The eReader market is growing faster than expected: Forrester published a report in May, “How Big Is The eReader Opportunity?”, that pegged 2009 US eReader sales at 2 million. Our new report ups that projection by 50% to 3 million for 2009, with 30% of 2009 sales occuring in the holiday season of November and December, and Amazon.com leading the ereader market.

There are a number of reasons why eReader sales are growing faster than we had expected, which we detail in the report, including falling device prices, more content availability, better retail distribution, and lots and lots of media buzz.

All these dynamics will compound to fuel more growth next year, and we expect more changes in the market that could push eReader sales beyond 6 million in 2010, bringing cumulative US sales to 10 million by year-end 2010.

With Nook & Sony readers out of stock, we can say next will be a Kindle Christmas.

Source: Forrester.

What matters more to you: content or the way you get it?

I ask this question because Alan Kaufman at the Evergreen Review seems to believe the delivery method is the most important. So important that he even invokes Godwin’s Law on himself when talking about the current trend of books moving from paper to devices like the Kindle.

All physical books must go up the chimney stack. Such was the methodology of the SS who forced their prisoners to run naked races round and round the barracks yard in the Polish winter, a race that no one was meant to win.

The book is fast becoming the despised Jew of our culture. Der Jude is now Der Book. Hi-tech propogandists tell us that the book is a tree-murdering, space-devouring, inferior form of technology; that society would simply be better-off altogether if we euthanized it even as we begin to carry around, like good little Aryans, whole libraries in our pockets, downloaded on the Uber-Kindle.

What an ass.

He seems to believe that e-books are responsible for bookstores closing. They aren’t. The vast majority of the population that reads doesn’t have e-readers, but they do often buy their books online, and that’s what’s killing bookstores.

He also seems to believe that e-readers hearld a new age where only the biggest, most important authors get published. This is nonsense. If that was the case, I won’t have a short story for sale in the Kindle store (for those who don’t have a Kindle, download the free Kindle ap for the PC and then you can read my story if you like).

The writer of the article is simply wrong, and comparing the transition from paper to e-readers to the Holocaust is just insulting on many, many levels.

Further, everything is starting to digital. Does it really matter if the movie you are watching is on cable, on a DVD, on a DVR or some sort of streaming video format? Does it matter if music comes to you as an MP3, a CD, or on a record? The content is basically the same across the various delivery systems. The content is what matters.

For fun, here’s a poll:

Audible.com will give you an Amazon.com promotional code good for $100 off the purchase of select AudibleReady® devices and accessories when you join the AudibleListener® Gold plan for 12 months at $14.95 per month. If the product you choose is less than $100, you will receive the device for free. Use your promotional code toward the purchase of products sold by Amazon.com at www.amazon.com, while supplies last. This offer does not apply to products sold on (a) the www.amazon.com site by third-party merchants or (b) any other Amazon-owned, Amazon-operated, Amazon-branded, or Amazon-affiliated site.

Joining the AudibleListener® Gold plan for 12 months at $14.95/month ($179.40 for one year) before January 31st, 2010 you´ll get the $100 promotional code, one free Audible book every month (12 free Audible books) and 30% off on other titles.

This way, you can get $100 off on the Global Kindle, on the Kindle DX or on other devices. See all qualifying Kindle and Kindle accessories, qualifying MP3 players, qualifying GPS devices and qualifying accessories.

He has a thought about the E-Reader situation and has some nice statistics.  Click here to read more.

Non avrei potuto resistere. Chi mi conosce lo sa. Così, appena sbarcato in Italia, l’ho comprato. Da allora mi accompagna nel continuo girovagare e ci gioco con discreta soddisfazione.

Il mio Kindle è un gadget affascinante. E’ piccolo. Sottile. Ed è leggero. Il giocattolino consente di scaricare in pochi secondi e senza costi di connessione i libri del catalogo Amazon e i prezzi sono buoni, inferiori ovviamente alla versione cartacea. Comodo per chi, come me, legge abitualmente testi in lingua orginale, senza attendere le versioni italiane. Si legge benissimo: ti ci trovi bene da subito, con qualunque luce.

Ma. Ma non è un telefono. Non ci leggo le mail. Non accedo al google reader.
Ed è così che mi trovo spesso a passare dall’iPhone al Kindle, dalle varie fonti di notizia ai testi. Attendo dunque con impazienza l’applicazione per iPhone, al momento non disponibile in Italia.

