The Longo Review

MCGRAW-HILL's CEO confirms iPhoneOS based tablet will be announced tomorrow

2010-01-26T22:15:00.002-02:00

In a live TV interview MCGRAW-HILL's CEO confirmed that Apple will introduce an iPhoneOS based tablet device. He also mentioned that MCGRAW-HILL has been working with Apple for quite some time.

UPDATE: I first saw this on Wired and noticed that it was also on MacRumors. In a couple of hours it was all over the net. I guess some people at Apple must be pretty upset by now.

Zinio for the iPhone or an Apple Tablet?

2010-01-20T01:03:00.000-02:00

Today I got an email notification of the release of a Zinio application for the iPhone. For those of you that haven't run across Zinio, it is a visually oriented digital reader software. It was primarily focused on magazines but has been diversifying into books and textbooks.

Zinio offers a very compelling reading experience with full colored digital magazines that look pretty much the same as they do on paper, including some nice age turning visual effects. While they do seem to offer more than one viewing mode, with a text only mode which seems designed to make it easy to read on a small screen, the whole thing begs for a larger screen.

With the release of this application coming just one week before Apple's media event it might just be that this application is an early release for the iPhone of an application that was already developed for Apple's supposed new Tablet like device. It would make sense for Apple to seek out a content provider such as Zinio which can bring into the iPhone/iPod platform hundreds of highly regarded titles such as BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Popular Science, MacWorld, PCWorld, PC Magazine, etc.

A quick look at Zinio's website will get you a view of the new Zinio Library software which looks very much like iTunes, though it is probably just a convenient way of having millions of iPhone users familiar with how your software works.

What do you think?

2010 will be a great year for eBooks

2010-01-06T14:00:00.001-02:00

Here we are, 2010! Last year was a good year for eBooks. Lots of new readers on the market, lots of new users. While there was some consolidation on the storefront side, with Barnes & Noble picking up FictionWise, there was myriad new readers announced, including a very interesting looking one from Barnes & Noble itself. (See my previous post on this...)

Amazon took the Kindle to the world, with international shipping. Sony introduced new models of its Sony Reader with more size, feature and pricing options. The new Pocket and Touch editions are speacially interesting as they add both a lower price and touch-enabled options.

This year should be much, much better. With a wider range of readers and hopefully a wider range of prices from which to choose from, we should see a lot more people starting to get their toes wet with eBooks.

While I don't use a dedicated reader, but my iPod, I find that a lot of people reject this idea out hand because of the size of the screen. Just recently as I started to explain to a friend that just because the screen was small it didn't mean the type had to be small, he cut me off dismissively as if to say "Hey, you are a fanatic, its obvious that the text is too small, so stop bothering me with it". I never cease to amaze my self how people manage to delude themselves that whatever they haven't tried or don't feel like experimenting must be bad, regardless of what they hear. For some of these people, even a 15 inch screen will still not be good enough because they will tell you that it doesn't feel like a book.

The Net is simply buzzing with the rumors that Apple will introduce a new device this month which might have the reading of electronic publications as one of its features. To tell the truth, while I think that Apple might just want to add this business to their iTunes offerings, they don't even have to do that in order to shake the eBook world. If the rumored Apple Tablet device is capable of running iPhoneOS applications or if it is a simple process to update the iPhone applications to run on it, the applications for eBook reading on iPhone will be more than enough to make this device almost irresistible to eBook lovers.

Imagine a reader with a full color screen capable of displaying anything you've purchased over the past years plus full color PDF documents. Just that is more than enough to make most users of ebook readers salivate. If you add in the ability to listen to audiobooks, browse the Web, do email, use Twitter, access Facebook, LinkedIn, listen to your music and watch movies... Depending on how much such a device costs, things could get ugly for reader manufacturers.

While all this is still speculation, it seems pretty clear to me that interest in ebooks will continue to grow. If we will see a regular organic growth pattern or an explosive one is still to be seen. If Apple joins the game, I'll put my money on explosive. What do you think?

Barnes & Noble enters the eBook reader market with the "Nook"

2009-10-22T17:36:00.001-02:00

Barnes & Noble has just made its move to enter the eBook reader market with the introduction of its own device. This device, called "Nook" is proof that there is plenty of chance for innovation in this field. The Nook adds a small, full color, screen underneath the eInk screen which is used for displaying the content for reading.

By using this separate screen Barnes & Noble elegantly worked around the most inconvenient aspect of the currently available crop of eBook readers: navigating through your content.

