Technologizer

Kindle for PC: A Rough Draft at Best

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

[UPDATE: I tried again, and Kindle for PC is now downloading all my books swiftly and reliably. Not sure why it wasn't before...] I’ve been playing with Amazon.com’s new Kindle for PC application over the past 24 hours, and while the idea of having access to my Kindle books on my PC remains mighty appealing, the [...]

The E-Reader Explosion: A Cheat Sheet

Monday, October 26, 2009

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By almost any imaginable definition, last week was the newsiest ever in the still-new world of e-book readers. We witnessed the unveiling of Barnes & Noble’s ambitious Nook. We got more details about Plastic Logic’s long-awaited device. We learned of an underdog known as the Spring Design Alex. We were informed that Amazon was killing [...]

The Barnes & Noble E-Reader Revealed?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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Gizmodo has posted what it says are photos and details of the e-book reader that Barnes & Noble is reportedly getting ready to release. The most interesting tidbit: It supposedly has a 6-inch monochrome e-ink screen that’s very much like the one on Amazon’s Kindle–but also a smaller color multi-touch LCD beneath that one, which [...]

Barnes & Noble Entering the E-Book Fray?

Thursday, October 8, 2009

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I like these rumors: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that bookstore behemoth Barnes & Noble will soon start selling its own e-reader device, and Gizmodo has a tip that said device will run Google’s Android OS. For all the things that are good about Amazon’s Kindle, it suffers from being a sophisticated electronic device [...]

1984 All Over Again

Friday, September 4, 2009

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Back in July, Amazon.com endured a bout of bad publicity and inspired debate about the ethics of copy protection when it remotely deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from customer’s Kindle e-readers after discovering they were pirated. CEO Jeff Bezos eventually apologized and called the action stupid. Now the Wall Street Journal’s [...]

Building a Kindle Killer. Or Several of Them

Friday, August 28, 2009

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Slates Farhad Manjoo has a good story up about how Sony in particular and e-reader makers in general can build an e-book device that’s better and more popular than Amazon’s Kindle. One graf that left me mentally applauding: I’d counsel Amazon’s competitors to embrace openness even more. In particular, they’d be wise to let people trade [...]

Do You Want Your Books in Digital Form…or on Dead Trees?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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The news about devices for reading books just doesn’t stop these days, from the good (Sony’s Reader is going wireless and is supporting the ePub format) to the bizarre and troubling (Amazon yanking back books people have already bought). So today’s T-Poll takes your temperature on the whole notion of electronic readers. Are you an owner, [...]

Sony’s E-Reader Finally Goes Wireless

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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Until now, discussions of the e-book rivalry between Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader have had to point out that Sony’s gadget lacked the wireless connectivity that was probably the Kindle’s best feature. No longer: At a press event at the New York Public Library, Sony announced the Reader Daily Edition, its first e-reader that lets [...]

5Words for Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Thursday, August 13, 2009

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Like 5Words? Subscribe via RSS. Sony adopts standard e-book format. Obligatory Apple tablet rumor story. And a fake tablet video. Snow Leopard: later this month? The Pre and location awareness. Samsung’s cameras have two LCDs. iGoogle adds social-networking gadgets. Windows XP for your pocket.

Sony Shrinks the Size and Cost of E-Books

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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If Sony is a bit nonplussed over all the attention for Amazon’.coms Kindle, it’s understandable. The Japanese consumer-electronics behemoth beat Amazon to market with e-book readers that share much of the Kindle’s appeal and technology, and their current touchscreen model arguably has a better interface than the Kindle 2. (Of course, the Kindle benefits hugely [...]

Nicholson Baker vs. the Kindle

Monday, July 27, 2009

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Novelist Nicholson Baker is an unapologetic friend of paper–and his book Double Fold* is an important expose of the mass dumping of bound newspaper volumes by libraries in favor of vastly inferior microform copies. So you gotta think that when The New York arranged for him to write about Amazon.com’s Kindle, it knew that it [...]

Jeff Bezos: Amazon’s 1984 Actions Were “Stupid”

Thursday, July 23, 2009

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Amazon’s decision to remotely delete pirated copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ Kindle e-readers and refund their money was stupid, thoughtless, and self-inflicted. That’s not an irate blogger talking–it’s Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, who indulged in some serious self-flagellation at the company’s forums, as reported by TechCrunch’s MG Siegler. Bezos’s mea culpa [...]

Barnes & Noble Ramps Up E-books

Monday, July 20, 2009

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At the moment, “e-book” and “Kindle” are darn near synonymous. Barnes & Noble aims to change that with multiple announcements it made today. It’s releasing free e-reader applications for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, and BlackBerry; it’s opened an e-bookstore with 700,000 titles, including bestsellers for $9.99 apiece; and it’s announced a deal that will [...]

Orwell on the Kindle: It’s Orwellian!

Friday, July 17, 2009

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[IMPORTANT UPDATE: The Web is rife with examples of people assuming something unlikely-sounding is true because they read it somewhere. I usually go to pains to avoid doing so--which is why my posts tend to be rife with words like "reportedly" and "allegedly"-- but in this post I screwed up. As BetaNews reports--rightly taking me [...]

A Cheap(er) Kindle

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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Engadget has noticed that Amazon’s Kindle 2 is now a better buy: The company has shaved $60 off the price of it’s e-reader, which is now $299: The first Kindle shipped in November of 2007 and cost $400; Amazon has been bringing the price down, but only gradually. (It’s the e-books you download from Amazon–many of [...]

Kindle DRM Follies

Monday, June 22, 2009

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Gear Diary has an illuminating, alarming post about the DRM for Amazon’s Kindle e-books: “How do I find out how many times I can download any given book?” I asked. He replied, “I don’t think you can. That’s entirely up to the publisher and I don’t think we always know.” I pressed — “You mean when you [...]