Ancora una volta mi trovo a pensare al sempre più variegato utilizzo degli smartphones e al loro enorme potenziale nell’aggregare contenuti e renderli disponibili comodamente, rapidamente e ovunque.

Recently, Warehouse Deals, an Amazon company, has been selling Refurbished Kindle 1 for $149. Actually there are no more units available, but if you want save some bucks, you can still find Refurbished Kindles for only $219 ($40 less than new ones) and Refurbished Kindle DX for $399.99 (89 bucks less). This devices come all with 1-year full warranty.

This weekend, you can get a netbook (a little mini computer) for less than $200. You can get any number of e-readers for less than $300. Though a lot of people enjoy the feel of books, the world is undoubtedly moving in a digital direction.

In light of the upheaval this past week in the romance genre, with Harlequin dangling its toes into the subsidy publishing pool, the business model is changing, and will probably change more radically as time and technology march on.

Harlequin’s deal may not be looking forward ten months, but ten years. Once the switch gets flipped to digital, all the assumptions change. And so does the economic model.

The following predictions will almost certainly come true at some point:

• Electronic content (e-books) will overtake physical books in market share. That benchmark could be a decade ahead or two years. If you don’t think that’s possible, consider how quickly vinyl records disappeared in favor of CDs. And then consider how quickly CD sales are disappearing in favor of downloadable MP3s. Amazon isn’t stupid. It’s providing Kindles to schools in parts of the country to help children cut their teeth on electronic content.
• As e-books become more prevalent, their form will start to blend with other forms of content. It could be as simple as embedded links in books to ads, background information, or other content. (For instance, what if you write two series of novels and a character from one series shows up in another? Why not link to the other series and open up a new avenue for readers to explore?) Similarly, if a certain song provides the mood for a portion of your book, why not try to get permission to use that song and embed it? Or maybe embed a link to a YouTube video for that song so it plays in the backgroun?
• As the distance between a traditional book and its e-version increases, traditional publishing platforms’ value will decrease. If my e-book has a ton of extras (think of the extras in a DVD over the movie or TV version), why would people spend more for the book? As an author, if I can make money with added extras, I’m going to do it.
• As technology prices drop, the e-reader as hardware may give way to its incarnation as software. If you can spend $250 for a netbook that has a tablet monitor (that you can flip around and fold over), why spend that much on a separate piece of hardware just for reading? If prices for e-readers don’t quickly drop to the $100 range, that’s a real danger. Buy a netbook and spend $50 on software for the e-books. I know a lot of tech-savvy people, but no one I know well has an e-reader.
• Eventually the value that publishers add for writers and readers will shrink. In a digital world, delivery can occur without going through a traditional publisher in New York. I can (arguably) hire an editor myself who will assure the best quality for my work. I can package it. The only thing I would need a publisher for is marketing. In other words, Random House thought this book was good enough to offer on its website. Maybe the rest of the services (editing, etc.) come a la carte in exchange for a bigger cut for me once the book is made available on their website. (Sounds similar to Harlequin Horizons, doesn’t it?)

For some, this is heresy. It reeks of subsidy publishing, where the author pays the freight up front and the publisher’s risk is minimal. But for others, it makes economic sense.

Why should go through a middle man (the publisher), if you or your agent can find the right editor yourself? Why use them to package your work when you can get software to do it for you? Formatting a manuscript just isn’t that hard. Converting it to a specific format is just a matter of using File >Save As (or will be).

Put another way, if content is digital, why do Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Dan Brown, and Stephanie Meyer need a publisher? Why not edit and post their own content for download? Why give some of the money to a third party?

Harlequin’s deal may not be looking forward ten months, but ten years. Once the switch gets flipped to digital, all the assumptions change. And so does the economic model.

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Although revolutionary in concept, electronic ink is a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot.

NOTE: Image not drawn to scale – for illustration purposes only.

To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. These microcapsules are suspended in a liquid “carrier medium” allowing them to be printed using existing screen printing processes onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us.

Barnes & Noble said that its Nook e-reader delayed the shipment date into January 2010 for anyone ordering the devices after Nov. 20. This is the second time that Barnes & Noble announced a delay for its e-readers.

