Impressive Refinements To eBook Navigation…

January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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I came across this video showing some interesting interface elements for navigating through ebooks:

I have been a big fan of ebooks from back in the Rocket eBook days (Anybody remember this device?), and am really excited that the publishing industry seems to have finally reached the tipping point with going to digital. It’s clear that refinements like these will simply accelerate the ebook adoption process, and I love seeing innovation like this taking place in this space.

My current e-reader of choice is the iPad Kindle app. Amazon’s development and continued support of the Kindle has been the critical factor in getting the ebook marketplace to this point. Of course, Apple’s announcement of iBooks Author last week is a sign that things are starting to heat up here and I’m excited about that as well. Clearly, the future is still up for grabs, and there is no shortage of opportunity for creative minds to evolve and shape this space moving forward.

Kudos to the folks at KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence that developed this – it is really well done.

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Mobile Apps: A Quick Look At Instapaper…

July 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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I want to start posting about some of the mobile apps I use on a regular basis, and decided to start off by taking a look at an app I’ve been using for quite a while: Instapaper.

Instapaper allows you to ‘clip’ articles you find on the web and copy them to your mobile devices for later reading. It works on both the iPhone and the iPad, though there are a few subtle differences between the two experiences.

Here are a couple of short videos I put together to show you what it takes to get started using Instapaper:

Signing Up:

Clipping A Web Page:

When it comes to reading the articles I’ve clipped, I use Instapaper on both the iPad and the iPhone – it depends on the situation. (And though I don’t show it here, it is also possible to use Instapaper to create a batch of articles that can be printed out on paper, or to set it up to deliver updates on a periodic basis for viewing on Amazon’s Kindle. This range of options should cover most people today.)

I started with Instapaper on the iPhone. The iPhone experience has really been optimized for ‘on the move’ reading:


Click To Enlarge

One incredibly nice feature of the iPhone version is turned on by clicking on the blue icon on the bottom of the iPhone display. This option allows you to scroll the display as you read by simply tilting it down. This makes it ideal for reading in commuting situations like a crowded subway car.

Where the iPhone version focuses on convenience, the iPad version of Instapaper, with it’s larger display, is more about reading comfort:


Click To Enlarge

It has a slightly tinted background that makes the display easier on the eyes. It also offers a landscape mode that combines both headlines and articles, making it convenient to quickly browse multiple shorter articles .

In addition to viewing articles, both platforms make it easy to share and save them as well. They include built in links to both Tumblr and Tweetie, and an option to send articles via email. In addition, articles that might be worth a second read can be added to the built in ‘Starred’ folder, or you can create your own folders (in the paid version) and file them in a more organized way.

For me, Instapaper is like TIVO for the web. It lets me time shift the reading I’d like to do in a way that blends seamlessly into my workflow.

If you aren’t using it already, I highly recommend checking it out.

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Defining The Next Generation Of Books…

March 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Penguin Books seems to be aggressively embracing the concept of digital books. Take a look at this video:

While this is only a demonstration, it is clearly well developed conceptually. The model of using a traditional book framework as a ‘navigation map’ into additional content, applications, and services make complete sense. And it has the potential to redefine the economics of the entire publishing industry.

To make this happen in a way that can scale, the publishing industry (including Apple and other vendors) has to come up with a technical packaging model that moves beyond traditionally focused packaging like the ‘EPUB’ format. Having an open, commonly adopted standard for expressing/delivering these rich, interactive publications can shift publication from becoming one-off developments or publisher specific frameworks into a rich industry ecosystem. I believe that making this happen is the game changer the publishing industry needs. There is a lot to talk about on that front and I want to revisit and expand on it in a later post.

It’s exciting to see some momentum building behind the iPad. So much potential…

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Apple's IPad Event: Looking Beyond The iPad…

February 3, 2010 by 3 Comments
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There has been so much written about the iPad itself over the few days that I don’t think my fawning over it would add much to the discussion.
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Do I think there will be more in the released version than we saw in the presentation? Yes. Am I excited about the potential of the device? Without a doubt. Will I get one when it finally goes on sale? Absolutely! And though I am pretty pumped about ordering one, there is clearly still a lot of speculation in the media over the true market demand for a device like the iPad. Passions seem high on both sides. Given everything that we still DON’T know about the final functionality of the software/OS and about what types of new content will end up in the various ‘iStores’ by the time the iPad is released, I’d rather wait till then before jumping in to the fray.

Instead, for this post, I’d like to dig down a level and look at three of the less sexy things that were revealed during the iPad event that could actually end up being quite significant both to Apple and the industry overall.

