Cheap-O Tablets and e-book readers showing up at Big Boxers--is the era of the e-book finally here?

Today I saw that fellow-gadgethound Mike Lee had posted a pic taken of a K-Mart weekly circular that featured, on sale for $149, an Android-powered 7 inch tablet.  The circular described it thusly:

“SALE Augen 7” tablet. Google Android OS. Read ebook. Watch a video and listen to music. Browse web. Wi-fi built in.

Sounds basic, but what’s interesting is that it’s available at K-Mart at all AND that it’s not a real name-brand tablet.  I was curious about the specs, so I tried finding it on K-Mart’s website.  Alas, I couldn’t find it, but did find this:



Yeah, that’s not the $149 Android-powered tablet mentioned in the K-Mart circular, but it is a cheaper Kindle clone.  It comes with 2GB storage and an SD slot, however.  If it weren’t for the lack of the e-Ink display and the color LCD that replaces it, I’d be curious if it would have better battery life.  However, the fact that this is an e-book reader available at K-Mart says something to me.

In the “also viewed” section I found a link to the ”Mach Speed Trio 8GB 4.3 in. Touchscreen Display Video MP3 Player” which isn’t a full-sized tablet, but does mention that it can read e-books. I also found the “Aluratek Libre eBook Reader PRO” which looks more like a Sony e-book reader clone.  The site lists no specs for it aside from the fact that it’s got an “e-paper” display (e-paper is the generic term for non-back-lit displays and has no direct connection to the proprietary “e-Ink” name).  The Aluratek Libre is available at K-Mart for $129.

The point here is that you’ve probably never heard of “Aluratek,” “Mach Speed” or “Augen” as brands, yet, here they are, listed on K-Mart’s website.  What I’m getting at here is that I think, now that we’re seeing low-end companies get onboard the e-book train, the e-Book Era has finally arrived.  Nope, it’s not about Apple or Amazon—the sure sign is when everyone can make a buck.

Is Sony's New E-Reader Ushering in a World with No Copyright?

Sony recently announced their Kindle-Killer, the Sony Reader Daily
Edition. Why do I think this is the beginning of the end for copyright in the world? Well, honestly, I don't, but effectively, that's what the new RDE will do--whether industry will accept it or not is not up to me.

See, while Sony's new e-reader allows you to do everything the Kindle can do, book-wise anyway (there's no browser), it also allows you to take out library books. That's right. Library books--you "take them out" by downloading them wirelessly to your RDE. They expire after a given time, fulfilling the "returning your library book" part of the traditional equation without you having to do a thing--but right there is the part where copyright breaks down.

Unlike a real book, this is an an e-book--a digital copy of a book--there's no need for you to return it so someone else can check it out. This means that you can just take it out again and again. Effectively, you own the e-book without actually paying for it.

Sure, the library could apply rules that would determine how many times in a row you could check a book out, but since it's digital this is literally a creation of artificial scarcity. Sony's technology has jumped the capitalist shark and can provide unlimited copies of any book in any library that's part of it's network. So, why ever buy books again?

Now, I'm not really saying this is the end of copyright, but I am saying it might as well be. Once libraries start making their multimedia collections available for digital download (which they'll do eventually), that'll pretty much be it.

For me, this is just a replay of every argument against technology since the Church went after Galileo. Eventually science won out because it could prove that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The same loss hit the MPAA when VHS proved to be a technology Hollywood could actually work with.

Now it's just up to the Entertainment Industry to work out a new business model that will allow them to peacefully co-exist with this technology before they are out-evolved by it.

Adapt or die, folks...

Read more about Sony Reader Daily Edition on Mashable.com or in an article at CRN.com.

TheTechVlog: Kindle 2 Unboxing with ThePete and Jay (sort of)

Sorry--shot this last week when I got my Kindle 2, but got distracted with Big Night Out and then the midnight screening of Watchmen. Here it is, my Kindle 2 unboxing video:

TheKey (my novel!) makes a great gift! http://snurl.com/thekeybook

Buy my book!

Just a quick note for anyone who is still looking for something to get the book reader in their family: my novel, TheKey is available right now at Lulu.com here: http://snurl.com/thekeybook where you can get it for just $11!!. WHAT A VALUE! PLUS you can download the, uh, downloadable version for just $2!!
 
What's it about? Well, TheKey follows the adventures of a handful of amateur conspiracy theorists as they go on a quest to find and destroy one of the most powerful computer viruses ever devised. A virus so powerful, it is capable of destroying every computer on the Internet. Along the way they discover that every conspiracy they've heard of is true and worse than they could have imagined. They also learn that accepted history itself is a lie crafted by the very people who are out to beat them to that virus--a tiny computer program known as, TheKey.
 
So, not only is it perfect for the book reader in your life, it's IDEAL for the conspiracy freak in your life! And if you're like me, you ARE one!! OK, I only entertain conspiracies--but the story is a lot of fun. Pick up a copy and support ThePete!!!
 
PLEASE DON'T HESITATE! If you want to by TheKey in paperback, you must order before December 19 to get it by Christmas! (and even then I think you'll have to pay a bit extra for shipping :( )
 
Not celebrating Christmas? Well, why not pick up a copy anyway? It's good conspiracy fun for the whole--well, almost the whole family. If it were a movie, it'd probably be PG-13. But ANYway, please order a copy of TheKey today! (Or, whenever is convenient, really--I don't want to pressure you.)
 
Oh and THANKS!

AMAZON'S KINDLE: ThePete's Take: Not Even for Kindling

Yeah, I really think Jeff Bezos is not the person to listen to when it comes to considering the future of technology. This is the guy who agreed with the guy who made the Segway who also said that cities would redesign themselves for said Segway. Oh yeah, Bezos is also the guy who built his own spaceship. Now what is he spouting on about? It's that thing to the right--it's called the Amazon Kindle and he's convinced it's the future of books. But check out the features:

6 inch diagonal B&W (grayscale) screen

Uses Sprint's EV-DO network (connects to 'net via cell phone network) to hook you to the Amazon Kindle Store (think iTunes Music Store for digital books)

QWERTY keyboard for entering in book titles (and such) to said AKS, you can also annotate and bookmark

Compatible with Audible.com tracks as well as standard mp3s

Has an SD (low capacity) slot for "expansion"

Supports something called "Kindle format" for text docs, along with PDF, Mobi, HTML, plaintext, and image files like JPEG, GIF, and PNG (source) but I have yet to read conclusively that it surfs the web

Comes with a built-in dictionary and allows you to wirelessly connect to Wikipedia.org

All that for just $400.

I haven't even told you how expensive books and newspapers are.

Books: $9.99 (for most titles)
Newspapers: $9.99 to $14.99/mo
Magazines (the only reasonably priced thing here): $1.99/mo

Will it flop? Well, I haven't heard of Bezos making any flights into orbit and I only see Segways zooming down the street when there's a blue moon out, so, based on those two facts and the cost of the Kindle, I'm going to go out on a limb and say:

Baring an extreme price drop, the Amazon Kindle will bomb.

I mean, think about it: you're saying the future of a passtime that hardly anyone does is in an electronic device that costs $400???

For that price you can get a laptop--hell, the eee PC is the same price and it runs XP! I just dropped $400 on an XO laptop and it has basic PC features (like web surfing) and it has an e-Book mode. So, why should I be expected to drop another $400 on the Kindle? Just because it has free Sprint EV-DO service?? Well, it only has free EV-DO to the Kindle store and to Wikipedia--that's hardly a robust Internet experience. I can do more on my Sidekick 3--which also cost me $400. But my SK3 is a phone and I can surf and check my email and IM and, a short stack of other things.

So, remind me again why I should drop $400 on the Kindle?

I'd say this thing is worth $100 for what it does. Ditch the free EV-DO service and just let us load our own stuff in it and I'm good. Oh and the books that cost nothing to copy over and over and over? Those should be about $3--not $10. Who the hell do you think you're kidding, Bezos? $9.99 for a digital book? Where do the costs go? Not to cover design or printing--just to marketing and download service support (I'm assuming that most of the mark-up on the Kindle, itself, goes to pay for the EV-DO).

Frakkin' greedy bastards. All these guys think about is how much they can charge instead of how little. Do they want their device in everyone's hands? Newsflash, guys! The cheaper your tech is, the more people will buy it! This is especially true if your device is as useless as the Kindle.

sources: Amazon Kindle product page Engadget: here, here, and here.