The eInk screen used in just about every eBook reader out there is great for displaying black on white content as it does not require energy to maintain the image being displayed. This allows for incredibly long lasting battery charges which is a great aspect for a device you would want to carry on a long trip.

On the other hand eInk displays have notorious slow refresh times making them a pain for quickly displaying options and menus for navigating the devices actual content. By using a separate, touch enabled, display for the navigation, the Nook allows for much simpler and faster navigation with a richer end-user experience as it can display book covers in full color.

The Nook's appearance is very similar to that of the Kindle 2, with the color screen taking the space used by a keyboard in Amazon's product.

In addition to the second screen, the Nook also goes beyond the Kindle in communication options as it allows the usage of WiFi for downloading content, allowing users to take advantage of any hotspot to get new books. With an introductory price of $259, the Nook could be an interesting alternative for those considering getting an eBook reader.

The Climate is Changing... Can eBooks help?

2009-10-14T11:27:00.000-03:00

I love my traditional, paper, books as much as any other book lover does. Holding a reading device while sitting in a confortable armchair doesn't really equal sitting in the same chair with a nice, original, book in your hands...

But... Let's get real about it... We're in a changing world. There are too many of us, placing too much strain on our environment. Our climate is changing and it doesn't seem to be for the better. Can we really justify the continued use of paper books when they are not necessary?

Over the past four years I must have purchased somewhere around twenty paperback or hardcover books. During the same period, I have certainly aquired more than one hundred and fifty eBooks and some ten audiobooks. While the overall phisical experiece might be different, my enjoyment of the works themselves was not diminshed at all. In this last month alone I read over ten eBooks and listned to six audiobooks.

If you haven't yet started to make the move to electronic, you should try it. Do your little bit to help reduce climate change by reading in electronic books, using a low power device such as a Kindle, a Sony Reader or on your iPod or iPhone.

Sony announces the third eBook Reader this month

2009-08-27T00:29:00.003-03:00

Sony announced the third new model of eBook Reader, this month. This new model has a larger screen, in addition to a built-in 3G modem and seems to be a direct competitor to the larger Kindle DX model.

Sony's products have an distinct advantage over the Kindle in the fact that they directly support Adobe Acrobat PDF files which can be directly loaded through memory cards or a USB connection.

Sony also announced that it will be possible to borrow books from local public libraries in the US, for reading in the eReaders, with the book automatically expiring at the end of a 21-day loan period.

While I still haven't been able to experiment with these devices, Sony's product line and related initiatives seem to indicate that the company is really committed to eBooks.

Random thoughts on Stanza eBook reader

2009-08-27T00:20:00.002-03:00

Stanza seems to be a generally well regarded ebook reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As it is available for both Windows and OS X, it attracted my attention. First I downloaded it on my MacBook but it is so minimalistic that it just seemed incomplete to me. As if development had been abruptly halted before the product was ready.

As I ran into the snag that Baen sells some pre-release texts only in formats which are incompatible with the eReader software which I regularly used, I decided to give Stanza a chance again. I bought the books from Baen and started reading the first one of them. My opinion hasn't changed much, though. Now, more than before, I have a feeling that the software isn't really ready for mainstream usage, though it seemed promising. I say that it seemed so, in the past tense, because it seems that the company behind the software has been acquired by Amazon, which already has more than one initiative in this area.

In the next days I'm planning on trying out Stanza on my iPod to see if, on that platform, it lives up to my, maybe exaggerated, expectations.

New Sony Reader models are released

2009-08-06T20:14:00.002-03:00

Sony has released two new models of its Reader device. One of the new models is smaller with a 5 inch screen and is considered to be pocket model. This smaller model will cost $199, making it one of the cheapest alternatives for reading ebooks.

Perhaps these new models can help Sony gain more traction in the market as it is currently in the shadow of Amazon's Kindle. It would be interesting for Sony to gain more market share before Barnes and Noble starts offering a device of its own, next year.

I hope to be able to see these devices first hand soon, but won't hold my breath waiting for it. Sony doesn't seem to consider Brazil as a potential market for ebook Readers as I've never seen one for offered for sale down here. For now, I'll continue to consider my iPod as the best device for reading ebooks.

eBooks, Books and space

2009-07-12T01:14:00.004-03:00

I'm currently right in the middle of the process of setting up an apartment for my family to move to, within this month. As I have a sizable collection of books, the question of how and where to store them came boiling up as I realized that while I'm moving to a larger apartment, it's got no bookcases.

