Andrea’s Amazon Bits

Andrea James has a nifty blog that covers Amazonand has a couple of interesting bits on it lately. One of them looks at the new Amazon “window-shopping” experience, that’s at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/amazon/archives/152723.asp. The other one looks at Oprah’s endorsement of the Kindle and discusses the possibility that Kindle may be a better buy for women.

I don’t know about that. I do own a Kindle, however, and know that my expectations of what a book should offer me has been much changed since I got my Kindle (which I love and which I use constantly.) I also find myself very irritated if a paper book on Amazon is not available on Kindle. Now do I still read paper books? Heck yeah. But Kindle books are cheaper for the most part, there’s no waiting for delivery, and I do believe that reading on the E-Ink screen is just as comfortable (possibly more comfortable) than a paper book.

Royalty Rate Unchanged; iTunes Stays

Apple had threatened to shutter its iTunes service if royalty rates on downloaded songs went up, but it didn’t happen. A brief AP article notes that the royalty rates were left unchanged for digital downloads and CDs — 9.1 cents per song.

Meanwhile, a writer over at the Motley Fool calls BS on the idea that Apple would ever have shut down iTunes, and explains why. A commenter disagrees, saying Apple could take a short-term revenue hit.

Sony Announces New E-Book Reader

On October 2, Sony announced its new E-Book rear, the PRS-700. From the wording it looks like it will complement, not displace, the PRS-505.

The new reader is about 10 ounces with a six inch display, similar to Kindle. The new Sony Reader will also have a touchscreen (which Kindle does not) and has a stylus with virtual keyboard for virtual notetaking.

Sony Reader, like Kindle, has e-ink display, which means no backlight, which means no night reading. Except the new reader has a built-in LED reading light (wonder what that does to battery life.)

The Kindle has built-in wireless for buying books from Amazon. Sony Reader doesn’t have that but it does have SD and Memory Stick card slots, and the Sony Reader is making major inroads at retailers, being stocked at both Borders and Target.

The PRS-700 will be available next month for about $400. You can get pix and more details at Sony.com.

Everybody Talkin’ ‘Bout slotMusic

I was waiting for the music and the albums list, but it’s not available yet, so I better write this up before it gets moldy. A variety of companies have gotten together to announce the upcoming availability of music — DRM-free music — on microSD cards. They’re calling it slotMusic. The microSD cards means that slotMusic will be perfect for cell phones and other devices that use those tiny cards, but releases will also be packed with USB sleeves that make them compatible with desktop computers.

The press release announcing slotMusic mentions that slotMusic will be released from EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. It’ll first be available in the US from stores including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, with Europe coming later.

The press release mentions that artists will have the option to put other things on the microSD cards — like liner notes and videos — but it’s not clear if the cards will be re-writable or if they’re write once at manufacture. Passing around a bunch of rewritable media sounds very virus-y. It’s also not clear how much these albums will cost. Wasn’t it the case that CDs cost less to produce than cassettes and yet cost more? Is this going to be the same thing?

There’s a Web site at www.slotmusic.org but there isn’t much there yet. You can read the press release at MarketWatch.

Pirate Bay Hoists the Lawsuit Flag

I don’t know if I’m more bemused by the role-reversal or the pure-D ballsiness. A Wired Blog notes that Peter Sunde, a co-founder of torrent site the Pirate Bay, is accusing a group of Swedish book publishers of illegal scraping, and is threatening a lawsuit, saying Pirate Bay owns the copyright to its database of torrents which the publishers violated.

Once you get past the surrealism, there’s a pretty astonishing statistic you might want to make note of. The book publishers, who were doing all this scraping for a study, noted that 85 percent of the best-selling books in Sweden are available on the Pirate Bay. And Sunde is quoted by TorrentFreak that he’s “a bit sad that it’s not 100%.”

Xerox NextFests Its Erasable Paper

Xerox is showing off its erasable paper at the WIRED NextFest, which is going on right now — the Xerox exhibits page is at http://www.wirednextfest.com/inform/2008/exhibits/erasable_paper.php.

This isn’t E Ink –it’s tree paper. Here’s how Xerox describes it — “Xerox’s erasable paper is coated with chemicals that react to light of a specific wavelength. When the paper is exposed to that wavelength, it creates visible text on the page. Within 24 hours, the paper erases itself and can be used again…”

So you can recycle paper without all that annoying aggregating, sorting, pulping, and re-manufacturing. You can get a little more information about the erasable paper at http://www.xerox.com/innovation/exp_paper.shtml. They need a time-lapse video or something….

Hints for Saving Money on Your Book Habit

The Associated Press had a brief article on the ways readers can save money on their book habits. Several sites are mentioned on here, including PaperbackSwap.com and Bookins.com. One quote caught my eye, though — “A diet of three books a month costs her only about $6, clearly a bargain for an avid reader.” (The quote was about a user of PaperbackSwap.com.) I admit it’s cheap for a book, but go to eBay and do a search for “lot of” in the book category. If you’re patient, you can get lots of books for way cheaper than $2 each, even including shipping. (This is especially good for folks who go through Harlequin Romance like Pez.)

The story also mentions price comparing (between on-and-offline), getting public domain electric copies at Gutenberg (though personally I prefer the completely awesome Manybooks.net) and going to used bookstores and library sales.

Penn State Hands Out Sony Readers

Penn State is trying an experiment. As the university notes on its Web site, it will begin a yearlong pilot program using the Sony Reader. (Sony donated 100 of them to the university libraries.) The readers will be used in the English department, will be available for borrowing in the Course Reserve Reading Room, and will be used in the libraries’ first-year seminar class for developing information literacy skills.

bnet Blogs the Alleged End of the Publishing Industry

Karen Steen at bnet has an article called “The End of Publishing, or Its Rebirth?”, which blogs an article at New York Magazine and cover the advent of a new publishing angle called HarperStudio. Unfortunately some questions remain unanswered: how are returns being reduced? What’s the average advance for a HarperStudio author? Is there personalized publicity, canned PR, or no publicity at all?

KB Toys Gets Into “Super Value”

KB Toys announced on September 16 that they’re offering new three “Super Value” lines — Super Value Video Games, Super Value Family DVDs, and interestingly, Super Value Previously-Played Video Games (one more major retailer gets into the used market.) The Super Value program is described as carrying games (new games) starting at $9.98, while the used line didn’t have prices described. The press release noted only that the used games would offer guarantees. You can get the full press release at Marketwatch.com.