Apple v. Amazon

First there was terror. When the iPad was announced, Jeff Bezos messed his cargo shorts when he heard Apple was supporting both ePub and the Agency model. He promptly caved and let publishers walk all over him—although he did it, of course, with a minimum of maturity, because that’s how he rolls. But Bezos (not to mention publishers) got proper snookered by the sneaky Jobs.

Despite all the furor over Apple’s embrace of the agency model (which might not even be legal in countries where they regulate their corporations), the iPad isn’t selling many iBooks. Penguin claims to be leading the pack (you know, if you don’t count free Gutenberg books, which are “selling” twice as much as Penguin). But let’s not forget that iBooks aren’t very popular, in the scheme of iPad apps—in fact, Feedbooks distributes more books.

If the iPad does start selling tons of iBooks, well, publishers are screwed then, too. Apple can evidently force prices down to $9.99 if it feels like, and in April 2011, they can simply rescind the agency model agreement. Ha!

All this has led to, shall we say, some tension in the publishing industry. Publishers are choosing up sides, and even unleashing their wrath on unsuspecting authors who want to publish ebooks. Then there are the obligatory rumors that Kindle’s grip on the market is slipping, but since there’s a Kindle app for the iPad (not to mention iPhone and soon Android) I don’t understand how Apple will ever win a book fight.

And by the way, Google’s launching its own ebookstore, which I’m guessing and hoping will use Adobe ePub formatting. Meaning neither Apple nor Amazon customers will be able to read Google ebooks. Because Apple hates Adobe, too! Why? Well, more on that after the jump…

Apple v. Adobe (or apple v. flash?)

Nobody ever really expected the iPhone to get Flash, but when the iPad debuted without it—meaning no Hulu, among many other things—it was at the top of everybody’s “What the iPad’s Missing” lists.

Because Apple and Adobe are two of the biggest, most prominent technology companies in America, both saw fit to resolve this disagreement with all the poise and civility of two collicky toddlers slapfighting in a sandbox.

Adobe responded hastily to the iPad’s lack of Flash, saying in part:

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers.

That one little sentence is so many things. It’s true, OK, but it’s also whiny, passive-aggressive and petty—especially considering that they must have known this was happening before the iPad actually launched.

Steve Jobs responded with a public list of complaints about Flash, including such things as its impact on battery life, its reliability, and its ability to work with touch input. All decent points, but all things that should have been worked out (in private) years ago, especially since Apple and Adobe have worked together productively for years.

Instead Jobs went for the childish public retaliation, and Adobe got itself in a (bigger) huff and struck back with these smarmy We Heart Apple ads. (For a more tasteful statement of frustration with Apple, read this piece by Adobe Photoshop honcho John Nack.)

Personally, I think these companies are both being bullheaded and thin-skinned. Jobs makes some good points about why Flash might not be great to run, but refusing to allow it on his devices hamstrings the user experience. There are lots of cool things out there that use Flash (like Bendito Machine), and, personally, I want the ability to decide for myself what I do with a computer or a phone or anything else I pay for and own.

Apple often treats its customers like Luddites incapable of understanding statements like “Flash uses battery faster than html5.” That’s OK for my mom, who maybe actually doesn’t understand that, but I’m willing to make trade-offs (and they are definitely trade-offs). I don’t want to have a device’s usefulness—or especially the content available for it—artificially limited by the questionable moral (read: censorship) policies of a single corporate ethos.

After all, limiting content is semi-defensible (not really) when it’s porn, but Apple also rejected a political cartoonist’s app on the grounds that they don’t allow satire on the iPhone. Only after that cartoonist won the Pulitzer Prize was his app accepted. That kind of thing is downright scary.

Apple carries a heavy stick these days, but we’re staring at censorship by capitalism here, and that unnerves me deeply. (Oh, and by the way, Android’s getting Flash.) Adobe DRM and Flash are disconcerting because they’re proprietary and ubiquitous, and that’s certainly bad. Still, Jobs’s willingness to sacrifice his customers to win a pissing match is no less disconcerting.