Reuters reports that Sony has also announced it has run out of supplies of its new reader as well, you can still find Sony readers in stock on Amazon Store.

The big winner here will be Amazon and its popular Kindle line of eReaders. Amazon had supply issues last year, but this year the ecommerce giant reportedly has plenty of stock of its readers. The unavailability of the Nook and Sony readers will have many consumers buying the Kindle since it will be available.

A legnépszerűbb elektronikus könyvolvasó az Amazonnak a Kindle nevű szerkezete, amit 2007-ben dobtak piacra, azóta két újabb verziója is napvilágot látott. A Kindle is (mint a legtöbb e-reader) az E Ink technológiát használja, ami az elektronikus papír egyik formája, és bár számtalan előnnyel rendelkezik a hagyományos elektronikus kijelzőkkel szemben, mégis hiányoznak belőle olyan tulajdonságok, amik ma az internet elengedhetetlan kellékei. A pozitívumok közé sorolható, hogy az E Inket használó gépek rendkívül alacsony fogyasztásúak, a szövegek kevés helyet foglalnak, és mivel a képernyő nincsen hátulról megvilágítva, ezért nem terheli a szemet, az olvashatóság hasonló a hagyományos papíréhoz. A negatívumok között szerepel, hogy bár a készülék hangokat lejátszani tud, de egyelőre nem képes színes képek megjelenítésére, a videókról nem is beszélve, amivel elveszik az internet egyik legfőbb előnye: a vizualitás. És persze nem elhanyagolható tény, hogy a szerkezet a technológia újdonsága miatt egyelőre méregdrága.

A Kindle-re a tartalmat letöltjük a webről, pontosabban az Amazonról vagy társoldalairól, a vásárláskor pedig bele kell egyeznünk abba, hogy nem cserélünk fájlokat más felhasználókkal. Itt már egyből megfosztanak minket attól a szabadságtól, ami az internettel és a könyvekkel jár. Ez gyakorlatilag azt jelenti, hogy senkinek nem adhatjuk kölcsön a könyvet, amit megvettünk, és aminek elvileg kizárólagos tulajdonosai vagyunk. Talán érdemel egy említést az az eset, amikor az Amazon szerzői jogi problémák miatt egy éjszaka letörölte Orwell Állatfarmját és 1984-ét a felhasználók e-readeréről. Találó az [origo] címe: Nagy testvért játszott az Amazon. A kiadónak olyan óriási hatalma van a művek felett, amilyen a hagyományos könyvek piacán elképzelhetetlen.

Ha egy kicsit eltekintünk a Kindle-től és megnézzük a wikipédiának a szócikkét, akkor az ott található táblázatban láthatjuk, hogy miként bővültek az e-readerek képességei. Az érintőképernyő gyakorlatilag alapfeltétel lett, és bár itt még csak az szerepel, hogy a szürke különböző árnyalatainak a száma hogyan növekedett, megjegyezném, hogy ugyan még nem kapható, de már  létezik (félig-meddig) színes e-könyv olvasó is. Több oka van annak, hogy ekkora problémát jelent, hogy az E Ink nem bírkózik meg a színekkel. Az egyik, hogy mivel ezekkel a készülékekkel elő lehet fizetni újságokra és blogokra, már elengedhetetlenek a képek, a másik, hogy óriási reklámbevétel-kiesést jelent a kiadók számára, hogy a hirdetési felületek fekete-fehérek. A harmadik, és talán legfontosabb pedig egészen egyszerűen az, hogy az emberek már igényt tartanak az interneten elérhető vizualitásra és az interaktív tartalmakra, hozzászoktak.

Úgy tűnik, hogy odáig fejlesztik ezeket a készülékeket, amíg egyfajta laptop lesz belőlük, amin ugyan tartalmat előállítani nehézkes, fogyasztani viszont nagyon nagyon könnyű. A Barnes & Noble e-readerén már van WiFi, és a Kindle-n is elérhető a web (bár csak korlátozott formában, és az USA-n kívül egyáltalán nem). Ne feledkezzünk meg arról, hogy az e-reader definíció szerint egy olyan készülék, ami képes e-bookok olvasására, vagyis nem feltétel, hogy kizárólag erre a célra legyen kifejlesztve. E-reader tehát az iPhone is (aminek egyébként szintén van szerződése az Amazonnal), és a legtöbb okostelefon.

