Barnes and Noble enters the e-book reader market
Barnes and Noble has announced the Nook, their e-book reader.
This is in direct competition to Amazon’s Kindle. It’s a very similar bit of technology, the major difference being that the B&N Nook will allow users to “share” e-books with other Nook users. It works this way. You purchase an ebook from B&N on your Nook. You like it. You think your buddy, who also has a Nook, would like it. So you can “loan” that book to said buddy. It will be available to be read on his Nook for two weeks. My bet is that this will generate a lot a ebook sales.
Now, some may argue that Amazon already owns the mind share for e-book readers, having crushed the Sony E-Reader in the market. The Kindle took off because Amazon was already seen as a major e-retailer of books and they had the ability to buy books immediately on the Kindle using mobile Internet technology. Sony wasn’t known as a book seller and they had no such “instant buy” option. The Nook has a similar broadband connection to the Kindle and B&N is seen as a major retailer of books by the public. The fact that B&N has a much larger ebook library than Amazon doesn’t hurt either.
There are two major flaws I can see with the Nook. First, the whole DRM thing. Second is that it only supports three formats, EPUB, eReader and PDF. A few more, including unencrypted Mobipocket, would be nice.
Amazon has responded, quietly, with the announcement that they will release free “Kindle software” for the PC platform, so people can read Amazon’s DRM crippled ebooks on their desktop or notebook computers. MAC and LINUX users are not supported in this release. Amazon is also selling refurbish (i.e. used) first gen Kindles for $150.
Originally published at Urbin Technology.
Monday Book Pick: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming by Christopher C. Horner.
Since the BBC finally figured out that the planet stopped getting warmer a decade ago, today’s pick is by someone who pointed out some of the problems with broken model of the anthropogenic global warming Luddites a few years ago.
Monday Book Pick: Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Another classic by the Grandmaster of Science Fiction. Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Raised by Martians, he looks at Human society through a very different perspective than the rest of his species. Heinlein takes on sex and religion in a most irreverent fashion.
Monday Book Pick:
Filed under: Monday Book Pick, Political Books, Politics
Ya, ya, it’s Friday already. Various technical difficulties slowed down posting this week. Nothing major, and I’m back on track. B-Movie pick will show up later….
Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck
That candy munching, round faced former acoholic is at again. This time, he’s dressing up as “the Book Czar” and telling you to buy his book. Fact filled and organized to counter the pretty consistantly fact free arguments of the typical leftiest. No wonder they hate this guy over at MSNC.
What America is reading
Number 1 top seller at Amazon, Gov. Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, which isn’t coming out until November! I’m betting it outsells any of our Dear Leader’s books.
Number 3 is Glenn Beck’s Arguing with Idiots.
If you like these books, here are some more you may like.
Damn You John Ringo! Damn You!
First off, ya…I’m a big fan of John Ringo‘s books, and he’s written a lot of them. I’ve been reading the Sluggy Freelance comic, which gets a lot of references in his books, even longer and I’m a long time Schlock Mercenary fan too.
I took a peek at the leaked advanced chapters for his next book, Live Free or Die, over at Buckley’s site (ya, that Buckley) and Ringo explains in the forward that this book is “sort of playing about” in the Schlock Mercenary universe, but back when the galactic civilization first made contact with Earth.
Now to highlight what an evil being John Ringo is (something he freely and perhaps just a bit too gleefully admits), this book won’t be released until February 2010. Oh…Baen will have an e-ARC version available earlier, which could be mine for about the cost of the hardcover that won’t be out for another four months.
Ok, so both John Ringo and Baen Books are EVIL! I say that with the highest level of respect for their grasp of the capitalistic system.
While I’m here, I’ll put in a good word for Baen’s ebook sales. No DRM (i.e. the copy ‘protection’ crap that assumes that paying customers are thieves), available in multiple formats, and when new books are released in hardcover, you can pick up the e-book version, direct from Baen, for usually $6. If that is still too much for you, check out what they have on the net for free! If you haven’t read of any of John Ringo’s books, you can read seven of his book for free.
Update: It’s late January, so you can pick up a DRM free e-book version of Live Free or Die at Baen‘s webscription.net site for $6. Or you could wait a little longer and get Live Free or Die as a hardcover from Amazon for $17.16. My bet is that Baen will make more money off that $6 e-book than the hardcover with a suggested retail price of $26.
Update: Live Free or Die was my Monday Book Pick for 2/1/2010.
Monday Book Pick: The Forever War
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The classic anti-war military SciFi book seen by many as an answer to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (the Monday book pick from Feb. 9, 2009). Haldeman claims that isn’t how he wrote it, and Robert Heinlein thought it was a damn good good book. An opinion I share.
Tuesday Book Pick:The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)
by Tom Kratman with some help by John Ringo
The latest in the Posleen War series. Ya, this is supposed to be the Monday Book Pick, but I’m late with the post.
Monday Book Pick: Tokyo Suckerpunch
Tokyo Suckerpunch, by Isaac Adamson
The first of his Billy Chaka adventures. Billy is an American writer who covers the Japanese teen scene for American teenagers, and a student of wide range of martial arts. The stories are fast paced fun “urban noir” with Chaka delivering lines that would make Raymond Chandler proud.
Monday Book Pick: To Where Your Scatter Bodies Go
To Where Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philp Jose Farmer
This is the first book in Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series, which includes a cast of everybody who was born and died from early proto-humans to 1985. We’re talking grand scale, epic Science Fiction here.