Now All eBook Eyes Turn To Kobo

Children of @elandes reading on Kobo eReaders

https://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/status/160410153454288897

https://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/status/160410422879584256

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The Missing iBooks 2 Post

I made a special trip into Manhattan today to go to the Apple Store to try out iBooks 2.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t yet loaded onto any iDevices.

Apple Corporate has to give the word. There are things to consider when it comes to Sample books shown, apparently. Some might be Copyright-related, but I’m not sure.

As it stands, it will be perhaps a few days before I can try the new iBooks 2 and the new interactive iBooks Author-created books for myself.

Until then, I won’t have anything to say about all of what’s been happening Apple-wise in this area.

School Textbooks Change Forever Starting Today: Wikitextbooks

Later today Apple will unveil its new authoring software for interactive multimedia digital books — what I call xBooks.

While pompous partners of print will line up to endorse it, Apple doesn’t give a shit or even a half shit about any them.

Just as Amazon doesn’t give even an eighth of a shit for the Big Six of print publishing.

What Apple’s delusional textbooks partners still don’t realize is that today marks the end of their greedy reign and monopoly.

With the Apple tools available to all, those who can do textbooks faster, cheaper, and better are going to come in and destroy the industry as it has been known.

Just as established print encyclopedias have fallen in the face of Wikipedia, textbooks will fall in the face of wikitextbooks.

Jimmy Wales, start your engine!

Two Years Later, Apple Is Bringing The xBooks

2011: This Month’s Apple Event To Focus On Publishing And iBooks

2009: Apple Will Break Open The Digital Book Floodgates

I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting.

“xBook” is my designation, coined here:

Since people cannot decide whether they are “enhanced” or “enriched” or “eBooks with extras,” I am coining the term xBook to encompass digital books that contain audio, video, and other interactive elements that require more than an eInk device to read. xBook has the advantage of not being a widely-known trademark and the “x as extra” is easy to explain to people. (Western Skyland Corporation holds a trademark for “xBook.” Western Skyland Corporation is a beard company for Microsoft. Since all but one other trademark held by this beard company is dead, I think it’s safe to use xBook as a generic term since it is not being actively used in the marketplace by the registrant.) Note that xBook should refer to an eBook — ePub or Kindle format — with extras, not an app, such as Vook.

What I didn’t know then was that Apple was part of the IDPF and waiting for the ePub3 spec to be finalized.

Apple Patent Lays Groundwork For Web-Based Digital Books

A New Patent Application from Apple Introduces us to a Breakthrough Platform Independent Word Processor

Apple states that although the present invention is primarily described in the context of a browser-based word processing system, the present invention could in fact be more generally applied to any system that renders textual information in a platform-independent manner and is not meant to be limited to word-processing systems or browser-based systems.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Looking at that patent, it’s all obvious.

Smartphones Will Lead To Smart xBooks

First Look at Aro for iPhone: Can This Semantic Software Replace Your Core Mobile Apps?

As innovative as the technology is, the interface still feels too technical, as if built by engineers not designers. The objects Aro recognizes are circled so as to highlight them, like a teacher correcting a student’s homework. Aro is training wheels for learning semantic technology. Here’s a person, here’s a date, it tells you. Tap this here. See what happens.

The text is circled because we, as Web users, can quite grasp the concept of actionable data that’s not highlighted in some way. We expect hyperlinks, colored and underlined, to direct our clicks. But links are going away, says Andrew Hickl, Aro’s CTO. Semantic technology will eventually lead to their demise. In a decade or so, any object, any piece of data, anything that you can touch will be able to do anything and no one will need training to know that’s the case – it will just be the way it is.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

People will become used to text acting a certain way.

When it doesn’t in digital books, they will be damned disappointed.

Previously at The eBook Test:

Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

Does The NookColor Have An iPad Factor?

WE know NookColor is not a tablet. But will people CARE? Just like some people “know” the iPad “isn’t a computer.”Wed Oct 27 13:22:22 via webMike Cane
mikecane

@mikecane No, nobody cares that nook color is not a “tablet”.Wed Oct 27 14:15:15 via YoruFukuroulizcastro
lizcastro

The NookColor will not allow people to use Kindle, Kobo, or Aldiko apps. To us here in the eBook world, that matters.

To NookColor buyers, it probably won’t: “I don’t need those, I can get books from Barnes & Noble.” And: “I don’t care if it’s not a ‘true’ tablet, I can still get apps from Barnes & Noble.”

Note that second reason was often used by iPad owners against Windows supporters!

Given how hard I expect Barnes & Noble to push xBooks (just see AliveTouch in the video below at about 2:50), some of those NookColor owners — with their exclusive Nookbooks — could wind up turning around and asking, “Can your iPad do that?”

“Round Books”

A German author has come up with a new kind of reading experience — a “libroid.”

The “libroid” has no pages and therefore no page numbers — readers keep track of their progress with the percentage of the text they have already read. Authors can add to the text whenever they want.

“Some authors will write round books with endless stories without a beginning or end,” Neffe added.

My head spins.

No mention of what these will be compatible with, device-wise.

Blio: Round Two. It’s STILL FAIL!

I borrowed someone’s modern (less than six months old!) notebook to give Blio another try because of the whining resistance I encountered on Twitter about my original post.

I did photos. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of shuffling JPEG screensnaps.

See photos after the break.

Blio Is Here And It’s FAIL. Next!

Finally, Blio is here!

The New New Shiny Thing that will revolutionize reading and throw dirt on all those eInk devices and show the genius of Ray Kurzweil who is Sure How Books Must Be Done.

Forget it, Jack!

This pig has no wings.

See the gore after the break.