Branson's iPad Magazine "Project" Hits the App Store

Pocket-lint: "Richard Branson's attempt at capitalizing on the massive popularity of the iPad, and its potential to re-invent the magazine genre, kicks off with the launch of the Virgin produced Project into the App Store. Available for free, the app provides links to download the magazine ... . It's currently showing up [as] two different issues, one labelled US and one Canadian - both featuring The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, on the front cover. ... "

Survey: UK Booksellers Feel at Risk as Digital Market Expands

The Bookseller: "The UK book trade has embraced digital, but expectations of growth are racing ahead of the reality. Booksellers are also at risk of being left behind as publishers chase this digital firecracker. These are the standout conclusions of the second FutureBook survey of digital publishing, hosted by The Bookseller. ..."

At Last, a Common Sense, Non-Paranoid Consideration of eBook Piracy, and Its Future

Keir Thomas, PCWorld Business Center:

... One of the reasons the MP3 piracy scene was possible was that, along with the capability to shrink music to a 4MB file, it was built around a standard file format, MP3, which was supported by every media player. DivX brought the same standardization to movie piracy. In both cases, an entire ecosystem arose, based around the common file format.

EPUB is supposed to be the e-book standard file format, but by refusing to adopt it for the Kindle, Amazon is taking one step towards stopping a piracy ecosystem developing for e-books. Conversion to a compatible format is, of course, entirely possible, but Amazon may be hoping that the difficulty and hassle of doing so will put many off.

The other strategic difference when e-book readers are compared to media players is that e-book readers usually have built-in bookstore browsers. This was the failing that initially allowed MP3 piracy to gain a hold. In the late 90s, people had MP3 players and software but no legitimate source of MP3s, other than ripping them from CDs. It took Apple and the development of iTunes to bring some order to the chaos, to the extent that now most people are happy paying for music, and piracy is limited to a hard core of people who never had any intention of paying anyway.

While there are still many questions over e-book pricing, statistics released from the likes of Amazon indicate that people are happy making use of e-book stores straight from their devices. While piracy will always be an issue for any organization offering creative content online, all the signs are that those behind e-book readers have thought things through so that they're able to avoid e-book piracy being a necessity, and also less of a temptation. ...

Codex Group: 21% of Book Shoppers Now Own Dedicated eReader or Tablet - And These Numbers are pre-Christmas

Publishers Weekly: "The launch of the iPad and price cuts to the Kindle resulted in a significant increase in the number of digital reading devices owned by consumers between June and November, with 21% of book shoppers now owning a dedicated e-reader or tablet. The finding is part of the Codex Group's most recent national book shopper survey, which polled 6,250 book buyers on various aspects of their book-buying habits. Codex estimated that the introduction of the $139 Kindle in July helped to spur sales of 800,000 units between June and mid-November, with total units sold estimated at 2.7 million. The growth in Kindle unit sales drove overall e-reader penetration among book shoppers to 14% in November, and penetration levels could reach 22% by mid-2011, Codex predicted. The forecast is based on a dramatic increase in the number of book buyers stating they plan to buy a digital reading device this year."

The Sony Reader is Doomed

The Digital Reader: "For 3 years now, Sony have consistently been a step behind everyone else. In 2008, they released the PRS-700, an e-reader that still causes people to wince at the sight of the touchscreen (no Wifi). In 2009 they released the PRS-300 and PRS- 600 (still no Wifi) and then followed it up with the PRS-900 in January (3G but still no Wifi). I think the PRS-900 marked the beginning of the end for Sony. B&N shipped the Nook in November, and in terms of innovation that shifted Sony from 2nd place to 3rd place in the US market. And in 2010 it has only gotten worse. Pocketbook released the Wifi equipped PB-302 e-reader in February, It wasn’t a great e-reader, but it still did something no Sony Reader could do.And then the Kobo Wifi got Sony kicked out of Wal-mart (5th place now). ..."

Flipping Through e-Readers, a Skeptic Becomes a Believer

Michael Hiltzik, LA Times: "One entire wall of our family room is a bookcase, floor to ceiling, and piles of books unstrategically decorate almost every other room too. Yet over the last seven months I've become a convert to e-reading, to the point where reading something bound and on paper seems almost quaint. I never thought I would make this transition, certainly not so effortlessly. I say this in full awareness that this trend may do incalculable harm to traditional bookstores, places where I have spent incalculable hours of my life."

bol.com Partners with txtr to Deliver Dutch eBook Apps

eBook Magazine: "Online book retailer bol.com has launched two new ebook reader and shopping apps for iOS and Android devices to Dutch book lovers. From this month the Android app will come preloaded on each Samsung Galaxy tablet and smartphone sold by bol.com will the iOS version for Apple’s iPad and iPhone will be available to download from iTunes. txtr CEO Christophe Maire said the Dutch eBook market 'is ahead of most other European countries' with more 1500 eBooks are downloaded per day."

Russian eReader Tech Initiative - eReader Displays

Financial Times: "Rusnano, Russia’s state nanotechnology company, tends to specialise in projects too difficult or expensive for ordinary mortals to understand. But the logic of its latest Russian venture is a no-brainer in a nation renowned for bookworms: it wants to make screens for e-readers. The company approved plans this week to invest $150m in making state of the art plastic electronic displays in a partnership with Plastic Logic, a California-based electronics group. Oak Investment, a US venture capital fund, is expected to support the project, part of Russia’s drive to promote innovative industries to diversify the economy away from oil and gas."

How Google Can Save America’s Books

Robert Darnton, The New York Review of Books: "Google represents the ultimate in business plans. By controlling access to information, it has made billions, which it is now investing in the control of the information itself. What began as Google Book Search is therefore becoming the largest library and book business in the world. Like all commercial enterprises, Google’s primary responsibility is to make money for its shareholders. Libraries exist to get books to readers—books and other forms of knowledge and entertainment, provided for free. The fundamental incompatibility of purpose between libraries and Google Book Search could be mitigated if Google were willing to contribute some of its data and expertise to the creation of a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). ... "

Art by Félix Vallotton

Scribd’s New Social Dashboard for Reading

Technologizer: "Reading, writing, and publishing is morphing like crazy thanks to the Web’s evolution along with social media innovations such as news feeds, “likes” and sharing. Word that an iPad-only newspaper from Apple and News Corp. is on its way further amplifies just how much things are changing for digital content. But perhaps an even more transformative development, albeit lesser noticed, is already here. Scribd Stats, which quietly began rolling out last week, is an analytics tool– a social dashboard–built specifically for reading. ... "

