TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Blackberry’ Category

By Chris Meadows

A number of sources, including Ars Technica and Bloomberg, report that Research In Motion is rumored to be turning to embedded software company QNX to provide the operating system for its new tablet, allegedly to be called the “BlackPad”. RIM actually bought QNX Software Systems from Harman International Industries in April for $200 million.

QNX embedded software is used in a variety of devices, ranging from BMW and Porsche car audio systems to medical devices to nuclear power plants to the Crusher robot tank. It has also been released as a downloadable bootable floppy disk distribution, and has a small but active open-source developer community. RIM reportedly hopes to take advantage of this community to promote application development for the BlackPad.

Meanwhile, PreCentral reports that Hewlett-Packard has officially confirmed, during an investor call, that a webOS tablet will be released “in early 2011”. Not many other details were forthcoming, however.

Of course, the big question is how any of these tablets will stack up against the 800-lb gorilla that is the iPad.

By Chris Meadows

We reported in May on rumors of a possible Blackberry tablet device flying around. Lately, those rumors seem to have solidified. Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has acquired the domain name “blackpad.com” from the previous owner, who had owned it since 2002.

CNet ties together some other reports, including a post from Bloomberg in which anonymous sources claim the device is going to be Blackberry’s crack at killing the iPad, having similar specs and pricing to the wifi-only version, and will launch by November.

The tablet will be called the Blackpad, according to Bloomberg. Its touch screen will measure 9.7 inches, similar to the iPad, and the price will be "in line" with Apple’s tablet, the cheapest model starting at $499.

It will rely on wi-fi and Bluetooth to connect to the Internet, rather than 3G, and might well be meant more as a companion device to the Blackberry for people who already own one than as a true standalone.

Either way, Gadgetell notes that RIM and AT&T are planning some kind of special event in New York on Tuesday, August 3rd, and it might well be a natural place and time for such a tablet to be announced.

The Blackberry has had a number of e-book reading apps, including the Mobipocket reader that the iPhone ecosystem still lacks, but has not generally had the multimedia-friendly reputation of the iPhone. Can it turn this around with a Blackberry tablet? Will the tablet, unlike the iPad, run Flash?

Perhaps we’ll get some of the answers on Tuesday.

By Chris Meadows

If refurbished $109 Kindles aren’t your thing, perhaps you might be interested in a penny Blackberry. TechDealDigger reports that Amazon is offering the normally-$200 Blackberry Bold 9000 for one cent when you sell your soul to activate a new service plan with AT&T.

Though the Blackberry has largely become an “also-ran” to the iPhone, I gather that there are still a number of e-book apps available for it (including Kindle, eReader, and the official MobiPocket reader that is still missing from the iPhone). Of course, compared to the amount you would be shelling out over the life of your service contract, the $200 markdown may actually be quite minor.

By Chris Meadows

In observance of the announced-for-summer Kindle Reader for Android, CNet’s Josh Lowensohn takes a look at the existing Kindle Reader versions for other platforms and compares how well they come off. My own review only compared the PC, iPhone, and iPad versions; it is interesting to learn more about the Blackberry and Macintosh versions.

Gizmodo has spotted the Kindle in a slightly unusual place—being used by the evil lizard-aliens on the V revival. Amusingly, the Kindle in question is very blatantly displaying an “empty battery” screen. Gizmodo makes much of the fact that a Kindle, not an iPad, got featured in the show—but as commenters below the article point out, the episode would necessarily have been shot well before the iPad was available.

MobileRead is giving away an iPad (depending on its availability in the winner’s native country) to one lucky participant in a brief e-book device survey the site is running. MobileRead is taking answers through the end of Friday, May 21st, and pledges not to share personal information, including e-mail addresses, with any third party.

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By Chris Meadows

Barnes & Noble is offering a new free e-book every week for the next few weeks, with a twist: to redeem the e-book download, you have to come into a Barnes & Noble store and show them your Nook or your general-purpose device (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, HTC HD2, PC, or Mac) running Barnes & Noble’s eReader. (Or just bring the device and the staff will help you put eReader on it.) You then receive a voucher you can redeem at B&N’s website to download your e-book.

On the one hand, this seems to negate one of the key advantages of e-books—the ability to get them without having to bestir yourself from your comfortable chair. But on the other, it is a way to get people into the store, at which point they might theoretically buy a physical book. Though on the gripping hand, it is doubtful too many people who want a free e-book will be terribly interested in buying a costly physical one.

