Posted by John Patrick on Apr 15, 2012 in
Education,
ipad,
Kindle,
Media,
Public Policy 
Libraries are trying their best to make borrowing e-books convenient, but publishers are not making it easy. See E-Books Are Easier to Borrow, Just Be Prepared to Wait. The New York Times story said that e-book borrowing is preceded by e-book waiting. I decided to take a look a virtual visit to the library in Ridgefield, CT and see for myself. I logged on to the library site and clicked on the button for downloading eMedia. The library has 1,730 e-books, but only 347 of them are available. This is what the New York Times writer meant by borrowing being preceeded by waiting. The library had just one copy of most of the e-books I looked at, and since that copy was presently loaned out, I would have to click the waiting list button and get in line to borrow the book when it is returned. The library has one copy of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, and there are eight patrons on the waiting list to borrow it (there are dozens of patrons waiting for some books). I selected an available book and clicked to add it to my list. I proceeded to checkout, logged in with my library card number, selected a seven-day lending period (you can choose up to 14 days), and then clicked “Get for Kindle”. I was then redirected to the Amazon site where I clicked “Get Library Book” and the book downloaded to my Kindle just as if I had purchased it from Amazon. The whole process is pretty slick, easy to follow, and efficient. So what is the problem? There are several.
Why isn’t the digital inventory infinite? The library knows how many patrons it has and how many books they read per year. They could estimate how many will be e-books and establish a budget to cover the purchase of X copies for lending. I suspect the answer is that publishers don’t want to do it that way. They want to sell books the same way they have always sold books. One book at a time at a retail price. They are not about to have the book business be like the music business. Or, so they think. The other problem is the mechanics of borrowing the e-book. The process is easy for a Kindle with some publishers following the process I described. With Ken Follett’s books, however, his publisher requires that you connect your Kindle to your PC with a USB cable and then download the book. “Due to publisher restrictions, this book in the Kindle format cannot be delivered wirelessly and must be downloaded and transferred via USB.” Note that it is a publisher restriction, not a hardware or software restriction. You can click another link for instructions on How to transfer Kindle books to Kindle devices via USB.
Kindle is not the only kind of e-book, of course. Some books are in the Adobe ePub format and others are in Adobe PDF format. Each requires a different download and installation of software. The convenience of borrowing an e-book ranges from a few clicks and wireless transfer to your Kindle to a hassle of plugging your Kindle into a PC with a cable to several variations in between. Everywhere you turn, you can see content publishers clinging to the past. In my doctoral courses, the e-book textbooks we use can only be opened with Adobe Acrobat (not Preview on the Mac) and they can not be saved or transferred to an iPad, in other words e-books that can not be read on an e-reader.
Publiishers are clearly struggling to find the right model. They had made progress with the Apple deal, but then the governmnet said it was an illegal approach. Three of the five publsihers involved have agreed to revert to the model Amazon has been advocating — letting the retailer set whatever price they want. We are a long way from getting to a free market where consumers can get what they are willing to pay for. A new book arrives on the scene but you can’t get it on your Kindle until you get in line and wait. A new movie is available, but only if you go to the theatre. You spend $125 for a textbook fee, but you can’t read the book on your iPad. The good news is that there are many entrepreneurs circling the wagons, creating innovative new devices and services. The publishers can slow down progress, but they can’t stop it.
