The iSlate Factor People Are Missing

The introduction of the iSlate is going to be a Richter-scale value shock in the industry.

Even if it comes in at a whopping US$999 (which I really hope it will not!), it’s going to reset the scale of value of everything.

From time to time, I go to J&R in Manhattan, a large electronics retailer. I go to check out prices and to see what’s new. And sometimes even to buy.

Asus Provides Peek Of Its Atomic Bomb eBook Reader

Get ready for the newsstand in your hand

Asus, the Taiwanese manufacturer that pioneered the netbook concept, has given InGear exclusive details of its DR-570 reader, to be released by the end of the year. Asus says it has developed a 6in, high-brightness, OLED colour screen that should run for a whopping 122 hours on one battery charge — and that’s not just when displaying text but under real-world conditions, such as running Flash video over its built-in wi-fi or 3G. If that claim stands up, it would make this game-changing device nearly as energy-efficient as today’s monochrome readers.

OK, now this is exactly what I meant about Asus upping the ante.

If that is true — including the bit about running Flash — this would be very, very interesting.

Why?

The Vook web versions of their digital books are powered by Flash and cannot be seen on a Flash-less iSlate (something I hope they will be able to fix by ditching Flash and going all-JavaScript and HTML5).

There are many other magazine sites that are powered by Flash too.

Also, since this is color and will allegedly run Flash, it puts yet another nail into the coffin of the eCrap Axis of E: eInk, ePub, eBook — in favor of digital books.

And that Elle magazine? Currently the digital edition uses Zinio Reader. Which is also available as an iPhone app.

So, has Asus signed a deal with Zinio for content?

— via Twitter from mobileread

Previously here:

CES, The Death Of eInk, And The Asus Factor
Enough eInk/ePaper/eCrap eBook Devices!
Barnes & Noble’s Incompatible Non-Universal ePub
Multi eInk eBook Device Fondle Report
IDPF Screws Up ePub eBook Covers For Everyone!
How Book Publishing Will Lose: eBooks Vs. Smart Digital Books
ePub For Seniors
Apple Will Break Open The Digital Book Floodgates
eBook Trademarks: Asus, Warner Brothers, And ViewSonic
The eBook Bubble: Save Your Money!
Moriah Jovan’s Asus eReading Flirtation
Why Digital Books Will Win
Smart Digital Books Vs. The ePub FAIL Model
How The Axis Of E Is Killing Publishing
Asus Atomic Bomb eBook Reader?
The Axis Of E Book Holocaust
Why eInk, ePub, And eBooks Will Fail
Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live

CES, The Death Of eInk, And The Asus Factor

If you want to see what the eBook announcements were at CES, visit this one page. They’ve done great work compiling that list, even if they forgot Cool-er (which is understandable!).

Everything there that uses eInk you can ignore. They’re already d-e-d.

Some notes on the non-eInk devices after the break.

CES 2010 Note 1

There won’t be a parade of device announcements on this blog. Go elsewhere for that.

So far the only thing that intrigues me is the Sony Dash. I’ll post more once I know more.

The parade of landfill-ready eInk devices continues. I’ll probably do one big post about that procession of FAIL.

My initial take on Blio was that it was shit, then I caught a two-second glimpse of it running on an iPhone. Why didn’t they say so from the bloody start? Their website is pathetic for useful information. This is no way to go about doing things.

I’m still waiting for information about the Notion Ink tablet and Pixel Qi’s partners.

That hp mini-tablet Ballmer held up last night? Puhleeze. It’s fingertip-hostile Windows 7. Next!

How Much Can You Take?

Welcome to the frustration decade (and the decade of change)

It’s not nearly the post it should be. In fact, the bit about frustration should be its own post.

Oh. That’s what I’m now doing here.

What is your breaking point? You’re going to find out.

Wall Street Didn’t Start This. I Did!

Amazon could pay for Kindle sales coyness

This is the latest in a sudden series of Amazon pile-on posts and MSM articles.

What made me laugh out loud was one MSM article ascribing all of this to “Wall Street.”

Bullshit.

I’ve been the only person to stand up and say Amazon is acting like Enron, like the sub-prime NINJA loan mortgage hustlers, like every other damned fraud that’s blown up big and publicly in the past two decades.

Wall Street was, as usual, fat and happy collecting its increased share prices — so why should any of them have wanted to rock that cozy boat in the sea of current financial uncertainty?

No other book, eBook, or publishing site has questioned Amazon. They’re all too busy being the tech gadget whores and whipped dogs they claim not to be.

Me, I’m beholden to no one and fear absolutely no company.

And let’s get something straight here: I have zero financial investments in any company.

My interest is to prevent writers from being bamboozled by a company that is already raping them with a reverse financial split of the one Apple offers in its App Store.

I don’t give a damn about anyone’s stock. I’m in this for my fellow writers. Even the ones who wish I would suddenly drop dead (the only way I’ll ever STFU).

— thanks to @mdash for the link

Previously here:

Is The Amazon Kindle An Outright Fraud?
FTC Wants Bloggers To Disclose: My Disclosure
A New Masthead

2010 In Review

Everyone has already told you what 2009 was like.

And some think they’re telling you what 2010 will be.

I will instead tell you what 2010 was.

Enough eInk/ePaper/eCrap eBook Devices!

One of several new videos at YouTube had this frightening image in it:

Mustek might jump in?

The world really does not need yet another damned eCrap eBook device.

Is The Amazon Kindle An Outright Fraud?

Amazon Says Kindle and E-Book Sales Set Records

Amazon.com said Monday that its Kindle e-reader has become the most gifted item in the company’s history, but didn’t provide specific sales numbers.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

This is the game Amazon has been playing since the introduction of the Kindle. A “Look over there!” game of misdirection that smells of outright fraud.

It’s well past time for Amazon to put up or shut up.

Honest companies don’t continue to hide something like this.

Honest companies show transparency.

Honest companies understand that real numbers are related to real shareholder value.

What is Amazon’s game here?

Is it the standard Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt ploy? Put fear in the minds of your competitors, put uncertainty in the minds of book publishers, put doubt in the minds of eBook device buyers?

Listen, it’s been claimed that Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Lost Symbol sold 200,000 eBook editions. But that was available in multiple formats. Plus we’re not even certain that number is either truthful or accurate.

Doesn’t anyone realize what an absolutely crappy sales figure that is given the hype the Kindle has gotten since its introduction?

Sony slogged for years and years and years, plastering ads all over the place — and managed to sell “only” 300,000 Readers.

I put “only” in quotes there because compared to the non-existent number of Kindles out there, that’s the impression left in comparison.

FUD.

We have been through a decade of outright fraud as noted in this New York Times column by Frank Rich. The fraudulent invasion of Iraq, the fraudulent hype of Enron, the fraudulent low-interest mortgages.

I’m saying until Amazon releases a true number, it smells as fraudulent as the rest of those, period.

And all of you publishers in New York City? It’s time for you to grow some balls.

I’m giving you a task: The first week in January, all of you issue a joint press release stating what your largest eBook sellers have been on the Kindle.

I have a feeling all of you are going to be shocked at the low cards you’ve been holding, while thinking your “competitor” has been holding a high card, making money hand over fist via Amazon Kindle Store downloads.

Do it!

Let’s end this stench one way or another.

Sony’s Howard Stringer’s Ongoing Delusions

News Corp. to Sell Subscriptions on Sony Reader

Oh my god. Howard Stringer, blithely leading Sony to its destruction, actually said this:

We feel we’re riding to the rescue of news.

I sit here stunned, wondering what words my fingers will conjure up as my brain tries to parse the absolute imbecility and naivete of that statement.