This week’s free title, available through May 23rd, is The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Next week’s title is Storm Front, the first Dresden Files novel, by Jim Butcher. Other titles will include The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, and One Shot by Lee Childs. All e-book vouchers can be redeemed through July 1.

More information can be found in Barnes & Noble’s press release.

(Found via Nate’s E-book News.)

By Paul Biba

If you are a Blackberry owner you may want to take a look at this review by Jason Reese of Geardiary. Jason liked the app and found that reading on the Blackberry was just fine.

What I Like: Free. Easy to use and navigate. I consider the Kindle app for Blackberry to be a “Gateway” app. It makes it convenient to purchase and read eBooks on the go, in between appointments, during those times you find yourself waiting in line or commuting (if you’re not driving ), but it won’t replace a fully dedicated eBook Reader with larger screen.

What Needs Improvement: I do wish there was a way for the Kindle App to have a setting to override the BlackBerry’s AutoDim feature. That’s really more device-side nitpickiness, but it would improve the overall reading experience.

By Paul Biba

BlackBerry is coming up in the world. OverDrive has just announced the release of a public beta of an audiobook app that can download audiobooks from libraries and major online retailers such as Barnes & Noble. The app can be downloaded here. Previously OverDrive released audiobook apps for Windows Mobile and Android, and they say that an iPhone app is planned for the near future.

By Paul Biba

Great news for Blackberry owners. According to this Amazon news release the Kindle ereading software is now available on the Blackberry platform. It has the same Whispersync technology that is used in the Kindle and iPhone and so can keep your ebook in sync between your Kindle and your Blackberry device. Interestingly, the website lists the software as beta.

It can be downloaded here, and supports the Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Curve 8520, Curve 8900, Storm 9530, Storm 9550 and Tour 9630. You can download a link to install the program from the link above, or you can type amazon.com/kindlebb into your Blackberry browser.

By Paul Biba

Erictric has an article about these two upcoming applications and a link for you to sign up to be notified when they are released.

Unfortunately neither of them will display newspapers, magazines or blogs (and neither does the iPhone app) and the Blackberry application will be available in the US only. I’m waiting for the Mac application, myself.

(via Resource Shelf)

By Chris Meadows

I ran across a post in the baen.EBookReader forum of Baen’s Bar from someone who said he got “format bait-and-switched” by Barnes and Noble. He said he ordered the e-book of D. D. Barant’s Dying Bites expecting to get the eReader format, which is what they had last time he shopped there.

Instead, he  got an ePub—which didn’t do him any good because he reads e-books on his Palm.

Curious, I went to Barnes & Noble to check for myself. I loaded up the page and cast myself in the role of the average consumer who knows very little about e-books, but who was at least smart enough to know what format he needs. I found a number of “helpful” little clues that end up confirming the wrong impression.

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By Chris Meadows

Earlier today, I happened to be looking back at a post I wrote three months ago, casting the iPod Touch as “Apple’s game-changer”. Today in the New York Times, Jenna Wortham wrote that “Apple’s game-changer” is something else: the entire App Store concept.

“[Before the App Store came about, it] took six to nine months to build a relationship with a carrier, maybe a quarter-million to get the infrastructure built, and the company took 50 percent or more from each dollar,” [Flurry marketing executive Peter] Farago says, a process that limited access to mobile platforms. “Apple has helped create a much healthier middle class of developers and expanded the pie for everyone.”

This fairly lengthy article looks in depth at not only Apple’s App Store, but the stores (current or coming) of its competitors—Blackberry, Palm, Android, and Windows.

It is not uniformly positive in its outlook, either. It notes Apple’s reputation for a difficult approval process, as well as the difficulty of finding any one specific app when there are over 100,000 available. It likewise points out the flaws in the other stores, as well as their benefits.

As much as I think the term “game changer” is by and large overused, it may be apt in this case. Not only is Apple’s App Store something special for the iPhone, but the success of the idea has sparked imitation in all of its major competitors. The smartphone landscape has been altered irrevocably.

Or, if you will, the game has been changed.

