The Reading Edge Podcast

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

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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.

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This is the unboxing video for my Sony Reader Daily Edition, which arrived today, with side-by-side comparisons with my Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook.  (Don’t worry about the black screen; if you click on it the video will play.)

My wife Darlene and agreed that, on first impression, the Daily Edition’s screen readability is markedly inferior to that of the Kindle and nook.  Of the latter two, we found that the nook’s contrast seems slightly better, because the background to the text is lighter.  See for yourself in the video.

The Daily Edition is gorgeous, but it feels like a different animal in the eBook jungle.  It feels like a machine, a handsomely designed machine, but one better suited for a corporate road warrior than a bookish reader.  For example, I doubt there will be a big market for pretty skins and fancy covers for the Daily Edition, whose official name is PRS-900BC.  It’s just not that sort of device.  Plus, it already comes with a cover that’s attached to it, and I haven’t figured out yet if you can remove it to make way for something that, say, Oberon or M-Edge Accessories might create for it.

That said, I’m looking forward to playing with the Daily Edition. The touch screen seems much more responsive to that of the nook’s lower panel. It failed to find the Sony Reader Store tonight while we were in the dining room.  Just to check the competition, I fired up the Kindle and it found the mothership in seconds.

The Daily Edition isn’t cheap. At $399 it bears a hefty $140 premium over the Kindle and the nook.

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