Ezzel megérkeztünk a következő problémához. Az első e-readerek megjelenésekor a funkciók közé tartozott pl. az, hogy használhatunk könyvjelzőket, kiemelhetünk egyes részeket, kereshetünk a tartalomban. Megjelölhetünk oldalakat, és hozzáadhatunk jegyzeteket egy adott szövegrészhez. Ez mondjuk mind olyan tevékenység, amit elvégezhetünk egy hagyományos könyvvel is. Ezen kívül a szerkezet képes arra, hogy miközben meg van nyitva a szöveg a képernyőn, bemehetünk a menübe, és kereshetünk értelmezések vagy szinonímák között a beépített szótárban. De ez sem változtat túl sokat az olvasás élményén. Ám azzal, hogy egyre könnyebben mehetünk fel a készülékeken a világhálóra, már megtehetjük például azt is, hogy megnézzük a Google Earth-ön, hogy pontosan hol játszódik a történet, amit olvasunk, közben esetleg utánaolvashatunk egy kicsit a szerző életének, vagy megtekinthetünk pár kritikát az adott fejezettel kapcsolatban. Persze, ezek olyan információk, amik relevánsak a mű szempontjából, de számomra a könyveknek a legnagyobb előnye az, hogy egységet képeznek, teljesen másfajta élményt nyújtanak, mint az összevissza kattintgatás az interneten. (Meg persze közben próbáljuk meg megállni, hogy megnézzük az e-mailjeinket, vagy hogy átállítsuk a zenét, amit hallgatunk.)

Talán egy kicsit szélsőséges példa ugyan, de a következő fejlesztések egyike közé tartozik egy, ami szintén megfelel a mostani trendeknek: a dupla kijelző. Az Asus egy olyan e-readert hozott létre, aminek  az alapja talán a hagyományos könyvforma fizikai átültetése lenne, de én mindenesetre egyetértek a cikk írójával: a gyakorlatban ez talán nem egy túl értelmes megoldás, lapozni úgy sem tudunk. Helyette viszont felveti, hogy lehet használni a plusz kijelzőt valami egészen másra: böngészésre, e-mailezésre, újságolvasásra, a lehetőségek végtelenek. Tehát olvassuk a könyvet az egyik oldalon, és mondjuk facebookozunk a másikon.

Még néhány példát említenék arra, hogy az e-readerek hogyan tehetik a könyveket széttöredezetté. A statisztikák szerint annak a könyvnek, aminek elkészül az Kindle-s változata, 35%-al ugrik meg a forgalma az Amazonon. Viszont az adatok nem feltétlenül jelzik azt, hogy az emberek szívesen olvasnak a kütyün. Mivel bármikor nagyon egyszerűen, pár kattintás alatt megvásárolhatunk egy könyvet, az efféle impulzusvásárlások félbeszakíthatják addigi olvasmányunkat, és így visszajutottunk oda, hogy az új technológia rendszertelen olvasást eredményez, vagyis csalóka a kiadók növekvő forgalmára vonatkozó következtetés. Arról nem is beszélve, hogy rengeteg könyvnek ingyenes pl. az első fejezete, mi lesz akkor, amikor mondjuk fejezetenként fogunk fizetni a könyvekért? Vagy soha többé nem fogunk megvenni egy teljes novelláskötetet? Érdekes probléma még az, ahogy a digitális szövegeket össze lehet kapcsolni a könyvekre szakosodott közösségi oldalakkal (nem rég vett is egy ilyet az Amazon). Ha a digitális szövegek kereshetők, és mindenkinek meg lesz a véleményre egy adott fejezetről, oldalról, szövegrészletről, amiket külön fog értékelni, kommentálni, linkelni, akkor könnyen széteshet a mű, mint egész.

Összességében a véleményem az, hogy persze, nagyon jó dolog az elektronikus papír, és az sem rossz, hogy létrehoznak egy egyszerűbb és kisebb készüléket, ami tulajdonképpen csak azt nem teszi lehetővé, hogy problémamentesen gépeljünk, viszont az e-readerek számtalan előnyével szemben akkor is ott van az, hogy az a megoldás, ahogy ezt az internettel össze próbálják hangolni, elveszi a könyvek legfontosabb jellegzetességét. Az már más kérdés, hogy ez tulajdonképpen mekkora probléma. Én mindenesetre inkább regények olvasására használnám az e-readert, és meghagynám az internetet a számítógépnek.