Once Tossed Aside, a Homecoming for Sony's E-Reader

WSJ: "Sony Corp.’s digital e-book reader, which will go on sale in Japan on Dec. 10, is the rare example of a consumer product being reintroduced in Japan after an initial flop at home and then finding success abroad. The homecoming for a Sony e-reader also maps out the convoluted twists and turns a product can take through the electronics conglomerate’s labyrinth of markets and business divisions. ... "

Eight Great Kindle Books for the Christmas Season

A CHRISTMAS CAROL retold in the manner of ERNEST HEMINGWAY, $4.95

A RUMPOLE CHRISTMAS: STORIES by John Mortimer, $9.99

AN IRISH COUNTRY CHRISTMAS by Patrick Taylor, $7.99

HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS: HERCULE POIROT INVESTIGATES by Agatha Christie, $6.99

I'M DREAMING OF A BLACK CHRISTMAS by Lewis Black, $10.99

SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by John Grisham, $7.59

THE CHRISTMAS THIEF by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, $7.99

THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN by David Baldacci, $6.99

Waterstone's Starts Selling Hachette eBooks Again

theBookseller: "Waterstone's is now selling Hachette titles as e-books after removing them two months ago when the publisher switched to agency terms. The move means Waterstone's is on agency terms with both HarperCollins and Hachette, though has yet to the new terms with Penguin. However, the retailer has now stopped offering Card points on all of its e-books, paving the way for agency terms across its entire range of e-book titles."

French Senate Votes to Reduce VAT on eBooks

theBookseller: "The French Senate has adopted an amendment to the 2011 draft budget to reduce VAT on e-books from 19.6% to the reduced rate of 5.5% that applies to print. ... Dismissing advice from the government that the amendment violated European law, senator Catherine Morin-Desailly said that the lower rate would help develop legal downloads and should be introduced for all cultural products sold online. The Senate had already voted unanimously in favour of the cut rate for e-books when it adopted a bill on prices, she noted. 'We must show coherence,' she said. Budget minister François Baroin was reported to have pleaded for the amendment to be rejected, and to have reiterated that the government is working towards a consensus in the 27-member European Union to reduce VAT on e-books. ..."

Sony Expanding Reader Store eBooks to iPhone and Android

FierceMobileContent: "Sony Corporation will extend its Reader Store ebook effort to iOS and Android smartphones beginning next month. A teaser page posted on the Reader Store website confirms the move--according to Sony, consumers will be able to access digital titles purchased via the Reader Store across iPhone and Android handsets as well as PCs and Sony's own touchscreen Reader devices. In addition to new releases and New York Times bestsellers, Reader Store boasts more than a million free public domain titles from Google Books as well as links to borrow ebooks from public libraries. ... "

Copia Goes Live But Questions Remain

PW:

Copia, DMC Worldwide’s much anticipated book retail and social networking platform, officially launched yesterday. But while the Copia launch offers consumers an iPad app as well as client software for desktop and laptop computers that will allow consumers to buy and read books as well as connect with like-minded readers, Copia’s debut seems to have raised more questions than it answers.

Copia executives Ben Lowinger and Mike Lundgren held a conference call to kick off the launch of Copia and outlined the potential as well as the functionality of the Copia platform. ...

However, the presentation did not answer questions about the seemingly abrupt departure last week of Copia executive Anthony Antolino, the executive most closely identified with bringing Copia to market. In addition, there is Copia’s seemingly abrupt cancellation of a long planned and aggressively priced line of Copia branded digital readers; and now a lack of specific information on the devices (and when they’ll be available) and the OEM and device manufacturing partners. Copia now says it plans to bundle and place its software. ...

Nook Color Commercial

Barnes & Noble has released a new television ad for the Nook Color.

Libraries Urge CCC to Reconsider its Funding of E-Reserve Copyright Case

PW: "A contentious copyright case over e-reserves in university libraries has grown a little more tense. PW has learned that the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has sent a letter to the Copyright Clearance Center protesting its role in funding an ongoing publisher lawsuit against four individuals at Georgia State University over the use of electronic course content. In a letter addressed to CCC CEO Tracey Armstrong, ARL director Charles Lowry expressed “deep disappointment with the decision by the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to underwrite 50% of the plaintiffs’ costs in the litigation.”"

Sony Reader Coming to Android in December

Android Community: "Nothing revolutionary here but another option for eBooks is always welcome. You can make bookmarks, notes and adjust font size as you read and new books will be purchased through the Reader Store. Looks like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and the countless other eReader apps just got another source of competition."

How Not to Price an eBook

Colette Martin writing for the Forbes "Work in Progress" blog: " ... market dynamics have clearly shown that e-books should be priced lower than print books."

The Year in Digital Publishing

From The Literary Platform, an interesting round-up of opinion from industry insiders, such as:

Michael Bhaskar, Digital Publishing Manager, Profile Books:

In the next twelve months the relationship between book content, online content, marketing materials, ad campaigns and experimentation will continue to break down, seeing the development of a new style of work that exists somewhere between them all.

This is material that is at once integral to a book, central to the story or idea, but also apart from it, working as something to draw readers in. This isn’t just an abstract idea of transmedia or the like, but a hard headed marketing calculation in an environment where attention is at a premium."

Tim Berners-Lee: Long Live the Web - A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality

Scientific American, December issue:

The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. It consisted of one Web site and one browser, which happened to be on the same computer. The simple setup demonstrated a profound concept: that any person could share information with anyone else, anywhere. In this spirit, the Web spread quickly from the grassroots up. Today, at its 20th anniversary, the Web is thoroughly integrated into our daily lives. We take it for granted, expecting it to “be there” at any instant, like electricity.

The Web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles and because thousands of individuals, universities and companies have worked, both independently and together as part of the World Wide Web Consortium, to expand its capabilities based on those principles.

The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights. ...

From News Corp. - "The Daily" - An iPad-Only Newspaper

David Carr @ NYTimes: "Rupert Murdoch, an old-timey newspaper romantic, has nonetheless deputized himself as the digital savior of paid content. Mr. Murdoch is currently leading the charge to build The Daily, an iPad-centered newspaper under construction in the News Corporation’s Manhattan offices that is scheduled to appear at the beginning of next year. With an investment of $30 million and a staff of around 100, The Daily will be the first of a kind — a 'newspaper' with rich media and photography built especially for the iPad." Note one more article referenced below.

What Should Murdoch's new iPad-Only Newspaper Look Like?

