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By Nico Vreeland, on February 28th, 2009  BeBook Classic From ubergizmo, here’s the official announcement of the BeBook 2 at Endless Ideas BV’s website. If everything promised comes true, it could be leaps and bounds better than BeBook 1, and it’s even got a shot of being the best ereader out there. It’s slated to have “Wireless 3G and/or WIFI,” a touchscreen, ePub DRM, and to be ready before the summer.
The original BeBook had decent advantages (robust support, open platform, customer commitment) and significant disadvantages (cheap feel, clunky interface, no onboard clock). However, the original BeBook was just a rebranded HanLin V3, and a lot of those disadvantages could be attributed to the HanLin.
Endless Ideas (EI) has all the hallmarks of a company that thinks of its customers first. They don’t try to suck you dry with extended warranties like Sony, or by charging extra for a cover like Amazon. They answer questions promptly, they have an uncensored support forum, and they listen to customers and provide regular firmware updates with new features. Plus, BeBook 2 is touted as “a complete redesign.” Seeing as we haven’t seen anything that EI’s actually designed, this could be, well, anything.
Basically, the new BeBook has a whole lot of potential. Here are some things I’ll be watching out for:
- Interface/design: That first video will be huge. It’ll show us whether BeBook Classic’s interface problems were the fault of the HanLin hardware or the EI firmware. As far as design, we have no idea what EI’s aesthetic looks like, so BeBook 2′s physicality is a complete x-factor. The good news is that that first look should only be a few weeks away.
- Free 3G?: I’m guessing not, given that “and/or” in the wireless description. If it is free, this feature will be the real Kindle-killer. Even if it’s not, I’ll be fine with regular wi-fi, and I’d guess that the “and/or” also means regular wi-fi will be standard.
- Price: Hopefully, EI learned their lesson when the original BeBook got slammed for debuting north of $500. With a good interface, I would happily pay up to $400. If it’s above $500, look for BeBook to remain a third-tier ereader retailer (at least in the U.S.).
- Mobipocket, too, or just ePub?: EI claims to be working on secure ePub support. Mobipocket insists on DRM exclusivity. If they bump secure Mobi for secure ePub, I’m out: there aren’t any ePub library books. If, however, they manage to do them both, strike another blow for open ereading.
Finally, I must say, I do feel a bit stung that I just got a BeBook 1, but we’ll see what Endless Ideas has to say about a trade-in.
[via Ubergizmo]
UPDATE: Looks like I’m SOL. Endless Ideas will not accept any returns because you don’t like the BeBook, even if (as in my case), you’ve had it less than a week.
That makes it really hard to recommend buying any BeBook, since it’s difficult to get a true feel for the device from a video.
By Nico Vreeland, on February 27th, 2009 Last night, Shepard Fairey and Lawrence Lessig and others gathered at a New York library to discuss copyright issues in relation to the AP suing Fairey for copyright infringement.
Today is evidently link day, so here are some links about it:
- Here’s a post about it, with a video of a great talk by Lawrence Lessig, though not the one last night. That’s still unavailable, as far as I can tell.
- And, from Wooster Collective, here’s a terrifying firsthand account of Shepard Fairey’s actual arrest at Boston’s ICA, including suspicions of the filthy politics that led to the bizarreness of it.
Finally, here’s Shepard Fairey on The Colbert Report last month, discussing how he’s a “patriotic criminal” and how he doesn’t protect the copyright on the poster in question. Guards!
By Nico Vreeland, on February 27th, 2009 Earlier today, MobileRead posted a link to a YouTube video showcasing the new Onyx Boox’s touchscreen capabilities. Unfortunately, the video evidently showed off those capabilities while reading a Harry Potter book, and J.K. Rowling, fearing piracy, has refused to let her books be made into ebooks. It was (eek) a pirated copy, and the video was taken down shortly.
I find the Harry Potter ebook fiasco pretty hilarious, because, Harry Potter being perhaps the most popular book series on earth, bootlegged ebooks are readily available. Here are LRFs of the whole series, and if you can’t read LRFs, Calibre can convert them to ePubs for you. I had the whole series within a few hours of getting my Sony, and I’m not even particularly a fan of Harry Potter.
The bootleg ebooks are not good. There are a lot of missing spaces between words, and no paragraph breaks (although it is DRM-free, of course, that being one of the top benefits of piracy). I would predict that, if a legit digital version were made available, it would sell approximately a bajillion copies instantaneously. And yet, a fear of it getting pirated is literally forcing anyone who wants an ebook version to pirate it.
It’s as if J.K. Rowling’s internal metaphor alarm went off, and she realized that the world needed a microcosmic example of the heavy price media enterprises pay when they allow themselves to be paralyzed by fear. If that was the goal, well done.
By Nico Vreeland, on February 27th, 2009 From mediabistro.com: the Authors Guild totally changed all authors’ lives today as they secured at least $60 apiece (and up to a whopping $300) for all authors whose books will go on Google Books. That was certainly worth all the trouble.
Here’s a summation of what the Authors Guild’s doing, what they’re fighting for, and why they’re dumb. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 27th, 2009  In case you’ve missed it, prominent Bittorrent website The Pirate Bay has been on trial for a week and a half in Sweden. Whatever you think about “illegal” downloading, trying to stop piracy by suing websites is like trying to mop up a puddle of water by stomping on it. However, it makes for amusing trial-watching, especially as half the charges were dropped on day 2.
Essentially, the record companies are complaining that music sales have dropped 40% since 2001. We all know that the only thing that’s happened since then is the advent of Bittorrent. Well, that and dropping record prices, the RIAA treating customers like criminals, and fundamental changes in the way music is distributed (with major labels dragging their feet the whole way).