Tags: books, e-book, ebook, ipad, Kindle, publishers
Posted by John Patrick on Oct 1, 2011 in
Gadgets,
ipad,
Kindle,
Media,
Mobile
There are quite a few stories here in patrickWeb about the Kindle and about Amazon (see the links to the left for indexes to both topics). I confess that I am a fan of both. I also love the iPad — but for different reasons. The media loves to write about arch rivals and head-to-head competitors. They want to speculate about whether Fire will win out over the iPad. I don’t see it that way. In fact I see them both as winners. There is not going to be one device that is best for all things for all people. That is the great thing about consumer technology — there is something for everyone. Some will be happy to have an iPad as their sole “computer” and use it for reading books, writing stories, doing their email, and shopping on the Web. Others will want more purpose-centric devices. If you read a lot of books, you will want a Kindle. If you like to read outdoors, forget about using an iPad. On Saturday I received the new $79 Kindle. (I ordered the Kindle Touch and a Fire also but they will not be available until November). The new Kindle is great. It has no keyboard and is therefore smaller. You can hold it in your hand and read to your heart’s content and never get a sore wrist. It weighs next to nothing. The e-ink makes the words clear as a bell indoors or outdoors. If there is something you need to type, it has an onscreen keyboard that lets you select with the cursor. If you are going to write a story, that would be no good but to enter the SSID of your home WiFi network to get started, it is no problem. The new Kindle is #4 for me. I sold the Kindle DX on eBay and handed down one to my wife who doesn’t care about having the very latest model like I do. When the Kindle Touch and Fire (Kindles 5 & 6) arrive, I plan to donate a Kindle or two to the local senior center. What will Fire be like? I can’t wait to try it, but I expect it will be great for consuming media and for shopping — probably better than the iPad. When it comes to syncing my board papers between Dropbox and Goodreader, I expect the iPad will continue as the preferred solution. I expect the apps for CNBC and Bloomberg financial reporting, aviation and healthcare apps and many other apps will continue to be best on the iPad. I don’t see a replacement for FaceTime with the grandchildren. The best news is that we have some competition for tablets. That may make Apple the first company to have a market value of a trillion dollars, or it may mean that there are enough differences in the preferences of billions of people in the world that there is room for at least a handful of very successful products and companies. My bet is on the latter.
Tags: amazon, apple, book, books, dropbox, goodreader, ipad, Kindle
Posted by John Patrick on Aug 31, 2011 in
Media,
Motorcycles,
Travels,
WiFi 
With the exception of one washout, this has been a great summer for motorcycling. Yesterday, it was a trike ride down to Bethlehem, PA taking only back roads to get there. It was about 75 miles from the lake. We saw a lot of downed trees and wires along the way. We parked the trike in the historic area of Main Street and had a nice lunch outdoors at Mamma Nina Foccacheria and then visited some of the shops. The most interesting was Seasons Olive Oil & Vinegar Taproom, which carries a large collection of exclusive, fresh extra virgin olive oils and traditional balsamic vinegars – all on tap from stainless steel Italian “fustis” for sipping before you buy.
The largest shop on Main Street is the Moravian Book Shop, the oldest continuously running bookseller in the world, founded in 1745. I don’t know what percentage of their sales comes from books, but the store offers a wide variety of distinctive merchandise. The failure of Borders leaves Barnes & Noble as the only national bookstore chain in the U.S. and it is racing to grow its e-book business with the Nook, while overall book sales continue to decline. Although printed book sales are continuing a long-term negative trend, they are not headed to zero. With unit volumes going down, printed books will surely rise in price. Some people will go to Blurb and print their own books. Many people will continue to go to book stores–maybe not the megastores like B&N–but to stores like the Moravian Book Shop where there is an entire room full of books for children and tables and displays throughout with printed books of all kinds. Then there is the Cocoon Coffee House in Hawley, PA. Many people go there for WiFi, panini, salad, and a glass of wine, but others go to buy a book. It is not exactly a book store–more of a cooperative arrangement with local libraries who may have some books to turnover. Books will be around for a long time. Libraries are not going away any time soon either. See WorldCat.
Tags: barnes & noble, bethlehem, book stores, books, cocoon, e-books, foccacheria, hawley, Mamma Nina, moravian, nook
Posted by John Patrick on May 1, 2011 in
Gadgets,
ipad,
Kindle,
Media,
Mobile
TechCrunch reported that Kindle Books Overtake Paperback Books To Become Amazon’s Most Popular Format. Last July Amazon’s Kindle eReader books had surpassed hardcover books in terms of sales, selling 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books. Paperbacks have now also fallen behind with the Kindle selling 115 books for every 100 paperbacks. Hardcover books are now half of Kindle e-books, and there are now more than 800,000 e-books to choose from.