Erick Shonfeld @ TechCrunch: "News Corp is taking the iPad very seriously as a new way to distribute the news. The media giant is taking it so seriously that it is developing a new publication called the Daily which will only be available on the iPad (no print edition, no Website). News Corp is hiring 100 journalists for this iPad newspaper and is reportedly working with engineers on loan from Apple to make it shine. ... the fact that News Corp. is putting so many resources into this project raises a basic question that has yet to be answered satisfactorily: What should an iPad newspaper look like? Well, I am not sure it should look like a newspaper at all. The nice thing about starting from scratch is that the Daily won’t have to feel familiar in the same way that an iPad app for the Wall Street Journal or New York Times does. I fear that even the Daily will be too parochial, showing only news and content produced by its staff. But people no longer limit their news consumption to one publication, even within a single reading session."

Plenty of Kindles Still Available (Both Models)

Goodereader has facts wrong in reporting Amazon is out of Kindles till after Holidays. So don't worry; be happy.

Interesting (Albeit Sexist) "Take" on eReader Demographics, Although These Specific to Europe

Seer Press: "Finance chief for Lagardère, which owns book publisher Hachette Livre, said young wealthy men, mainly investment bankers, support the ebook market, while 50 something woman with average income account for a substantial amount of paperback book customers. Dominique D’Hinnin’s comments follow conclusion of a deal between Hachette and Google which will let the search engine giant scan and sell its out of print books online. D’Hinnin spoke about the ebook market at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in Barcelona, explaining, 'We don’t talk about the mass market yet. Most e-book buyers are males, 35 years old, with a lot of money. Basically, it’s investment bankers'. He said advertizing rates for magazine applications are also increasing because of purchases by well-to-do iPad owners. E-book prices are about 20% lower than prices for new hard back books, and profits are better because there are no marketing or distributing costs."

Rowing a Lifeboat Away from Copia

The Digital Reader: "Anthony Antolino, Senior VP at DMC Wordwide (Copia’s corp. parent), has abruptly left his position only days after the launch of Copia. ... Question: was he fired because he screwed up (Copia was supposed to launch in April [and was supposed to include hardware]), or is he simply the first to leave the sinking ship?" Italicized comment comes from me. - EJR

Amazon Announces Direct eBook Gifting (or, "In Your Face, Kobo")

VentureBeat: "I’m not sure what took so long, but Amazon today finally announced the ability to gift Kindle ebooks to anyone — just as you would any other product or service from Amazon’s online store. The company says that the Kindle is 'the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com' but is still mum on specific sales numbers. While this announcement may help Amazon sell even more Kindles, the company stresses that no Kindle is required to enjoy its ebooks. If anything, the feature is a reminder to consumers that they can read Kindle Books on a variety of platforms — including the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry phones, as well as on Macs and Windows PCs. To gift a Kindle Book, you simply need to choose the 'Give as a Gift' option for any book in the Kindle Store, and then send the gift to anyone with an email address."

In other words, Kobo held on to this advantage for all of 12 hours or so.

Reviews are in for "A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway"

"Better than the original!" - Charles Dickens

"The best parody of A CHRISTMAS CAROL Hemingway never wrote." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I strenuously object to having been revised. I deny all these allegations. I've never dallied with whores in Havana, although London is quite another story." - Jacob Marley

"I never realized I was so macho!" - Ebenezer Scrooge

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway
Published November 2010 by New Street Communications, LLC

French Government Dubious of Hachette Livre/Google Deal

The Bookseller: "French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand has reacted extremely cautiously to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed yesterday for Google to scan French-language out-of-print books for Hachette Livre. The minister said he regrets that France's largest publisher acted unilaterally before the French book business adopts a common strategy on the issue."

Google in 'Notional' Talks with UK Publishers After French Deal

The Bookseller: "Google is in 'notional' talks with UK publishers about a digitisation deal, the internet company has said. Speaking at the press conference to announce its agreement with Hachette Livre over book digitisation, the business also reiterated its view that its e-book platform would launch 'shortly' with hopes it would be up and running across Europe by Easter. Google said Hachette had already signed up with Google Editions for the US."

Campus Bookstore = Dinosaur?

The Chronicle of Higher Education: "As students cut costs by buying books from cheaper online retailers or by downloading e-textbooks, campus bookstores sell fewer and fewer textbooks. That's triggering an identity crisis for one of the oldest institutions on campus and leading some college officials to ask: If textbooks go digital, does the campus even need a bookstore?"

B&N Announces Spanish-Language eBookstore for the U.S. Market

Press Release via The Digital Reader: "Barnes & Noble today announced NOOKbooks en espanol, the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States, and the best – and growing – selection of Spanish titles, including bestsellers, new releases, classics, works in translation and more. With NOOKbooks en espanol, Barnes & Noble customers now have nearly instant access to thousands of popular Spanish language titles, including thousands of free works, to be enjoyed across a wide range of platforms, including NOOKcolor, NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi, and the company’s free software available for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, PC, and Mac."

On The Certain Economics Of Relegating Paper Books To The Margins Of The Business

A "must read" analysis from James McQuivey | Forrester Blogs: "Time to get my hands a bit dirty. Last week I posted an eBook forecast with a brief explanation of why the book business may complete its digital revolution more quickly than other media businesses have. Turns out this assertion was more difficult to hear than I anticipated and I got some very insistent (and worth reading) comments. The discussion that ensued both on the blog and outside of it was very complex, this is not a simple matter. However, there are parts of it that are very simple that I have to clarify, even though it means rolling up my sleeves a bit. Allow me to draw into this discussion John Thompson of Cambridge University who gave a very worthwhile interview to the Brooklyn Rail this month to discuss his recently published analysis of the book industry, Merchants of Culture. ... "

Ironically, Merchants of Culture seems not to be available as an ebook. At least not from Amazon.

Are Magazine iPad Apps Profitable in the Long Haul?

MediaShift | PBS: "Magazine editors and publishers are excited about tablet devices like the iPad. In them, they see a chance to give consumers the best that digital media can offer -- and to be able to charge them for the content. But does the profit from the apps justify the expense of building and marketing them? And even when the apps are profitable on their own, can they ever bring in enough revenue to sustain a sizable portion of the business? Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst and other leading magazine publishers have all been experimenting with the iPad. They are touting their successes, while acknowledging it's too soon to tell what the ultimate business will be."

Google Strikes Deal With French Publisher

NYTimes: "PARIS — Google said Wednesday that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project. Under the agreement, which follows a landmark settlement with U.S. publishers last year, Google will be allowed to sell the books it scans as e-books or in other electronic formats. But there is one important difference between the U.S. settlement and the deal with Hachette, the largest publisher in France and the No.2 trade publisher by sales worldwide, after Pearson. Hachette, not Google, will determine which of the books covered by the deal — those that remain under copyright but are no longer commercially available — can be scanned."

