The Reading Edge Podcast » eReader

TRE 31 Copia Calling

len — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:54:29 +0000

Anthony Antolino

Tony Antolino, senior vice president of DMC Worldwide and a co-creator of Copia, has been involved with Copia from its beginnings about two years ago. DMC Worldwide is a privately held company with a 56-year history. Copia is just about to launch via applications for desktop, iPad and browser, and they expect to begin offering e-reader devices in the fall.

The Copia Beta that I’ve been trying reminds me of Goodreads, the social network for readers launched in December of 2006 that now has 3.5 million members who have added 100 million book titles. There’s also LibraryThing which describes itself as a community of 1 million book lovers. So there is lots of competition in this promising area of social media for readers. Copia appears to be a serious entrant, with 100 DMC employees having worked on the project full time for two years.

My interview with Tony took place by Skype and phone on August 18, 2010. Click here for a March, 2010, video of Tony talking with O’Reilly Media’s Joe Wikert

Click here to download this episode.

TRE 30 The Wolf Hall Tournament of E-Readers

len — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:15:02 +0000

I purchased four e-book copies of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel–one each for Sony Reader, Kobo, nook, and Kindle–in order to compare the reading experience for the same book on four leading e-readers. After eliminating the devices that do not offer dictionary, notes, and highlights, the tournament ends with a nook v. Kindle battle through five tests. You’ll learn which device was the victor, as well as many details about the reading experience on competing e-readers. Recorded in Cambridge, Mass., on August 15, 2010, before release of the Kindle 3 and nook 2.

Click here for the Inkmesh listings of Wolf Hall at the four e-book stores mentioned in podcast.

Click here for a review of Wolf Hall in The New Yorker.

TRE 29 Aluratek Libre Unboxing

len — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:02:47 +0000

I pre-ordered an Aluratek Libre PRO e-reader for $119.99 and picked it up yesterday (July 22, 2010) at the South Portland, Maine, Borders Store. Store General Manager Gail Sanborn was kind enough to video the unboxing using my iPhone 4. The Libre looked pretty impressive in the bright sunlight outside the store, and in the bright light of the store itself. When I got it back to the cottage, I was surprised to see how less clear and contrasty it was compared with the Barnes & Noble nook and the Kindle. Advantage, e Ink, and that’s even before I’ve had a chance to compare battery life, which is apparently about 24 hours compared with upwards of two weeks for the e Ink competitors, depending on wireless use. You load everything onto the Libre with the USB cable, as is the case with the Kobo and most of the Sony Readers.

Still, this is a nice design – very light at 8 ounces. Borders is also carrying the Kobo and Sony Reader Pocket Edition, two competing e-readers using E Ink, both priced at $149.99. The price is the most dramatic breakthrough, but for $30 more I’d go for the Kobo and leave the Libre as a worthwhile experiment that shows why the E Ink screen, at this point, still rules the world of dedicated e-readers. I prefer the Kobo to the Sony Reader Pocket, because the smaller screen size of the Sony Reader makes it less pleasing to read on, in my opinion, and the Kobo has a friendlier, less techy design with a cute blue control button and a soft-to-the touch quilted back.

TRE 28 Review of the Kobo Reader

len — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:12:16 +0000

The Kobo Reader, at $150, costs less than the Kindle 6-inch and the nook, and does less, too. But the Kobo’s svelte profile and light weight make it convenient for reading in some settings. In all, it’s an attractive new entry in the e-book sweepstakes. All three of these e-ink readers have advantages over the iPad, which I find I’m using less and less for reading books.

TRE 27 Meet Alex

len — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:06:18 +0000

My take on Spring Design’s Alex e-reader, recorded in Cambridge, Mass., on May 4, 2010. With comparison’s to the Barnes & Noble nook and Amazon’s Kindle.

One thing I did not mention in this video is that the nook is running the new 1.3 operating software, which added web browsing and other features.

Click here to download this episode.

