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Microsoft Reportedly to Pay $1 Billion for Nook Digital Assets

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May 10, 2013

According to internal documents obtained by TechCrunch, Microsoft is pursuing a $1 billion purchase of the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book joint venture between Barnes & Noble and investors. “In this plan, Microsoft would redeem preferred units in Nook Media, which also includes a college book division, leaving it with the digital operation — e-books, as well as Nook e-readers and tablets.” Continue reading Microsoft Reportedly to Pay $1 Billion for Nook Digital Assets

New StorEbook Reader Uses Natural Voices to Tell Stories

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April 9, 2013

The Web-based reader “StorEbook” has expanded on the idea of computers interacting with users via voice technology. During last week’s Foundry event, the audio book’s “voice synthesis engine” was demonstrated as it recited the classic tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The Web-based app, which uses AT&T’s Natural Voices, provides story characters with multiple voices, creating a new dynamic to the idea of “story time.” Continue reading New StorEbook Reader Uses Natural Voices to Tell Stories

Bookish Now Live, Features Database of 1.2 Million Titles

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February 6, 2013

Nearly two years (and three CEOs) after its intended start date, Bookish finally launched earlier this week. The company is backed by “big-six publishers Hachette, Penguin and Simon & Schuster” and intends to “promote book discovery and sell books,” writes paidContent. The company wants to be “a one-stop shop for readers looking to connect with authors and find their next book.” Continue reading Bookish Now Live, Features Database of 1.2 Million Titles

Despite Niche Protest, the New Google Reader Retires Native Sharing

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November 1, 2011
  • The updated Google Reader was rolled out this week, featuring a revamped user interface and integration with Google+.
  • “Google has ignored the cries of the niche community of Google Reader sharing enthusiasts and has pushed forward in its plans to remove Google Reader’s native sharing features to promote deeper integration with Google+,” suggests TechCrunch. “While the ability to share with Google+ is an obvious important step forward for Google’s social agenda, it will be disappointing change for at least some of the Google Reader community.”
  • A community movement made attempts to save the old features, creating a petition that now has 10,000 responses.
  • Google’s reply: “We hope you’ll like the new Reader (and Google+) as much as we do, but we understand that some of you may not. Retiring Reader’s sharing features wasn’t a decision that we made lightly, but in the end, it helps us focus on fewer areas, and build an even better experience across all of Google.”
  • Google says an Android app update can be expected soon.

Will the Kindle Fire Help Amazon Take on Netflix? Content Will Decide

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October 4, 2011
  • Amazon’s launch of the Kindle Fire tablet may have an impact on Netflix, since the new tablet will make it easier for users to watch streaming video content via Amazon.
  • “With its $199 price point the tablet could sell like crazy this Christmas,” reports Forbes. “Users will be encouraged to buy Amazon Prime in order to speed their Amazon purchases and Prime just happens to come complete with Amazon’s streaming video service.”
  • The decision for consumers between Amazon Prime and Netflix will likely be based on pricing and variety of content offerings.
  • Amazon Prime beats Netflix on price, set at $80 a year ($6.67 per month), while Netflix streaming costs $8 a month.
  • Netflix, however, has more variety of content with 51,000 titles currently available for streaming, compared to Amazon’s 11,000.
  • Amazon may soon be able to compete in this regard with added content from Fox and CBS deals. Netflix has similar deals with Fox and CBS and a new DreamWorks Animation deal, but it will lose movies from Sony and Disney with the loss of Starz.
  • Both companies may press Hollywood to license more content for streaming, but continuing to pay more for films could potentially break Netflix, while Amazon has other sources of revenue to cover costs.

Author Asks: Are Tablets Changing the Way We Read and Write?

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October 3, 2011
  • While tablets essentially allow users to have an entire bookstore in their hands, they also may lead to a reduction in readers’ attention to the content within the books.
  • Books require your attention to have a serious conversation with them. This conversation can become broken when we flip to another book, movie or social media connection. Today, there is less downtime (time required to “engage” with the written word) and more desire for immediate electronic stimulation.
  • “Many embrace this kind of electronic Darwinism as not only inevitable but preferable: complete freedom of choice — choice of what to buy and consume — has long been a mantra of the marketplace, and its advantages are inarguable,” writes novelist Andrew Winer for The Wall Street Journal. “But the marketplace has also produced its share of inconvenient effects, and, in the case of handheld screens, whether in tablet, phone, or e-reader form, it’s hard not to notice a few. A loss of good conversation may be one of them; a loss of good contemplation may be another.”
  • Tablets are also impacting the way writers engage with content, as Winer suggests, “here I’m speaking about how I use a book: how I write in its margins, in between its lines, even over its words. A writer reads a book and records the ensuing conversation/argument, throwing in her or his new ideas for good measure. Sure, the tablets and e-readers allow you to take notes, but the keyboards are clumsy and accessing the notes for later use clunky.”
  • Additionally, content offerings are being impacted by these technologies as an increasing number of authors are choosing to write about these trends “by producing works that celebrate (even as they mock) our addiction to the technological drip and the short attention spans entrained by that addiction.”
  • What are your thoughts? Are you able to “engage” with a book in the same way on a tablet?

E-Books: Alton Brown Excited about the Future of Interactive Cookbooks

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October 3, 2011
  • Alton Brown, who has made a career of introducing cooking methods and food science through innovative filmic approaches, says his latest “Good Eats 3” will be his final traditional printed cookbook.
  • The television personality and author suggests his future projects will be “immersive, highly interactive blends of text, photos and video.”
  • Brown says he plans to use 40 cameras for his next project that capture the action from all angles, so users can pan around the footage and freeze the image if necessary (which he likens to effects made popular by “The Matrix” franchise).
  • “We’re trying to figure out how to reinvent information flow, to break out of recipes,” says Brown. “Cooking is a linear process, but that doesn’t mean the information has to be delivered in a linear way.”
  • He also envisions a time when kitchen tools will connect wirelessly to tablet computers for increased interactivity.

Amazon Kindle Lending Program Adds New Dimension to Public Libraries

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September 22, 2011
  • Amazon announced this week that it has launched a new lending library initiative, allowing Kindle users to “check out” e-books from registered library websites.
  • Users will be able to rent books on their Kindle from more than 11,000 participating public libraries across the country.
  • Readers will also be encouraged to take notes on the e-books they check out: “Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re fixing this by extending our Whispersync technology to library books, so your notes, highlights and bookmarks are always backed up and available the next time you check out the book or if you decide to buy the book,” said Amazon in a statement.
  • The books are available on Kindle devices or through the Kindle app for Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone.

Will the Rise of Electronic Books Destroy Writing as a Profession?

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September 7, 2011
  • During his bleak forecast of the publishing industry at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, novelist Ewan Morrison suggested the rise of the e-book will mean the end of writers as a profession, as piracy and a demand for steep discounts take over the book industry as it has with music, newspapers, games, porn, photography, telecommunications and home video.
  • Publishers will no longer be able to provide advances to enable writers to make a decent living and writers will increasingly depend on the “long tail” which cannot support them. Morrison adds that only established writers will prosper.
  • In 10 to 15 years, he believes the largest “publishers” will be Google, Amazon and Apple.
  • “The writer will become an entrepreneur with a short shelf life, in a world without publishers or even shelves,” predicts Morrison.

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