Copia Released from Beta

Per the Digital Reader: "The long awaited social reading platform Copia has finally ended beta testing, and is now available to the general public. You can sign up at www.TheCopia.com. Right now you can download the Windows or OSX desktops or you can get the iPad app in iTunes. But before you do anything be sure to go to the site and register (you can’t do it from inside the app)."

Asus "Kindle-Killer" (Tee-Hee) Eee Tablet Delayed to Q1 2011

TomsGuide: "Although Asus is currently working on its line of Eee Pads featuring Windows 7 and Google Android, the company is also working on a separate Linux-based tablet currently dubbed as the Eee Tablet. The tablet made an appearance at Computex back in June, a completely different device from Asus' line of Eee Pads and originally slated for a September release. But with the projected release date come and gone, the company is currently still trying to decide on a proper name--Digital Note and Eee Note are reportedly potential choices. As seen back in June, the tablet will focus on note-taking, eBook reading and Internet browsing, sporting an 8-inch 1024 x 768 pixel grayscale touchscreen display (which doesn't use a backlight). ..."

New Street's "A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway" Launched for Kindle and Nook

"Papa" and Charles Dickens announce the debut of their new collaboration, just in time for the Holidaze.

Nook Color Debuts - Early Reviews are Mixed

DailyTech delivers a good rundown on all the late-breaking Nook Color reviews. " ... problems ... abound. The music player is reportedly hard to use and doesn't automatically recognize newly added songs until you reset. The web browser doesn't support pinch-zoom and breaks on many sites (including those that use Flash). Supported audio and video formats are limited. The device can play movies on YouTube -- but only at the lowest resolution. Reviewers praised the inclusion of an Microsoft Office-document viewer (.ppt, .doc), which was a bit slow but got the job done. They also said the PDF reader was superb. Despite being an Android tablet, the Nook Color does not support the Android Market. Reviewers were baffled by this. Engadget recalls playing Angry Birds seamlessly on a demo unit. Clearly this would have multiplied the value of the tablet greatly, but perhaps Barnes & Noble was afraid of muddling a cohesive e-book reader experience. Whatever the justification, the reviews agree that the lack of apps greatly hurt the device."

Publishers Weekly Now on the Nook

'PW' has initiated a Nook edition, although you can still, at least for the moment, read the entire magazine free on the Web. "As part of Publishers Weekly's commitment to make its content available as widely as possible, the complete edition of PW can now be read on the Nook and is available for sale through Nooknewstand, Barnes & Noble.com’s e-magazine store. The digital edition of PW will automatically migrate to the Nookcolor device when that tablet e-reader launches later this month. 'As more people use digital devices to read, we believe it’s key to our growth to partner with industry leaders such as Barnes & Noble and the Nook,' said PW publisher Cevin Bryerman. 'We’re excited to be part of the Nook family of publications.'
Deals to put PW on other digital readers are in the works."

Bookstore Sales Fall 7.7% in September (While Overall Retail is Up)

PW: "Bookstore sales had their worst month of 2010 in September, with sales down 7.7%, to $1.51 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this morning. The September decline follows a 6.5% drop in August and resulted in a 2.6% decline in bookstore sales, to $12.31 billion, for the first nine months of the year. For the entire retail segment, September sales were up 7.6% and nine month sales increased 6.3%."

link.me: A Tool to Help Publishers Connect with Readers Through Mobile Devices

PW: "For more than a year, a startup company whose backers include Andrew Barlow, founder of the online competitive intelligence company Hitwise, has been working with HarperCollins to develop and refine a method to help publishers use mobile devices to connect with readers. Started in Australia but with an office in New York, that company, QMCodes, is now hoping to turn its link.me platform into an industry standard. ... "

Galaxy Tab More Expensive at Home Than U.S.

"Verizon Communications Inc., the U.S. carrier, offers Galaxy Tab with no wireless contract at $599, or about 676,000 won at today’s exchange rate." - WSJ. "SKT in South Korea sells Galaxy Tab at 995,500 won, or about $884, without the contract. That means Galaxy Tab is 47% more expensive in the country where it is made."

Newsweek Weds Daily Beast? Good Luck - David Carr - NYTimes.com

My view precisely, via NY Times: "Putting together The Daily Beast and Newsweek makes little financial sense, includes not much in the way of editorial synergies — is it The News Beast or The Daily Week? — and marries two properties that have almost nothing in common other than the fact that they both lose lots of money."

One on One: Tim Wu, Author of The Master Switch

NYTimes.com: Tim Wu, author of the book The Master Switch and architect of the term "net neutrality" discusses the future of the Internet, corporate monopolies, Steve Jobs and companies that are evil.

Market Researchers: eReaders Will Hit Sales "Tipping Point" this Holiday Shopping Season

NYTimes.com:

“This is the tipping-point season for e-readers, there’s no question,” said Peter Hildick-Smith, president of the Codex Group, a book market research company. “A lot more books are going to be sold in e-book format. It also means that a lot fewer people are going to be shopping in bookstores.”

Only a small slice of the book-buying public has bought an e-reader. About nine million devices are in circulation in the United States, according to Forrester Research.

That could jump in the coming weeks as consumers begin their holiday shopping, analysts predict. According to Forrester, at least 10.3 million e-readers could be in circulation by the end of the year. ...

How Publishers Are Tackling the App Question

PW: "Are apps marketing devices for authors and books, or a new revenue stream? This is just one of many questions publishers are asking as they develop apps from their content. When PW approached large and midsize publishers to find out about their app programs, we discovered that many houses don't have 'programs' per se. Questions loom about what content is best suited for apps—though overwhelmingly it seems that reference and children's are sweet spots—and how best to look at apps. Should apps be created with the goal of bringing in money independent of books, or as tools to market books and authors? ... "

Digital Readers: A Guide

PW: "Reading in the digital era means picking the right reading device as much as picking the right book. So we’ve prepared a very selective chart listing some of the e-reading devices—from tablet computers to dedicated e-readers and smartphones—likely to be popular during the holiday season. ... "

Jouve Group Announces Direct Online eBook Conversion for Apple’s iBookstore

Press Release via Business Wire: "PARIS--As the global leader in digital eBook conversion, Jouve has developed an innovative online client platform for Apple’s iBookstore, making its industrial conversion solutions available to publishers of all sizes. A high-performance digital conversion process that’s personalized and 100% compliant with Apple specifications. Jouve now offers publishers an easy way to directly convert their catalog to standard or enhanced eBooks for the iBookstore. The iBookstore is included with the free iBooks app available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This simple solution fits the digital needs of all types of publishers, with production costs starting from just $19.99 per book. ..."

