Archive for April, 2010
Easy readers: Kindle, iPads more than novel ideas
Sarah Ruml has already given up on paper books. The Kindle is all she needs.
“They’re better than regular books,” Ruml, 38, said of e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle. “They’re lighter, and if you’re trying to get under your covers to read, you can just use one hand. The page doesn’t have that gutter (the space between the edge of the text and the page binding). You can read faster.”
Also: the bookstore is always open, and what you buy doesn’t stack up in the house. “If I own the paper book because I intend to read it,” she said, “I will instead download it on the Kindle.”
The popularity of the Kindle and of Apple’s new iPad mean this might be the first summer in which many people bring an electronic reading device with them to the park or on vacation instead of packing several actual books.
Book sales have declined in each of the last several years, but the e-book market has exploded. The Association of American Publishers reported earlier this month that e-book sales in 2009 were up 176.6 percent over 2008. The iPad will likely drive the 2010 growth even higher.
But if the rise of the e-book is inevitable, what will it change about the way we read? How will books themselves be different?
“I’ve not seen any significant sign of writers changing the way they write,” said Richard Nash, the former publisher of Soft Skull Press whose thoughts on the future of publishing led Utne Reader to name him one of 50 visionaries changing the world. “What I have seen are enormous changes in how writers connect with readers.
“It’s the Twitter-ing novelist: Neil Gaiman and Colson Whitehead and Margaret Atwood and Susan Orlean. The author is not someone you see on a dais once a year at a university or a bookstore where you get 15 seconds with him.”
A radical change
The e-book also increases the number of authors who can make their work available, by going around big publishers and even bookstores.
For small publishers or self-published authors, e-books have vastly reduced the difficulty of reaching an audience, according to Mark Coker, founder of the self-publishing platform Smashwords. “Up until a few years ago, authors really had no choice,” Coker said. “If they wanted to reach an audience, they had to go through that traditional system.”
Gadgets -IPad: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Glare
No we don’t have an iPad, they don’t hit New Zealand for a few weeks yet. But some of you do. And those of us whose iron-clad policy is to never buy any first-generation Apple (News – Alert) anything would like to thank all you bleeding-edge first adopters, without whom the wonderfully bug-free Apple products we buy wouldn’t be possible.
It’s fast. “Applications literally fly open, and browsing the Web on Safari is way faster than on the iPhone (News – Alert),” he says.
On the not-so-great side, Patterson says, “Good luck reading e-books in direct sunlight. The beauty of the Kindle’s black-and-white e-ink screen is that text stands out quite nicely when you’re reading in the sun. On the iPad, however, the color display looks disappointingly washed out in direct sunlight, problematic for reading e-books poolside.”
Just a thought here: Wonder if it’s possible to switch to black and white display, instead of color? Just because it’s possible to render in color doesn’t mean it’s always best to do so, does it? Woody Allen agrees with us on this, by the way.
Frankly we’re not all that interested in buying an iPad, but this does remove one concern we did have: “The iPad’s virtual QWERTY keypad isn’t nearly as terrible as many had warned,” Patterson reports, adding that “I’ve managed to bang out a few decent-sized emails on the thing.”
However, it might not be the most type-friendly device made. To type one needs to “prop it (awkwardly) in your lap to type,” or “place it flat on a table – not the best solution due to the iPad’s curved back,” or “hold it in one hand and tap with the other, effectively slashing your possible WPM” or buy a stand at $40 and up.
Other points Patterson brings out: “HD videos look amazing. Absolutely gorgeous” – good. “Reflections on the display are pretty distracting” – ugly.
Where to Buy Kindle 2?
Kindle has truly changed the reading experience of both constant readers and those who just read at times. Various sources tell us of its benefits and the many wonderful things it brings after having them into our own hands. Since this Kindle is now getting popular, it would be a wise move to read some of its reviews especially if you’re still unsure in buying one.
When you are in doubt, it would be better if you spare time to read some of the Kindle Reviews that are available online. These said reviews usually come from those who already own one of these devices or who had the experience of using one of them. These reviews are not all good reviews. Some of them disclosed the downsides of this device.
If you haven’t read some of its reviews, then the next lines will tell you some of them. In one of its reviews, Kindle was described as similar to a Sony Reader when it comes to its weight and size. It has been checked that one of its downsides falls with the E lnk technology which makes the screen to take second to refresh. That sounds irritating to some but it was said that the designers of Kindle have done a great job in limiting the delay. Another review deals on the SD-card slot of Kindle. It was suggested that it is preferable if the SD-card slot was not hidden behind the Kindle’s back cover. On the other hand, its battery was admired for being user-replaceable and user-friendly.
A number of good reviews about this device are noticeable. To mention one, it has the best button layout that was designed. Its home button is said to be the best button because a single click to that will allow you to check the main list page of all your content. You can also use its scroll wheel to choose and sort the list by author, date, or title and show books or periodicals. Aside from that, it will also enable you to have access to Wikipedia so that you are armed with it wherever you go.
More of these Kindle Reviews are available for your access online. By checking those reviews, you will encounter some of its negative sides but digging deeper will make you see the good reasons why you should have one of them. Where To Buy Kindle is probably the next question you’ll have in mind after checking those reviews. The answer lies with Amazon and eBay. They are leading online stores that offer these Kindles for sale.
Apple Advances Helping Amazon?
So, yesterday Apple announced the newest version of their IPhone operating system, which contains several advances including bringing Apple’s IBooks to the IPhone and ITouch.
In theory, that should be good news to the company’s bookstore, which I’m thinking is off to not quite as great a start as they were hoping.
Here’s the thing. In his announcement yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said they had so far sold 450,000 IPads and that 600,000 books had been downloaded from IBooks. Let’s assume that none of those 600,000 are Winnie the Pooh, which comes free with the device.
That’s roughly 1.3 books per device, which I think should probably be higher. And given that IPads can download free books from Project Gutenberg, you sort of have to wonder how really significant that 600,000 number is — or at least wonder if it’s significant in the way Apple wants you to think it is.
Which brings me to the point of the headline — while adding IBooks to the IPhone and ITouch will certainly help Apple, every advance that makes their devices a better reader also helps Amazon with their Kindle.
See the thing that makes all those Kindle vs. IPad arguments invalid is the IPad is a device while the Kindle is a machine on its own as well as an app that runs on many machines including the IPad.
Apple’s software, meanwhile, runs on Apple devices — and while there are certainly a lot of them and while people are developing “enhanced” versions of books to run on those devices — the question remains whether it will be enough to steal a significant chunk of Amazon’s market or, actually, help Amazon grow.
On another note, I would like to remind the world that today is Books for NYC Schools Day. If you’re in New York, go. If you’re not, donate online.