One: TeleRead nailed the prediction. I mean, by a matter of hours.

Two: this wi-fi-only Kindle is a contender. It’s only $139 (ships Aug. 27), making it the cheapest E-Ink ereader on the market. Our problems with Amazon and Kindle still exist: the proprietary Kindle format means that you can never completely trust that you’ll always own your books; there’s always a chance that they’ll pull a Yahoo! Music and your ebooks will simply disappear. Of course, this is true of all DRMed formats, but with Adobe DRM, you can borrow library ebooks and not spend money you might never get back. To make matters worse, Jeff Bezos is kind of a jerk, and he frequently does things that are either stupid or just kind of bullyish.

All that said, $140 is a great price—that and the presence of Kindle apps on computers and smartphones makes the whole package quite tempting these days.

As for Kindle 3 (3G version), it’s the same as the old Kindle 2. It’s black now, I guess. A touch smaller. Buttons are a little different. Otherwise the new Kindle is nearly identical to the old, and still not our first choice for an ereader.

• Everyone seems to be touting the Great eReader Adoption as an iPad-Kindle war, but the Nook still looms (and also sports an iPad app) and the Alex is still on the way (and still overpriced). However if terrible customer service like this around haphazard products is what can be expected from Barnes & Noble, the Nook won’t stand much of a chance. Perhaps I don’t really understand why international buyers can’t have an instant download over the internet already, but I guess Diesel-ebooks allowing instant international “delivery” of ebooks is a good thing. (Really though, what do mail carriers have to do with ebooks, and what does “an innovative and evolutionary free digital shipping promotion” mean?)

• Lightning round! How long do you think before Google buys up a buttload of these super-fast book scanners? We’ve know about color e-ink for a while, but is it coming closer to being a practical reality? We’ve been upping our output of reviews lately, anyone who noticed care for a game of Book Review Bingo?

• This year I’m once again a second round judge for the Amazon Breakout Novel Award. I obviously can’t talk specifics about the books, but it’s a pretty cool program so I wanted to stick in a link so more people could check it out. I like when the big guys open the doors for the small fries. You can see a full list of the entrants now, and if it’s run like last year’s was, more information about the books will be available once the short lists are narrowed down.

• Now for fun (or no-longer-fun). In case you were wondering: LOST sucks. I love this essay about zombies though.

• Finally, this video is rather clever:

and this is just rad:

]]> http://chamberfour.com/2010/02/24/wednesday-links-2-24-10/feed/ 0 http://chamberfour.com/2010/01/27/wednesday-links-1-27-10/ http://chamberfour.com/2010/01/27/wednesday-links-1-27-10/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:13:16 +0000 Sean Clark http://chamberfour.com/?p=6022

• Kindles (and their attached ebooks) apparently sold like hotcakes this Christmas (though we can’t be sure), while the Nook continues its snaggy, stumbling launch. However, hackers finally cracked the Kindle DRM. It’ll be interesting to see how Amazon responds. Despite purchasing Kobo neé Shortcovers, Borders maintains they’re not working on a ereader device of its own. I’m with Nico on their days being numbered, though I would like to see a solid all platform ebook store contend with the bigger boys. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, has begun selling readers besides the Nook: the JetBook and the Foxit eSlick.
• More Apple rumors this week, this time that they will be producing a dedicated reader called the iSlate that differs from they long-rumored tablet. Seems convincing, but I wouldn’t trust this one just yet. Paradigm Shift announced a couple of color ereaders, though the screens look to be LCD, which I don’t think will win the day. Asus (of netbook fame) has a rumored ereader/tablet on the horizon, and it gets this week’s Stupidest eReader Name Award for calling it the EeeReader. Finally, hot on Asus’s heels,  Lenovo wants in too (hopefully they come up with the dumbest name yet).
• A library in Oregon has announced plans to lend out ereaders. Hopefully this proves successful and this sort of thing takes off. Interead, makeres of COOL-er ereaders, partnered with OverDrive (who make very solid library software) to expand their ebook store. As you may have heard, there was a big MediaBistro ebook summit recently. Of all places, Vanity Fair has a nice breakdown of the proceedings. Now you can read Sesame Street, Curious George, and Veggie Tales stories on your iPhone, and record your reading for your children to replay later. A Wallace & Gromit ebook sold half a million downloads on the Apple App Store, which is impressive indeed.
• Apparently HP’s new facial recognition PCs are colorblind (in the unacceptable, can’t see black people way). Don’t feed sea turtles brussels sprouts unless you want their farts to mess up your aquarium. I know I’ve posted to it before, but I really like this isn’t happiness.
• This weeks video is an oldie-but-goodie:

• I walked by a SonyStyle store the other day, and I have to admit they’re doing a good job of pushing their Readers in brick and mortar stores (I’ve also seen them in Best Buy stores amongst others as well). And while they have a decent selection of models, I’m not sure these themed Readers are quite necessary. In other ereader news, the Aiptek Storybook inColor is pretty neato looking, though I still don’t think an LCD ereader is ever going to really fly. The Aluratek Libre has a nice pricetag, but the  same LCD concern still applies. (Before you poo-poo me, electronic ink–in our opinion–really does make a huge difference. Here are my initial impressions of the tech from last spring.)
• The COOL-ER is getting a hardware upgrade, making it marginally cool-er in the eyes of the other wallflower ereaders. And there’s lots of Applet Tablet rumors floating around this week, but I’m not going to link to any, beacause I’m sick of them. We’ll discuss an Apple Tablet and its secondary ereader abilites only when (if) it actually gets announced. Here’s a review of the Sungale Cyberus, which also doesn’t look all that impressive.
• Amazon’s Jeff Bezos took a weird shot at the Nook’s sharing feature. While he’s right that it’s definitely not ideal, it’s a lot more than Kindle’s DRM allows. There’s also a rumor afloat that Amazon, in their benevolent hearts, lose $2 per ebook. The logic on this seems fuzzy at best, and I don’t buy it one bit. Also on the list of things that weren’t well enough thought through, Simon & Schuster will be holding their ebook releases until 4 months after hardcovers go on sale. Good plan guys! HarperCollins has a similar plan, and a similarly dumb explanation. Here’s a nice counterpoint.
• I came across a lot of cool stuff around the web this week. The bookish part of me finds something alluring about Altered Books‘ poetry. I also really like the experiment going on over at One Sentence. The NH part of me really likes this redneck twinkle light display. And this animation by Pascal Campion is pretty mesmerizing.
• My video this week? Well I really like the lyrics in the first, but the octopus in the second is pretty amazing.

• Good news for Amazon and bad news for everyone who wanted one in 2009, the Nook has apparently been delayed until January 11. Sony’s having trouble getting stuff out the door for the holidays too. The second ereaders started running Android we all saw it coming: the rise of the clones… and clones… and clones… and clones. The Nook and the Alex showed a fair bit of innovation this (next) year, so lets hope other companies keep up with experimentation and competition–or at least something not-white.
• Amazon added pdf support to their Kindle, and there might be a large scale software upgrade on the way. After surely catching a lot of flak for not, Barnes & Noble will be accepting gift cards for ebook purchases. Here’s a creative use of the iPhone for interactive books. Step aside Tom Waits, ecomics are big in Japan; Sony even stuck an ecomic reader on their PSP firmware. Smashwords bought indie publisher BookHabit and formed an alliance (oooh) with Shortcovers. And…this week in stupid names: iMagz.
• Three years from now in London: will the Cloud be cool or stupid? Right now in NY: I think these hamster pictures are hilarious. Dads in Short Shorts is currently my favorite blog.
• For videos, Pigeon Impossible is a really cool animation (which I won’t embed here because it’s better when bigger). Also, check out this cool, literary video:

]]> http://chamberfour.com/2009/11/11/wednesday-links-11-11-2009/feed/ 0 http://chamberfour.com/2009/11/10/review-the-death-of-bunny-munro/ http://chamberfour.com/2009/11/10/review-the-death-of-bunny-munro/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:13 +0000 Sean Clark Literary]]> http://chamberfour.com/?p=4613 Author: Nick Cave

2009, Faber & Faber

Best ebook deal: (I went for the iPhone Enhanced Edition, read more below)

Filed under Literary

This review is going to be a little different, as I read this book using the Enhanced Editions iPhone appbook version of the book. The first half will review the book, and the second will be an installment of iPhone Readers.

Nick Cave’s musical background is immediately evident when you begin reading this book. I haven’t read his debut And the Ass Saw the Angel, but I’ve since heard the writing is similar. Cave utilizes strong rhythms and cadences to his syntax. And while he doesn’t turn the crispest phrases, there is a hypnotic and musical feel to his writing, even if it is a bit manic and cacophonous at times.