Apple’s A4 Chip:

blog-a4-chipOutside of the release of the iPad itself, the revelation that it is powered by a custom Apple chip (handling both general and graphics processing chores) could be the most significant thing to come out of last weeks event. While the A4 chip will almost certainly make it into the 4G version of the iPhone, I also expect the A4 (or some variation of it) to also be at the heart of the next generation of AppleTV. This would likely be as part of a move of ATV onto the same OS platform as the iPhone/Touch/iPad, and would probably allow the box itself to be re-engineered to better support HD video (eg – real 1080p) and also to open it up to running games available from the App Store. As a big fan of the existing AppleTV, I see this as something that is long overdue. (I expect it to be announced before mid-2010.)

Another way Apple could leverage the chip this year could be the release of a successor to the Macbook Air based on some version of it. This could give Apple a way to deliver the dramatically improved battery life and graphic muscle of the iPad in the super-thin laptop form factor of the current Air (not to mention integrated “always connected” 3G/4G ). It could even end up running the iPhone OS, and provide the ‘Touch’ aspects either through a substantial trackpad area or directly on the display. While I’m not trying to predict specific product details here, I do see an opportunity for Apple in this segment as well – a hybrid offering blending the best tablet and laptop features for true ‘road warrior’ types.

Ultimately the most exciting thing about the A4 is that it frees Apple from Intel’s lock on mobile processors, and can give them the ability to change both the economics and overall direction of products they launch in this area. And in the hands of Apple, that holds some pretty big promise for the future.

The Touch Based Version Of iWorks:

blog-iworks-ipadApple’s iWorks has been around for quite a few years now, and has matured into a full productivity suite offering word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. While no where near as popular as Microsoft’s Office suite, each component of iWorks is well thought out and a pleasure to work with. Unlike Office on a Windows tablet computer, the new iWorks isn’t simply an extension of the previous version that makes it usable without a keyboard. Instead, iWorks on the iPad has been designed from the ground up to work in a touch environment. From the way various functional menus are displayed to the way task specific virtual keyboards appear in different contexts, every element of the product is designed to be part of a native touch experience. While I will need to spend some quality time with the new iWorks before passing judgment, it does appear that Apple has learned a great deal from iterations of the user experience they developed for iPhone apps, and have done a good job scaling it to more comprehensive applications on larger displays.

While this is impressive on it’s own, what may end up being the most significant aspect of the new iWorks probably isn’t in the code or design at all, but rather in the business model surrounding it. iWorks for the iPad will be sold through the Apple App Store, with each component application available individually for less than $10. That means the entire suite can be bought for under $30 – less than a third of the discounted price Microsoft’s Office 2007 Home and Student edition sells for on Amazon. By unbundling the individual applications, selling them for such a low price, and making them available through their App Store, Apple is clearly challenging the current economic model for the sale and distribution of traditional software applications. This is not without precedent for Apple – even beyond what they did with pricing in the iPhone App space. When Apple moved into producing professional media creation software (known for outrageously high prices), they were able to reset the price points for applications like video editing, compositing, and audio editing in a similar dramatic fashion. It would not be surprising to see this model finally slip over to the Mac, with the desktop version of iWorks taking on similar pricing and packaging to the iPad version – and possibly being sold through the app store as well.

Selling Books In The iBookstore Instead Of On iTunes:

blog-ibookstoreI think the fact that Apple chose to build a completely separate ‘iStore’ for books is interesting. By approaching print publications as truly unique forms of media with unique content and marketplace dynamics, Apple stands a good chance at reshaping the ebook market and really challenging the current dominance of Amazon’s Kindle platform. I believe that what was shown at the iPad launch is simply the most basic starter functionality for this store. I see it ultimately having different business and functional models to address some unique opportunities found in this marketplace. For example:

  • renting eTextbooks for a semester instead of buying them
  • offering subscriptions to magazine and newspaper content via special viewing applications unique to each of them
  • selling content that is pretty much static – like a daily newspaper – with options for dynamic updates
  • integrating social elements to let people discuss or interact around specific titles – much the way a college study group or typical reading club might interact

There is a lot of room in this space to innovate. The upheavals we have already seen happen between Amazon and publishers like MacMillan (almost 2 months before the iPad is even released!) are a good indication of how dynamic this marketplace still is – and just how disruptive Apple’s entry into this space will be. By having an independent store that can evolve quickly and embrace new and unique ways of accessing media, Apple will have the flexibility they need to learn, adapt, and adjust. Success wouldn’t be achievable with a more static approach.