Anyway, after all that the implications for ereaders are simple: a schism between Adobe and Apple means no library ebooks on the iPad. Which makes the iPad a no-go for ereading, in my book. I hate all DRM but until it goes away, Adobe is my DRM of choice.

• What’s the purpose of libraries in the 21st century? Salon says the new main branch of the Cambridge Public Library (just blocks from C4 HQ) isn’t practical. The Guardian says libraries still matter in a digital age, and so does an Australian librarian (via). And Ars Technica reveals how libraries help America’s poor. We already know Macmillan hates libraries. I don’t enjoy this line of discussion.

• What’s the last great book you read? John Crace in the Guardian discusses how difficult it is to find a great a novel these days, because there are far too many books and publishers will tell you each and every one of them is mind-blowingly fantastic. I couldn’t agree more. Crace recommends genre fiction; meanwhile, on the Guardian’s books blog, a post about how shorter can be better for fiction. And then, crime novelist Ian Rankin discusses/defends crime fiction (via). I’m inclined to agree with all this, the only problem is that I’ve been reading all the Edgar award nominees—supposedly the best of the year in a genre that’s right up my alley—and not a single one of them has been great. It’s a nice theory, though.

• Piracy is still a hot topic, though now people are complaining that “piracy” is such a sexy word it makes people want to pirate. The ethicist at the NYT says you can steal a copy of an ebook you previously bought—counterpoint. Despite the ethicist, IsoHunt will essentially be shut down has essentially been shut down. Finally, Big Content wants the U.S.’s new intellectual property enforcer to eliminate peer-to-peer file-sharing. Good luck with that.

• Here is an article from the NYT about literature and cognitive science. Basically, it’s about how empathy relates to reading fiction, and how readers process interrelated or overlapping points of view. Or “what the scholars call levels of intentionality.” Read it.

Obligatory iPad and Amazon news—and lots of other stuff—after the break.

• Some obligatory iPad news— Farhad Manjoo says resisting the iPad is futile, and on the day of its release 300,000 people didn’t even try. Also, a quarter million ebooks have already been downloaded, which seems like a lot. The big iPad question, from an ebook standpoint, is whether it will replace E-Ink ereaders. The answer is an overwhelming yes. Umm, or no. Or kind of. So probably not, in other words. That wasn’t too confusing, right? Anyway, the comics app looks pretty outstanding. Here are some more reviews of the iPad, and that’s just about enough of it. Wait, one more, for haters: will it blend?

• The obligatory Amazon v. agency model news— After Amazon finally capitulated to the agency book-pricing model (and a transition that was anything but seamless), they made sure everybody knew who was raising prices. Random House doesn’t want an agency deal, though, possibly because they hate authors. More likely because it doesn’t make any sense to make less money on each ebook and also sell fewer books. Meanwhile, HarperCollins gave away so many ebooks that it seemed simply too good to be true. Finally, between agency models and Apple iPads, what would you do today if you were Jeff Bezos? (I would cackle and cackle, simply because I could.)

• A few weeks ago novelist Carrie Vaughn left Grand Central Publishing, and wrote this post about why she did it (via). It’s an interesting piece, and it’s mostly about a non-compete clause. Coincidentally, Grand Central is responsible for this travesty of literature, which is very bad.

• Quick takes: the Guardian on the “lost Booker”; David Mamet on drama; Elmore Leonard and sons on writing; a terrific essay on Maoists in India by Arundhati Roy, part one and part two; what constitutes fair use?; how not to title a novel.

• Random of the week: A pair of brothers spent several months “squatting” on the side of a wall in Rio de Janeiro as part of an art installation. Here are some more pictures.