(Audrey) Before coming to Delhi, Thane made a luxury purchase for himself. He justified it as his birthday gift and so took the dive into the Amazon Kindle.

This little product has been far more useful than either of us ever imagined. For starters, we save money on books. Anything written before 1923 is out of copyright, and, thanks to the Gutenberg Project, Amazon’s own efforts, and other attempts, tens of thousands of classic books are available for free online. Mostly the file formats are not immediately Kindle compatible, but Amazon will convert any file in 5 minutes or less for free over e-mail. Using this method, we’ve also managed to put everything from academic articles to travel guides to city maps on this handy e-book. If you want to read more modern works, then yes you do have to cough up about 10 bucks a book. I’d be outraged in America, where I have access to excellent libraries, but all books we get in India are on a purchase-only basis anyways, so it’s a wash whether they’re electronic or paper.

Perhaps most importantly, the Kindle holds hundreds of books and so we travel lighter. It even goes in a nice little case that keeps it safe.

For all these reasons, much to Thane’s chagrin, we now share his Kindle. As I’ve traveled around Delhi with it the past week or two I’ve gotten a variety of reactions. I mainly read it on the metro, and reading on transportation in general hasn’t really caught on in India for reasons that remain totally obscure to me. So generally I read and everybody in sight watches me read. With books this amounts to little except stares, but with the Kindle…

A lot of times people just point and say “what is that”. I’m then left trying to explain about electronic readers (kind of like a mini-computer but with real ink?). I think I fail more often than I succeed in describing the device properly. Sometimes people have heard about e-readers and then the conversation is more fruitful. Today on the train, fairly inexplicably, a Sikh gentlemen asked me if it was a Bible. The security people at the metro (everybody and all baggage is scanned for metal upon entry) go back and forth between whether the Kindle qualifies as a computer, in which case they often want me to turn it on, or whether it’s a book, in which case go on through. Almost everybody asks how much it costs… and almost everybody seems appalled when I name the price we paid (300 USD).

One thing is for sure—the Kindle interests Indians big time. And it seems that Amazon has figured that out–as of a month ago, the Kindle is officially available in India.

As mentioned in my earlier post Amazon has released a new firmware update for the Kindle. The Kindle 2 now has an extended battery life of up to 85% (with wireless on), support for native PDF documents (previously only available on the Kindle DX) and as an added bonus – manual screen rotation. The Kindle DX now boasts better cropping of  PDF files and an extended page timeout (from 5 mins to 20 mins).

For a full list of version 2.3 highlights (and manual updating) have a look at Amazon’s site here.

Amazon has announced that it would revamp Kindle’s features to the next level. This new update will not only enhance the battery timings but would also help support an added file structure of .”pdf format”. Kindle fans will particularly be happy for the most awaited file support of “pdf format”. The new update would increase the battery timing by up to 85% meaning 7 days of battery timing from 4 days previously. One can now copy .pdf files to usb and use them as they are. Additional convenience has been added by including a new feature that would enable you to convert a .pdf file into the kindle format to easily send through email. Lets see which batch of these Kindles would be loaded with the upgrades.

]]> http://rapidblue.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/new-kindle-2-firmware-extends-battery-life-and-supports-native-pdf/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:42:33 +0000 rapidblue http://rapidblue.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/new-kindle-2-firmware-extends-battery-life-and-supports-native-pdf/

Amazon announced yesterday that they are releasing a new firmware update for the Kindle which will extend battery life by up to 85% (with wireless on) and will support native PDF documents.

News release via Amazon:

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 24, 2009– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced two new enhancements to the latest generation Kindle—85 percent more battery life and a native PDF reader. Kindle now has battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of four days. Battery life with wireless turned off remains at the previous level of up to two weeks. Battery power management for portable wireless devices is a complex technical area, and the battery life improvement announced today is the result of a six month firmware improvement and testing program.

Amazon also announced today that the 6-inch Kindle now has a built-in native PDF reader that enables Kindle customers to read professional and personal documents in their original PDF format without conversion. Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle.

“Kindle, already the #1 bestselling, most wished for, and most gifted product on all of Amazon.com, is now even better—with 85 percent more battery life and a built-in PDF reader,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “These two significant enhancements are available now.”

