Not every day is a Linkfest here at the TeleBlog, but the diligent Mike Cane has e-mailed me so many enticements that I have no choice but to LF away this morning. And I don’t mind it a bit. Here are highlights, to which I might add later in the day if the eye doctor’s evil drops haven’t taken me out of action.
Hardware, including the K word
The iLiad is a fast mover in Amsterdam. As a PR stunt, a Dutch bookstore chain stocked 15 iLiads in a store there. Guess what? Bookseller.com says they sold out in an hour even at €649. In fact, the store has gone on to sell 135 more iLiads. I’m delighted for iRex Technologies, which, like Bookeen, cares far more about about e-book standards than Amazon does.
Meanwhile, in a lengthy and mixed review for AppleInsider, Daniel Eran Dilger gives the Amazon Kindle (photo) a well-deserved knock for its dissing of e-book standards. The Kindle can read only nonDRMed Mobipocket even though Mobi is an Amazon format. “Nobody should expect the Kindle to play back rival DRM-encrypted ebook formats from Sony, Microsoft, and Adobe, but it is bizarre that Amazon isn’t even supporting its own Mobipocket DRM format, which works on various other systems. That sure makes it look like Amazon hopes to own a closed system for ebooks that prevents users from using Kindle DRM files anywhere else but the Kindle itself.”
Dilger also takes a dig at the IPDF, implying it’s simply an Adobe front. Yep, the Adobe angle needs to be watched, but despite Adobe funding, the group actually has been moving in the opposite direction. The new executive director, Michael Smith, whom I know from my past OpenReadering, comes from Harlequin, which, last I knew, wasn’t an Adobe subsidiary. I see Michael as an Adobe tool not. Alas, AppleInsider unwittingly repeats a nasty canard and says that the IPDF’s .epub format supports PDF. No, Daniel. Adobe‘s Digital Editions reader for .epub does. Not the same thing, guy; a reader isn’t a standard. But, hey, you’re right on in your depiction Amazon as an eBabel villain.
The Insider’s well-illustrated review—click on the Kindle photo to the left for a more detailed look—covers far, far more than DRM and format issues. I’d urge prospective Kindle buyers to read it. Oh, and in case Newsweek’s Steve Levy is still defending the Kindle’s aesthetics, in the wake of the exclusive hands-on that Amazon gave him, he might check out Dilger’s verdict: “The Kindle almost feels purposely cheesy, as if it was designed to look fashionably tacky as a nostalgic nod to early 90s electronics. Within its price target, it blindly blows past any previous example of shoddy looking electronics gear to attain a level of unsophisticated ugliness that would seem difficult to rival.” Still, like me, Dilger is against judging (e)-books just by their covers.
Dilger’s top five pros of the Kindle are “Highly legible text,” “Long battery life,” “Exceptional wireless store for content,” “Fair prices for most content” and “Good selection for an ebook store.” His major cons are “Very slow E Ink display makes navigation clumsy and slow,” “Cheaply designed keyboard makes text entry unpleasant,” “Won’t work with Amazon’s own Mobipocket DRM ebooks,” “Doesn’t directly support PDF, AAC, rich text or graphics without conversion,” and “Thick junior engineered device feels and looks cheap.” The final rating is 3 out of 5.
Education
The Boston Globe and Marketing Vox carry items on e-textbooks, complete with some simplistic observations from MV on the piracy issue. Major textbook publishers are backing a company called CourseSmart. Anti-trust questions? The National Association of College Bookstores is exploring that possibility. Kinda ironic, gang—given all the high prices that students for years suffered as captive customers of the association’s members? Not that the publishers are just innocent bystanders.
Copyright—and cookbooks
None other than James Bridle of Booktwo.org, a TeleBlog linking partner, is among the examples in a Philly Inquirer article on why creative people put books online for free. Belated congrats to James on his p-book, Cooking with Booze, which, as part of his promo, you can download for free online. Hmm. I think Richard Guthrie just might like that.
The international scene
Here’s a wild, wacky, impossible fantasy. What if George Bush took to blogging and exchanged links with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran? Might a peace treaty or two follow? Ahmadinejad is already blogging, and the New York Times says he is less confrontational online than in his speeches. Something else from Real Life also comes to mind. Here’s Bush berating Iran as backwards, and yet America’s fearless leader avoids e-mail.
(Links first spotted by Mike Cane, except for the Globe one, which comes from Stephen Faser at Bug-Eyed Marketing. Thanks, guys!)
