Do not think of the Kindle as replacing the book. Bury that thought. Bury it deep. Then go and hold a favorite book in your hand. Enjoy. Then pile 50 of your favorite books and carry them with you all day, through airports, onto airplanes, checking into hotels, sitting in meetings, reading in bed at night. You get the point. You sit (gloriously) in a library. You take a Kindle in your briefcase.
Well said, sir. Well said.
Amazon introduced the Kindle DX at a press event this morning. It's the big screen Kindle everyone's been waiting for, but it comes with a big screen price: $489.00.
What do you get for that? Well, it's two inches taller and two inches wider than the normal Kindle, making it about an inch smaller than an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. This is important because it's the first Kindle to offer a native PDF viewer that displays full-size PDF pages without any modifications or unsightly wrapping. It's being pitched at anyone who wants to read rich, dense information: textbooks, scientific texts, computer manuals, etc. To make this even easier, it now supports auto-rotation. It will automatically sense whether you're holding the device in portrait mode or landscape mode and rotate the page to match.
What else do you get for your money? Well, it's pretty much the same as the small Kindle in all other respects. Same Whispernet wireless access, samme text-to-speech, same overall design. It does have enough memory for 3500 books, up from 1500 books. But the display is still 16 shades of gray (no color).
What do I think? I think this is one expensive gadget. The small Kindle, at $359, is pushing my willingness to spend. The DX, at $489, is way beyond it. Granted, it's a huge device. And I do think that size would allow me to read many books I'm unwilling to read on my small Kindle. But I'm not going to spend $500 for the privilege. Hopefully, for Amazon's sake, somebody else is.
This entry was tagged. Ebooks Innovation
Amazon to Launch Kindle for Textbooks - WSJ.com:
Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.
... A larger-screen Kindle would enable textbook publishers to better display the charts and graphs that aren't particularly well suited to the current device, which has a screen that measures just six inches diagonally. But digitizing academic books could also hurt the thriving market for used textbooks on college campuses.
I think the schools consider that a feature not a bug. I also think the Kindle DRM will likely discourage a lot of students from buying digital textbooks. They'll almost surely cost more than the used books online and they can't be given away or resold at the end of the year. Sure, it'll save weight in backpacks, but it comes at the cost of a $359 device.
Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind after reading the full details of tomorrow's debut.
Update: I haven't changed my mind. The new Kindle DX is nearly $500. Several universities will be piloting them as textbooks, with the textbooks preloaded. That's a good deal for those students. But I'm not sure it's a good deal for other students who will have to buy both the Kindle and their textbooks.
This entry was tagged. Ebooks Innovation
Gruber, on why the iPhone is so successful:
One obvious but wrong answer would have been for Apple to start with a phone. That's what most companies in the mobile handset industry have done and it's led them to a dead end. The problem is that while successful complex systems evolve from simple systems that work, not every simple system that works can support additional complexity. It's not enough just to start simple, you have to start simple with a framework designed for future evolution and growth.
Consider that none of the major new features in the iPhone OS 3.0 software is related to the telephone. MMS comes closest, but even that doesn't pertain to phone calls. The "phone" in "iPhone" is much more about ubiquitous always-on wireless TCP/IP networking than it is about the 20th century conception of telephony.
And that's the main reason I'd like an iPhone. Always-on internet access, anytime, (almost) anywhere -- and it fits in my pocket.
Bits: The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Faster?
Many countries have faster and more widely available high speed Internet service than the U.S. It has a lot to do with their urban density, not our poor technology.
In case you were wondering.
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The Internet is not, in fact, a seething mass of sex criminals just waiting to attack unsuspecting children. Anyone who's spent any amount of time online knows that, but now we finally have proof. Report Finds Online Threats to Children Overblown - NYTimes.com
The task force, led by the Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. looked at scientific data on sexual predation on the Internet and found that children and teenagers are very unlikely to be propositioned by adults online. In the cases that do exist, the report said, teenagers are typically willing participants and are at risk in other ways (with poor home environments, depression or substance abuse, for example).
The report criticized previous findings that one in five or one in seven minors are sexually propositioned online, saying that in a strong majority of those situations, a child's peers are responsible for the proposition, which typically amounts to an act of harassment or teasing.
In what social networks may view as something of an exoneration after years of pressure from law enforcement, the report said that sites like MySpace and Facebook "do not appear to have increased the overall risk of solicitation" and that "posting personally identifying information does not appear to increase risk in and of itself."
I'd just like to point out that I advanced this idea during my sophomore or junior year of college (sometime between 2002 and 2004). My college friends can verify that -- I promoted the idea to pretty much everyone. But I never wrote it down, so I can't really prove it to the world. Oh, well.