By Chris Meadows

Rupert Murdoch marches on in his crusade to charge for content. Murdoch has lately announced that the Blackberry and iPhone Wall Street Journal readers, currently free, will soon begin charging for access. The fee is to be $2 per week for those who do not subscribe to the Journal at all, $1 per week for print or on-line subscribers, and free to those who subscribe to both the print and on-line editions.

It is tempting to shake my head sadly at Murdoch’s apparent drive to strip away all relevance from his paper. But on the other hand, the Journal is one of few papers that has been successful at charging for web content—and the Journal’s target audience will generally have extra money to burn. So who knows?

And Murdoch may not stop with this paper. At the event where he announced the Journal charges, he “added that the company was mulling options such as subscriptions and pay-per-view for Hulu”.

Sheesh.

By David Rothman

“President Obama will soon get his souped-up, high-security BlackBerry for use in and around the White House and during presidential travel, said Obama administration officials. The top-secret BlackBerry 8830 is in the final stages of development by the National Security Agency, which will soon begin checking to make sure its encryption software meets federal standards. The device could be ready for use in the next few months.” – Washington Times.

The TeleRead take: Don’t forget, Barack—here’s a chance to be a role model and get young people reading e-books on BlackBerrys, iPhones and other gizmos. Talk about the confluence of literacy and tech!

The photo: That’s a BlackBerry 8830, but not the exact gizmo that the Prez will use, with the security additions built in.

By Paul Biba

Fictionwise has launched its Blackberry application. The following is from their front page:

As you may know, Fictionwise has its own eBook format called eReader, which uses a popular Social DRM encryption method. Currently, when you buy a Secure eReader eBook at Fictionwise, you already get an automatic 5% Bonus Rebate! We’re excited to announce that the Beta version of eReader for BlackBerry is now available! To help launch this new version of eReader, we want to encourage everyone to try eReader this week with a special sale (it doesn’t matter if you own a BlackBerry – just try any eBook in eReader format and save).

* Buy any Secure eReader eBook (using a credit card or PayPal) and you’ll automatically receive 30% back as a Micropay Rebate!
* Plus, all unencrypted MultiFormat eBooks are discounted 20% this week! We simply ask that after purchasing a MultiFormat eBook that you try it in eReader format (eReader is one of the thirteen formats we offer when you buy a MultiFormat eBook).

This sale only runs through Sunday, March 29th, so hurry!

By Paul Biba

In a long and thoughtful article, Opportunities in the Digital Arena for Independent Bookstores: An Action Plan for the American Booksellers Association the ABA gives a blueprint for its members to deal with the increasing popularity of e-books. Given the nature of this trade association it makes fascinating reading. Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the link.

Given all of this, we now find ourselves at a critical moment. We can either build on the knowledge base that we have established and use the collective power of our trade association to facilitate the sale of digital content through our member stores, or we can cede this business to other channels. …

While building a solution through our e-commerce product should be our main focus, the association would be well served to consider the issue more broadly. As such, we suggest proceeding along three parallel tracks:

1. First and foremost, we should conduct further study. ABA needs to convene a task force of staff members, booksellers, publishers, and technologists to make sure we understand the issues, the challenges, and the opportunities. We need to carefully study and assess industry trends to find out what consumers want and expect, and to look at what our colleagues at other trade associations are doing to address this issue.
2. We need to continue to engage in a dialogue with key industry partners — Ingram, Symtio, etc. — while also reaching out to potential partners both in and out of the book industry and conducting careful, measured assessments of their products and services.
3. We should step up our education efforts, making digital content and all that surrounds it — social media, e-commerce, etc. — a centerpiece of the education we offer through the balance of 2009 and all of 2010. We also need to write about this issue in Bookselling This Week, on ABA’s "Omnibus" Blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and through any other forum in which we communicate with our members.

By David Rothman

eReader for the Blackberry Storm is in beta, and jkOnTheRun is impressed. Also ahead will be versions for Android, Linux and E Ink (for the Sony Reader, perhaps?). Excerpt:

"I’m enjoying the heck out of it on the Storm.  That big screen is nice and I like how you have to click the screen to make the pages turn.  One of the problems I have with the iPhone version of eReader is how it changes pages when I accidentally brush the screen.  That’s not a problem on the Storm and the ability to use eReader allows me to use the Storm as my only phone if desired."

Related: Video of eReader running on the Storm, plus earlier TeleRead item from Paul Biba.