eBooks

I was very impressed by how well Android ran on a friend’s rooted Nook color last year.

Very Impressed by Rooted Nook Color – Barnes & Noble Providing Their Own Froyo Update Next Year

Engadget reported that Barnes & Noble planned to add more features including their own app store in early 2011. That plan was postponed but it looks like it is not on track for a release in the near future according to this Barnes & Noble press release.

Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Colorâ„¢ Reader’s Tablet Keeps Getting Better With Great New Content for People Who Love to Read Everything

NOOK Color will get even better this Spring when a major update to the device’s firmware will offer customers access to explore exciting new applications, e-mail and many other requested features.

Although Barnes & Noble does not say the Nook color will become a full-fledged Android tablet, it certainly appears that the Android powered ebook reader device will soon start looking very tablet-like without the need for rooting.

Via Android Communmity: Nook color to Get B&N App Store Support and Flash in April

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader just gained the ability to purchase and download Audible audio books directly over WiFi. Previously, Audible audio books could only be transferred using a USB cable connecting the Kindle to a computer.

The Latest Kindle Offers Wireless Delivery of Audible Audiobooks via Wi-Fi (Kindle Daily Post)

Audible content is available for purchase as a section under the Kindle Store. It is not clear how this ties to an existing Audible subscription account. I did not, for example, see a way to retieve Audible audio books I have already bought over WiFi.

You might have noticed that Amazon specifically notes that Audible audio books are delivered over WiFi. This is because audio book files can sometimes be quite large (hundreds of megabytes). The 3G Kindle is bundled with free lifetime 3G wireless data service. Its cost is presumably covered by some initial fee plus some fee that Amazon pays AT&T (or Sprint for older devices) for ebook data file transmission. This negotiated fee was for relatively small ebook files, however. Moreover, huge audio book files would take a very long time to download over typical 3G speeds.

I first learned of Inkling for iPad last August. Inkling is a free iPad app that sells access to interactive textbook material via in-app purchases. Individual chapters or entire books can be purchased for a wide variety of prices. Individual chapters appear to range from $1.99 to $9.99 while entire books are over $60. Anyone who has looked at college textbook prices will realize that $60 to $70 is a bargain for some textbooks. Inkling’s e-textbooks are more than just simple replicas of the printed page. They provide interactive material that is not possible with conventional paper books. Inkling’s approach to e-textbooks impressed me enough (based on a video overview, not hands-on) to write:

Inkling for iPad: A Vision of What e-Textbooks Should Look Like

Venturebeat reports that textbook publishing giants McGraw-Hill and Pearson announced that they will provide financial support for Inkling’s continued development.

Publishers back Inkling’s iPad textbooks

Inkling only has 14 textbooks available for their iPad app right now. So, they have a long way to go before college students seriously consider their platform for their textbook needs. But, it seems to me that they are heading in the right direction and have the right publishing partners to make this work.

Inkling 1.3 (iTunes App Store)

O’Reilly Media, the book publisher famous for their high quality technology books and unique covers with animals on them, is running a *Free to Choose* Ebook and Video Deal of the Day in support of the Japanese Disaster Relief. Here’s what they told me:

O’Reilly, No Starch Press, and Tidbits will donate all revenues, less author royalties, from “Deal of the Day” sales to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Thanks to the Internet, we understand more deeply than ever that everyone on the planet is connected. The disasters that have hit Japan feel close to home, and those of us at O’Reilly, No Starch, and Tidbits want to do something to help the Japanese people recover and rebuild. We know many of you do, too. Working with the O’Reilly Tokyo office, we will ensure that your valued contribution goes to the relief of those most in need. We’ll update the total amount donated throughout the day, as well as the final amount.

We’ll be extending our popular Deal of the Day to include the entire catalog of ebooks and videos from O’Reilly, No Starch, and Tidbits — yours included.