Clearly, I’m a bit biased. Here are some (slightly) more objective links:
- From the “if we don’t learn our history” department: isoHunt.com, a torrent search engine, went through a similar ordeal a few years ago when the MPAA threatened them and then sued them. The idea, presumably was to shut them down, but isoHunt refused to shut down. Instead they eventually moved to Canada, and continue to fight.
- You can also support The Pirate Bay by buying a T-shirt from Bytelove. I did this, and felt a lot better about it before I found out that one of the founders is a Nazi.
By Nico Vreeland, on February 26th, 2009  From MobileRead comes news of a new ereader called the Onyx Boox. From the specs, it looks like a Mobipocket ereader (much like the BeBook or the CyBook) with a few twists, including optional wi-fi and a touchscreen.
It’ll be interesting to see if they actually deliver on the wi-fi, as a couple developers have been bandying about those claims, but they have yet to materialize. There’s also a cryptic mention of 8″ and 9.7″ E-Ink on their specs page. Perhaps they’re doing what Astak claimed to be trying.
Also a question is whether a 400 Mhz processor can adequately run a touchscreen interface.
And, last, the list of supported formats includes PDF, pdb (eReader), and “Customized formats optional.” If it can support either PDF or eReader securely, that will be big news. Probably, Mobipocket has insisted on DRM exclusivity.
No ePub support. Perhaps that’s customizable.
[Boox website, via MobileRead]
UPDATE: Today’s the day for new ereaders, evidently. MobileRead reports rumors of a new BeBook, and a new Nuut (which looks a bit ugly). Both will reputedly have wifi; hopefully that becomes the norm.
By Nico Vreeland, on February 26th, 2009  This site hasn’t been around very long, and already I’ve written several scathing posts about how ereader makers and ebook publishers are screwing up ereading. That’s because I don’t want to see a corporate pissing match hijack the development of a potentially groundbreaking device that could shape the next stage of literary culture in our country. (And only partially because I’m a naturally negative person.)
But this post is about the upside of ereaders and their future potential. This is why I want Sony and Amazon and Random House to quit screwing around and consider their customers when it comes to ereaders and ebooks. This is why reading on ereaders is better than reading paper books.
…
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By Sean Clark, on February 25th, 2009  Author: David Rehak
CreateSpace, 2002
Best eBook Deal: Not Available
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
1 |
| Entertainment..... |
2 |
| Depth..... |
2 |
I learned of this book on some schmuck’s Amazon list of best young adult novels. A Young Girl’s Crimes is most certainly not a young adult book. Now, I can’t very well discredit the author because someone else mis-categorized the book, so I’ll place my dashed genre expectations aside. However, calling this book a novel is a stretch. I don’t say this merely because the book is short–128 pages; novella is more apt–but because it is structurally weak and poorly written. Along with poor syntax and word choice, there are a number of typesetting errors. Uncensored, Uncut, and Unedited would be a more fitting subtitle.
…
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 24th, 2009 David Pogue today gives Kindle 2 a light and fluffy review at the Times, awarding it credit for E-Ink, glossing over the troubles of DRM, and omitting entirely other devices’ abilities to get RSS feeds for free and to borrow library ebooks.
Pogue’s lack of deeper assessment is not entirely surprising as he’s been skeptical of epublishing and distracted by piracy worries (despite admittedly having no statistical data). He only reluctantly released his books digitally at all.
From the other side, Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media (and Pogue’s publisher), writes in Forbes that the Kindle is in danger of being made irrelevant because of its stringent proprietary restrictions. And he actually uses one of Pogue’s books as an example of how well open platforms work for epublishing.
He argues that Amazon is trying to copy the business model Apple established with the iPod, but is in danger of botching it, largely because
People didn’t populate their iPods solely with music purchased from Apple. It was easy for them to “rip” their own CDs into the standard mp3 file format and load their entire music collection onto the device.
While users can load some of their own documents onto the Kindle, there is no easy way to “rip” a book.
O’Reilly makes a number of other good points in arguing for the usefulness and good business sense of open formatting over proprietary.
Pogue, for his part, ignores the formatting issue entirely. Luckily, O’Reilly’s the one selling his books.
Bonus: Jeff Bezos showed off the Kindle 2 on last night’s Daily Show. Funny interview; Jon Stewart wasn’t convinced. Not much said we didn’t know already.
[Pogue @ NY Times, via TeleRead] [O'Reilly @ Forbes, via MobileRead]
By Sean Clark, on February 24th, 2009  Author: Lawrence Shainberg
The Two Dollar Radio Movement, 2008
Best eBook Deal: Not Available
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
7 |
| Depth..... |
8 |
Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that the eponymous crust are boogers. This book is mostly concerned with snots and all things nosepicking. Nonetheless, Crust is a cleverly written satire, so while the topic at hand is nosepickery, the novel lampoons many more salient topics in an intelligent and at times hilarious manner.
The book is a work of metafiction presented as the newest academic work by one of the world’s most prolific writers. After writing end-all authoritative books on just about every subject under the sun Walker Linchuk is so besieged by writer’s block that his literary career has deteriorated to rambling blog posts, which he writes while idly picking his nose. Walker has an epiphanic moment during one such pick: he realizes his normally churning mind clears of everything, allowing him to achieve a zen space-out he finds euphoric (the state will even prove orgasmic for some). He decides this nirvana may be the apex of intellectuality, and thanks to the response he gets after blogging his thoughts, soon finds he is not the first to come to this conclusion. He quickly finds himself with more reading material about nosepicking than even a super scholar like he can handle. Beginning with the heavy hitters Nasalism and Anitnasalism, he dives into study and writes this dissertation on crusts. …
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