Mobile Content

If you have a Droid, iPhone or Pre (the "cool" phones these days), tech news aggregator Techmeme has an updated mobile friendly web view for you...

Droid, iPhone, and Pre: meet the new Techmeme Mobile

Fortunately for me, the new Techmeme Mobile web view supplements the older and still available Techmeme Mini web view. The newer Techmeme Mobile view has a slicker look and lets you read the first bits of text associated with a tech news item. However, the older Techmeme Mini view lets you see more news headlines on a single screen and even provides the age (in minutes) of some of the newer items. Both views have the problem of leading you to news items with non-mobile friendly web pages. But, the Droid, iPhone and Pre all do a good job of rendering non-mobile friendly websites.

I'm still trying to decide which views to use. You can find Techmeme Mini at...

http://techmeme.com/mini

And, Techmeme Mobile is found at:

http://techmeme.com/m/

Here's a bit of disappointing educational gadget news from Betanews...

Universities reject Kindle DX as a textbook replacement

I was skeptical of the idea of using the relatively gigantic and expensive Kindle DX ebook reader as a university textbook replacement vehicle. But, I hoped it would work out to bring textbook costs down for students, reduce the physical load they have tote around, and perhaps even provide a better way of reading (searchable text, etc.).

Interestingly enough, the reported major factor was the decision by the Author's Guild to demand that the Kindle's text-to-speech (TTS) feature be disabled for ebooks on demand. TTS is a great tool for people with visual processing impairments as well as people who simply need to multitask (listen to a book while walking for example). And, the two universities that ended their Kindle pilot programs cited this as one of the problems they have with the Kindle DX.

It is too bad that a potentially great tool like the Kindle ebook reader was rejected essentially because of yet another DRM (Digital Rights Management) issue.

Given all the press the Amazon Kindle gets, I'm somewhat surprised that I rarely see any in the "wild". In fact, the only place I've seen it in person is at a local tech geek gathering. Contrast this to the near ubiquity of the various iPod and iPhone models. I've been reading Kindle ebooks on my iPhone and iPod touch and have enjoyed the experience enough to have purchased three novels so far. We learned last week that a Kindle for the PC (Windows) will be available in beta-testing soon. And, there was a lower key acknowledgement that a Kindle ebook reader for the Mac is being developed too (from Fast Company)...

Amazon's Working on Kindle Reader Software for Mac, Too

With Kindle ebook readers available or soon to be available for the iPhone, PC, and Mac, why does anyone need the Kindle hardware? The obvious answer is that the Kindle (device) provides a better reading experience because of its display and long battery life. But, does Amazon itself need the Kindle? Although I've compared the Kindle and Amazon.com relationship to the iPod and iTunes Store, there is a huge and fundamental difference: Apple is hardware manufacturer that uses the iTunes Store to help sell iPods and iPhones. Amazon sells books and other goods. It created and sells the Kindle's to sell more books. The Kindle probably represents a giant pain-point for Amazon. Hardware support, software development, and maintaining wireless carrier relationships (Sprint PCS for legacy Kindles and AT&T for new models) is not part of its core compentency. I would not be too surprised if Amazon starts dialing down the marketing focus on the Kindle after Kindle for the PC and Kindle for the Mac software becomes available. The non-Kindle devices (including the iPhone/iPod touch) are all able to display color ebook pages unlike the Kindle hardware. This could be a huge advantage for ebooks whose color graphics are important (graphs in scientific texts, art and photography books, and graphic novels come to mind).

Amazon might be chuckling behind the scenes watching Barnes and Noble and other firms launch ebook readers or freshen their line (Sony) while they prepare to move the ebooks to other platforms with color displays.

The recently announced...

Google Custom Search for mobile

...lets web site owners add a Google Custom Search box to site pages that provides optimzied mobile display friendly results for phone Android, iPhone (iPod touch) and Palm Pre phones.

Specific information on implementing this for your website is found in the Google Custom Search Blog entry...

Google Custom Search for your smartphone

The trick is to either redirect people visiting your mobile web page to a Custom Search page or simply providing a link with your personal Custom Search ID.

I haven't gotten around to trying this with my personal sites. But, it is in my to-do queue.

Image courtesy of Amazon

I have said here many times that I think the Amazon Kindle is still too expensive at $259 for me to consider buying one given how infrequently I read novels (mostly because of time constraints). I've been quite happy, however, reading those few novels I do read on an iPod touch (mostly) and iPhone (WhisperSync is great).

It looks like I will have an alternative soon though...

