"I love the EVDO access. I love being able to download books on the fly, being able to get my latest issues of the newspaper, anything else...pushed to the device wirelessly---awesome. I just wish it had come in black and they had hired an Apple design engineer...." - Benjamin Higginbotham of Technology Evangelist in a funny, informative video comparing the Kindle with the Sony Reader and the iLiad. Thanks to Mike Cane for finding this gem. Related: E-book skeptic Ed Kohler of TE on Why the Kindle will fail with business book readers. Kohler doesn't get it. He writes that...

That's the word from the hard-working Jane at Dear Author, who's been phoning around. Related: Amazon loves exclusivity for Amazon Shorts---different from books, of course. Shorts, by the way, are available in PDF, HTML and plain text. I wonder when the Kindle's AZW format will be mentioned in the guide for Shorts customers. Technorati Tags: Amazon , Amazon Shorts , Kindle , AZW ...

Simon & Schuster---cofounders in photo--- is posting a great profit this year despite spending developmental dollars digitizing its entire backlist. Helped by the sales of self help book by Joel Osteen, Become a Better You, and Rhonda Byrne's powerhouse, The Secret, sales were up at Simon & Schuster in all divisions resulting in a 9% gain in total revenue ($214.2 million). Simon & Schuster expects that an estimated 13,000 titles will be converted to digital format by the end of 2007. Oh, Simon & Schuster, how do I love thee? Converting all of your titles and...

Remember eBbookAd, the retailer, distributor and infrastructure-provider? How solid the company seemed? Then we heard of eBookAd's sleazy treatment of writers and publishers---owned tens of thousands. Finally the site vanished, including backup copies of books people had bought. So readers, not just e-book writers and potential writers, may be interested in What Authors Should Look for in an E Publisher, from Jane at DearAuthor.com. No, eBookAd wasn't quite a publisher in the usual way, but many of the same concepts apply. Elibron, by the way, is another name for buyers to be wary of. E-book houses' special risks "If you have been paying...

HarperCollins is making iPhone compatible e-book content available. iPhone users can go here to view the first 10 pages of chapters one and two of 14 books released in August and September. There will be a link to pre-order/order the book from a list of retailers. Titles to be made available include: The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh (HarperOne) Beyond the Body Farm by Bill Bass (William Morrow) The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman (William Morrow) The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (Zondervan) Ike: An American Hero by Michael Korda (HarperCollins) A Killer's Kiss by William Lashner (William Morrow) Life on the Refrigerator...

While perusing the deals today in Publishers Marketplace, I came across a sale by agent Bob Diforio to HarperCollins for three erotic novellas penned by Delilah Devlin. The wording of the deal was so different that I wondered if it meant what I thought it meant. Delilah Devlin's three erotic novellas, again to May Chen at Harper, for immediate e-book publication, in a nice deal, by Bob Diforio at D4EO Literary Agency (World). After a confirmation e-mail from Mr. Diforio, it comes to light that HarperCollins is indeed going to offer these books as e-books first, with print options to come...

I gave Adobe Digital Editions a quick spin and assumed that the company would address such issues as font size choices in the final version---I couldn't get "increase" and "decrease" enabled within a menu while I was testing Michael Crichton's State of Fear on a beta. As you can see, they're grayed out. Now, what if the results won't be so great in the final version, either? Jane at DearAuthor.Com tried the reader on a different book and complains of being able to choose from just "four font sizes. You can't type in the percentage you want, it has a small...

No ifs about it. E-books could benefit from the New York Times' ongoing migration to the Web. The more uses for a reading device, the more readers for e-books. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Times owner and chairman, told the Haaretz news that in five years, the print version of the Times would be relevant no longer. The profits for Times have been shrinking for the past four years and its market share is, too. In today's world, Sulzberger said last Thursday, the Internet is where it is at. While print revenues are down, Internet readership is increasing. The Times has more online readers...

Penguin is experimenting with a group-authored book based on the Web technology behind Wikipedia. A Million Penguins is an experiment in creative writing and community. Anyone can join in. Anyone can write. Anyone can edit. Let's see if the crowds are not only wise, but creative. Or will too many cooks spoil the broth? This isn't the first time Penguin has tried to involve its customers in creating product. Last winter, Penguin announced the release of classics with blank covers encouraging readers to send in photos of their personalized books. It resulted in some amazing reader artwork. Now if only...

Some of the most honest and useful commentary on e-books, including serious thoughts on DRM and e-formats, comes from the Dear Author site devoted mainly to romance novels. No stereotypes. We're even in Geek Girl territory since Jane Litte, one of the Dear Author blog's two mainstays, does a little PHP. More importantly, Jane loves and cares about e-books, and while never hesitant to give a consumer perspective, she seeks out publishing insiders to get their side. Recently, for example, Jane interviewed Claire Israel of Simon & Schuster and Ann Allessi of HarperCollins. So in our new incarnation, we're especially pleased to...