The evolution of the eReader over the last year or two has really been an extraordinary thing to watch. The iPad launched in the Spring, and set the bar for a multi-functional, multi-dimensional tablet computer that also packed a pretty impressive eBook package. In the fall, the Kindle 3 hit store shelves, and blew us away with the tightest, sexiest dedicated ereading experience one could really hope for. With both of those major niches squared away, it really didn’t look like Barnes & Noble’s new Nookcolor had anybody left to whom they could appeal.
I’ve held off writing a full Nookcolor review because my time playing with one had been too short to really cast a judgment. Thanks to a family holiday get-together, however, I was finally able to see the iPad, Kindle 3, and Nookcolor side by side, and I came away impressed with what Barnes & Noble has done for itself.
For one thing, the VividView Color Touchscreen used by the Nookcolor is quite a bit more impressive than it is generally given credit for. It still can’t hold a candle to eInk in terms of readability, particularly in brighter light conditions, but the brilliant colors make the Kindle seem antiquated at times, and the laminated screen doesn’t smudge as easily as the iPad. That combination alone makes it a potent entrant for children, for whom illustrated books that utilize touch interfaces are the end-all be-all.
The distinctions between the various ebook stores are getting murkier every day, but the ability of the Nookcolor to natively access the new Google eBooks has to be seen as a plus. It’s not quite the cross-platform format whore that the iPad is, but being given a choice about one’s content provider is obviously something that consumers are interested in.
I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that more tech-savvy readers have the option of rooting their new NookColor as well, turning a pretty darned good eReader into a bona fide Android tablet. It’s not really an option for those who want to hold on to their warranties, but it goes to show that the hardware under the hood is more impressive even than B&N has let on so far. The default software suite, including games and support for things like Pandora, is impressive, but opening the tablet up to all the toys on offer on the Android Market takes it to another level.
If you’re already firmly entrenched in your iPad or Kindle camp, there’s little that the Nookcolor can do that is liable to make you cast your eReader of choice aside. But for people just getting into the ebook game, it’s a perfect middle-ground between the single-functional eReader dynamo and do-it-all tablet of the future.
With the requisite fanfare beholden a multi-billion dollar company, Google took the wraps off their newest project this month: the Google eBookstore. Purported to be the largest collection of ebooks for sale in the world, the eBookstore is home to more than three million titles, 2.8 million of which are free. (Don’t get too excited, they’re mostly out-of-print titles with scant mainsteam interest, but still! They’ve also struck a deal with the six major publishers to carry most of the popular new releases that hit shelves elsewhere.
Launching a fourth major source for ebooks might seem a tad redundant, but Google actually has a halfway decent sales pitch. They have positioned themselves as the “open” alternative to Amazon, selling their books in a variety of formats suitable for reading on the iPad, on smartphones, and even the Barnes & Noble Nook. Indeed, just about the only device that the Google eBookstore doesn’t seem to support is Amazon’s Kindle. Amazon was once the multi-platform king, but it seems they have been usurped by the open format strategy.
Another area in which Google appears to be drinking Amazon’s milkshake is in their “cloud” approach to multi-platform reading. Just like Amazon’s Whispersync technology, Google tracks where you are in a given book and allows you to continue reading from one device to the next, making the work available by means of “the cloud.” They even include real page numbers instead of imaginary ones when tracking your progress, which is a surprisingly novel concept.
The future of the Google eBookstore sounds promising. Their early materials spoke of adding social media layers to the store to enable a sort of community reading experience amongst friends. The search giant even talked about potentially bundling a physical copy of books alongside digital ones. So Google at least has some new ideas for the space.
Unfortunately, the part of the ebook strategy that Google isn’t so keen on changing is the one we’re most interested in seeing change – the pricing structure. As part of the company’s effort to court the major publishers, it ceded total control of pricing over to the publishers. It was likely a necessary step towards preventing another Google TV debacle with content providers, but it also seriously undermines the company’s ability to anything terribly exciting in the space. Instead, they seem just happy to take their cut and run.
