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. »»»
Let iOS users download your ePub book to Stanza and Kobo directly from a tweet
This short post should be helpful for every writer who is using Twitter to direct iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users to his book published in ePub format.
Wouldn’t you like tweeple to read your book seconds after they discover it on Twitter? Here is a simple trick.
Instead of tweeting a link to a book page, tweet a link to a book file.
So if your book is being show at the directory like this: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127
find a link to an ePub file: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3127.epub
and tweet it – you can use a shortener as well: http://bit.ly/bL3fJC
When the link is opened in Safari, a dialog box appears where the user can choose an e-reading application he wants to read a book with: »»»
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. »»»
iBooks: how to add books without connecting to iTunes
Adding third-party books to iBooks is painful. You need to cable your device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad) with a computer to sync books between iTunes “Books” folder and the application. I personally feel stressed every time I connect a device to iTunes. Syncing is slow and when it’s finished app icons are messed up almost every time.
Comparing to Kindle’s 60 seconds, a cable connection is just outdated. The other thing is that with the iBookstore offering such a little selection of books, many people try to download their own book libraries collected before.
Two tips listed below apply only to pdf documents, so probably only iPad owners will want to try it. You can’t use them to send ePub files to iBooks. I hope it will change soon. So far only Stanza is capable of opening external ePubs (as well as pdf docs as you’ll see in the screenshots). »»»
Creating one picture story – a step-by-step example
One picture stories are extremely easy to create. Just shoot a picture and type your story using TypeDrawing application. This post is to share with you some tips on how to achieve a more advanced look. If you know what you want, it’ll take no more than 20 minutes.
When you have an iPhone 3G the pictures are, to be polite, average. This one was shot at the Spectrum Museum in Berlin. I knew I had to deeply rework it. »»»
Use Dropbox as a cloud bookshelf for Stanza
By now Stanza is the most robust e-reading application for iOS. It’s packed with features other apps, like Kindle or iBooks are missing. However it has one big disadvantage: no cloud-based bookshelf.
The application is associated to a device not an account. There is no way to sync books and bookmarks like in Kindle. It’s fine when you have one device. Things get complicated to those iPhone or iPod Touch users who are buying iPads. They realize that to read books they collected in Stanza, they need to download them again.
There are a few ways to transfer books to Stanza. I’d like to add to the list a simple solution, which gives at least part of cloud bookshelf functionality. It’s Dropbox (AppStore link), an application available for both iPhone and iPad. Sure, no sync is possible, but at least you can manage you book library from a single place. »»»
8 myths about reading books on a mobile phone
According to Wikipedia there are 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world. It’s a huge number. But people don’t try to read books on them. In this post I’d like to address some of the most popular reasons, which prevent us from doing it.
The screen is too small
This is true – if you still own a 5-year old phone with black&white screen large enough to show in full length only a phone number (if you’re lucky). But things change, and one of the quickest developing ones are mobile phones. More and more people buy smartphones. They have screens large enough to make their producers cry: “hey you can even watch movies on this phone!”.
I’ve heard many times that reading on a mobile phone is a disaster. Now try to watch a movie. It stops every 5 seconds, as it takes a lot of time to download it. THIS is a disaster.
Let’s compare sizes. For a book, you have an A5 format (average paper book) vs a phone screen. For a video, you as a reference we can use a 21″ TV screen. If we can shrink our video world that much, why we can’t do the same with books?
Another comparison. On average the screen of a smartphone has the width of a text column in a newspaper. If the size of a text field in a paper edition of The New York Times is not enough for you, then you can also complain about a mobile phone. »»»
15 questions to Google Editions
The e-reader price war has started. In a couple of hours the prices of major e-reading devices, Kindle and Nook, have dropped under $200. It’s not a coincidence that this is happening right now.
Google Editions will launch in a couple of days, weeks at latest. And when it happens, the world will receive a simple message: you don’t need to buy an extra device to read books, use your current one as long as it has a browser.
Opposite to iBooks/iBookstore which was a blank page with a list of 5 publishers, Editions will start with a strong context created by existing Google service: Books.
Google announced that at the beginning 4 million books will be available via Editions. Nobody has started a new book venture this big. One day the biggest number of books will be available at the service which is a combination of a search engine, a catalog of 12 million digitized books and a biggest e-bookstore in the world.
This is making people think. In this article I will not ask about Editions’ impact on the e-book market, others will do it better. But there are many questions from a point of view of an average reader and self-publisher, which stay unanswered. »»»
Create your own one picture stories
If you own an iPhone and want to share with the world more than just pictures, try this: one picture stories.
They’re extremely easy to create – and fun to do. What you need is one great application from the AppStore – Type Drawing. The app is definitely worth its price – 1,99 USD/1,59 EUR (download link here). The program lets you literally paint with words. The recent update has an enhanced, intuitive interface; a choice of 22 fonts, ability to zoom, eyedropper and many other features.
What’s most important – as a background you can use pictures from your iPhone’s photo library.
How to create one picture story?
1. Pick up a photo.
2. Open it in Type Drawing.
3. Write/paint your text. Do it the way you want, it’s all up to your imagination. A useful tip here is that if you don’t want a text to be painted in a loop just enter several spaces at the end in a text input box.
4. Save picture to photo library.
5. Share with the world. If you use a tag #1picstory it’ll be easier found in the Twitterverse. »»»
Hashtagstories – a literary memoir of social media trends
It’s almost a year since I started hashtagstories – microstories written with current Twitter hashtags.
Sorry? Stories written with what? A year ago this was weird even to me. But it was just so inspiring to combine the world of hashtags into a piece of a literary fiction that I gave it a try. I also wanted to use it as a way to enter English writing. It was looking like a pretty easy job to do – just collect meaningful, emotional hashtags and scrabble them into a story.
After a year I can tell you – hashtagstories are not easy. They are a hard work. I had to go through many Twitter-based services to find the best source of hashtag info. Previously I was using Hashtags.org, now it’s What the Trend. »»»
Recently updated Polish tech-absurdist and mobile fiction writer 3.0 beta. Addicted to ebooks and technology. Guest writer at 
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