The site Boy Genius Report has a number of photos asserted as prototypes of the next edition of Amazon’s Kindle (which Amazon officials have said would not be released until some time next year). If authentic, Amazon is staying with the “my brother-in-law designed it” template, and the changes are only incremental. They are improving the page forward/page back navigational flippes, and the flimsy back panel that falls off turns into a mostly metal back. The person who took the pictures reports that the new edition will charge via a USB cable (so no separate charger is required) and indicates […]
eNews
Vodafone UK Launches Mobile Books
Vodafone UK is launching a program to provide books on cellphones starting today in association with GoSpoken.com, run by Toby Lynch and author Andy McNab. The company says they have over 2,500 books available for download. Originally designed to play as audiobooks, the site says that they are adding the ability to read titles via the phone screen as well. Charges go directly to the user’s cellphone bill with a “one-click” purchase model. Titles are expected to cost between 5 pounds and 15 pounds each. A story in the Times says GoSpoken has “signed up every leading publisher in Britain, […]
Sony Announces Third Version of their Reader
Sony’s “third generation” of their Reader Digital Book was announced today, for release next month. The new version adds a touch screen, letting readers “flip pages with the slide of a finger.” You can also use fingers or a stylus to search, create notes and highlight text. The touch screen provides for a pop-up “virtual keyboard.” It also adds a built-in LED reading light to help in low-light situations. Sony promises to relaunch a better version of their online ebookstore this month as well. A Business Week blogger calls it Sony’s “best so far.” Head of the Sony Digital Reading […]
Editorial Skills for Digital Days
Pan Macmillan’s Nicholas Blake posts a presentation made at the Society of Young Publishers this week on the company’s Digitalist blog about, in which he looked at the role of the editor in a world adapting to digital processes and markets. “I argued that although editors in our part of the archipelago needed new knowledge and understanding, as they always have, they didn’t need new skills, and I outlined ten key islands of knowledge, five collaborative and five individual.” Those islands: 1. Get the rights. Penguin got 700 titles up for the Waterstone’s launch – then had to take 120 down […]
Another In-House Media Studio
Similar to the HarperCollins facility, Simon & Schuster has announced the creation of an in-house digital production studio to create multimedia content about their authors and books of the fourth floor of the company’s New York offices. Charlie Corts is their director, video production and development, recording and editing the author interviews. He has worked in digital production at Yahoo! and CBS Interactive. S&S says they expect to produce and post more than 600 pieces of multimedia content annually.
That Only Took Years: Google Book Search Syndicates to Online Booksellers
Google is finally expanding making Book Search previews available to sites everywhere with simple embeddable code. Significantly, they say that Books-a-Million has already enabled Google Previews on their site, and “in the coming weeks retailers like Borders and Powell’s Books will enable this feature as well.” (It’s already enabled at Blackwell’s site, too, and other bookselling sites internationally.) Which means that “browse inside” functionality is now available to any bookseller (or other site) throughout the range of titles provided by Google’s publisher “partners.” As with books displayed through Book Search itself, users can browse up to 20 percent of a […]