This got me into thinking about my book reading and buying habits over the last few years. It seems that it wasn't without reason that I decided to write about eBooks as the vast majority of the books I've read over the past four or five years where ebooks. The great exception here are the books I buy while traveling abroad, to read during the flights.

At home, it seems, I not only prefer to read on my iPod, but I difficulty reading a normal. I guess that the fact that I'm always very busy writing a post for one my blogs, an article or a book makes my family consider my book reading time as being a good chance to get some more interaction with dad. (Which I guess is totally valid reasoning.)

While ebooks don't require bookcases and therefore aren't really troubling me for this imminent move, their portability is still quite a bit of a nuisance. I've got a large number of titles in Mobipocket format, but Mobipocket is dragging its feet on support for the platforms I now use: iPod/iPhone and OS X. Sure, I can get around the OS X through the use of the Windows version within a Virtual Machine, but not such work around is available for my iPod.

On the other hand, the regular books are very much on my mind now. I have the habit of giving away my non-fiction books, but I totally refuse to part with the fiction ones. I guess, the next time I go looking for an apartment I should consider the need to have a library. :-)

Reading on a notebook...

2009-06-21T11:53:00.002-03:00

Have you ever read a full book on your notebook? I've read many. A notebook certainly isn't the best device for reading an eBook but will certainly do in a pinch.

For many years I'd used a Palm IIIc or a Dell Axim X3 for reading eBooks. I was quite happy with these devices as book readers, apart from the fact that even with minimum brightness they sometimes still seemed too bright in a dark room. They, unfortunately, were getting old and began in one way or another to fail.

I was looking into getting an iPhone, or an iPod Touch, but hadn't made my mind to do so yet when both devices died on me. As both iPhones and iPods cost several times more in Brazil then they do in the US, or most any any other country, I wasn't ready to just go out and buy one. This left me in the position of not having a device for reading my eBooks and the notebook started to seem more and more attractive as a reader.

Thankfully I have a confortable armchair at home, where I do most of my reading and with the help of a nice "lap-table" my notebook turned out to be a pretty decent book reader, though a lot less "confortable" than just holding a lightweight device with one hand. While I would not recommend that anyone exchange a Kindle, SonyReader or an iPhone/iPod for a notebook for reading books, the experience isn't really that bad.

Apart from the fact that I have no more room for storing books in my apartment, eBooks have always been the first choice for me because you can download them immediately instead of waiting for them to be delivered and because there are no shipping costs involved.

If you find yourself in a similar situation you should try reading on the notebook and you might be surprised that it isn't as bad as you think. Frankly, I expected the experience to be a lot worse and a lot more wearing on the eyes.

Being able to read books on my notebook turned out to be a great way to bridge the time between the death of my old Palm and Axim and when I got an iPod Touch to replace them.

The Audiobook alternative

2009-05-17T19:48:00.005-03:00

There are still a lot of people that haven't yet tried listening to a book, instead of reading it. I was in pretty much that situation, up to a bit over a year ago. I had had very little contact with audio books, up until then. In fact, the only person I knew that was a regular consumer of audio books what a friend that has a slight vision impairment that makes it hard for him to read at night.

It was by chance that I actually "read" my first audio book. I had been reading several books in a collection and when I got to the last one, it wasn't available as an ebook and I really wasn't looking forward to waiting around for the book to be delivered from Amazon. I looked a bit around and found the audio book version for emmidiate download. That decided it for me. I could keep on reading my story without any delay.

I can't say that I prefer to listen to books then to read them, but I found new ways to be entertained by books, with the help of a few audio books and my iPod. I now listen to books when I go to work and come back home. When I go to the supermarket, when I'm travelling and whenever I have lunch by my self. I found that listening to a good book, makes me consider the time spent in all these activities as much more pleasant and productive.

Reading on the iPhone and iPod and the future of books

2009-05-09T21:46:00.003-03:00

One of the first things I did after I got an iPod Touch was to install eReader on it. Actually, it might have been the first application I installed, though I can't be totally sure.

I have been reading books electronically for a long time as I have always been a big believer that this is the inevitable future of books. I've read a lot of books on my PocketPC and on notebooks and now that I've got some on the iPod I feel we are getting closer to what I used to envision for this technology back in 1997.