Nearly a year ago, I posed the question of whether the
iPad would dethrone the
Kindle? I don’t claim to have the answer but I may have some clues. I selected one of
David McCullough‘s outstanding pieces of work and read chapters alternately on the iPhone, iPad, Kindle, and Kindle on iPad. Not that many years ago I said in speeches that I “would never read a book on my cell phone”. I was wrong. Reading a whole book is unlikely for me but reading a chapter here and a chapter there is for sure. Standing in line at the supermarket or waiting for a subway train or maybe sitting on a park bench offers a chance to consume something you are really anxious to read. The iPhone Kindle app provides a landscape view and it is quite readable and simple to navigate. The beautiful thing is that when you later pick up your Kindle or the Kindle app on the iPad and open the reader it asks you if you want to continue where you left off on your iPhone. The Amazon
Whispersync feature is innovative and extends your reading time and enjoyment. Apple will have something similar or better and Google Android readers will no doubt have a sync feature as well.
One disadvantage of the iPad as a reader is that at one and a half pounds — not a lot compared to a laptop or even a netbook — it is five times heavier than a Kindle. The weight is concentrated in a thin flat device and I find it uncomfortable to hold after a while. The other thing is the back-lighting. The iPad screen is actually bright — perfect for flipping through photos, watching a movie, or surfing the web, but for a couple of hours of reading it can be hard on your eyes. The positive aspect of the iBook reader is the graphical representation of the bookshelf and the flipping of the pages. It is truly incredible that as you slowly “flip” a page with your finger you can see the words on the back of the page. You have to see it to believe it. The processing power to perform the page turning is equivalent to what was called a supercomputer not long ago. The iBook reader also has some very nice content related features. The brightness can be adjusted — helps with eye fatigue — and there are five selectable fonts with variable sizes. I really like the display at the lower right of each page that shows how many pages remain to be read in the current chapter. An icon at the top brings you the table of contents of the book and a listing of all your bookmarks. Adding a new bookmark is very simple. You tap tap on a word and a menu pops up asking if you want to look up the word in a dictionary, search the book for occurrences of the word, or make the word be a bookmark. When I show someone the iPad iBook reader I always make sure to place a bookmark so that after they get finished paging around I can get back to where I was. The Kindle 3 just makes everything I said even better.
The Kindle reader on the iPad is an updated version of the iPhone reader. It takes good advantage of the larger screen and also allows you to change the color of the pages — white, black, or sepia. The content controls are good but not as slick as the iBook reader. Ditto with the page turning. The Kindle reader has the graphical page flip but it doesn’t show the words on the back of the page. Certainly not something you need but it makes a distinction for the iBook reader that people find impressive.
Last but certainly not least of the four is the Kindle itself. The Kindle uses e-ink — it is reflective — like paper. The more light the better. Like millions of others, I am Kindlzed — since 2007. The 5 once device never burdens the wrist. The Kindle is monochrome but we don’t need color to read a novel. The Kindle is simple and intuitive to use. Not flashy, compared to the iPad, but dependable with long battery life. For extended reading sessions the Kindle remains best, in my opinion — for now. I expect things to change. The multi-purpose ability o
f the iPad is important. I find myself jumping over to check or send an email when I think of something while reading. Rather than just look up a word in the built-in dictionary I sometimes want to visit theWikipedia or explore a web site. The iPad has personal appeal and you get attached to it. Publishers are busy working with authors to create multimedia content to be integral to new and backlisted books — audio in the background, video interviews with the author or clips of content relevant to the topic of the book may make books more appealing and also may make them worth more — which brings us to the pricing.