So at the end of the day, should you abandon your content provider of choice and join the Google revolution? Not if you’re a Kindle owner, prefer a larger selection of in-print titles to purchase, or are just happy where your books are now. For those who read on their iPad or Nook, who have a thing for out-of-print titles, and for those whom the term “cloud” actually means something, there’s at least one more place to consider.
This year, more people than ever have finally put aside their hang-ups about ebooks and jumped on the Kindle bandwagon. While Amazon has been characteristically coy about what that actually means in terms of numbers, what it really means is that more people than ever are looking for gifts for the Kindle owners in their lives.
While this is an area we’ve been fortunate to have covered before, the introduction of the slimmer Kindle 3 means there is a whole new generation of accessories to ponder over, and for that, we’re here to help.
Kindle Lighted Leather Cover
$60
I’m not usually a big fan of ordering a first-party case. They are usually the first ones on the market, and thus, offer the fewest frills at a premium price. A pleasant change in this trend has come from Amazon this time around with their Lighted Leather Cover, which integrates a flashlight seamlessly into the body of a standard leather cover.
While cases that make use of LED lights are nothing new in themselves, what makes this one especially cool is that it actually draws power from the Kindle itself, totally eliminating batteries from the equation altogether. They’ve figured out a way to direct power through the proprietary hinge system, reducing any potential bulk completely and adding considerably to the devices nascent “cool” factor.
It’s an extremely solid product from design to execution. The one real slight is that its $59.99 price tag is nearly half the cost of a new Wi-Fi only Kindle at this point, but you’d probably be paying that much anyway if you were to purchase a light and a cover separately. And to be honest, I was too dazzled by the choice of seven pretty colors to really care that much about what it cost. I think you’ll have much the same experience.
BUILT Neoprene Kindle Sleeve
$30
Having been a Kindle owner for years now, I like to think I have an evolved taste for the kind of hitches and habits that emerge after extended periods of ereader use. There was a period at first where I enjoyed using my biggest, bulkiest Kindle covers I could, because I wanted the one that protected my investment best, plus all the cool little features they could offer. That’s no bluff either, we tried out a case you can throw in the swimming pool.
After a while though, a curious thing happens. From what I’ve seen, most people tend to start becoming Kindle nudists, of a sort. Instead of using their Kindle in a case or cover, they start to use it bareback. It almost feels like a new gadget when you’re accustomed to the cover, all smooth-backed, light and skinny. It’s an ereader experience the way it was originally intended, and I have to recommend it in most cases.
Of course, hardy as the Kindle is, you still need something to prevent it from scratches and such when getting from one place to another. And for that I recommend the minimalist approach of the BUILT Neoprene Sleeve. It’s a ridiculously simple little carrying case that prevents incidental damage in transit, while also being small enough that you don’t feel like you’re carrying extra luggage, as with other covers. For Kindle nudists, it’s an essential.
Tuff-Luv Multi-View Leather Case/Cover/Stand
$45
Of course, I recognize that not everybody is a Kindle nudist, at least not yet. There are a lot of people out there who would much rather their case have as many features as possible, instead of a boring minimalist design. Few cases overdo it in quite as classy a manner as Tuff-Luv with their Multi-View case.
Built for the user who prefers his Kindle to be practically impervious to bullets, the Tuff-Love cover is big and bulky, giving an added sense of security to those who might be afraid of dropping and breaking their investment. You can also forget about ever losing the thing, because the case doubles the size and weight of the Kindle 3.
It’s not for nothing though. In addition to simply protecting the Kindle, the Tuff-Luv case features “integrated Multi-View stand feature technology.” Or, in plain English, you can prop it up in two different reading angles. If the one you’re shopping for does a lot of hands-free reading and is prone to dropping gadgets down the stairs, you can’t do much better than the Multi-View.
What do you get the man who has everything? That is precisely the dilemma currently posed to friends and family of the world’s iPad owners this holiday season. How do you pick out a gift for somebody who, like me, already has a taste for conspicuous consumption? The answer, in a word: novelty.