To read their personal or professional documents, Kindle customers simply email PDFs to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. Customers that prefer to have their PDF documents converted to the Kindle format simply type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when sending documents to their “@kindle.com” address.

Amazon also announced today that previous purchasers of the new Kindle will also receive the 85 percent battery life improvements with wireless on, and native PDF support via a firmware update automatically delivered via Whispernet wireless. Native PDF support will also be available for some earlier versions of Kindle via an automatic Whispernet wireless firmware update.

I usually keep my wireless off but guess I’ll be keeping it on now until the new firmware update comes through Let us know if you’ve received your new firmware…

Barnes & Noble new e-Reader, Nook, has already sold out before the Holidays. And Amazon is poised to reap the benefits of their poor planning. Ya snooze, ya lose.

Are you ready Nook? I hope so, because Amazon is ready to get it on. Amazon announced today that a new firmware update will bring the world’s most popular e-reader (at the moment) a boosted battery life of 85% more. According to Amazon, 85% more battery with 3G on equates to a full week of ON time. Before the update is applied, Kindles only lasted 4 days with 3G on. With 3G off, the Kindle will operate for two weeks.

These e-reader wars are getting interesting. I’m digging this new firmware update. Alas, competition can only make everything better in the long run. I’d say in about 3-4 years, an e-reader would look very attractive given that the price drops to $100 – $150 and the battery can run for weeks or even a month.

Amazon

Take a look at our new Kindle TV commercial, airing on national television. It was the winning video in the Your Amazon Ad Contest held this past summer. The creative directors are Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths of Los Angeles and the star and singer/songwriter in the spot is actress Annie Little.

“We received an e-mail about the contest two weeks after Ithyle and I bought Kindles; I’m stupid for my Kindle…I love it,” said Kohler. “We were in the airport and everyone was asking about it, so, on a plane from Japan to Thailand we brainstormed ideas and sketched out little stories that our character could fall into following different literary genres. We scribbled out pictures on napkins and made a flipbook, putting the little scenes in different orders.”

Seen on: Amazon.

Never noticed this before, but the Kindle from Amazon goes beyond just reading electronic documents.  I don’t want to get into a detailed comparison of the current e-readers, but just want to point out the Kindle’s great search capabilities.

Don’t know if this has been incubated from the DX version which was initially targeted at students etc., but the ability to search not only the current document, but all of the documents/books in your library, its annotations, books at Amazon.com, and even Google and Wikipedia as well.  What a great idea: using electronic documents and repositories for electronic search.  Genius!

If only the Kindle 2 could read pdf natively, that would be sweet.

Warehouse Deals, an Amazon company, is selling Kindle DX in refurbished condition for only $399.99. Refurbished doesn’t mean it was broken and repaired. It can mean that, but it could also be that the box got damaged in shipping and they had to open it and make sure it still worked and then they re-boxed it or that it was a return within the thirty days after someone else bought it. All it means by refurbished is that they can no longer list it as new.

This week is Black Friday, and if you want to find all the big doorbuster items people’ll be standing outside for all night, you can find them online now.

One thing you won’t see people waiting in line for, at least this year, is e-Readers. Within the past year, the Kindle has actually found some worthy competition. Barnes and Nobles’s Nook, the “world’s most advanced e-reader” is sold out until after the first of the year. The current expected shipping date is January 4, but B&N will give you a certificate so you have something to put under the tree. Unless…

Unless you happen to be near one of the B&N stores that might be receiving a limited number of the e-readers for sale some time between now and Christmas, maybe. You know, if they get them. (If they do, you can count on them not making it a secret.)

The good news is that the prices for the e-readers is coming down. The Nook is $259, about the same price as a midline Netbook. The newest version of Kindle is also $259 and, Amazon touts, available this very minute so you can put something better than a fancy IOU under the tree. The SONY reader is available starting at $199, but its most deluxe edition is $399, which is a lot for a reader, even if it has a mountain of bells and whistles.

Which is best? That depends on who you listen to. ZDnet likes the Nook.  Investorspot, whatever that is, likes the Kindle. MobilitySite also like the Kindle.

Whatever you buy, if you buy something, be prepared for it to become dated quickly. Apple’s iReader is tentatively scheduled for release in February, while rumors list upcoming Kindle releases for February and April. Dell’s reader is set for a March release,while the new Cool-er ships in January.