I am firmly convinced that the iPad will have just as significant an impact on the media marketplace as the iPhone did on the mobile phone market. The convergence of these two markets, and the increasing importance of mobile computing will continue to present incredible opportunities for Apple. I believe the three elements I’ve discussed here will be important differentiators for Apple as the aggressively pursue this new market.

I can’t wait for my iPad…

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Sony: Odd Man Out In The eBook Showdown?…

October 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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With the introduction of Barnes & Nobel’s new ebook reader – NOOK – Sony finds itself in a pretty difficult position. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is a quick overview of what the Nook can do:

Let me start by saying that I own a Sony ebook reader, and have enjoyed using it for many years. While all of Sony’s readers are well designed and engineered, they have been held back by a lackluster (and somewhat expensive) ebook store, and a lack of hunger on Sony’s part to really push the ebook market where it has the potential to go. Their Connect store is poorly thought out, and despite their recent introduction of several new reading devices, they are still lagging behind the current ebook market leader – Amazon.

Amazon’s reading device – the Kindle – offers wireless access to their ebook store, allowing books to be purchased and downloaded directly from the device. It also supports the automatic delivery of subscription based digital content like newspapers and magazines. In addition, it also offers basic web browsing capability with access to knowledge sites like Wikipedia.

Sony has none of these features now, and probably won’t for the rest of this year.

blog-de-nook1On the other hand, B&N’s Nook has almost all of Kindle’s capabilities, a few unique ones of its own, and dangles the possibility of some interesting software enhancements in the future. The Nook is a dual screen device. It has a large e-ink display on top for reading, and a small touch enabled color display below it for navigation. While it is hard to make usability judgments without living with something for a while, its design seems better thought out and more appealing than the joystick/menu navigation model used by the Kindle. The Nook also has ePub and eReader format support, making it open to connection with other ebook stores as well as public domain titles from Google (as the Sony can as well). The Nook also brings a new concept to the ebook space – lending books to friends. When it comes to the basics, Nook seems to be a good mix of both feature refinement and clever innovation.

What is most exciting about the Nook is that it is based on Google’s Android OS. Barnes & Noble has implied that they may be interested in opening up the platform in some way to third party developers. I really hope they do. This could extend the interface with useful utilities and widgets to access various web based services. This openness could give Nook the potential to become much more that just and ebook reader. And that is exciting. If there are no negative surprises once it starts to ship, the Nook will be a serious threat to Amazon’s Kindle.

As for Sony, they are clearly outgunned at this point. I don’t see a strategy outside of serious price cuts that will allow them compete with Amazon and B&N this holiday season. If they are committed to being in this market long term, Sony will need to invest a lot more next year into improving their entire ebook ecosystem. Time isn’t on their side.

The thing is, I just not sure that Sony is really committed to making that kind of investment in this market.

They have been boxed in at this point and don’t have too many options available to them. It will be difficult for them to find a partner in this space. Both Amazon and B&N are clearly off the table, leaving Borders as the only full catalog bookstore that might have the scale to do something with them (assuming Apple hasn’t already locked them down!). It would also be difficult for Sony to just shutter their store and be successful as a device-only provider. Open ebook standards aren’t widely adopted at this point, and there just aren’t enough independent sellers available. Without an industry wide adoption of common open ebook formats, it will be difficult for any unaligned ebook provider to have a critical mass of titles to build a viable business around.

Apple proved that it can be good for the bottom line to tie a device to a store, and both Amazon and B&N have taken that lesson to heart. And that leaves Sony in an unenviable position: double down or fold and get out.

I hope they find a way to stick it out.

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Amazon's Kindle Continues To Impress…

July 20, 2009 by 1 Comment
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I am impressed by how aggressive Amazon has become with promoting the Kindle.
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Aside for their recent (and rather dumb) move of erasing some books people already purchased due to a copyright issue, Amazon has done a masterful job of supporting and extending their Kindle ebook reader ecosystem. I am starting to see far more Kindles on the trains and subways I take each days, and they seem to be appealing to a fairly broad demographic. I am also hearing more people talk about possibly getting a Kindle for themselves, a sign that it’s starting to move a little more mainstream than the original Kindle 1 ever managed to do.

Amazon’s Kindle library continues to grow, providing prospective buyers with a sense of confidence that their choices will continue to expand. On top of that, the recent Kindle price cut, bringing it down to $299, is another step in the right direction. Though I personally believe it will need to move below $100 to really start to gain mainstream traction, breaking below the $300 price crosses a psychological threshold that makes it easier to bring in that next level of interested buyer.