Here are three gifts for iPad owners that are sure to take them by surprise:
Kensington KeyFolio Bluetooth Keyboard and Case
Price: $70
It’s extraordinarily unlikely that you’d ever come upon an iPad owner who doesn’t already own a case, which typically makes a case purchase a bit of a gamble for gift-givers. Likewise, the kind of power-user who demands precision control from a keyboard is liable to have purchased one already. If you really want to blow someone away, you have to invest in something like the Kensington KeyFolio Bluetooth keyboard case.
Sporting a nice synthetic leather exterior, this case also comes with a built-in Bluetooth keyboard set right inside of the case itself. Thin and using scratch-resistant rubberized keys, the KeyFolio takes an iPad and almost raises it to the level of a Macbook Air. For frequent travelers or note-takers, this can be an absolute god-send.
True, the keyboard is on the smaller side and suffers a bit from the economy of space, but it sports excellent battery life, the built-in stand works like a dream, and setting up the Bluetooth couldn’t be easier.
iEcostand
Price: $17.95-$21.95
Truth be told, there are plenty of iPad stands out on the market right now. They range from the mundane to the positively futuristic-looking. And while most of them work pretty well, I found myself wondering, “Is there an option out there that could perhaps… make me feel smugger?”
Well, as it turns out, there is. The iEcostand is a simple little gadget, hand-crafted out of wood.
It bears a passing resemblance to a piece of scrap from high school shop class, but it actually does a pretty bang-up job of holding up your iPad, either propping it up slightly, or holding it fully upright with the help of an extendable arm on the back. It’s small, light, and would travel easily.
Of course, it’s not perfect. You won’t have access to the outlets if you’ve got it propped up in portrait, but that is a problem solved either by holding it upside down, or switching to landscape. Other than that, there really isn’t much not to like. The iEcostand costs a paltry $17.95, and they donate $1 toward American Forests, just for an extra pinch of eco-friendliness.
iPad Sausage Screen Stylus
Price: $4.99
Have you ever been using your iPad, and thought to yourself, “Shouldn’t there be a way that I can do this using a delicious breakfast sausage instead?” I sincerely hope you haven’t, but for those wishing to play a bit of a joke on an iPad owner might consider the iPad Sausage Screen Stylus.
As the name suggests, the Sausage Screen Stylus is a device you can use to manipulate on-screen elements… and it bears a strong resemblance to a sausage, if you hadn’t guessed. And for only $4.99! What a bargain!
Actually, independent of its sausage-like qualities, it does actually make for a pretty handy stylus. People who use their iPads outdoors often have to resort to fingerless gloves in cold temperatures, but the big size of the stylus makes it easy to grip in gloves or mittens. Mildly amusing and somewhat functional, what else can you ask for?
Amazon has taken the wraps off a couple of new developments that are sure to please Kindle owners. The first is that Kindle periodicals will soon be readable on all of the platforms Amazon endorses. Owners of the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch will now have another option when it comes to picking up the latest magazines and newspapers. Much more important, however, is the announcement that Amazon is instituting a lending feature for the Kindle.
Straight from the discussion board: “Second, later this year, we will be introducing lending for Kindle, a new feature that lets you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users. Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable – this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.”
As exciting as this is for the Kindle faithful, the first question that came to my mind was – What tricks can Barnes & Noble possibly have up their sleeve to get out from under this one?
Let’s review:
In addition to featuring the Nook in Barnes & Noble retail stores, B&N also inked a deal that would put Nooks into Best Buy stores across the country. Amazon inks deals to get the Kindle not only in retailers Best Buy and Target, but they’re a default app on Verizon phones.
Barnes & Noble announces the Nook Wi-Fi, stripped of 3G service, for the reasonable price of $149. Amazon announces the Kindle 3, also stripped of 3G service, for an even more reasonable $139.