I know I’m going on about Apple at the moment, but they do seem to be in my life a lot for all sorts of reasons.

I read today on Brand Channel that Sony are trying to become a ‘lifestyle’ brand alongside Apple. In the article Sony’s Executive VP Kazuo Hirai said that if they can offer movie downloads, game downloads and other entertainment, this would be a point of difference that is not available anywhere else.

What?

Sony are officially a Kevin Roberts Lovemark. One of those brands that we love over and above all reason. But this is evidence to me that they have totally lost the plot and are not just following the (Apple) market leaders, but they are a mile or two behind. Sony, when they launched the Walkman, created and defined a sector from scratch with the world’s smallest cassette player.

Apple’s iPod then came and took the whole sector from them, when they redefined the portable media player sector.

Sony have 33 million PlayStation users across the world, all of them plugged in to a wired or wifi’d world. It would seem a far stronger bet to build on this as a point of differentiation than trying to do it through their Bravia TV, Cyber shot cameras and e-readers, which are all a bit ‘me-too’ at best.

If they created a rental or fractional ownership system for games, entertainment, movies and music via the PS3, they would be onto a far more differentiatable (if there is such a word) product and one that has 33 million headstarts.

Otherwise for me, its Apple all the way.

I can imagine Apple launching a wifi TV – they already have a device that slings your picture from your mac to your TV, a wifi camera (that will be the iPhone 3gs then) and you can already read books on the iPod Touch/iPhone.

Sony have become a follower. They used to be radical. Lovemarks do radical things. Sony need to do something radical again, or they are in danger of us falling out of love with them little by little.

Apple keeps not saying anything but leeks keep bubbling to the surface regarding a possible tablet PC in the next year.  Now there’s word that there might be an option for an OLED screen along with the less expensive LED versions.  As I’ve said before, while pushing e-literature with one hand while slapping the very unversatile e-readers with the others, I like the idea of being able to download/purchuse digital books but I don’t see a reason why it can’t be done with a fully functional computer.  Leave it to Apple to fill the void.

Considering that the majority of the praise for Amazon’s Kindle device has been for its screen and how closely it resembles the look of actual paper, I have to think that has played into Apple’s apparent courting of an OLED version of its much rumored tablet PC. Personally, a reported cost of $2,200 turns me off entirely but I have a feeling that I wouldn’t exactly be Apple’s target audience for such a product. But a nice multi-functional tablet PC for $500? I’m in. Even if I don’t download the latest STephen King novel to it, I’d be happy with something that I could use either as a notepad or (hopefully) hook a keyboard up to and use as a regular computer. I’m very much of the word processor/internet box computer buyer segment of society – video/photo/music editing has never been a hobby of mine – so a lack of processor power isn’t a big deal to me. Also wouldn’t mind the ability to hook the tablet up to my television or a regular computer monitor if the screen proves to be too small to use as a monitor in and of itself.

Also of note from the article, Conde Nast is said to be preparing a host of magazines under its publishing umbrella for download to tablet PCs. for those who don’t want to follow the link, among Conde Nast’s publications are Vanity Fair, Wired, Vogue, GQ, W and The New Yorker.

In the news . . .

Wired writer tries to find out if it’s possible to disappear in the digital world.

England’s proposed new copyright laws are extremely controversial.

Insurance company takes away Canadian woman’s long-term sick leave benefit after Facebook photos indicate she wasn’t suffering from depression.

Sony e-Reader attempts to compete with Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, but appears to be unavailable for holiday season. 

The MPAA aggressively pushes protective legislation.

City of Los Angeles wants $3 million repayment for Michael Jackson memorial.

Barnes & Noble blocks hostile takeover by billionaire Ron Burkle.

During latest off-shore pirate scuffle, soldiers resort to bullets after Long Range Acoustic Device proves ineffective.

TLC seeks Jon Gosselin’s secret, hand-written contract with personal assistant in breach of contract case.

Olympic gold medalist Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain stripped of 1,500 meter title for PED disqualification. Meanwhile, Time.com highlights the top sporting cheats of all time.

FDA approves Pfizer’s updated pneumococcal disease vaccine for children.

The Large Hadron Collider is back online.

American Airlines fires web designer for responding courteously to online complaint.

Sixty-nine-year-old online predator in Wales busted by wife, who posed as minor from computer in next room.