I have had the chance over the last several weeks to borrow my wife’s Kindle and use it on a daily basis. The device itself is incredibly convenient to carry and hold, and really does become transparent once you start reading on it. You just see the words without the hardware getting in the way.

Another great move on Amazon’s part was the introduction of a Kindle reader application for iPhone. Being able to read on the iPhone definitely extends the usefulness of Kindle ebooks for me. When I’m stuck on a line or waiting for a train, I can easily sync with the Kindle 2 and continue reading on the smaller device. It is even a viable reader without having a Kindle at all. Since I don’t actually own the Kindle myself, most of my reading prior to this has been on the iPhone. While certainly not as nice to read on as a regular Kindle, it is a more than acceptable experience. I have read four books (over 1500 ‘real’ pages) this way already, and wouldn’t hesitate recommending this to anyone who isn’t ready to purchase the physical reader yet.

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What excites me most, however, is the new Kindle DX. Short of having a color e-Ink screen (which probably won’t be available for another two years or so) it is my ideal ebook platform. It is light and thin, making it easy to hold, but has a large enough screen that I can read it comfortably without my glasses.

blog-kindledxpdfEqually important, the Kindle DX includes a native PDF renderer. This means that I could use it to store the incredible number of documents – mostly technical manuals, journals, and brochures – that I end up carrying around with me for work. While being pitched more in academic circles as a device for textbooks, I think it shines as a reader that can address the needs of any technical professional.

Amazon is making all the right moves with new Kindle, and is really starting to build out the ecosystem needed to support it. The demand is there for Kindle, even if the devices are still a bit pricey for most people. As production costs for the readers fall along the natural technology price curve, Amazon should be well positioned to dominate in this space.

I continue to be impressed by what they have accomplished here.

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Hands On: The Amazon Kindle 2…

March 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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I’ve had the chance to spend a little time with Amazon’s Kindle 2, and I want to share my initial thoughts. I have also included a photo gallery at the end of this post to give you some close up views of a few of the things I talk about here.

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The Packaging:
The first thing I noticed was the attention to detail that went into the packaging – it was almost Apple-like in its design. The outside of the box looks like a standard Amazon cardboard shipping package. On the “Tear Here” tag on the side of the box, the words “Once upon a time…” are printed – a nice, subtle touch. Opening the box, there is a covered tray holding the Kindle itself, the charging cable, and a thin, fan-fold “getting started” brochure. When you remove the cover from tray, the Kindle 2 is sitting on top, and has some basic instructions on it’s screen for charging it up and turning it on.

All in all, the new Kindle makes a great first impression.

The Device:
Unlike the slightly awkward feel of the previous generation Kindle, the new Kindle 2 feels refined and balanced. It has traded in the angular look for a smooth, rounded, very modern appearance. The ergonomics are really good. It’s easy to hold and use the device with either hand, and it is far more difficult to accidentally press any buttons. The new 16-grayscale display is great upgrade, especially when it comes to e-content that contains images – newspapers, periodicals and web content (more on this later). Even for books, the new display felt easier on my eyes than the monochrome screens of both my Sony reader and the Kindle 1.

Navigation:
Navigation on the Kindle is handled via a small five way joystick, Next and Previous Page buttons, and Home and Back buttons. Collectively, you can use them to navigate any menu or page. For the most part navigating books is dead simple, but moving through non-book content isn’t always that intuitive. That said, once you figure it out it isn’t difficult to do.

Buying Content:
Purchasing content is simple. One option is to shop online at Amazon.com and purchase books, newspapers, magazines, etc from the Kindle store. These purchases can be sync to your Kindle over Whispernet without needing to attach the reader directly to your computer. The other option is to buy content right from the device itself. Though lacking the refined shopping experience of the web, it is straight forward to find books you are interested in and to then purchase them with a single click. They are downloaded immediately. You can also download the first chapter of any book for free, letting you browse the catalog until you find something you’d may be interested in buying.

You can also purchase subscriptions to publications that will be delivered automatically to your Kindle. You could have the NY Times and The Wall Street Journal download daily to read on your daily commute or even when you’re traveling. While incredibly convenient, some of these subscriptions are quite expensive when compared to the cost of their online or physical counterparts. They also don’t have advertising (which I don’t understand) and lack some of the content found in the other formats as well. They come with a 14 day free trial, and I would recommend trying it out before you buy it to see if it works for you.