TRE 26 Unboxing the Alex

len — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:16:34 +0000

Unboxing an Alex by Spring Design and comparing its size factor with a nook, a Kindle, and an iPad. Plus: a fire alarm.

TRE 17 Jim Jones & The Edge

len — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:23:39 +0000

Jim Jones, an associate professor of management at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has been trying out the dual-screen eDGe by Entourage since his arrived among the first units shipped in February. From his vantage point in a higher-ed classroom, Jim has been trying out the eDGe to see how suitable it may be as a teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate students.

Jim discussed his ideas about Kindle use in classrooms in October, 2009, in this episode of The Kindle Chronicles.

Click here to download this episode.

TRE 13 Douglas Rushkoff

len — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:55:39 +0000

Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life, Inc.: How the World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back (Hardcover, Kindle), was a featured speaker today at South by Southwest Interactive. His topic was “Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age.”

After signing his books (including the staged “signing” of the copy I’d downloaded to my Kindle, in photo at right), Doug agreed to do an interview for the podcast while I drove him to the airport for his flight home to New York. This gave me a chance to hear his views about the role of eBooks in the long sweep of history that he is considering these days in his critique of Internet culture and the corporatization of life in general.

Despite his weighty obsessions and somber views, Douglas Rushkoff in person is full of life and wit. He described his preparation for an appearance in July, 2009, on the Colbert Report interview hot seat, and I’ve included the audio of that encounter at the end of the podcast. Click here for the video.

Click here to download this episode.

TRE 11 Seth Godin

len — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:21:39 +0000

I interviewed Seth Godin this morning via Skype. He is the author of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, published last month for Kindle, nook, Sony Reader, and hardcover. It’s a great read, and if you purchase it on Kindle by about March 1 you’ll receive a free personal addendum, Insubordinate, in which Seth describes several people who qualify as linchpins. What’s a linchpin? That’s someone who has found his or her true work, as an artist does, and is overcoming the resistance of the lizard brain to actually ship stuff that matters, because it’s original and given freely.

In the early going, my own lizard brain resisted with a couple of clever arguments (noted in this blog post) to Seth’s exhortation, which will come as no surprise to him. Lizard-like resistance is what a linchpin always faces and overcomes.

In addition to his new book, we talked about Seth’s critique of the traditional publishing industry and his vision of how Amazon, or someone, could remake the eBook platform into something much more compelling as a way for authors and readers to connect.

I prepared for our conversation by watching videos of Seth’s TED talk in May, 2009, and his presentation at last year’s O’Reilly Tools of Change conference.

Here is a complete list of Seth’s previous books.

Click here to download this episode.

TRE 10 Andrew Savikas

len — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:47:51 +0000

On February 17, 2010, I visited in person with Andrew Savikas, vice president for digital initiatives at O’Reilly Media. Andrew is based at O’Reilly’s office in Cambridge, Mass., where Tim O’Reilly started the business in 1978.

We spoke of many things, including the ePub format (Andrew recently ran for and was elected to the Board of the International Digital Publishing Forum), how O’Reilly’s eBook publishing business is thriving without using Digital Rights Management, and why the Kindle and other e Ink-based readers do not represent disruptive technology in relation to the book since Gutenberg. What does? The answer is probably closer than you think – at this very moment. Andrew mentioned The Strategy Paradox as a way to gain insight into Amazon’s eBooks strategy. To learn more about Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive and sustaining technologies, you might want to check out his The Strategy Paradox. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.

Andrew also runs O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference Feb. 22-24 in New York City, which just reached sold-out status. More than 1,000 attendees will have a chance to explore the changing world of publishing, and much of the content will be available online soon. If you can’t wait, you can check out some of the presentations made at the 2009 TOC conference.

NOTE: Andrew just emailed me to say the keynotes for the 2010 Tools of Change conference will be live-streamed. Check here for details.

Click here for Tim O’Reilly’s seminal 2002 essay titled “Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution,” which Andrew mentions in the interview.

Click here to download this episode.