Comments on: IDPF Digital Book 2009 Twitter transcript

By: Angela James

Angela James — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:18:27 +0000

Despite all the tweets, I’m amazed that not a single one mentioned the single biggest moment of the day … when Sarah Wendell played the famous clip from “When Harry Met Sally” (the second half of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-bsf2x-aeE) followed by her description of the “orgasmic ePub moment”.

I’m glad you liked it and that it made an impression! It was actually the end of my presentation, using it to show DRM-free as the “yes” moment your readers will shout to the world, even if you don’t publish erotic content.

I have pictures of the new Bookeen device, but was asked not to share them until an “official” announcement. I believe they were going to announce at the conference but ran out of time.

By: Evan Leibovitch

Evan Leibovitch — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:17:59 +0000

On Bookeen:

http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx

There are now three north american resellers.

1) Archambault, one of Québec’s largest book/record chains.
http://www.archambault.ca

2) Booksonboard — http://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewproduct&PRODUCT=35

3) CyberRead — http://www.cyberread.com/Bookeen-Cybook-Gen-3/N/A/info/83282/

I’m not sure what the issue is regarding release dates because Bookeen has been making readers for the european market for quite a while. They told me that they are updating firmware for earlier systems that couldn’t read ePub.

On ePub vs EPUB and logos:

I think the point came into sharp focus during a workshop the day before the conference, where someone hinted that Amazon might be claiming a not-quite-compliant format the were calling “ePub plus”. This illustrates the need for IDPF to not only make a logo but assert epub as a trademark. That’s the only way to prevent things like “epub plus” from happening.

On the Twitter coverage:

I continue to be unimpressed by the actual utility of Twitter as opposed to the use of blogs (which convey whole strings of thought rather than shrapnel). I still think that Twitter is simply this decade’s version of CB Radio and will live about as long … but that’s for a different forum.

By: Paul Biba

Paul Biba — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:22:59 +0000

Nope, no cover and no info on release date. They are looking for a US distributor, by the way. Post a url for the MobileRead pictures and I’ll take a look.

By: HeavyG

HeavyG — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:42:48 +0000

“LiVOLSI : customers not too price sensitive”

Really????

From what I read/hear the vast majority of folks are price sensitive on ebooks and WON’T pay the same price as a paper copy.

By: Mags

Mags — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:25:14 +0000

Paul, are there any photos of the small Bookeen device? Does it look like the photos on MobileRead? Does it have a hard cover like the PocketBook Netronix device? Any info on a release date?

Not everyone is interested in a big honking device.