Kindle 3 vs. iPad funny comparison feat. David Pogue [video]
A geeky banner to Amazon Kindle Store which deserves its own blog post
Yesterday I’ve made this banner to draw attention of techies to my books at Kindle Store. I’m proud of it. It’s so shiny and beautiful – and links to short stories, which generally say shiny gadgets are not always perfect. You can read them on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad or BlackBerry.
From now on it’ll shine above comments on every blog post. Compare it to that boring Google stuff below. Oh my Geek, just move over the iPhones…
Pirates have copyright notices, too [screenshots]
A couple of months ago I discovered some guys illegally published their edition of my book at Amazon. They took a content of a free book shared with a CC licence probably at Wattpad or Smashwords and are selling it for $11. Hell with them,… no, wait, they made it to #38 in Humor / Jokes Riddles.
I took screenshots of their copyright and legal notices. And, yeah, IT IS A JOKE. They claim they own all rights. What’s more:
You should assume that the author and the publisher have an affiliate relationship and /or another material connection [...].
The original Amazon Password Incorrect is here ($0.99), the second part of the series, Failure Confirmed – here. Please visit book sites, leave a review, download free samples or even buy the books. I’d love to be as good as the guys who have fun while robbing me.
And if you want a free download of what they sell for $11 – go and take it from Feedbooks. »»»
Google Editions delayed and why it’s good for readers
A couple of days ago Reuters had news stating that Google Editions is “due to launch this fall”.
It sounds like a hell of a delay. When first announced in October last year it was due to start in first months of 2010. Then it was about to launch in June or July. Now we have to wait till a vague fall.
The delay suggests Google is not ready with a new service. In view of all failures it’s not good to hurry up again.
Postponing is not good for Google, but it’s actually good for the reader. There are two major reasons for that.
Google will have time to improve before it’s too late
There are a lot of questions and concerns about a new e-bookstore. In my opinion a serious player in the e-book market should not only provide the right tools to buy books but also the right tools to read them. »»»
iPad jako e-czytnik – aktualności i komentarz 06.08.2010
Minął już czas spektakularnych wideodemonstracji i zapowiedzi przyszłych aplikacji na iPada. Zaczął się czas walki o użytkownika – a walka odbywa się w skokach zwanych aktualizacjami. Poniżej o tym, jak sytuacja rozwija się w poszczególnych grupach aplikacji.
:. iBooks, Kindle, Stanza
Z szeregu aplikacji książkowych te trzy są zdecydowanymi faworytami. Porównaniu ich funkcji poświęciłem obszerny wpis. Kindle i iBooks rozwijają się łeb w łeb, Stanza toczy się siłą rozpędu z dobrych czasów sprzed przejęcia przez Amazon.
Niestety muszę skorygować swoją optymistyczną prognozę dotyczącą rychłego pojawienia się ePubu wśród formatów obsługiwanych przez Kindle. Jeff Bezos w wywiadzie dla USA Today stwierdził, że Amazon bardzo szybko rozwija swoje własne standardy i nie ma zamiaru czekać, aż inni (w domniemaniu zwolennicy ePubu) będą w stanie dotrzymywać mu kroku.
Kindle jest pierwszą aplikacją książkową – ale nie samodzielną książką-aplikacją, jak np. Bunny Munro – która daje możliwość odtwarzania plików multimedialnych. W Kindle Store można już kupić m.in. książkę Ricka Perlsteina pt. Nixonland, figurującą jako Kindle Edition With Audio/Video.
Z dotrzymywaniem kroku nie jest tak źle, bo bardzo szybko Apple ogłosił rzecz podobną – przy okazji aktualizacji iBooks (czyli ePub właśnie).
O tych trzech najważniejszych aplikacjach książkowych sporo do tej pory napisałem. Opis i ocena Stanzy 2.0 są do przeczytania tutaj. O nowej aktualizacji iBooks – tutaj. Opisałem też jak dodać swoje książki do iBooks. Jeśli znacie angielski polecam również porady jak wykorzystać Dropbox jako wirtualną półkę dla Stanzy oraz dlaczego nowa wersja Kindle doskonale sprawdza się jako aplikacja słownikowa.
Każdy, kto ma iPada, ale również jest posiadaczem iPhone’a zastanawia się nad optymalnym wykorzystaniem obu urządzeń. Pojawia się temat wirtualnej półki, dlatego zachęcam również do przeczytania artykułu o ewolucji półki z książkami. »»»
Kindle for iOS updated: use it as a free dictionary app
A new update of Kindle application is up in the AppStore (link). It brings a long-awaited functionality – a dictionary look-up. Together with a possibility to search through the book content, now available also for iPad, it becomes an unexpected alternative to standalone dictionary applications for iOS.
Opposite to major competitors, iBooks and Stanza, Kindle introduced dictionary functionality in a much smarter way. After update is complete, when you open an application and sync it with your account, you see a new book on your shelf: The New Oxford American Dictionary with 250,000 entries and definitions.
In my opinion adding a content of application’s dictionary as a separate book is a brilliant idea.
Why? Because it makes a great standalone dictionary application out of Amazon’s app. If you’re looking for a word, just open Kindle, then The New Oxford American Dictionary and tap the magnifying glass icon. You’re searching through the content of a book, which IS a dictionary.
This gives a benefit, no other dictionary app has (as well as iBooks and Stanza). Kindle can explain words in a dictionary entry itself. Dictionary-as-a-function adds a second layer to dictionary-as-a-book. This is especially helpful for non-English users. »»»
Amazon Kindle 3 as seen by College Humor [video]
Amazon Kindle 3 as seen by Jeff Bezos [video]
Prices of e-readers down by 40% since June 2009
No major report will be quoted, cause I haven’t found any. The numbers gathered here are a result of a private research I started exactly a year ago.
The idea was simple – to create an Amazon widget with 12 e-readers. Then I was collecting screenshots from certain days and placed them in this post. If the e-reader was no longer sold, I used a price shown in a former screenshot. As simple as that. It was designed to give a clue on how fast the prices of e-readers were going down – and to have it presented in a comparable form. Just an idea from an average e-book enthusiast.
The big news is that prices have fallen by around 40%. The major reason is a recent price war between B&N and Amazon, in my opinion taking place in view of a launch of Google Editions, which will totally change a perception of an “e-reading device”. Picking up one figure: Kindle 2 is almost three times cheaper than a year ago – $359 vs $130!
It was not so fantastic at the end of last year – prices were lower only by 15%. And this is what most of us were expecting. In a quick poll only 18% votes were given to a price drop higher than 20%.
You can check current prices at the bottom of a post. What do you think: will prices of leading devices cross a magic level of $100? »»»
Recently updated Polish tech-absurdist and mobile fiction writer 3.0 beta. Addicted to ebooks and technology. Guest writer at 
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