You can only buy Wolf Hall and other Macmillan books through third-party sellers at Amazon.com (click for full-size)

Sony's Reader Store still stocks Macmillan books, and for the controversial $9.99 price point (click for full size)

[UPDATE: Amazon gave in, and will sell Macmillan books via the "agency model" Macmillan laid out. Which means Macmillan ebooks will cost $13-$15, even at Amazon. I'm putting the over/under on the date of Amazon's next major Kindle screw-up at March 15.]

So Amazon has barred all Macmillan books (print and digital) from its U.S. website after the publisher insolently disagreed with Amazon’s stringent pricing policies. Macmillan asked for either a different pricing structure or “windowing,” i.e. delayed ebook releases (Macmillan CEO John Sargent claims Amazon will make more money, and Macmillan will make less under the new structure, which confuses me). Amazon responded with the Macmillan ban.

You can still find Macmillan books at the Sony Reader Store, however, and you can find many selling for the $9.99 price point that started all this. I’m assuming either higher Macmillan prices or windowing is coming to Sony, but at least you can buy the books.

For the record, I think the entire hardcover pricing system is greedy and predatory; it’s essentially publishers milking their biggest fans’ excitement to make a few extra bucks. I think Macmillan’s making a big mistake in trying to preserve hardcover pricing, and refusing to fully embrace ebooks.

However, this Amazon move is thuggery of the first order, and it doesn’t feel like the stalemate will be resolved very quickly [UPDATE: Or maybe it will, what do I know] (or that it will be the last of its kind). The Macmillan ban combined with Amazon’s continued refusal to allow library ebooks on the Kindle makes one thing clear: Kindle is simply not the best ereader for book readers. If you read mostly books, get a Sony Reader or an Astak Pocket Pro. If you read mostly newspapers or magazines, get an iPad. [UPDATE: Amazon's cave-in brings the Kindle back to the realm of relevancy for book readers. But it still comes with too many questionable corporate decisions for my taste.]

I’m just not sure who the Kindle is for.

[More Macmillan/Amazon analysis by Edward Champion, E-Reads, Ars Technica, and the Guardian.]

Maybe Amazon has a rogue algorithm that gives anything looking vaguely like “Harry Potter” its own midnight release party. T-minus 82 hours!

Hopefully this ad stays front and center on Amazon’s homepage for all 82 of them.

The new Apple iPad

A few short weeks ago, the Plastic Logic QUE ($650 WiFi/$800 3G) and the Spring Design Alex ($400 [EDIT--the Alex is now $360, I missed that]) debuted at CES, and immediately crushed my interest in them with exorbitant price points.

Today, Apple unveiled their new tablet computer, the “iPad,” (Gizmodo’s full coverage here) and made the QUE entirely irrelevant. The iPad is cheaper ($500 WiFi/$630 3G), faster, and more functional than the QUE, and it will actually be available earlier.

Not only does the iPad have a new, Apple-branded ereading program (iBooks), it can do video, internet, maps, and everything else that an iPhone can, on a grander scale. The only advantages the QUE has left are its ability to hand-write notes, and its E-Ink screen which makes for less eye strain and longer battery life. Still, the iPad has ten hours of battery life, so that last point is moot.

Basically, this spells doom for the $650 QUE, and if you were thinking about getting the Alex for $400 $360, or (God forbid) a $490 Kindle DX, how can you not scrape up a little extra for an iPad instead?

The iPad’s debut highlights the folly of “luxury” ereaders like the QUE and the Alex, which have gone in the wrong direction, trying to have an ereader that’s half laptop, with a price tag to match. Simple, affordable ereaders like the Kindle, Astak Pocket Pro, and Sony Pocket Edition are the only ones worth looking at now, at least until the Alex’s price drops by $150.

A few more tidbits, and links to more iPad coverage, after the jump.

• The 3G iPad features pay-as-you-go, $30/month, unlimited internet (or 250 MB/month for $15)—but with AT&T. So AT&T can’t handle iPhones’ data usage, but they can handle full tablets with videos? Uhhh, I don’t believe that. $30 a month will stack up quick compared to the Plastic Logic’s free 3G, but the vast difference in hardware specs and functionality makes the iPad the clear choice for even those looking to use bandwidth on the go.