With the exception of the iPhone, Apple's products largely lack technology to provide ubiquitous access to the outside world while on the go. However, a new proposal from the company would attempt to solve this problem, and provide ever-present access to the Internet, through a series of tiny RF modules that can be toted or place just about anywhere.
In a 36-page filing published for the first time Thursday and titled "Personal area network systems and devices and methods for use thereof," the electronics maker outlines a system for allowing products with only short-range communications circuitry, such as iPods and MacBooks, to connect to and leverage those equipped with long-range technology, such as the iPhone or specially designed RF modules.
AppleInsider | Apple proposes tiny RF modules for ever-present connectivity.
The new HD camcorders are different from traditional camcorders in several ways. The most obvious is the stunning picture quality. Never have your most banal home videos looked so good! But I'm most concerned about the technical differences. Here are a few of my notes.
Many of the newest HD camcorders leave out the DV tapes in favor of flash memory. Most record to either Secure Digital or Secure Digital High Capacity memory cards. SD cards range 8MiB to 4GiB and SDHC cards range from 1GiB to 32GiB. 4GiB SDHC cards are currently selling for $15-20 and 16GiB SDHC cards are currently selling for $50-60.
How much recording time is that? Well, it depends on the exact resolution of the camera and the exact format being used to store the video. Depending on the exact quality of the video, AVCHD can store 60 minutes of video in about 4-8GiB of memory.
Some HD camcorders still use reliable old DV tapes and the HDV format. With HDV, each tape can store 80 minutes of video. Once downloaded, HDV will require about 8-12GiB of storage per hour of video.
AVCHD is a popular format for tapeless camcorders.
AVCHD (AVC-HD, AVC HD) video is recorded using the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression codec. Audio is stored in either compressed form (Dolby AC-3), or uncompressed form (multichannel PCM). Aside from recorded audio and video, AVCHD includes features to improve media presentation: menu navigation, slide shows and subtitles. The menu navigation system is similar to DVD-video, allowing access to individual videos from a common intro screen. Slide shows are prepared from a sequence of AVC still frames, and can be accompanied by a background audio track. Subtitles are used in some camcorders to timestamp the recordings.
Just as HDV-editing once demanded an expensive high-end PC, the system requirements for AVCHD editing software currently limits it to powerful desktops. Compared to HDV, AVCHD video compression requires 2-4x the processing power, placing a greater burden on the computer memory and CPU. Older computers, even those that are capable of handling HDV, are often unacceptably slow for editing AVCHD, and can even struggle with smooth playback of AVCHD recordings. Improvements in multi-core computing and graphics processor acceleration is bringing AVCHD playback to mainstream desktops and laptops.
The implementation of H.264/AVC codec varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Canon and Panasonic camcorders use High-Profile@Level-4.1, up to the AVCHD format's maximum bitrate of 24 Mbit/s. To date, Sony camcorders have only used Main-Profile@Level-4.0, at a maximum bitrate of 17 Mbit/s. The High-Profile mode of H264 is more difficult to create and playback than main-profile. Consequently, recordings made by one vendor's camcorder or editing software may be unplayable on another vendor's equipment, leading to a frustrating user experience.
HDV is the preferred format for tape-based camcorders.
HDV was designed to offer a cost-conscious upgrade path from standard-definition (SD) to high-definition (HD) video. As such, HDV uses the same DVC cassette as MiniDV. Recording time for HDV is identical to MiniDV SP. As of yet, no HDV cameras can record HDV at LP speed, so the maximum record time on one tape is 80 minutes, as opposed to 120 with an 80 minute tape at LP. Although wanted by the consumer market, it is not likely that there will be an HDV camcorder that records HDV in LP mode because of the higher risk of video drop-outs at faster transport speeds.
HDV cameras are offered in both consumer and professional designs. Consumer models are sold to the mass consumer market, competing with other camcorders used for home, travel and vacation video. Professional models have better lenses and other advanced features for those doing paid video production, and are used for a wide variety of projects including some popular TV shows (e.g. "Deadliest Catch"). HDV can be captured and edited in most modern NLEs on personal computers, then output to either Blu-ray or computer delivery formats.
Since I'm a Mac user, I'm mostly concerned about Mac compatibility. Apple's various video editing software do not directly support AVCHD video. Instead, they automatically convert the video into the Apple Intermediate Codec format. This conversion dramatically slows down the import process.
HDV is supported by all of Apple's video editing software. Because it is read directly from the tape, it will import in real-time. Of course, before buying any video camera it would be a good idea to check the iMovie 08 Camcorder Support page.