Barnes & Noble pioneered the LendMe feature, which allowed users to lend books to friends for 14 days, reflecting the common practice of book owners. Amazon has now, finally, trumped that with the announcement of a lending feature of their own.
The Nook still has a number of little tricks not yet matched by the Kindle. It allows for the use of SD cards for expanded memory, permits the use of the cross-platform-friendly ePub file format, and sports that nifty LCD screen for navigation.
Is that enough to overcome the Kindle’s advantage in book quantity, price, hardware, and brand recognition? Time is running out for Barnes & Noble’s erstwhile eReader. Here’s hoping they’re able to breathe some new life into the brand with the introduction of Nook Color.
Barnes & Noble has cast what could well be their final die in the eReader wars with the announcement of the NOOKcolor. With Amazon looking to corner the market on low-cost eInk eReaders, Apple dominating the high-end tablet space, and additional competitors like the new 7″ Google tablet T-Mobile offers entering the market, the big book retailer is going to try and walk the line and hope that consumers follow them.
It’s certainly an interesting choice, and not one that many gadget gurus would have predicted. Built on the Android development platform, the NOOKcolor eschews the eInk technology that has dominated the eReader space until now for a full-color touch-display.
“With NOOKcolor, we’ve combined the functionality and convenience of a 7-inch portable wireless tablet with the reader-centricity of a dedicated eReader, and employed a breakthrough color screen technology that will wow customers,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble.
Owners of Apple’s iPad would likely greet such a statement with skepticism, since the iPad is capable of that and much more. The difference, for consumers, is going to be the relatively reasonable $249 price tag.
While the NOOKcolor is definitely an exciting new entrant into the product space, especially in time for the holidays, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered:
• Barnes & Noble is using a laminated touch screen for the NOOKcolor – will this offer users anywhere near the same visibility in bright light that the Nook and Kindle enjoy, or will it suffer the same problems in that environment as the iPad?
• The NOOKcolor features a full web browser, but no Flash support. Will they be able to offer some sort of work-around, much like the iPad does, so users can use killer web apps like Youtube?
• A big part of the NOOKcolor push is the expanded NOOK kids experience, featuring full-color children’s books. Are parents willing to dish out $249 for their kids in this economic climate?
The NOOKcolor is currently available for preorder at NOOKcolor.com. We’ll have full first-hand impressions for you when it debuts on November 19.
Amazon has had quite a bit of success expanding the Kindle Store beyond the confines of the Kindle proper and spreading it across just about every computing and mobile platform available. Utilizing Whispersync, users can move from one device to the next, never losing their place, and always reading where it is most comfortable to them at the time. It’s an extraordinarily potent selling point for the mega-retailer.
The latest platform in Amazon’s sights is none other than the web browser. They have debuted a new feature called “Kindle for the Web,” which enables users to read the first chapter of a book in their web browser, without the time-consuming process of downloading it on their computer or Kindle-enabled device. One simply clicks on the “Read first chapter FREE” button on a corresponding book’s page, and the user is whisked away to a simple browser interface.
While the utility of such a feature is fairly obvious, Amazon is pushing it as a way for affiliates to help promote books. Participants in the Amazon Associates Program can actually embed these samples into their websites, earning referral fees when readers purchase them through their sites. More than a convenience for users, this new program appears to be a low-cost investment in self-promotion. For authors, it’s an easy way to give fans a snapshot of their new works, while also generating small chunks of additional revenue.
While the experience of reading a sample in one’s web browser is simple and tactile enough, the holes in the program as it exists are somewhat glaring. The beta officially launched on September 28, but to date, the number of books that actually offer use of the feature is extraordinarily small. Few, if any, of the books in the Kindle Bestsellers sported the feature. This makes one wonder how affiliates are going to make any money if there isn’t enough content to push.
What’s more, why is Kindle for the Web restricted to short samples anyway? Google Books has millions of books completely accessible online, indexed and searchable. When you compare that to the clumsier, feature-barren offering Amazon is serving up, it’s hard not to feel like they could have put in a better effort.