NewsBeast! - The Newsweek/Daily Beast Partnership

This should be interesting. NYTimes.com: "After a brief and interrupted dalliance, Newsweek, the 77-year-old magazine, and The Daily Beast, Ms. Brown’s two-year-old Web site, have decided to put their cultural differences aside and join forces. Ms. Brown confirmed the deal in a column posted Thursday night in which she said the agreement was finalized with a coffee mug toast Tuesday evening. 'As for me, I shall now be in the editor-in-chief’s chair at both The Daily Beast and Newsweek,' she wrote."

News Corp.'s Murdoch Predicts Ad Changes for Digital Newspapers

Bloomberg: "'Digital news will look like cable channels with affiliated revenue,' [James, not Rupert] Murdoch said at a media conference in Monaco today. Titles will compete for ad revenue across this market and media buyers will 'make a big commitment' to purchase advertising, rather than making bookings for just a month at a time, he said. News Corp.’s U.K. titles the Times and Sunday Times erected paywalls in July, which reduced the number of readers and advertisers on the sites. Murdoch this month said these newspapers have more than 105,000 paying online customers, and today characterized paying readers as 'more engaged.' ..."

Random House eBook Sales "Surge" 300% in First Half of 2010

Interesting. Not participating in iBooks does not seem to have hurt Random very much. Authorlink.com: "Random House U.S. e-book sales surged 300 percent in the first six months, and comparably in Germany and UK. The company’s e-book program in these countries cumulatively expanded to 20,000 titles. The UK Group’s Nigella Lawson digital cooking app became an immediate global bestseller."

The New Spanish Civil War: eBook Visionaries vs. Publishing Luddites

Publishing Perspectives notes two intriguing new publishing alliances in Spain -

The first is ​​​​​​​​​​​​Unebook, a digital platform created by 62 of Spain’s university presses to digitize and sell their content. With the help of digital distributor Publidisa , the group has created a direct-to-consumer website www.unebook.es where titles from the participating publishers are offered for sale in PDF format with Adobe DRM; Publidisa is also distributing the titles to mainstream online booksellers including Casa del Libro.

Meanwhile, up in Galicia, ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​the Consejo de Cultura Gallega (Galician Culture Council) announced the formation of a new “cluster” that will bring together the area’s publishers, distributors, and booksellers in order to “respond to the e-book threat” – as the cluster’s new president, Alfonso García Sanmartín, described it. In Galicia 98% percent of the population speaks gallego, one of Spain’s four official languages (usually in addition to fluent Spanish), which has given rise to a regional publishing industry to serve readers in both languages.  While García Sanmartín asserts that the publishers in Galicia who have e-books on offer have sold no more than 30 copies a year, and that the digital future “is likely to arrive much more slowly than what has been predicted”, the cluster nonetheless hopes to create a common strategy to help all of its members — the group is firm in its desire to maintain the traditional publisher-distributor-bookseller value chain — weather the disruption brought about by technological changes to the industry.

What's the Next Page for eBooks?

Justin McGuirk | guardian.co.uk:

... For all its quirks, the Kindle is a perfectly effective reading device – which is what it's intended to be. Amazon chose to forgo the touch screen and flashy multimedia connectivity of the iPad and other e-readers, first to keep their product cheap, and second to appeal to a more conservative audience. Yes, you can use the internet on it, but it's rather like using a Roman wax tablet with dial-up. It's only really good for buying more books from Amazon.

The Kindle is, in other words, what Marshall McLuhan referred to as a 'horseless carriage', the term first given to automobiles – in other words, an in-between stage on the way to a technological leap that we haven't quite grasped yet. The Kindle's one-dimensionality is strategic, but it is also short-sighted. Everything is pointing to the likelihood that the book will be absorbed into a multimedia world in which we switch from text to video to the internet in quick succession – some even believe all at the same time.

The design firm IDEO recently unveiled three possible futures for the book that re-imagine not the format, but the medium itself. In slightly patronising design-for-dummies style, they have cute names. "Nelson" allows you to read a text while simultaneously checking the sources and comparing other material on the same topic; "Coupland" links your reading tastes to a social network, so you can see what friends are reading and generally keep up with the Joneses; while "Alice", "an interactive reading experience", turns the book into a form of computer game.

The first two ideas sound potentially useful and plausible, depending on how well they're done. It's Alice that worries me. IDEO's designers are not the only ones predicting that the book is going to morph into some hybrid gaming experience, in which readers can interact with characters and even contribute to the story – like a multimedia version of those fantasy books I loved when I was 10, where you turned to a different page depending on which door you opened (do they still exist?). The "participation" rhetoric of the web 2.0 era insists that we all want to be involved in everything; that we cannot simply sit back and enjoy. I would much rather put myself in the hands of a master and be taken wherever they will rather than add my own jumped-up tuppenceworth. But that's me. ...

Review: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab: iPad’s First Solid Contender

Wired.com: "iPhone:iPad :: Galaxy S:Galaxy Tab. That simple analogy is all you really need to know about the highly anticipated Galaxy Tab and what it can do. With the first legitimate competitor to iPad for the consumer-focused tablet-computer market, Samsung continues to take its cues from Apple — just as it’s been doing with cellphones. That is not necessarily a bad thing. For all its faults, the iPad is still the tablet to beat. The Galaxy Tab takes direct aim at iPad’s shortcomings and does a credible job at addressing nearly all of them. The most immediately noteworthy difference from the iPad is that the Galaxy is considerably smaller — physically about half the size and weight ... "

AAP: E-Books Only Bright Spot in Bleak September

PW: "As sales in the traditional trade segments plunged in September, e-book sales jumped 158.1%, according to the monthly sales estimates released by the Association of American Publishers. Sales for the 14 publishers that reported e-book sales hit $39.9 million in the month, and were up 188.4% in the first nine months of the year to $304.6 million. In contrast, sales in the three adult trade segments, adult hardcover, trade paperback and mass market paperback, all fell by more than double digits with the adult hardcover segment experiencing the biggest decline with sales down 40.4% at the 17 publisher who reported sales to the AAP of $180.3 million. The only other segment to post a significant sales gain in September was downloadable audio with sales from the nine reporting companies up 73.7%, to $7.7 million. Sales of audio CDs fell 42.6%, to $11.6 million, in the month at the 22 reporting companies."

HTML5 Project Makes Browser Emulate Tablet Reading Experience

ubergizmo: "Since Amazon has gotten more generous with their payouts for publishers of ebooks and the ebook market growing at a phenomenal rate, it is safe to conclude that more and more people are hopping aboard the tablet bandwagon to carry their virtual books everywhere they go. The HTML5 project from the Center for Public Integrity intends to make lengthier stories a whole lot easier to read on both desktop and mobile browsers, so that means you need not have to own an ebook reader of sorts to get the same reading experience (sans the mobile one, of course). All content will be displayed in a horizontal, widescreen format that lacks irritating banner ads and other content links. As the template uses HTML5 for its rendering, the format is 100% mobile-friendly."