Back then I set out to create both an ebook reading and a creation software. I was certain that the future was all about buying books on the Internet and immediatelly downloading them to your reading device. As these devices were not immediatelly available I was writing a PC version of what I though the device should do. It was a lot of fun, even though it didn't really go anywhere as we were not able to raise capital to really startup the busines.

Still, this early experience, and the fact that I just "believed" that this was the future, made me follow advances in this area closely and made an early adopter out of me. Through these years I've always maintained that what was really needed was a device that was light and thin, but that still had a big enough screen to be confortable to hold and read.

The Kindle DX is a step in the right direction, as far as screen sizes go, but it is also a step in the wrong direction in respect to price and functionality. If I am going to carry a device of tha size around and pay that much for it, I expect it to do a lot more than allow me to read.

The iPhone and the iPod Touch are a step in the right direction in regards to the functionality of the device and even in regards to price, but still have a small screen. Now, if Apple only released a Kindle sized device with the capabilities of the iPod Touch we would be just about where we need to be get the masses to really take to reading electronic editions.

Amazon introduces a BIG Kindle

2009-05-09T20:28:00.003-03:00

Amazon introduced this week the Kindle DX. The new product is essentially a much larger version of the Kindle 2 with the capability of displaying native PDF files. You can expect that without the need to make the document fit on the smaller screen of the Kindle and still be readable the reading experience will be much better.

Early pictures show great looking images of newspapers and we can expect that textbooks will be much more at home in this new device. In fact it seems that Amazon is specifically targetting newspapers and textbooks with this new device. This strategy makes a lot of sense to me, as these publications don't really fit well on a small screen.

The price of this new device, on the other hand, is a bit puzzling. At $489.00 the Kindle DX is too expensive to become a mass market phenomenon. I can only image that it is the e-ink display that makes the device so expensive as you can get great netbooks a lot cheaper.

Sony is making available free ebooks

2009-03-20T11:34:00.002-03:00

An article on Ars Technica called to my attention that Sony is making available books which have been scanned into PDF by Google, on its online store. These books have already been available directly from Google, but it seems that they get special formatting for the Sony Reader if downloaded from the store.

Most of these books are texts from before 1920 and while some might be considered classics, others are just old and outdated. While we should welcome the preservation and availablity of all literary work, it is not clear if this will have any significant impact on the perceived value of the Sony Reader.

The new model Reader recently released by Sony as a "primium" product and not as a replacement for the model already on the market offers a screen with half the shades of grey available on the new Kindle 2 (8 opposed to 16), while boasting a significantly higher price at $499,00.

Amazon makes smart move with Kindle for the iPhone

2009-03-04T11:30:00.003-03:00

Amazon is definitely playing it smart in releasing Kindle for the iPhone. From what information I've been able to get it seems that the first implementation of the software is still a bit "plain", but this is a huge step forward.

Lets look at how this is good for readers first. To start out, if you own an iPhone (not sure if the iPod touch will work as well) you'll be able to read Kindle books without having to buy a Kindle. Considering the price of a Kindle, this is surely the cheapest way to get started with Amazon ebooks. The Kindle for iPhone application is free.

Readers from outside the US might be able to order ebooks from Amazon, while previously they surely couldn't as the Kindle is only sold in the US. (I would guess that this would be a big plus for Amazon too.) Also, though I'm sure many people take their Kindles on the road, speacilly on long trips, just about everyone carries their phones everywhere. This means that readers will be able to read more, in situations in which it would not have been possible too so before. (Oh, I guess this could be considered a plus for Amazon too. Hummm, there seems to be a pattern emerging here.) Having the Kindle for iPhone sych your reading position with your Kindle is a big one too, as you can more confortably read on the Kindle's larger (and easier on the eyes) screen when you get home.

Now for Amazon, everything about this is a great move. They get more readers, readers reading more and consequently probably buying more books. At the same time they stake out the ebook reading territorry in the iPhone.

After the casualness with which the iPhone and iPod Touch started to make inroads in the portable game console market, against such stablished players as the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, Amazon must have felt that they better make sure that people reading on the iPhone and iPods were reading books sold by Amazon.

UPDATE: It seems that the iPod Touch can run the Kindle for iPhone application.

Kindle 2 - A New Hope

2009-03-02T23:45:00.004-03:00

I've read many reviews of Amazon's new version of its Kindle eBook reader. It seems to be a general consensus that the new version is a huge improvement over the previous one.