Of course, this is only a beta, and it’s less than two weeks old, so Amazon has to be given the benefit of the doubt. At least, for now.
Games on the Amazon Kindle were something of a foregone conclusion. First there was the software development kit they released to developers at the beginning of the year. Then there was the news that the Nook, Amazon’s biggest direct competition, would be offering games. This is the direction the eBook work has been moving in all year, so it was only a matter of time.
So it was really no surprise when Amazon quietly debuted what they have so far called “Kindle Active Content.” Purchased on the Amazon Store exactly like a book, these games show up right alongside your books in your main menu, just with a little “Active” sticker next to them. We ran the first three games released through the gauntlet, and here are our impressions.
Every Word from Amazon
Price: FREE!
The basic gist of Every Word is that you’re given a list of seven letters and tasked with coming up with as many words from those letters as you can within the two-minute time period. In order to progress from one round to the next, all you have to do is find one of the words that utilize all seven letters. The game lasts just ten rounds.
It’s essentially a Kindle-native version of the classic flash game Text Twist. While amusing for a little while, the easy nature of the game makes the lasting power of the game highly suspect. Since it’s a free offering, it’s hard to argue with the value, but it’s not going to hold your attention for very long.
Shuffled Row from Amazon
Price: FREE!
Shuffled Row is an interesting take on a Scrabble-type game. You have to see how many words you can make from the 60 letter tiles in the game. Letters appear one by one on your row, every few seconds or so. Once the row fills up with nine letters, the first letter in the row is put on a timer before it disappears to make room for a new one. Scoring is done by the difficulty of the letter, with words four letters or longer getting hefty bonuses.
The timer makes the game extremely tense, and there’s an element of risk and reward involved, since you can either make short words with the few letters on your row or wait until it fills up to try and go for a massive x7 bonus. This is a game that you can really play for a while.
SCRABBLE from EA Mobile
Price: $4.99
There are many imitators and derivatives, but there is only one SCRABBLE. The first game developed for the Kindle in Amazon’s partnership with EA, SCRABBLE is basically exactly what you’d expect. You have to place lettered tiles on the game board to try and string together the biggest point totals, utilizing those all important double and triple score spaces to maximize your output. It’s easy to get into and impossible to master.
While SCRABBLE represents the most robust game on the platform so far, it fails to deliver the bells and whistles one might expect for a $4.99 game. While you can play solo, against the AI, or do a pass and play with a friend, there’s no option to play over the web with another Kindle owner. This is what 3G is made for! Still, it’s a solid first effort, but only true SCRABBLE nuts need apply.
Few groups are more easily persuaded by the allure of eBooks than students. Think about it – having been born in an age of digital and internet ubiquity, young people today learned to read on a computer screen at the same time, or even perhaps before, they learned to read on the written page. Now increasingly faced with the option of consuming content on a digital device, what’s to stop them from preferring slim and digital over bulky old print textbooks?
To date, the biggest barrier has simply been publishers’ willingness to make them available. Whatever reluctance they had before, the emergence of Apple’s iPad seems to have made converts of them all.
Companies like Inkling, headed by a former Apple employee, have stepped up to build an app platform for digital textbooks. In their first year of business, Inkling has converted four of publisher McGraw-Hill’s best-selling textbooks in biology, economics, marketing, and psychology into a digital format – selling them on the iTunes App Store for $84.99. While the high price point is likely to ruffle some feathers, Inkling’s textbook apps boast a number of features that dead-tree publishers can only dream of – videos, interactive 3-D graphical elements, quizzes, and social elements.
While the bulk of the innovation in the digital textbook market seems to be concentrated at the college level, primary school textbooks are also starting to take the plunge. Publisher Houghton Mufflin recently announced a year-long pilot for their first-ever Algebra app for the iPad, called HMH Fuse. More than just a mere textbook, HMH Fuse includes an entire curriculum. Students will get the benefit of guided video instruction, have the ability to write and save notes, and get instant feedback on practice questions.