E-Books to Join The New York Times Best-Seller List

NYTimes.com: "In an acknowledgment of the growing sales and influence of digital publishing, The New York Times said on Wednesday that it would publish e-book best-seller lists in fiction and nonfiction beginning early next year.  The lists will be compiled from weekly data from publishers, chain bookstores, independent booksellers and online retailers, among other sources."

2 New Amazon Kindle Ads for Holidaze

Check them out:

How E Ink’s Triton Color Displays Work

Gadget Lab | Wired.com: "E Ink’s new Triton line give the company’s displays a long-desired new feature: color. Most of the E Ink team is in Japan this week, demonstrating their new screens in Hanvon’s new e-reader. I spoke by phone with E Ink’s Lawrence Schwartz, who broke down the technology behind the new screens, Triton’s importance for his company, and where their displays fit into the broader ecosystem of readable screens. 'All of our screens have been building towards this,' Schwartz said. 'The contrast and brightness we were able to add to the Pearl’s black-and-white screens, paired with a color filter — that’s what lets us bring color to the display.' Schwartz emphasized that the company’s primary focus is still developing low-power, high-contrast surfaces for reading. 'What’s unique about color in reading,' he added, 'is that while most textual content is still in monochrome, we can introduce color into cover art, children’s books, newspapers, and textbooks — places still in the reading field where color is at a premium.'"

Review: Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-650BC

David Carnoy, CNET Reviews: "The Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-650 is a slick e-book reader that's anchored by an impressive and easy-to-use touch interface, but the glaring omission of wireless connectivity will be a deal-killer for many--especially at this price." Price = $229-$249.

Next Kindle Store: Germany

theBookseller.com: "Germany could become the next market outside of the United States and United Kingdom to have a dedicated Kindle store. Buchmarkt reports that publishers at the recent Homer 3.0 conference in Berlin said they were in discussions with Amazon representatives about a 2011 launch of a Kindle store. The e-book reading device has been available in Germany since late 2009. However, the overwhelming majority of the books available have been in English and Amazon.de has lacked its own Kindle store. In August, the United Kingdom became the first country outside of the US to get a dedicated e-book store, with UK pricing."

Same-Day E-Book Sales Propel Grisham's Thriller

Jeff Trachtenberg, WSJ.com: "In recent years, even some of the biggest authors have lost gravitational pull with readers. But for John Grisham's 24th adult book, The Confession, the e-book version has helped propel first-week sales beyond that of his last legal thriller. The Confession is the first of Mr. Grisham's adult hardcover novels to also be available simultaneously as an e-book. Doubleday, an imprint of Bertelsmann AG's Random House, says e-book sales were about one-third of week-one hardcover sales, or around 70,000."

Amazon Gives Magazine Publishers Larger Kindle Revenue Share

PCWorld: "Amazon.com will give magazine and newspaper publishers selling through the Kindle Store up to 70 percent of the retail price of their products, after delivery costs, it said on Monday. The terms will become available on Dec. 1, and will be offered to new and existing suppliers, according to Amazon. Publishers will get their share of the revenue after Amazon deducts delivery costs. These apply if the content is delivered via what Amazon calls a paid distribution method, such as its own Whispernet 3G mobile wireless service. That service costs US$0.15 per megabyte, so the data cost of a newspaper that delivers 9.0MB per month is $1.35. If the publication retails for $9.99 per month, the publisher would earn $6.05 for each subscription, according to an Amazon FAQ."

French Study: Digital Sales To Represent 25% of International Book Market by 2015

theBookseller.com: "Between 15% and 20% of the [international] book reading public will own electronic devices and up to 25% of books will be sold in digital form by 2015, according to a new French study. The study showed that multimedia tablets such as iPad should account for between two-thirds and three-quarters of total sales and ereaders such as Kindle the remaining third to a quarter. The study was conducted among 3,000 people in six countries—France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States and carried out by management consultants Bain & Company. The findings were revealed at the weekend during the third cultural forum in Avignon." My perspective: The percentage is bound to be significantly higher in the United States and Great Britain, countries already well ahead of the curve vis-a-vis installed bases for e-readers.

Forrester Research: eBook Sales to Hit $1 Billion By Year's End, $3 Billion by 2015

readwrite.web: "With the holiday season just gearing up and sales of eBooks and eBook readers likely to go into overdrive, analyst firm Forrester is predicting that 2010 will finish with just under $1 billion in eBooks sales. According to Forrester's five-year forecast for eBooks in the U.S., 2010 will end with a total of $966 million in eBook sales. Furthermore, the eBook market is ready to triple itself, with $3 billion in sales by 2015. ..."

Hanvon to Introduce World’s First Color E-Ink Reader

GizmoCrave: "Chinese company Hanvon has decided to introduce the first device in the world with color display using technology from E-Ink. The company will be launching their dedicated e-Reader equipped with a 10-inch touchscreen in the Chinese markets by 2011 march. The company is likely to announce their plans on Tuesday at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo."

Textbook Rentals No Cure for Rising College Costs

Washington Post: "About half the nation's major college and university bookstores offered textbook rentals this fall, according to the National Association of College Stores, hoping to cut the $600-$900 students spend buying books each year. That's roughly a fivefold increase from around 300 stores a year ago. But schools and publishing experts say the programs are expensive to start up and difficult to operate. In addition, there are complaints that rental prices are still too high, even though they can be as much as half the cost of a new book. ..."

Penguin Books Left Out in the Cold as James Bond Estate Moves Into e-Publishing On Its Own

The Drum: "The owners of the James Bond license have chosen to cut out publisher Penguin books and turned several of the spy’s stories into ebooks themselves. Ian Fleming Publications has chosen not to go through Penguin, which has the rights to 14 Bond novels, and has decided to create the digital versions of the novels themselves, which could also be sold for less than the recommended retail price of 7.99 pounds. Penguin is said to be unwilling to renew the license for the Bond books without the digital rights being involved in any future contract."

Linux e-Readers are Evolving into Android-Tablets - Computerworld Blogs

Computerworld Blogs: "Sources at Amazon tell me that the company will indeed produce a mass-market Android tablet. I can't tell you its size, pricing, when it's expected to ship, or anything else of substance. The one thing I do know is that, like the Kindle, it will run Linux with a Java-based interface. In short, this new tablet Kindle, let's call it 'KinTablet,' will run Android. Amazon developers are already working on an app store for this new device. Based on the wording of the developer agreement, I suspect Amazon might even launch the KinTablet in time for the 2010 holiday season. We already know that Barnes & Noble is releasing their Nook take on a tablet, the Nook Color, on Nov. 19. Anybody want to bet me that Amazon will announce their next step Kindle on the same day or the day before? Will these hurt iPad sales? I doubt it."