• iPad has a 1 Ghz processor, and the standard model has a 16 GB flash drive (upgradeable up to 64 GB). By comparison, the Alex’s chip is 624 Mhz, and its flash drive is 2 GB; the standard QUE has a 4 GB flash drive, and doesn’t specify its processor (but it’s definitely slow—here’s a video wherein a Plastic Logic salesperson says page refresh takes a full second).

• However, the non-3G iPad also doesn’t seem to have GPS (no dedicated ereader has GPS, of course).

• Books on the iPad will cost a few dollars more ($13-$15) than Amazon’s $9.99 price point. But if the iPad is really compatible with open ePubs, you can jt buy books elsewhere and load them up on the iPad. (That’s a big “if.” It’s also the difference between getting library books and not.) [Confirmed. No Adobe ePub books. No library books. Sigh.]

• Like it or not, the iPad will give more people access to ebooks than all the other ereaders put together. Is it crazy to think Apple could sell five million of these this year? Ten?

Some links: the official iPad product video; the iPad website; full Gizmodo coverage; Wired’s coverage; Ars Technica coverage. And here’s the whole keynote.

[UPDATE: Also, some ebook-centric iPad links: Random House is not yet an iPad partner; GalleyCat gets reactions from publishing experts; the Guardian gets reactions from all kinds of experts; and here's a proof-of-concept video about magazines on such a device.

More useless blather:

There's been serious backlash since the keynote, mostly taking Apple to task for making a giant iPhone, with all the iPhone's limitations intact (namely, no multitasking, no flash, no outside apps). It also feels like Apple's ePubs won't be compatible with the rest of the world's ePubs (which makes it disingenuous to call them "ePubs," no?).

Personally, I don't own an iPhone because of all those mentioned limitations, but I'm considering this device in spite of them. I frequently want to, say, listen to Pandora while I check a few emails on my phone, or use a real keyboard to type an email error-free. But the iPad seems more like a multimedia powerhouse, not a multitasking workstation.

You can show people your pictures, engagingly read full-color (and multimedia) newspapers and magazines, watch movies (presumably Hulu and Netflix will step up with apps soon), and read books [but no library books]. Once the second generation comes out and the price drops—maybe by Christmas—this might be a pretty good deal for a high-tech coffee table toy.]

You can buy a Nook, a Kindle, and a Sony Reader Touch for the QUE's asking price

So CES officially opened today and, sure enough, prices were announced for the Spring Design Alex and the Plastic Logic QUE. Up until today, I would’ve classified the Alex and the QUE as the two most exciting new ereaders. Then I saw how they’ll cost: The Alex is going for $399, and the QUE is $649 with WiFi, $800 (!!?) with 3G.

Yesterday, I guessed that the Alex would go for $350, and the QUE for $500. I considered those conservative estimates; i.e., I was ready to be pleasantly surprised. Eesh, was I ever wrong.

The big takeaway from these price announcements is simply that ereader manufacturers don’t care about the casual reader. These devices are getting more expensive, not less, and that’s not a trend that’s going to steal the Kindle’s thunder anytime soon.

But there’s more to glean from six digits and a couple dollar signs.

The Spring Design Alex

The Alex’s price point hurts it, but it’s not dead yet

The Alex has a similar interface to the Nook, but it’s nearly 150% of the Nook’s cost. For that money, the Alex had better be fan-freaking-tastic. Early reports say it’s better, but not mind-melting. Gizmodo said the Alex’s user interface is “no less awkward then the Nook, and capable of a lot more.” It does feature what’s basically an Android phone in its bottom half, so the potential is there.

