The immiment demise of Ann Arbor’s quirky, well-regarded Shaman Drum bookstore has sparked a very interesting thread over at the Ann Arbor Chronicle, which inspired me to write this about the future of e-books and publishing. The whole thread is worth reading.
(in response to post 28) Scott — I am well aware of Tablet PCs — I attended Microsoft’s alpha stage Tablet SDK meeting and had a first-generation Motion Tablet– but IMHO there is still a long way to go for Tablets to approach the readability and portability of paper. That is to say nothing of paper’s instant-on feature, complete absence of [electronic] bugs, and [sometimes literally] bulletproof security compared to Windows Vista Tablet PC Edition …
What I don’t like about the current generation of e-readers is that the e-book manufacturers are forcing major design and readability compromises on publishers–a classic example of technology-driven product development. What publishers want and need is to be able to display e-books using the universal publishing standard for high-quality design display: PDF. You simply can’t present a design-driven title likeTHE DEFINITIVE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF TORPEDO BOATS (for Anonymouse’s sake!) in device-independent dumbed-down HTML.
As you may know, the current generation of book readers uses the E-Ink technology, which currently does B&W 800 x 640 on a flexible substrate. They project that color E-Ink devices will become available no earlier than 2011. Hi-res is important: readability studies shows that paper with 600 dpi is the gold standard. a 600 dpi 8 x 10 page is 4800 x 6000 pixels, which is still a pretty big image even for today’s computers.
I suspect that E-Ink devices capable of displaying hi-res PDF will be ~ 2015.
What does this mean for publishers and booksellers? For publishers, it means a (losing) struggle with e-book manufacturers over their share of the revenue pie. For booksellers, it means less revenue from simply delivering physically encoded books to people, and figuring out a way to move up the value chain–which I think is what Karl Pohrt is planning to do. I like the idea of a bookstore as a salon, but if I look around at other industries it seems that continuous physical presence is a more difficult business model to operate than old reliables like personal appearances, training classes, and consulting services.
A very shrewd point. Unfortunately, my experience with my beloved Tablet PC was more to the effect that it ran anti-social software. No matter how cool it was, no one particularly wanted to receive the “ink” data type. The ultimate social software: ASCII text?
Gartner sees “Hype Cycle” for Social Software « Shepherd’s Pi
I really like this report for a number of reasons – among other things, it makes clear the social aspect of a number of more mature technologies (Tablet PC, Electronic Paper) which I favor, and which too often are recognized only for their technical aspects, not the socially enabling and disruptive benefits within and across organizations.
Official Google Blog: Google Mobile App: faster, easier search on iPhone & iPod Touch
Our first downloadable iPhone application is here. It’s free, and it makes searching faster and easier. It’s never as easy to type on a mobile phone
as on a full keyboard and the mobile network is rarely as fast as a desktop connection. So Google Mobile App starts working as soon as you type.
This would be a lot cooler (and more useful) on an iPhone Tablet.
MacDailyNews – The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name
Back to the naming issue: Apple’s “iPhone” isn’t really a phone at all. It’s really a small touchscreen Mac OS X computer, a Mac nano tablet, it you will. Here’s how misnamed the iPhone is: some people are complaining that Jobs didn’t spend enough time on the Mac in his keynote! Folks, iPhone is not only a Mac, it’s the most radical new Mac in years! What’s to stop Apple from making a 12-inch (and larger, and smaller) one of these (use the headset for the phone, please) and calling it a Mac tablet?
I don’t want an iPhone. I don’t want to be stuck with AT&T’s pokey EDGE network and I don’t want a 3.5″ browser.
But I’d love an 8 1/2 x 11 iPhone with a hard disk and about a thousand PDF books on it… wouldn’t that make a terrific complement for Google Books? I’ve read rumors that Google and Apple are thinking about working much more closely … an iReader with iBookstore would make a lot of sense. Maybe this is where Google Book Search is going with its long-delayed “online access” option. (I submitted my pricing info for online access more than 18 months ago, and no sign of the feature yet…)
Technorati Tags: Google Book Search, iPhone tablet, tablet pc,
wfzimmerman’s review: “A refreshing focus on personal productivity from a fellow self-publisher.”
New Academy Publishers (2004), Paperback, 551 pages
Here’s an interesting historical comparison of books about Microsoft OneNote, including mine:
Google bringing search to historical manuscripts | InfoWorld | News | 2006-02-10 | By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service
History buffs can search George Washington’s manuscripts online today for terms like “revolution,” but only thanks to the tireless workers who transcribed the hand-written documents into digital form.
Soon, many other hand-written historical documents could be made available for the public to search — and through considerably less effort — if a research project funded by Google (Profile, Products, Articles) and being executed by three universities works out as planned.
The project, announced by Dublin City University (DCU) on Thursday …
… is an unfortunate piece of credulous puffery. Microsoft has patiently invested tens of millions of dollars in handwriting recogntion over a period of many years. It’s still tough. Google is very late to the game.
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