With publishers finally jumping on board, the other barrier for the adoption of digital textbooks is in the natural resistance of parents and educators, for whom the prospect of digital textbooks seems more a novelty than a practicality. Even those stalwart advocates of dead-tree publishing are starting to dip their toes into the twenty-first century.
Oklahoma State, for instance, is one of many universities running pilot programs on the use of iPads in the classroom this year. “You’ll see this all over America in higher education,” university president Burns Hargis said. “(The University of Oklahoma’s) going to be doing these kinds of things. So everybody’s trying to figure it out. My guess is it won’t be too long before [iPads] are just ubiquitous.”
Other schools like the University of Maryland, are taking a different approach. In addition to running their own pilot program to see how iPads could be a game-changer in the classroom, they’re also making eReader technology the subject of a two-year program in which students themselves examine their impact on the culture of the classroom.
The next fiscal year is a big one for digital textbooks. If the pilot programs being put in place around the country yield positive results, it could signal the growth of a massive new segment in the ebook and eReader markets. Stay tuned!
When Amazon announced the new model of the Kindle, they succeeded at hitting most of the major selling points one would expect from an iterative development in a product line. The new Kindle is more compact – 15 percent lighter and 21 percent smaller. The screen is improved – the contrast has been upped by 50 percent and the page refresh speed has been bumped up a notch. It now holds more books – the on-board storage has been doubled to 4GB. And most importantly, the price was dropped – a 3G version is available for $189 and a new Wi-Fi SKU comes in at $139.
While simply reading this list of facts on a press release is enough to convince most that Amazon has ushered in across-the-board changes, I wanted to actually hold it in my hands before signing off on it. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on one of the new models, and I came away quite impressed with what it had to offer.
Besides just getting smaller, the new Kindle also has lots of little changes that long-time Kindle 2 owners can quickly pick up on. All of the ports and buttons have been consolidated from their haphazard placement on the Kindle 2 and moved to the bottom of the unit. The power slider, the mini-USB port, the headphone jack, and the volume button are all now easily accessible from the bottom of the unit. The face buttons have also undergone a minor revision, with the rocker having been replaced with a more convention directional pad. The home, menu, and back buttons have been moved from the side and are now flush with the keyboard, and the page turn buttons have a different feel to them.
While the change in topography was a bit jarring after developing such a deep level of comfort with the Kindle 2, the tactile feel of the new Kindle is an unabashed success. The Kindle 2 has never seemed bulky to me, especially after a considerable amount of time with the heftier iPad. It seems positively obese, however, once you’ve spent some time with the new Kindle. This thing seems purpose-built for lying on the beach, holding it with one hand and your thumb on the next button. It’s small enough and light enough that you’ll never feel the need to change position.
The screen also delivers on its promise. You won’t really notice the increased contrast or page-turn speed unless you’re really a stickler for such things, but where you will notice it is with the new web browser. The old version was clunky and slow, and the slower refresh rate made it almost impossible to use even for simple tasks. The new Webkit-based browser is about ten times faster, replete with full image support and the ability to zoom in on different parts of the page. Much of that speed comes from the new back-end, but the screens ability to quickly render changes adds some horsepower to the overall package.
In the end though, I have to temper my uniform praise for the new Kindle by saying that there’s little reason for owners of the Kindle 2 to spend the money to upgrade. The Kindle 3 improves on many of the things that has made the Kindle 2 the best dedicated eReader on the market, but in the absence of any real game-changing additions to the hardware, an upgrade simply isn’t necessary. That doesn’t mean it’s not still attractive. I’ve already spoken to several Kindle 2 owners who, based on a brief interface with the Kindle 3, plan to purchase one for themselves and give their Kindle 2 to a friend or loved one as a gift. (In which case we suggest reading our guide on how to successfully part with your Kindle.)
We recommend you at least try and track one down for yourself. You may find yourself falling in love.
Go to Amazon.com:
Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6″)
Kindle (Wi-Fi, 6″)