Personally, I haven’t been sold yet, and I was a guaranteed customer if this thing cost $100 less. Keep your eye on this one, but I can’t help feeling Spring Design made their sales team’s job harder with such a high price. It also doesn’t seem to have 3G, which takes the shine off the “online reading” feature. The Alex goes on sale February 22nd; perhaps by then Spring Design will show us something that justifies the price tag. Find the Alex here.

The elusive QUE

The QUE costs a month’s rent; this is a toy for rich people

If the Alex needs to be fantastic, the QUE needs to change ereaders forever for the ducats it’s asking. $800 is iRex territory, reserved for the kinds of customers who buy overpriced gadgets because they’re really expensive, instead of in spite of their cost, or stealing them from others. This is clearly not a device for students, or casual readers, or newspaper lovers; it’s only—as the QUE website states in no uncertain terms—for businesspeople.

Fine. It’s not for me, I get it. But $800 is not gadget money; $800 is laptop money. And what can the QUE do that a smartphone/ereader combo can’t? Moreover, what can the QUE do that the upcoming Apple iSlate won’t do better? Anybody who has to think about spending that money probably won’t spend it on a QUE.

Worst of all, Gizmodo says the QUE’s slow, which is an absolute killer for a device like that. This video from Engadget does not assuage those fears either, as the QUE rep tries to explain away the slow refresh rate by saying the software is still in beta (it’s been a year and a half since a workable demo—and it’s still in beta?); hopefully, it’ll be ready to go by April, which is when the QUE will actually make its way in your hands. Not your hands, per se, but, you know, the hands of that rich jerk next door who leases a Lexus. Find the QUE here.

The enormous Skiff

Still no perfect ereader

In C4′s early days, almost a year ago, I wrote a post on “the perfect ereader,” one that would include a really fast processor, handwriting recognition/document editing features, and tight Bluetooth integration so you could work on papers and then toss them to your computer. We’re effectively no closer today than we were eleven months ago. The QUE seems to be working toward that goal, but wants to build a luxury brand, not a useful, widely appealing tool.

Here’s my new idea of a perfect ereader: one that does reading perfectly. The Kindle doesn’t do library books, the Sony Reader has serious software problems, the Nook is kludgy and half-finished and probably stolen, and the Alex and QUE have yet to prove they’re worth the money. Why can’t one device make buying, borrowing, and reading books easy and enjoyable? At this point, I’m not hoping for perfection, just a lack of obvious drawbacks.

The Samsung E6

So what can we get excited for now?

The Skiff, I suppose. And the new Samsung ereader looks quite interesting, though it also suffers from price-itis. And then there’s the looming specter of the iSlate. I genuinely hope that the iSlate dominates the QUE’s market, and shows companies that ereaders need to be readers, not fancy calendars.

My own plan is to wait until summer. I’m predicting (or hoping for) a sharp Alex price drop in the first few months after it comes out, and—like I said—I’m a guaranteed customer at $300.

• 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:

In the meantime, here’s an extra-long installment of news about books and ebooks from around the web.

• OverDrive released an Android audiobook app Monday (via). You can get it here. I’ve tried it, and it’s awesome. You can download mp3 audiobooks from you local library straight to your phone. Once you have the app installed, just check out the book from your library on your phone’s browser, and OverDrive automatically loads it. You can then download the audiobook in parts. Transferring audiobooks from your computer isn’t supported with Android devices (at least, on Macs)—it goes through iTunes for some reason—but it’s not necessary. This is still in beta, but I didn’t get so much as a hiccup in my few days using it. The Android app only works with mp3s—no WMA books (sadly, since the vast majority are WMAs, for now)—and an OverDrive smartphone app is also available for Windows Mobile.