This caught me a little off guard. In tackling a book by a rock star, I expected something heavy on plot and zaniness and light on literary style. Unfortunately, The Death of Bunny Munro delivers much the opposite. Despite the pleasingly readable and enjoyable writing, the book lacks considerably in character and plot.  Bunny Munro is an oversexed lout, a traveling lotion salesman who follows his penis around like a GPS tuned to broken, lonely, easily bedded women. And the book is pretty much about him being and doing just that.

When his wife, fed up with Bunny’s infidelity and lack of general human qualities, kills herself, Bunny is forced to care for their son, Bunny Jr., alone. Bunny figures the best way to handle his son is to keep up his drunken cocksman ways while Bunny Jr. plays navigator or waits in the car.

While at first the oddball characters and ridiculous situations are amusing and attention grabbing, Cave fails to employ a plot that encourages any sort of change to keep things interesting. Bunny and the other characters quickly become tiresome, even annoying (I got really tired with Bunny’s fantasies about Avril Lavigne’s vagina), and nothing really happens until the final pages, when Cave tosses in a twist that reads more like a desperate derailment designed to force him to end the novel than any sort of culmination of plot or story.

It’s a quick read, and the writing is certainly enjoyable. As long as you think of it as a vacation or commute read, there is certainly reason to dive into this book. However the novel got a lot of hype when it came out, and if you’re expecting a finely crafted book that takes all facets of novel writing into account, prepare yourself for disappointment.

Other books to try: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (Kerouac & Burroughs), Naked Lunch (Burroughs), Frisco Pigeon Mambo (Payne)

The iPhone appbook Extended Edition version has one particularly cool feature: the coupling of audio and text. This means you can read half a chapter, then hit the audio button and have the audiobook (read by Nick Cave himself) pick up where you left off reading. If you want to go back to reading, the text will be queued up to wherever you left off. This is cool, but it basically means this is a glorified and over-priced audio book ($24.99 at my time of purchase).

As an ereader app, Extended Editions is extremely lacking in features. The included videos of Cave reading are cool, but ultimately unnecessary and the same content as the audio, as the videos show Cave and not any sort of animation or dramatization of the novel (I’ve embedded a sample below). The ebook features–scrolling only, basic bookmarking and text formatting, excerpt sharing–are trumped by the audio, which is undeniably top notch audiobook quality. Cave reads quite well, and the background music and soundscapes, composed by Cave, are pretty great, even if calling it a “groundbreaking 3D audio spatial mix” is a bit of a stretch.

The biggest hangup with this Extended Editions version (aside from the steep price point and the gigabyte of memory space it hogs) is that it is a standalone app, and without background processing on the iPhone, everytime you field an email or text message, you must back out of the app, stopping the audio, and it takes a bit to long to reload up. This gets pretty annoying if you treat the app more or less as an audiobook as I did.

For $25 they should have thrown in an iTunes download of the audio; it would have eased frustrations with multitasking and probably increased the chance of me revisiting the text. As it is, I cleared the app off my phone for space as soon as I was done, and it’s unlikely I’ll rearrange my apps and music to make room for it again anytime soon. You’re better off buying the deadtree or ebook for half the price of this appbook.

The Death of Bunny Munro Chapter 17 from Enhanced Editions on Vimeo.

• Creative (maker of the iPod’s poor, homely, and ignored cousin) threw their hat into the ring with the Zii Mediabook.  I’d like to go on the record as saying this is an even dumber name than Nook or Alex. Speaking of, the makers of the Alex have sued Barnes & Noble over the Nook’s dual screen design. Also with dual screens, I can’t decide if the Entourage Edge looks cool or crappy, but I’m leaning toward crappy.
• The inexpensive Jetbook Lite is available now (thanks to reader Ben for the heads up). And on the horizon, ASUS wants in the ereader game after all their netbook success. And so does Bridgestone, after all their tire success? It’s bendy, which is cool. Apparently there are some snazzy new E-Ink processor chips in the pipeline, so hopefully we’ll seem even more creative new tech soon. Lots of ereader hype this selling season, might we finally be at the verge of the Great eReader Adoption?
• Up for some light reading? How about an ebook about mail order Russian brides? These ebook “covers” are so cheesy they’re funny. I find the idea of a cloud library pretty intriguing. And I’m definitely in favor of ebook happy hour, too bad they only serve well books.
• Outside of ebooks, a new Beatles b-side has been discovered, as has the creepiest thing I’ve seen–except for maybe Wii Baby and Me–in a long while: a ventriloquist choir singing “Yesterday.”
• and finally, I’m mesmerized by this Carl Sagan auto-tune video: