Google AdWords Seeks Suckers Via Wal-Mart

Update: See bottom of post!

Original post title: Google AdWords Promotes Piracy Via Wal-Mart

So I was going to do a post about eBook devices that included Wal-Mart.

As part of the research, I searched for “ebook” at Wal-Mart’s site.

None of the listed eBook devices are carried in stores, so I decided to search my local store, but I saw this:

Click = big

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Very Odd Doings: Archos, Barnes & Noble

These things probably aren’t related at all, but they seem very suspicious. And probably only to me, but here goes.

A few weeks ago, J&R listed the upcoming Archos 70 and Archos 101 Internet Tablets on its site. I signed up for emails to tell me when they’d be in stock. About a week after that, J&R sent me a strange email stating they were pulling the listings, had no idea when these would be in stock, and could provide no further information. They’re still not listed at J&R.

And it’s usually Amazon that has very early listings of Archos devices for pre-order. But this time Amazon has nothing.

Now comes this very strange rumor from CNet about Barnes & Noble to announce a color-screened Nook next week.

Well, Archos would not be above licensing a run of its tablets to Barnes & Noble here. It’d probably ensure many more sales than if it was under the Archos name.

Stranger things have happened: HP once sold the iPod.

So I wonder if these two things are connected? Nook Color is the Archos 70 Internet Tablet with a B&N badge?

dotEPUB Bookmarklet: You Want This On Your iPad Too!

works on iPad, easy transfer to stanza&bluefire, not iBooks of course RT @mikecane: dotEPUB Bookmarklet: You Want This! http://t.co/kphQoGdThu Oct 21 03:23:17 via Twitter for iPadMoxie Mezcal
MoxieMezcal

@MoxieMezcal GET OUT! Works on iPad? Saves and opens an ePub in Bluefire?!!?Thu Oct 21 11:40:29 via webMike Cane
mikecane

.@mikecane yep dotEPUB gives specifics to add iPad safari bookmarklet. once ePub is created, prompt u to pick app to open, bluefire worksThu Oct 21 13:49:46 via Twitter for iPhoneMoxie Mezcal
MoxieMezcal

Previously here:

dotEPUB Bookmarklet: You Want This!

The Internet Death Star At Work

There is an infamous spot on the Internet so feared that I will not even name it here.

So when that board appropriates something that’s on sale and makes it free, wading into it to adjust the matter is probably the most dangerous thing someone on the Internet can do. It takes real guts.

Via Warren Ellis’ Whitechapel board, go see these three posts:

1) The board I will not name (the thread is gone, but see the board’s name)

2) The conclusion of the matter

3) The lesson of the matter

Previously here:

The Internet Death Star

Four Simple Questions For Barnes & Noble

1) Do you still plan to switch all of your eBooks to ePub from PDB?

2) What percentage of your eBooks for sale are currently in the ePub format?

3) Do you still plan to make people rebuy their eBooks when you switch from PDB to ePub?

4) Why can’t you let people know ahead of time if the eBook they’re buying is in PDB or ePub format?

Apparently there have been some problems with their transition to ePub. And it’s confusing people. Me included.

Let’s see if they address any of these in their big announcement next week. Sooner would be better.

Kobo Disappoints

Kobo to small publishers: Go away!

If you’re running a small publishing outfit and want to reach the Kobo/Borders community, forget it: if you publish fewer than 10 titles, they’ll turn away your business. Unlike Amazon and Barnes & Noble, who have made it a breeze for small publishers to sell titles in their online stores, Kobo requires that you work with a digital aggregator — good news for middlemen who are an endangered species, but bad news for publishers who don’t want to deal with life-sucking middlemen.

Then why does Kobo even bother having a page that invites writers?

And what’s up with its lead paragraph? Is this just a lie?

Authors & Publishers

Interested in selling your content on Kobo? If you own the digital rights to your content – be it one title, a thousand titles, or more – we can make it happen.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Go read that page. See the other shiny, inviting claims that are now apparently utterly false. Nothing but cheap bait-and-switch.

Subjecting people to Smashwords — where formatting is indeed smashed — is not doing anyone any favors.

I was really admiring Kobo Books for being a 21st-Century company. But this move is strictly out of Dickens.

Update: Response from Kobo in the Comments.

Writers: How Many Problems Do You Want?

The problems with Dorchester are not an isolated incident. They are a harbinger of the future. That future being just the next twelve months.

Let’s review the current structure: