Category: ebooks

New Gadget Reviews Coming Soon

Posted on by srhawk in ebooks, iPad, Mac, Photography

Hey all – all 2 or 3 of you who know about this blog – I soon hope to be posting a few capsule reviews of some new gadgets I’ve been trying out lately. These will include the iPad 2, of course, the all new Nook 2 (or Simple Touch, or Second Edition, whatever you wish to call it), the Canon SX230HS camera, the Sony HX100V camera, the Logitech Wireless Keyboard for Tablets (iPad edition, currently typing out this post) and maybe even the new Mid-2011 Mac mini and the EyeTV HD.

So tune in soon for quick pros and cons reviews on some of these grown-up toys… uh, I mean productivity devices.

Reading Device Update

Posted on by srhawk in ebooks, iPad

It’s been a little while. And I’ve settled into a comfortable preferred reading device pattern. For reading most books on the go and in bright light, like out in the sun, it’s still the Nook most times.

For web, newspapers & magazines at most times, and books in the dark, it’s still the iPad. iPad 2 now, actually. Ask my Dad about the iPad. Gave him my iPad 1 and he loves it. Shows it to everyone.

And now there’s a new e-ink Nook that shrinks it down a bit and adds a touchscreen for that touchy ease of use (hopefully not unlike the iPad). In fact, when it was announced, I emailed someone to say, “this thing looks a lot like what I might imagine a smaller 6″ iPad (or bigger 6″ iPod touch or… iBook) to look like from the front.”

We’ll have to check it out too.

New nook app for iPhone; Random House goes agency

Posted on by srhawk in ebooks, iPad, iPhone

A quick post about a couple of potentially related (sort of) happenings in digital publishing today.

First, as has been reported, Random House, the largest of the big book publishers, has announced that it will move to the agency model for selling ebooks starting tomorrow, March 1, 2011. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/02/28/random-house Could this mean an announcement of Random House books coming to the agency model driven iBooks be happening soon (oh, say, on March 2nd)?

And then the iTunes App Store pops up an update to Barnes & Noble’s nook for iPhone app.  And what’s in the “What’s New” listings but “Sign up in application” among other minor tweaks.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/barnes-noble-nook-for-iphone/id384910586?mt=8 . Could this be how B&N is handling the new in-app publishing/subscription rules? Some sort of in-app sign-up to access nook content?

Things are definitely rumbling these days. Interesting times.

I bought a nook

Posted on by srhawk in ebooks

I bought a nook. The low-cost wifi version. Back in September. Why would I buy a nook when I already have an iPad? Don’t get me wrong, I love the iPad. It is a great browsing, playing, movie-and-TV watching, writing and reading device. Nothing Else even comes close. I’m writing this right now on it. But for extended reading, particularly in the outdoors in bright sunlight, it’s LCD screen, as bright and richly colored as it is, fades and isn’t up to the task. Even indoors, reading a book – plain text – over a long time, I have noticed a bit of the infamous LCD-induced eye strain many have talk about. If you read in short periods or something in color, like a magazine or browsing the Web, the iPad is perfect. For a novel that could consume hours, e-ink, found on the nook, Kindle, Sony Reader, and other dedicated ebook readers, is easier on the eyes, for now.

At the end of September, the weekend before starting a new job*, Jennifer and I decided to go on a quick trip to Florida to get some beach time. I wanted to read on the beach and I knew by then that iPad, as good as it was for so many things, wasn’t ready for that. So I bought a nook. But why a nook from Barnes & Noble rather than Amazon’s Kindle? Easy… ePub.

While it is the undisputed leader in ebook device and content sales, Amazon’s Kindle has one significant weakness. It is locked to a proprietary ebook format. Amazon merely bought a former leader in ebook creation, Mobipocket, and adapted it’s .MOBI format into a special DRM-locked Amazon Kindle .AZW format. No one other than Amazon delivered ebooks in this format. However, Sony, Barnes & Noble and even Apple have all adopted the open ePub format and put their respective DRM wrappers around it for their stores. And since both Sony and B&N both use a version of Adobe’s Digital Editions DRM, it is theoretically possible to buy books from Sony’s online ebook store and read them on B&N’s nook device.

In addition, almost all libraries that are venturing into ebooks are using the ePub format with Adobe DRM. So it is also possible to check out rental ebooks from some libraries (including my local county library) and read them on the nook. With the Kindle, you are stuck with buying from Amazon’s admittedly great store or scrounging up DRM-free .AZW or .MOBI ebook files somehow (one of my favorite publishers, Baen Books, provides DRM-free ebooks in both .MOBI and .ePub formats). So while Amazon’s latest Kindle is arguably a higher-contrast, lighter weight, overall better ereading device than B&N’s nook (excluding the new Nook Color), the nook offers more flexibility in how and where you can get your books.

As a bonus, both Amazon and B&N have ereading apps available for the iPad and iPhone. So anything you buy from them can be read on those devices, and more, as well. So I can start a book on my nook at the beach and then pick up where I left off later in bed on my iPad. It truly can be the best of all reading worlds.

Nevertheless, I have bought ebooks from Apple’s iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle store, and Barnes & Noble’s nookBooks store, but mostly the latter. Being able to read a book on either iPad or nook is a benefit only B&N’s store offers amongst those three. Those I have gotten from Apple or Amazon have primarily either been free books or books that are best on the larger format screen of the iPad, like computer reference books or children’s books.

So, for now, I have an iPad and a nook for reading. And that’s where I find I do most of my reading these days, on my nook or on my iPad. I may still buy some paper books, but they’ll be special cases. And, yes, I’m looking forward to what an iPad 2 and, hopefully, an e-ink nook 2 will bring to the table.

The future is here.

* – In September I took a new job in a technology-related field. However, my work is completely unrelated to and not involved with the consumer electronics industry, nor any of the technology commented on here; nor do I have any special information into these areas resulting from my new position. The opinions and ideas expressed here are solely my own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of my employer.