The McCullough book was $9.99 on Amazon and $14.99 through the iBook store at Apple. Same book. No multimedia content. Is Apple’s version of the book worth 50% more? Publishers really don’t like the idea of people getting used to paying $9.99 for a book. They want a new model. Apple is accommodating them — so far. Time will tell how things are going to shake out. Ken Auletta’s piecefrom the April 26, 2010 issue of The New Yorker explores the state of book publishing with excellent analysis of the strategies of the two digital behemoths — Amazon and Apple, and also describes how Google will soon follow with it’s readers and online store. There is a very large fight beginning for control of the e-books market.
There will be much more to say about the book market but in the meantime the iPad will be selling briskly. No doubt in my mind that there will be very large adoption — tens of millions for sure — and it will make a big dent in PC’s. Also, more to say about what the iPad can not do and about the bigger question of iTunes. When will it be in the cloud? The iPhone will continue to be an important part of my life — for calls and picture taking. This morning I had an appointment at a place that had no WiFi (fewer and fewer of such places) so I turned on the iPad and took a minute or two to download my email inbox and the Wall Street Journal before leaving the house. It was more than enough to occupy my subsequent idle time.
Tags: amazon, books, ipad, Kindle
Posted by John Patrick on Feb 3, 2011 in
Favorites,
patrickWeb 
I have been experimenting with the Amazon aStore and decided to add books that I have read. After I complete a book, I will add it to the patrickWeb aStore so to make it easy for followers of my blog to buy books I have enjoyed, if they choose to. The first book I will add is Bill Bryson’s At Home. Like all Bryson books, it is extraordinary. Bryson takes you on a tour of his home in England room by room–living room, dining room, basement, kitchen, etc. and in each room he delves deeply into the history of things. For example, reading the dining room chapter you end up learning about the history of food, cooking, servants, and many other things in incredible detail just like all his books. I can highly recommend this latest one. Feel free to visit the patrickWeb aStore and take a look. Feedback welcome.
Tags: amazon, astore, book, books, bryson, john patrick
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 2, 2010 in
Gadgets,
ipad,
Media,
Mobile 
Everyday I learn more about the iPad. While at the Lake over the holiday weekend there were two new lessons. Both support previous views that the Kindle is not only a keeper but also a continued necessity. First is that when three grandchildren get their hands on the iPad there is not much chance of getting it back to read. The one year old didn’t quite get it — actually he wanted to eat it — but the 7 and 12 year old grandkids took to it like they had grown up with it. Instantly skillful in new games, drawing apps, music and educational apps, and two handed operations. No training required. Totally intuitive. It is profound in a way to think that they were all born *after* the Internet and the web had been around for years. They have never known an offline world.
The other lesson has to do with the sun. The weather today is near perfect. Blue sky and sunny. I parked myself on the deck and continued reading the autobiography of Edward Gibbon with the Kindle app on the iPad. It went well until the sun reached where i was sitting. The backlit screen got harder and harder to read — had to continually angle it to avoid the glare. Then came the surprise. A temperature warning. The iPad was too hot to function. I knew it was location aware but did not know it also knew the ambient temperature surrounding it. I picked up the Kindle and turned it on. It asked if I wanted to continue reading where I had left off on the iPad. After it synced to the right place I continued reading with joy. The more sun and light the better my eyes can read and the Kindle is as happy as me.
iPad stories on patrickWeb
Other gadget related stories on patrickWeb
Tags: book reader, books, e-reader, ibook reader, ibooks, ipad, Kindle, nook, Sun
Posted by John Patrick on Dec 21, 2003 in
Favorites
My book, Net Attitude, has been for sale on Amazon since it was published and there is a link to purchase it directly from the book image on the patrickWeb homepage. (the commissions from Amazon are modest and I contribute them to charity). The new news is that there is now an interesting way to not only get to Amazon to buy the book but also to find and read part of the book content through Google’s new book searching site. Here is a link to the Google beta test. (read more)
Tags: amazon, books, google, Net Attitude, search, searching, text