Introducing "Kindle for PC" -- The Free Application for Reading Kindle Books on the PC

I wonder what the reading experience is like when reading a novel on, say, a netbook with a 10-inch screen? Amazon says that Kindle for PC will support Windows 7's touch screen feature (swipe to turn a page). But, it doesn't say anything about rotating the page orientation - reading in portrait mode on a netbook or notebook.

You can sign up to be notified about the availability of Kindle for PC Beta at...

http://www.amazon.com/KindleforPC

So, Engadget told us...

Amazon's international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing

The limited web browsing refers to only being able to browse the English language version of Wikipedia. Engadget als notes the International Kindle has dead slow 3G.

Wired's Gadget Lab goes through a long list of pros and cons...

International Kindle Now Shipping: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly

But, I don't think anyone picked up on this statement on Amazon's Kindle product page...

Connectivity: HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T's 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks outside of the U.S. See Wireless Terms and Conditions.

Go ahead, read it again. Notice something missing? Yep, it looks like Amazon has dropped Sprint as the 3G provider for the revised Kindle 2 (now referred to as simple Kindle). The new U.S. & International Wireless Kindle edition is HSDPA/EDGE/GPRS only.

Image courtesy of Spring Design

eBook readers and Google Android are popular blog topics these days. So, Spring Desgin is smart to build a product that combines both techie memes...

Spring Design Announces Dual-Screen, Google Android-based E-book Reader, Hyperlinking Text with Multimedia

And, oh yes, they throw in a dual screen design just to make things even more interesting. As you can see from the photo above, the dual-screen design slightly looks like the Nintendo DS with one screen above the other (insteado f side-by-side). The use of a grayscale screen for a low-power-draw ebook reading experience combined with a full-color second LCD seems like a great idea to me.

Like the Amazon Kindle, the Alex (as this ebook reader model is called) has a 3G wireless capability but adds WiFi to the mix. This Android based device also provides a full web browser. And, it has an SD card slot to provide more storage space. No price is provided in the press release. But, I like the mix of features in this ebook reader more than Amazon's Kindle. I don't read enough novels each year to justify buying an ebook reader in the $200+ price range. But Spring Design's mix of features is the kind of thing that might change my mind.

Drawing courtesy of OpenMoko

I remember buying a small electronic dictionary for my daughter a few years ago that also contained a encyclopdia. It was not Britanica or even Encarta (RIP) class. But, I thought it was useful and quite amazing to find in such a small inexpensive product (around $50 if I recall correctly).

But, this is 2009 and almost every phone with a web browser is capable of searching and reading Wikipedia. So, why does the OpenMoko project think that a single function $99 device with the contents of Wikipedia stored on an 8GB microSD is going to impress anyone enough to buy it?

OM Wiki Reader

It might be appealing to parents as something to give their kids. However, there is one catch: Some teachers and schools do not allow Wikipedia to be used as a reference source.

OpenMoko's Wiki Reader would have been an astonishing product in 2000. It would have been well received in 2005. But, in 2009, meh. We'll just point our mobile device browsers at:

m.wikipedia.org

Via Engadget: OpenMoko branches out with new $99 WikiReader device

Tech observers like me have wondered for years when ebooks would finally take off. The answer might be: Starting now.

The Kindle Nation daily blog interpreted Amazon's bestsellers information as...

Kindle edition of The Lost Symbol outselling Amazon hardcovers!

The evidence presented looks reasonably convincing. But ebook vendor shortcovers have, obviously, direct access to their sales data and concluded that...

Dan Brown is the New King of eBooks

Here's some of their highlighted findings:

- Yesterday's release of Dan Brown's latest thriller "The Lost Symbol" broke the previous biggest sales day. shortcovers estimates sales were nearly twice as much as the previous best day. And, they sold three times as many books compared to the same day last week

- "The Lost Symbol" sold more units on its first day than their number one category, the Twilight series, did during the past 1.8 months (odd period to note, I know)

- Mobile purchase by platform were: 37% iPhone, 31% Palm Pre, 29% Blackberry, 3% Android. I was quite surprised by the strong Palm Pre showing

On a personal note, I bought "The Lost Symbol" as an audio book from Audible.com (owned by Amazon) and am enjoying the novel tremendously so far.

The dead tree society (newspapers) needs to find a way to survive the 21st century. Reuters reports that the...

Wall Street Journal to charge mobile readers

...to help pay for its economic health. People who already subscribe to the paper edition of the WSJ will pay an additional $1 per week ($52/year) to read its mobile edition. The rest of us need to pay $2 per week ($104/year) for the privilege of reading the WSJ while on the go.

My guess is that the WSJ will be able to make this change without too much yelling and screaming from analysts and other commentators (like me) simply because the WSJ is the WSJ. But, there aren't too many other dead tree society members who can make a similar free to fee for mobile news transition.