• Barnes & Noble’s Nook is turning out to be more popular than they’d expected. More news of shipping delays has surfaced, along with customer service snafus. Although, if you don’t get your Nook by Christmas, you get $100, so things could be worse. Meanwhile, switch11 at the Kindle Review has posted a quick hands-on comparison of the Nook and the Kindle. If you can’t guess from the title of his blog, switch11 leans heavily toward the Kindle in ereader comparisons; however, he seemed to like the Nook, especially for its clearer font. Personally, the features and mixed reviews of the Nook, combined with the hamfistedness of its rollout, have me more excited for Spring Design’s Alex ereader, which—so far—seems a lot like the Nook, only better. Maybe this update will help. (Update: it didn’t help much.)

• Macworld has reviewed seven major ereaders—find the roundup here. Surprisingly, their favorite was the Sony PRS-600, the Touch. They dinged the PRS-300—which you can get extra-cheap these days if you’re a student or teacher—for not having a dictionary or image support. If you don’t care about those things and you read mostly novels, the 300′s your best bet, in my opinion. Macworld finds the Kindle’s controls kludgy, and while whispernet’s great, you’re going to be spending most of your time reading, not downloading books.

• Here’s a couple of anti-DRM pieces. One by Cory Doctorow (via), one by switch11 (see above). Also, David Pogue’s DRM experiment has found (unscientifically) that lack of DRM has no effect on sales. And, the scary Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement threatens to be a DMCA for the whole world (that’s bad).

• TeleRead reports that Barnes & Noble ePub books are every bit as proprietary as Kindle book. You can’t read B&N ebooks on non-Nook ereaders, and you can’t read anything but B&N ebooks on a Nook. An Adobe spokesperson says that’s something Adobe is working to iron out. But until you get confirmation that it is—in fact—ironed out… this is just another reason to not buy a Nook.

• This is interesting: BookSwim is the Netflix of books (via). Soooooo close, but I want the Netflix of ebooks. Same concept (a pay-for-it library for impatient people), no shipping costs.

• So Random House caused a kerfuffle a few weeks ago, when CEO Markus Dohle sent a letter to literary agents and essentially told them that Random House owned all publishing rights in the universe except those that authors had specifically contracted for. The Authors Guild fired back that Random House was entirely wrong, and in fact authors owned all non-specific rights. I’ve disagreed with the Authors Guild more than once in the past, but I’m with them on this one. Moreover, it spells desperation on the part of Random House. E-Reads weighs in with the potential ramifications of all this.

• Borders doesn’t have its own ereader (yet), so what does that mean for its future? Well, Borders is somehow partnered with Sony’s Reader Store, but that didn’t stop them from buying Shortcovers (which is now “Kobo“), and announcing plans to open their own ebookstore in 2010—a plan that Ars Technica thinks is not enough. Personally, I hope open formatting will allow some room for third-party bookstores (that is, if publishers loosen their grip a little). But, if I had to guess which book behemoth was going to do their best Blockbuster impression in the coming years, Borders is my runaway favorite.

• Best books lists are cropping up everywhere. In addition to our own, I like these: NPR’s Best Debut Fiction; Slate’s extensive favorites list; Salon’s author poll; and The New Yorker‘s predictably pretentious “What We Read This Year.”

• Quick links: the L.A. Times ran a special on the decade in reading Sunday, Jacket Copy has a nice summary of it (the L.A. Times‘s book section has since been gutted); overenthusiastic DRM has ruined 3D screenings of Avatar; Kirkus Reviews is closing; an Android-powered tablet called Adam might steal the Apple tablet’s thunder—or at least provide a cheaper alternative; Gizmodo on “Books and the iTunes Problem”; the NY Times book blog on the benefits of digital reading; TeleRead found some tips on ereading; critics in Slate discuss the new Nabokov book—Sean discussed it here not too long ago; the latest author to lose her mind over bad reviews; the EFF‘s ebook buyer’s guide to privacy; and finally, great news about libraries: ebooks are cut last when budgets have to be tightened. At least somebody in this country understands that ebooks are the future.

• Random videos—weirdly made music edition. First is Dub FX, with more than just beatboxing. Then, Julian Smith & co. with techno made from a Jeep.

• 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.