It looks like shooting video in a tapeless camcorder with AVCHD would be significantly more expensive than shooting with a more traditional tape-based camcorder. With MiniDV tapes selling for about $3 each, I can cheaply shoot hours of video on vacation without needing to download everything to my computer. Assuming the highest quality video, AVCHD would cost me about $25 in flash memory for every hour I tape. If I waited until I got home to download my video, I'd need to take a lot of expensive memory on my trips.
Right now, it's also easier for me to edit MiniDV on my computers. iMovie HD and iMovie 08 support MiniDV natively, but I'd only be able to edit AVCHD after a lengthy conversion process.
If I had to buy an HD camcorder today, I'd buy a MiniDV HDV camcorder.
(UPDATE: camcorderinfo.com has a nice overview of HD camcorders and popular models.)
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I was initially excited about the new MacBook and MacBook Pro models from Apple. Then I noticed that the new MacBook doesn't include a Firewire port. This is a bit of a big deal for me. My Panasonic video camera requires Firewire to download videos to the computer. I like using my MacBook to download and edit videos while on vacation. If I decide to buy one of the new MacBooks, I'll no longer be able to do that.
Now AppleInsider is reporting that Steve Jobs himself has replied to an irked Apple customer. Says Uncle Steve:
Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.
The new HD camcorders start around $500.
He has a bit of a point. I would like an HD camcorder. But my wife needs a new laptop now and I'd prefer that it be compatible not just with our future camcorder but also with our existing camcorder. Was now really the right time for Apple to remove a port that many of its users still need?
(Yes, I'm whining a bit. Sales of the new MacBook will probably be spectacularly good anyway. It's a good machine. But I wanted to have both my bread and my cake.)
Seen on /.:
The main advantage of the Kindle over the iPhone is actually the fact that it's not a phone; do you realize how high you jump when you're sitting in a quiet place deeply into a horror novel, and right at the scariest part, the damn thing RINGS at you?!
_
Above: _Madame Secretary tactfully avoids Kim's gaze.
One interesting fact known by few around the blogosphere about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is that the feared tyrant is himself a skilled surfer of the World Wide Web.
That's because he never told anybody until this week, when he informed R.O.K. President Moo-hyun during their "historic summit" (if they keep saying it, you will eventually believe it, damn it) that "I'm an internet expert too."
How much of an expert is he? Maddeningly, President Moo-hyun did not take the opportunity to press him on the question, so to what degree, say, North Korea's web page testifies to Kim Jong Il's personal programming savvy remains unknown. But the Leader likely does know how to e-mail, if you believe rumors that he asked former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for her address back in 2000. And your MinorThoughts.com correspondent has also found him registered on Facebook.
One thing's for sure: the ramifications of this newly-unveiled dimension to the dictator's character are enormous. It's much easier to coordinate six-party talks about nukes if everybody can just meet in a chat room.
If you really want an iPhone, but you don't want a two-year AT&T; contract, there's good news. You can use it with AT&T;'s prepaid plans.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has instructions on how to activate the phone with a prepaid plan. They also have screenshots of the monthly plans that are available.
Assuming that $20 of the plan covers the unlimited data usage (web browsing, e-mail, etc), you'll be paying about $0.15 a minute for your talk time. That's with the cheapest plan. For the most expensive plan, you'll be paying about $0.10 a minute for your talk time. The most expensive plan also includes unlimited nights and weekends for and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls.
In comparison to the $0.19 a minute I'm paying for our current Sprint contract, that's not a bad deal. Maybe there's an iPhone in my future after all!
UPDATE: It's apparently possible to use the iPhone without an AT&T; contract, as long as you activate it first, then cancel the contract within three days. Yeah, it's a pain. But better than nothing. I'm still hoping Apple releases an iPod like the iPhone before Christmas.
Few things can get me as excited as a new application of technology. This time I'm excited about the Espresso Book Machine.
The new machine as a technological innovation promises to revolutionize how we buy books. It allows printing and binding a single copy of a book at the point of demand without human interactions. Buying a book will eventually be very similar to getting cash from an ATM. You choose a title, insert a credit card to pay for the book -- and walk away with the finished book a few minutes later. On a global scale this would eliminate shipping and warehousing costs for books (thereby also eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books) and allow simultaneous global availability of new books. POD offers the opportunity to deliver development knowledge and content to students, practitioners, media, and simply interested individuals in a way they could not be reached before.
That's incredible. Any book, any time you want it. Walk into a bookstore, walk out with any book you want. If these become widespread, you won't have to wonder whether or not a book is in stock -- or even whether it's still in print. These are even better for the developing world. Put these machines in cities and towns, and allow people to buy whatever books interest them. No international shipping, no worries about what to stock and what not to stock.
This is fantastic. I love it. I think it will have a huge impact on knowledge and education.
(hat tip: Truck and Barter)
[tags]publishing, world bank, books[/tags]
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