Alison---Gosh so if you get fed up with the book you can go have a break!-
into video games -now that is wonderful
Fun loving Patrick the elder
Ps does it also serve coffee??
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Alison Croggon
Sent: 21 January 2010 23:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: kindle
Oops. Wrong link. (Though Rebecca Solnit is always worth reading). The
New York Times won't let me paste the proper one. So here's the story:
interesting times in publishing. xA
Apple Courts Publishers, While Kindle Adds Apps
By BRAD STONE and MOTOKO RICH
Published: January 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s a formidable high-tech face-off: Amazon.com
versus Apple for the hearts and minds of book publishers, authors and
readers.
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Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Amazon will roll out an updated Kindle. Publishers and readers are
likely to choose between it and an Apple tablet computer.
Related
Bits: Amazon Cracks Open the Kindle
Times Topics: Amazon.com Inc. | Apple Inc. | Kindle
Readers’ Opinions
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Amazon’s Kindle devices and electronic bookstore now dominate a
nascent but booming market, accounting for more than 70 percent of
electronic reader sales and 80 percent of e-book purchases, according
to some analysts. And on Thursday it will take a page from Apple and
announce that it is opening up the Kindle to outside software
developers.
Apple’s much-anticipated tablet computer, which is widely expected to
be announced next Wednesday and go on sale this spring, will be a far
more versatile (and expensive) device that will offer access to books,
newspapers and other reading material through Apple’s popular App
Store on iTunes.
Book publishers, who rail against the dominance of Amazon and its
insistence on discounting new releases to $9.99, are now playing the
tech titans against each other.
In the process, they may be rushing from the clutches of one tenacious
chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, into the arms of another, Steven P.
Jobs, whose obstinacy over pricing has given the music industry
similar paroxysms of anxiety.
“Will Kindle pricing trump Apple sex appeal? Isn’t that the question,
really?” said Richard Charkin, executive director of Bloomsbury
Publishing in London, who has been watching developments in e-book
sales with keen interest. “I haven’t the faintest idea. All I would
say is, great. The more people that are out there marketing books in
digital or any other format, the better.”
There are now almost daily tactical moves by various parties in the
business, with no end in sight.
In its announcement Thursday, Amazon will say that it is letting
programmers create what it calls active content — similar to
applications — for the Kindle and keep 70 percent of the revenue from
each sale after paying for wireless delivery costs.
Amazon will release a set of programming guidelines that other
companies — including publishers of books and periodicals — can use to
create and sell applications for the Kindle.
Until Amazon introduces more advanced models of the Kindle, developers
will be limited by its slow-to-refresh black-and-white screen.
Ian Freed, vice president for the Kindle at Amazon, said he expected
developers would devise a wide range of programs, including utilities
like calculators, stock tickers and casual video games. He also
predicts publishers will begin selling a new breed of e-books, like
searchable travel books and restaurant guides that can be tailored to
the Kindle owner’s location; textbooks with interactive quizzes; and
novels that combine text and audio.
“We knew from the earliest days of the Kindle that invention was not
all going to take place within the walls of Amazon,” Mr. Freed said.
“We wanted to open this up to a wide range of creative people, from
developers to publishers to authors, to build whatever they like.”
The move may also represent a shift in Amazon’s relationship with
newspapers and magazines that make digital editions for the Kindle.
Many executives at those organizations have expressed dissatisfaction
with their 30 percent cut of subscription fees on the Kindle and lack
of a direct relationship with those subscribers.
With a Kindle app store, those media companies will be able to sell
more profitable Kindle applications, and present news that is updated
throughout the day.
Amazon may be rushing to change the rules of its Kindle platform with
an eye toward the fanfare that will no doubt greet Apple’s
long-awaited tablet. The devices, to be sure, are fundamentally
different: Amazon has positioned the Kindle as the ultimate reading
device, easy on the eyes and slow to deplete its battery. Analysts say
that to buyers of an Apple tablet, playing video or video games may be
more important than reading.
But for book publishers, Apple’s introduction provides a potentially
golden opportunity: the chance to counter Amazon’s control over the
e-book market and regain some leverage over sensitive matters like
pricing.
Apple representatives have been in New York this week talking to the
largest trade publishers, according to industry executives. They said
Apple had proposed an arrangement under which publishers would get to
set the price of their books, with Apple taking a 30 percent
commission and the publishers keeping the rest. Steve Dowling, an
Apple spokesman, declined to comment on what he called “rumors and
speculation.”
On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> All the mac tragics are presently frothing about the iSlate
> (reportedly announced next week), which will be apparently the Next
> Big Thing for ebooks. They is at War!!!
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/solnit
>
> xA
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 10:22 AM, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>> Undersize me, Max. That's priceless. Andrew
>>
>> 2010/1/22 Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>:
>>> Quoting Angel Robert Marquez <[log in to unmask]>:
>>>
>>>> kindle
>>>
>>> I dare say Melburnians are heavily into Kindle, but only two days ago we
saw our
>>> first one in use in a public place.
>>>
>>> We were in our local McDonalds for a late cappuccino (skim milk, please)
and the
>>> woman at the next table was engrossed in her Kindle.
>>> It's the first we've seen, we told her. Tell us about it.
>>> She showed it off proudly.
>>> Happens she was reading a book on weight-loss.
>>> All round us supersize macburgers were being consumed.
>>>
>>> Max
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Andrew
>>
>> 'Beyond City Limits', pub. ICLL @ ECU, available at topnotch indie
>> bookshops - list at http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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