Harlequin Digital Sales Jump 73% - The Only Good News in an Otherwise Dismal Third Quarter

PW: "A weak U.S. dollar and economy had a negative impact on Harlequin’s third quarter results with retail sales in North America down, offsetting gains in direct-to-consumer and overseas sales. Overall, Harlequin’s revenue fell 4.1%, to C$117.5 million ($118 million), although operating profits inched up to C$23.0 million from C$22.9 million. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, sales and earnings would have both increased by about C$1.4 million. Sales and earnings gains in the direct-to-consumer North America unit were led by digital sales. Although parent company Torstar does not breakout digital sales by geography, it said global digital sales jumped 73% in the quarter, to C$9.5 million, representing 8.1% of total revenue. In last year’s third quarter, digital sales represented 4.5% of sales."

Copia Offers Turnkey Storefronts to Skeptical Indie Booksellers

PW: "As its launch date approaches, Copia, a book-focused social network and e-commerce platform, is talking up a new partnership program offering independent bookstores a turnkey online retailing solution with digital fulfillment supplied by Copia. However, some retailers have questioned the proposed service, concerned that affiliating with a large international retailing and merchandising company will undermine their independence."

The NookColor Won’t Save Barnes and Noble

Forbes:

While B&N is a world-class bricks-and-mortar bookseller, it doesn’t seem to have brought all that skill to other ventures to the extent one might have hoped. Does anybody believe barensandnoble.com is as good as amazon.com? Some believe Nook is as good as Kindle (or even better if one values an open e-book format), but not enough if one goes by market share.

Another question involves the economic viability of a brick-and-mortar chain. Is the expense structure (occupancy costs, staffing costs, and costs associated with maintaining physical inventory in so many locations) an albatross that hinders B&N’s ability to execute as well as it might like in other areas?

Finally, there’s the question of scope. Amazon.com started as a bookseller, but nowadays, it’s a challenge to list things Amazon doesn’t sell. Does B&N’s less diversified revenue/profit stream put it at a hard-to-overcome disadvantage?

I love bookstores in general and B&N bookstores in particular. So I really, really, really want B&N to succeed. I also want to find a reason to own its stock, especially given the 6%-plus yield and the special-situation angle inherent in the poison pill and accompanying takeover thoughts. But when I catch myself in a B&N store finding a book that really appeals to me, and then pulling out my Blackberry, opening my Kindle app, and buying the Kindle version of the book (that being the dedicated e-reader I wound up choosing), ouch.

Samsung Rolls Out Tab at Home in Korea, Price Unknown

Digits - WSJ: "Galaxy Tab features a seven-inch screen and is built on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. It’s already on sale in Italy and will be available in the U.S. later this month. In the U.S., Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab through one phone distributor for $400 with a two-year, $30-a-month contract and another for about $600 with a prepaid data plan that requires no contract. Since Samsung’s cellphone division developed the product, it has focused on distribution with its partners in the cellphone industry. There’s no immediate plan for a version with Wi-Fi connections that Samsung could sell through other retailers or directly to consumers itself."

Smaller Australian Publishers want in to Apple’s iWalled Book Garden

iTWire: "Yesterday, Apple announced a list of who’s in at the Australian iBookstore, and by virtue of doing so, announced a list of who’s currently out of the Australian iBookstore too, causing a furore among smaller publishers who feel miffed at thus far being left out of the crunchy kingdom and away from all its digital iCitizens, and right before Christmas, too!"

Stars Fall in UK Protest Over Amazon eBook Prices

guardian.co.uk: "Authors found themselves in the firing line this week as fans furious at sudden rises in Amazon's Kindle prices protested by giving their books one-star reviews on the retailer's website. Iain Banks, Stephen King, Maeve Binchy, Elizabeth Buchan and Michael McIntyre were among those authors whose books were given new, low-ranking reviews on the basis of their Kindle ebook price, as part of a concerted attempt by readers to voice their displeasure. Earlier this week, Amazon.co.uk was forced to accept new commercial terms from big publishers Penguin, Hachette and HarperCollins, who have switched to the 'agency model' for their ebooks. On this model it is publishers, not retailers, who set the selling price."

WOWIO, Inc. Announces Deal with Ingram Content Group

Press Relase @ Business Wire: "LOS ANGELES--WOWIO, Inc., an established market leader in the eBook marketplace with an online destination (www.wowio.com) providing access to rich digital media content and eBooks, today announced that they have entered into a deal with Ingram Content Group to add hundreds of thousands of titles from the Ingram catalogue to the WOWIO marketplace. Content will include titles from major publishers such as Random House, McGraw-Hill, and Harlequin Enterprises Limited."

Kindle's Secret Sibling: Amazon's Android Tablet

Jason Perlow, ZDNet: "Amazon is building its own App Store, but for what device? We think we have a good idea — a secret Android Tablet. Yesterday, in my piece about the lack of successful Android-based competitors to the iPod Touch, I touched a little bit upon what companies actually had the potential to launch an actual iPod Touch competitor that might actually resonate with consumers. One of the ones I mentioned was Amazon, which as we all know is kicking ass and taking names in the ebook and e-reader market. Amazon has all the value-added services that would be necessary in order to launch a mass-market Android device — be it a media player like the iPod Touch, a 7-inch slate like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, or even a full-sized 10-inch tablet like the iPad."

Times of London Gains Paying Web Site Readers

NYTimes.com: "The News Corporation said on Tuesday that it had gained 105,000 paying customers for the digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times of London since it started charging for access to their Web sites this summer. The company said about half of those additions were regular, active subscribers to the newspapers’ Web sites, iPad application or Amazon Kindle edition. The rest were occasional purchasers. Another 100,000 readers have activated free digital accounts that are included in print subscriptions to the papers, the News Corporation said. The company’s initiative has been closely watched among media analysts and advertisers because The Times and Sunday Times are among the first prominent general-interest newspapers to start charging for their digital content. ... "

Apple Australia Opens iBookstore Floodgates

Delimiter: "Up until now, the Australian version of Apple’s eBook marketplace, the iBookstore, has been fairly sparsely populated compared with rivals. But today it appears as if the company has added half a dozen major new publishers to its catalogue in a major move. 'Today, thousands of titles from both major and independent publishers, including Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, Hardie Grant, HarperCollins Publishers, Murdoch Publishers and Wiley, are now available on the Australian iBookstore,' the company said in a statement."