Adding Your Own Content:
Beyond purchasing, you can also put free content or content you already own on the Kindle. Every Kindle is assigned an email address in the form of name_of_your_choice@kindle.com. You can attach PDF’s or office documents to an email message you send to this address and they will be delivered to your device. As a part of the emailing process, Amazon will convert these attachments to a Kindle friendly format on the fly. There is a $0.10 charge for emailing documents to your Kindle, but that is probably about the same amount you would pay in consumable costs to print out a normal sized document on paper. I haven’t tested the limits of compatibility here, but it does seem to work well. You can connect the Kindle to your computer and move files to it directly, but Amazon hasn’t make a conversion application available yet that will let you convert files on your own. I would love to see them make something like this available, but I’m not sure if it is in their plan.

Though I haven’t done it yet, you can also add your own MP3 files as well as your own picture files to the Kindle 2 for playback on the device. It’s an interesting addition, but will probably be redundant for most folks, and a poor substitute for an iPod.

Accessing The Web:
Kindle also delivers the web to you – sort of. Every Kindle comes with Whispernet, a digital cellular connection (an EVDO Sprint connection here in the United States) that is used for delivering content to the device. Amazon does provide a very crude browser that lets you use it to connect to the web to do basic surfing. It works fine for simple sites like Wikipedia or Google, and does a serviceable job on news sites like CNN. Unfortunately, any site more complex than than probably wont work. I did a quick test of GMail, but that didn’t seem to work. Navigation runs from poor to painful to unusable based on the site, making this suited for light browsing at best. I’ll need to spend more time with this to map out what can reasonable be done – especially testing sites that are designed for more limited mobile devices.

An interesting, and controversial, new feature of the Kindle 2 is the inclusion of text-to-speech capabilities. This allows the Kindle 2 to read a book to you, albeit in a somewhat stilted, mechanical voice. The quality of the computer generated voice is actually quite good by technical standards, but it offers no where near the engaging experience a well read audio book can deliver. Unfortunately, this feature has also stirred up folks in the Authors Guild, who claim that text-to-speech conversions create a derivative work that Amazon has no rights to and thus see it as a violation of their copyright. I’ll post on this one separately, but Amazon has agreed to give authors control over enabling this feature for any books they publish.

The Reading Experience:
At the end of the day, the Kindle 2 is a device designed for reading, and at that it excels. The keyboard at the bottom, which I though would be a distraction, becomes more like the palm rest on a laptop and essentially disappears once you start to read. The screen is extremely readable – even under less than ideal conditions – and the font size adjustments easily let me compensate for the shortcomings of my aging eyes.

Conclusions:
While the Kindle 2 is pricey at $350 (US), you do get a lot for your money. The ebooks available for it are relatively inexpensive and you have a reasonably sized (and growing) catalog of digitized titles to choose from. There are also basic web capabilities built in to the Kindle, and the convenience of ‘on demand’ access to books, newspapers and magazines will guarantee you’re never in want of something to read. The Kindle 2 is far from perfect. Navigation can sometime be confusing, web browsing is really primitive, limiting what you can actually do online, and it offers no easy way to convert your own content for display short of the email option. There are no showstoppers in this list, and it goes a long way to making a ebooks a mainstream delivery model.

That said, ebooks aren’t for everyone. Some people I know seem to have an almost emotional attachment to the physical manifestation of the printed word. On the other hand, I much prefer the more streamlined experience of reading on these types of ‘virtual paper’ devices, and have been an ebook advocate for a long time.

If you feel like I do, Amazon’s Kindle 2 is definitely worth a look.

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A Video Overview Of The New Kindle 2…

February 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
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As expected, the new Kindle 2 was announced this morning.

Here’s a brief video overview of the new device:


See more over at Engadget

I want to point out a couple of cool new features in the Kindle 2:

  • Whispersync: – This allows syncing between Kindle devices. You can start reading on one Kindle device and have it sync exactly where you leave off so you can start reading on another. No big deal on it’s own, but I’m hoping this means an iPhone version is in the works. Having multiple personal Kindles sitting around seems just a bit decadent in the current economic climate.
  • Read To Me: – This allows a Kindle to read a book to you using a computer generated (though reportedly very good) voice. This would be ideal for ‘reading’ in the car – an excellent feature.

There were no real surprises at Amazon’s unveiling, but it’s still exciting nonetheless. I’m hoping some of the things I mentioned in my last post start to show up in one form or another as Amazon looks to expand it’s market for the device.

This new Kindle has the potential to be the device to put eBooks over the top. Amazon is in a great position to make it happen.

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