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e-maginings: ASUS Entering e-reader Market

September 16, 2009 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , ,

ASUS, maker of the popular Eee netbook computer, is planning to enter the burgeoning e-book reader market by the end of the year. Their reader could be the first to have dual screens and, according to Slash Gear, may come in two sizes, 6-inch and 9-inch touchscreens.

According to Times Online, ASUS “confirmed last week that it is planning to shake up the market in the same way it did when it launched the first netbook — the low-cost alternative to the laptop.” Click here to read the complete article.

I love the idea of a dual-screen device, even though I’m quite used to reading on a single screen now. It would be great to not have to turn the page as often, and it might win over people who are resistant to the idea of e-book reading. Two screens would seem more like a “real” book.

So far there’s no word on what formats will be available for the device, but the cost of the device is rumored to be about $165. (Information Week, Sept. 9, 2009)

What do you think? Would an inexpensive, dual screen e-book reader tempt you?

Linda McLaughlin
w/a Lyndi Lamont

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e-maginings: $50.00 Laptops?

April 16, 2009 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , , ,


Are $50 netbooks in our future?

Consumer Reports said that AT&T will start selling netbooks for as little as $50, but of course, with a content contract. Spurred by the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, they are also planning to enter the ebook market.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Netbooks, like the Acer Aspire and MSI Wind, have become increasingly popular, and prices are dropping. My DH bought his MSI Wind earlier this year and the price has since dropped by $100.00. I imagine a lot of people will find the idea of a $50 netbook irresistible. I also suspect AT&T knows it will make a lot more money on the monthly contract fees than they lose by selling the computer well under purchase price. In life, the devil is often in the details.

FWIW, this is the opposite of the Amazon Kindle business model. The Kindle 2 costs $359.00, but there is no contract and no monthly fee. The base price includes connection charges to download books, though there is a small fee to search the web or upload your own content.

I don’t think these two things are mutually exclusive. Those of us who prefer a dedicated e-book reader will go for the Kindle every time, and those who want internet connectivity and general computing power, including e-books, will go for the netbook. And the gadget freaks will want both. One of these days, I’ll end up buying a netbook.

Which would you prefer?

Linda McLaughlin
http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com/

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e-maginings: Amazon Kindle 2 Debuts

February 16, 2009 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

A week ago, Amazon.com released the second version of its Kindle e-book reader. Owners of the first version had a day to order a new one and jump to the head of the queue, but I managed to resist the temptation.

The Kindle 2 is slimmer than the original, with more storage, longer battery life, faster page changes and an improved display. Another, more controversial, feature of the new device is the “Read-to-Me” feature which allows the Kindle to read aloud “every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper”. The Authors Guild quickly pointed out that this feature probably violates existing copyright laws.

Several of my books are available for the Kindle as e-books, but I own the audio rights and have not licensed them to anyone. On the other hand, if someone buys a copy of one of my books and wants to have it read to them by a goofy, machine-generated voice, do I care? At this point in time, I’m grateful for every sale. If the same books were available as professionally produced audio books, I’m sure I’d be looking at this differently.

I don’t know how all this will play out, but it seems like our rapidly-evolving technology has lawyers scrambling to keep up. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Linda

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e-maginings: Me and My Kindle

January 24, 2008 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , ,

My primary Christmas present is an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, and I love it. In fact, my Kindle and I are pretty much inseparable these days.

Those of you who know me, know I’m an avid e-book reader, and some of you may wonder why. I like the portability of the reader. Instead of an armload of books, I can carry my Kindle, which currently has 40+ books on it, plus assorted personal files, magazine issues, blogs and MP3 files. And 30% of the memory is still unused.

E-books help to unclutter your life: Since the books are stored on the hard drive of your computer until you’re ready to read them, storage is less of a problem than with print books.

With my aging eyes, I also like the fact that you can change the font size on an e-book reader. No more squinting to read the small print.

I’ve been an avid e-book reader for some years now. I’ve read e-books on my laptop, my RCA Germstar 1100, a PDA and a Pocket PC. I’ve enjoyed most of my readers (with the notable exception of the now-defunct Franklin eBookman), but the Kindle is rapidly becoming my favorite.

I’m amazed at how lightweight it is, much less than the comparably-sized RCA Gemstar 1100. The wireless is fast, unbelievably fast, so it’s really easy to buy from the Kindle store or download updates to magazine or blog subscription. I like being able to download a sample to read before deciding to buy a book, too. That’s a very nice feature. If you leave the wireless off most of the time, the battery life is excellent, and the device charges back up very quickly.

I thought I might miss the backlighting, and at times I do, but it’s also nice to be able to read in sunlight, particularly when traveling in the car. (Not when I’m driving, of course!)

I’m glad I waited for the Kindle instead of buying the Sony Reader because, for me, the Kindle is more useful and versatile. I already had a lot of books in unprotected Mobipocket format which can be read on the Kindle without any conversion. It’s easy to transfer files from your computer to the device using the USB cable.

The only real frustration I’ve had with it so far is that, while it will play MP3 music, it won’t play my MP3 podcasts. I can’t understand what the difference is beyond the fact that the podcasts in question are so much longer, about 45 minutes. They’re all MP3 files, so what the hey? Oh, well.

A common complaint of the Kindle is that it’s easy to hit the next page or previous page buttons by accident, but I figure once I get used to the device, that won’t happen so much any more.

Is this the “killer device” the e-book community has been waiting for?

Probably not, but the wireless connectivity alone makes it a huge step forward. The real problem remains the lack plethora of formats, so that’s a software problem that can’t be solved by new hardware. Chances for real standardization range from a best case scenario of years to a worst case scenario of never.

The only other downside is the $399.00 list price and the fact that the device is only available in the US. The price may eventually come down, but probably not anytime soon, since the Kindle has been “temporarily out of stock” almost since it was released. I ordered mine at the end of November and had to wait about two weeks to get. It may take even longer now. The fact that demand appears to be steady is a good sign for the future of the Kindle and e-books. 😀

If anyone has any questions about the Kindle, I’ll try to answer them.

Linda Mac / Lyndi Lamont

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