Borders’ Kobo 2 to Hit Australia before Christmas

Delimiter: "Local book retailer REDGroup Retail today confirmed plans to offer the next generation of its Kobo eBook reader devices in Australia before Christmas, as well as an expansion in its eBook line-up that will see several major publishers add their titles to its library. The company first launched the Kobo eReader device in Australia in May this year, primarily through its Borders chain, but also in Angus & Robertson, which it also owns. At the time, there was a paucity of options for Australians interested in the emerging eBook scene, although both Amazon and Apple have since that time expanded their offerings."

What the Next Kindle Might Look Like

Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews: "After Barnes & Noble unveiled its Nook Color e-reader recently, I got a few e-mails from folks asking me what I thought Amazon.com was up to and whether Jeff Bezos had some sort of color device up his sleeve. I'd written an article a few months back about a possible Amazon Android tablet and they wanted to know whether they should opt for the Nook Color or wait for an Amazon tablet. Did I know if a Kindle Color was coming soon? Well, for starters, I don't think we'll see a color e-reader from Amazon this year--or probably anytime soon. I think Amazon really sees the iPad as its color e-reader of the moment. A lot of people are using the Kindle app on the iPad (and iPhone), even though Apple has iBooks. ... "

RoyaltyShare Adds Price Monitoring Service

PW: "RoyaltyShare, whose Digital Advantage service allows publishers to track and manage sales of e-books and other digital products, has added a new service that will allow publishers to monitor the price of e-books being offered by different e-book retailers. Called Sales Feed Price Validation, the new service provides book publishers with a tool for identifying and managing transactions in which the actual sale price reported by retail agents is not in accordance with the price set by the publisher. ... "

Worldreader.org Announces Random House E-book Donation & Digitization Project

PW: "Worldreader.org the 'market-based' not-for-profit organization designed to use e-books and e-readers to put 'a library of books within reach of every family on the planet,' has announced that Random House has agreed to donate thousands of books for an upcoming iREAD pilot. Titles will include such classic works as Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, and Moby Dick, all formatted for e-readers. The donation will also include the entire Magic Tree House collection by Mary Pope Osborne, which Worldreader officials said was 'a real favorite' among children in its earlier trial in Ghana. In addition, Worldreader.org recently announced an agreement with African publishers to digitize thousands of African books. ... "

Google Translate Takes On Poetry

WSJ: "Translating poetry is a fraught endeavor. Some would say it’s impossible for even the most creative, sensitive and literate translator to transpose the interplay of rhyme, meter, sound and meaning from one language to another without losing something crucial along the way. How much more impossible, one would think, for a soulless computer. But recently three engineers who work on Google Translate have been experimenting with just that: computer translated poetry...."

WIRED Co-Founder Kevin Kelly Talks About His Latest and "Last" Paper-Native Book

PW: "I’m really happy with what Penguin has done with What Technology Wants. And as an artifact, it’s beautiful. But this is probably my last paper-native book, because the attention has fallen elsewhere. That’s basically the only reason—because people, young people especially, are spending more and more of their time on things that are happening on screens, and if you want to reach people, that’s really where you should be looking. It’s not for a lack of love for books, it’s just necessary because the center of culture has moved."

Oxford, Rice, Open University Release eBooks on iTunes U

Apple - CNET News: "Oxford University, The Open University, and Rice University are three of the first schools to release eBooks on Apple's iTunes U, the part of the iTunes Store dedicated to offering free educational content. The Open University has released 100 free, interactive eBooks and promises an additional 200 titles by the end of the year. The school said its eBooks aren't just digital versions of existing books, but rather books that are designed specifically for the electronic format. ... Oxford University joined the eBook release party as it pushed out Shakespeare's entire First Folio. Oxford's Shakespeare contribution is available free from iTunes U. ... Oxford said it is also making six plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare available, including "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster. Rice University released 18 of its most popular free textbooks available as part of its open education initiative, Connexions."

GIDEON and O'Reilly Media Announce Partnership to Distribute 411 Infectious Disease Ebooks

Press Release via SYS-CON MEDIA: "LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/01/10 -- GIDEON Informatics Inc (http://www.gideononline.com/) today announced a partnership with O'Reilly Media, Inc. to distribute a new series of 411 GIDEON ebooks on infectious diseases ($49 each) that can be read on Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, mobile devices and personal computers. The GIDEON ebook series makes it easier for medical professionals to stay up to date on developments in the field of Infectious Diseases and provides the first comprehensive compilation of disease data for every country in the world."

Entourage Pocket Edge up for Pre-Order for $400

Liliputing: "The Entourage Pocket Edge is a combination eBook reader and Android tablet… but while that might bring to mind a device that looks like the new Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor, with a single LCD display that you can use to surf the web, run apps, or read eBooks, the Pocket Edge is something different: A dual screen device with an E Ink screen and an LCD display."

Borders' New 'Low Price Promise' Fades in the Fine Print

DailyFinance: "... based on what DailyFinance has learned, store-level employees are not exactly thrilled by what executives at the company's Ann Arbor, Mich., headquarters have cooked up just in time for the holidays: a new 'customer satisfaction initiative' that promises to match the lowest price available elsewhere at a brick-and-mortar store. But busy customers should pay attention: The price matching offer carries a number of notable caveats. Naturally, the statement about the program from Borders President Mike Edwards is puffed up with platitudes. 'We're the first and only major bookseller to introduce a program like this that truly puts all consumers' needs first,' he said. 'In a competitive environment, the differentiators for consumers are value offerings combined with an exceptional in-store experience. Our customers have no reason to shop anywhere else.' That sounds nice, until one discovers the limits on the offer, which poke large holes in Edwards' closing sentence. ..."

Amazon UK Makes Switch to Agency Terms with Three Publishers

Seems the big boys continue to insist on shooting themselves in the digital feet. theBookseller.com: "Amazon.co.uk has moved on to the agency model in the UK with publishers Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin now setting their own e-book prices. Customers buying an e-book from the Kindle store from any of the three publishers are told: 'This price was set by the publisher.' A Penguin spokesperson said: 'I can confirm we are now on the agency model with Amazon as of today.' Penguin and HarperCollins have followed Hachette, which switched to agency pricing in September. Amazon is the first online e-bookseller to make the switch, with no Penguin or Hachette e-books yet available for sale on either Waterstones.com or W H Smith's website. ... "

3G Kindle Leaps the 'Great Firewall of China'

AFP: "HONG KONG — Amazon's Kindle 3G e-reader is being snapped up on China's grey market as it has an extra special advantage for customers -- it automatically leaps the so-called 'Great Firewall' of state web censorship. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are blocked by the Beijing authorities, can be accessed without interference by the Kindle's Internet browsing function, the South China Morning Post reported Monday. ... "