There is a 50% savings on eBooks and videos today (March 22, 2011). You can find the deals at:

oreil.ly/free2choose-japan

So, what does this have to do with mobile? Well, I wrote the Windows for Intel Macs ebook for them back in 2006. I used Parallels on a (get this!) first generation MacBook (single core) with 1GB RAM and 60GB hard drive to run Windows in a virtual machine. I let O’Reilly know they can also donate whatever royalties are generated from my ebook sales today too (in the belief that every little bit helps).

And, a good chunk of the book’s text was actually written on an HP Jornada 720 Handheld PC 2000 (this tives you an idea of when it was released) running Windows CE (still the core engine under today’s Windows Phone 7). HP’s Jornada Handheld PCs preceded the Tablet PCs and netbooks. They were, in my opinion, fantastic and a great productivity tool. The tiny Joranda 720 had (and still has) an excellent keyboard. It served me well in writing sections of the book while on the move.

You can see the Jornada 720 sitting on top of the netbook sized HP Jornada 820 which was also a Windows CE based Handheld PC 2000 device. I keep hoping to see a return of these tiny incredibly useful Handheld PC type devices.

Betanews’ Joe Wilcox asks:

Who will pay $600 for XOOM with WiFi?

That’s a good question. The WiFi-only Xoom will be available on March 27 and I’m tempted to raise my hand with a “yes” answer. However, I just spent a bundle on a iPad 2 64GB Verizon 3G model (I really wanted to 32GB WiFi-only model, btw). As an ordinary consumer, the answer is no I do not. And, that’s the answer the estimated 1 million people who bought an iPad in the last week probably have too. On the other hand, as a mobile technology enthusiast and blogger, I do want an Android OS 3.0 based tablet. One of the people quoted in Joe’s blog item said: I have a hard time thinking about $600 when my Nook only cost $249 and took me 10 minutes to root. The Nook referred to is the Android powered Barnes & Nobile color Nook that can be rooted and outfited with Android OS 3.0 reasonably simply and painlessly. The OS 3.0 resides on an SD card. So, returning to the original platform requires removing the card and rebooting.

That brings us to this item in the New York Times:

Is Amazon Working on an Android Kindle?

Now this is an interesting piece of speculation based on job listings at Amazon. This would make a lof sense for Amazon for a number of reasons:

1. It looks like Apple is going to play hardball in requiring in-app purchases. This might affect Amazon’s iOS Kindle app or even result in having it pulled from the iTunes App Store.

2. Although the black and white Kindle is much more readable than any color display I’ve seen (including the color Nook), Amazon needs a color display story for the Kindle. If nothing else, they need it for childrens’ books, technical documentation, and maybe even graphics novels which all require color.

3. Amazon will open the doors for its Android app store soon. It would make sense to have an Android-based color Kindle for which Amazon’s customers could buy both ebooks and Android apps.

An Android powered color Kindle probably won’t appear for months and maybe even a year. But, if it priced competitively ($199 or $250), it could change the face of the Android tablet marketplace.

We saw an interesting Kindle price drop projection by KK.org last month the showed the Kindle would be free by this November if its price followed their linear regression’s trend model.

How Amazon Could Offer Free Kindle Readers (think Amazon Prime)

While it is easy to dismiss this as a inappropriate assumption based a simple linear regression equation, KK also provided a reasonable theory of how Amazon could give the Kindle away: Give it away with a subscription to their pre-paid next day shipping service – Amazon Prime ($80).

paidContent provides an actual example of bundling a Kindle with the sale of another product in the UK.

Amazon Kindle: Bundled Free In UK, And The iPad Effect

The deal from the UK’s Carephone Warehouse bundles a free WiFi-only Kindle ($139 in the U.S.) with the purchase of a phone with a two-year contract.

This brings us back to a possible U.S. “free” Kindle scenario. Bundling a WiFi-only Kindle with an Amazon Prime subscription is a good idea. Providing Kindles to Amazon Prime customers would reduce shipping to those customers assuming that books (a heavy per cubic inch object to ship) is a frequent shipping item. People often simply let subscriptions go on forever. So, encouraging the first sign-up to Prime using a Kindle as a lure would kickstart that habit and provide Amazon with an annually renewed shipping fee cash float.