Being based in Rio de Janeiro I cannot get a Kindle 2, as they are not sold overseas, and the import tax would really kill its attractiveness. The pictures I've seen to substantiate what the reviews indicate: the new Kindle looks much better than the previous one.

Image source: Amazon.com

Amazon seems to be onde right track with the Kindle, as Sony seems to be going in a general good direction with its own eBook reader. When visiting a Sony store in San Francisco I had the oppotunity to try the Sony reader and it gave a much better impression than what I had seen of the Kindle. With the new version, Amazon seems to be making up the difference in design effort.

In general principle, in looking for an ebook reader, I would prefer one that is tied up to Amazon then one that is tied to the Sony online book store. This seems to be the big selling point for Amazon's Kindle.

The Saga of the Seven Suns

2008-09-28T12:02:00.002-03:00

Kevin J. Anderson has done a remarkable job in creating this Saga which is composed of as many books as there are suns in its name. It is a single, continuous story that picks up in one book just where the previous one had ended, taking the reader on a long ride.

The characters of the novels are well crafted and at no time do you have the feeling that you are reading something which is not relevant to the story line, regardless of whether the passage is about a little girl in an out-of-the-way colony planet or the King of multi-planetary confederation. Everything is weaved into a pattern and contributes to the overall story.

By Schism Rent Asunder, by David Weber

2008-08-05T23:58:00.004-03:00

This book is a sequel to Off Armageddon Reef and a very good one at that. When I finished reading Off Armageddon Reef I was eager to find out how the story would continue. Not only had I liked the characters but the whole situation in which we humanity finds itself in its new home in the planet Safehold is intriguing.

By Schism Rent Asunder takes us through the continued, and unstoppable, events that were triggered by the events in the previous book. As with with Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder is the kind of book which you will not want to put down. In this book David Weber seems to have done a great job of controlling his usual tendency to sometimes indulge in long descriptions and the book flows very well.

Upon reaching the end of the story I was left, once again, with a craving for more information about what will happen with the main characters and how will events turn out for the last remnants of the human race. Having to start a civilization entirely from scratch could not be easy, but having to do so with the weight of religion which was specifically created to prevent technological innovation certainly seems to be a challenge.

Off Armageddon Reef, by David Weber

2008-03-29T15:29:00.003-03:00

I've recently read Off Armageddon Reef, David Weber's most recent title and the first in a new series which introduces an entirely new universe. I have read almost all books in Weber's Honor Harrington series and have generally liked all of them and when I stumbled upon a reference to this book I got drawn in by its description.

Off Armageddon Reef is a book set in a distant future when humanity has been almost totally annihilated by a xenophobic race: the Gbaba. One planet remains and in order to escape destruction at the hands of the Gbaba, humans had to abandon all technology which might send energy emission out to space. In time, without technology, all this is forgotten and nothing but an artificially created religion is keeping the last humans from inadvertently repeating the steps that led to the destruction of Earth and all its colonies.

That is when secret plans are put into action and the actual story begins.

In this book Weber manages to bring together high-tech science fiction and a pre-industrial civilization which bares close resemblance to the 1700s and early 1800s of Earth history. In is interesting how he manages to nicely combine the last remnants of the original human civilization's advanced technology with a universe that has all the elements of a passion that we share, the Horation Hornblower novels by C.S. Forrester.

Though, as usual, Weber tends from time to time to over-describe some scenes of the story, this does not detract from the actual story line and if you just bear with it the story is quite enjoyable and entertaining. I've read some unfavorable comments about the names of the characters in the book which do look quite strange and seem to be variations of current names which would have changed and evolved over the long period of isolation the books civilization is gone through. It is an interesting touch but it does tend to be a bit confusing at times. Again, I feel this did not affect my enjoyment of the story.

I'm looking forward to reading the sequel to this book: By Schism Rent Assunder, which is due to be released in July of 2008.

Welcome to The Longo Review

2008-03-07T11:04:00.000-03:00

Please don't let the impressive title for this blog give you a wrong idea. This blog is not going to stuffy or overly formal. In fact, all I'll be writing here are my personal opinions about Books, eBooks and eBook reading devices.

I'll comment, also, on online stores and book-related services and on my personal experience in using them. It is not my intention to speak ill about any book, author or store so I'll be focusing on titles and authors I've liked, when commenting on the books. When commenting book related products such as reader devices and software and online stores and services I'll try to present as impartial a commentary as possible, while still giving you all the information you need to evaluate if such devices or services are of interest.