share your thoughts.

News Roundup: Digging Around Amazon's Topaz Format, Twitter Novels, June Ebook Sales Up 87% Over '07

By Mac Slocum
September 4, 2008

Digging Around Amazon's Topaz File Format Late Night Code is popping the hood on Topaz, that mysterious "other" file format used on the Kindle: Mobipocket files purchased from Amazon...

TOC Recommended Reading

By Mac Slocum
September 3, 2008

Create Digital First (Martyn Daniels, Brave New World) Today we are the start of a digital consumer offer but it is in the main based on yesterday's physical cost model,...

How to Read any Type of Document on the Kindle (Almost)

By Liza Daly
August 21, 2008

With a little work and help from some undocumented features, it's possible to read PDFs with their native layout on the Kindle.

Commentary: Apple Could Own the Ebook Category

By Mac Slocum
August 19, 2008

Guest contributor John Conley says Apple's brand power and core competencies could pose a significant threat to Amazon's Kindle.

Open Question: Have You Seen a Kindle in Public?

By Mac Slocum
August 18, 2008

We pose a few non-scientific questions about device ubiquity.

News Roundup: B&N Won't Buy Borders, Kindle Roadblocks and Sightings, Pirates Convince Game Developer to Drop DRM

By Mac Slocum
August 14, 2008

Report: No Borders Bid for Barnes & Noble It looks like Barnes & Noble won't acquire Borders after all. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says B&N is changing course...

TOC Recommended Reading

By Mac Slocum
August 13, 2008

Could the iPhone be a Kindle Killer? (Bill Trippe, Gilbane Publishing Practice Blog) Here's a project I would love to do if I had the time--a face-off between Kindle,...