I think it is likely that Amazon will bundle the Kindle with their Amazon Prime service before the end of the year. They have already tied it to their streaming video service. They could even charge a small premium for an Amazon Prime Plus service that provides the pre-paid shipping for $80 and the Kindle for $50. The $130 total would be a $10 discount off of buying the Kindle alone.

Archos introduced both a new color eReader device and a new brand line for low-end Android tablets according to this report by PC World.

Archos Launches Color E-reader, Android Tablet for €129

The eReader 7ob might be a follow-up to their current color eReader. You can see a photo of the current Archos 70 eReader device in the photo to the left.

Archos 70 eReader

The 7ob, at $179, is priced higher than the black and white Amazon Kindle but is significantly less expenensive than Barnes & Noble’s Android based color Nook.

Archos is also preparing to launch a new brand line name Arnova. The first product branded with this name will be a $179 8-inch Android tablet with a resistive (vs. capacitive display found in most current touch smartphones and the iPad).

Archos devices have typically been difficult to find and purchase in the U.S. on their initial release. So, you may have a hard time finding either of devices until 6 months to a year after their release.

Back in the days when Amazon’s Kindle was priced at $350 and even when it was lowered to $250, I said that the single function ebook reader was too expensive for casual readers. I noted back then that Amazon’s real core business was selling ebook content and that the device should be priced under $100 to bring casual readers (people who read less than one novel per month) into the ebook market. One reader chided me saying how ridiculous this suggestion was. Late last summer Amazon lowered the price enough, $139, for a WiFi-only model that convinced me, as a casual reader, to buy a Kindle. I still believe that the entry level WiFi-only Kindle price should be under $100. KK.org provides an interesting scenario that might result in a Kindle for under $100.

Free Kindle This November

The idea is that a Kindle ebook reader would be given free to Amazon Prime customers who pay $80 a year to get free two-day shipping for every purchase. This makes sense as it would encourage people who might normally buy a physical paper book to buy a Kindle ebook instead. It would also tie in nicely with Amazon’s recent move to tie their streaming video service to Amazon Prime customers.

The drawback for some of us is that Amazon Prime is only available to people who live in the continental U.S. So, if you live in Alaska or Hawaii, you would be out of luck.

Video courtesy of goodtokno

The Kno Textbook Tablet is a nearly-there-product that is very interesting but doesn’t seem very practical and has a relatively limited niche audience: College students. But, lets start with its size and weight that took me by surprise when I first heard about it.

Kno Dual-Screen (Shades of Courier) Tablet: Can This 5.5 Lbs. Behemoth Take Off?

The Kno is gigantic at 5.5 pounds (the iPad is 1.5 pounds) with dual 14.1-inch screens (compared to the iPad’s single 9.7-inch display). It is not only heavy but unwieldy. This is not something you can pull out of your backpack in a hallway while walking between classes. In June 2010, I wrote: The Kno needs to widen its potential customer base and shrink its product very soon. If not, I predict, this will be a footnote product like the Palm Foleo. Guess, what, here’s what Kara Swisher reported in All Things Digital.

Exclusive: Kno Student Tablet Start-Up in Talks to Sell Off Tablet Part of Its Business

Kno developed very interesting looking software for its Kno tablet. I hope the current plan to split off the hardware from the software works out for them.

The Kindle 2.6 update for iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) brings the “real page number” feature introduced the Kindle 3.1 firmware update for Amazon’s ebook reader.

Kindle 3.1 Firmware Page Number Feature Requires a Menu Button Press

The real page number feature lets you know where the text you are reading would be found in the paper version of the book. This is very useful for students, book club members, or anyone who needs to deal with references to actual paper page numbers.

Unfortunately, it looks like paper page numbers are not available for all Kindle ebooks. I found a couple in my library that do not display the page number. You can see what pages look like with and without page numbers in the screenshot here of the bottom of Kindle ebook pages from two different ebooks.

Kindle 2.6