9to5Mac claims that they’ve spoken with a few print publishers about the upcoming Apple Tablet iPad reinforcing what most of us already know but with a few extra details. These conversations yielded specs like a 10-inch glass screen slightly smaller than a Kindle DX but similar in weight.

They also indicated that Apple is describing the device to publishers by comparing the shift from Kindle to the Tablet as going from black and white TV to color TV.

Finally, they’ve said that there won’t be much content until “mid-2010 at the very earliest.”

Not so fast, cowboy. What else to do know about this device? Well, how about the fact that it runs a version of the iPhone OS and that most iPhone apps will run on it without many, if any, changes.

If that’s true, then the iPad will have tons of ebooks…thanks to the Kindle app for iPhone. With the application loaded on your Apple gadget, you’ll have access to any and all content sold sold through the Kindle store – and any unprotected (.mobi) files, as well. That means indie ebooks and other content.

Repeat after me, one more time: Amazon doesn’t care if it’s in the hardware business. It wants to sell electronic books, whether they produce the device or not.

[9to5Mac]

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Wait Until Mid-Year for eBooks on The Apple Tablet? Think Different. is a post from: TechStartups.com

According to an exclusive interview with The Business Insider, Scribd CEO and founder Trip Adler indicates that getting Scribd content onto the Kindle will be a “seamless experience” next year.

For those of you who don’t know Scribd, the startup company used to describe itself as the “YouTube of Print” allowing people to upload documents and make them viewable on the web with all of their original formatting intact.

Since it’s launch though, it’s gone from a repository for all types of user-created documents to a seller of ebooks, both from independent authors and major publishers including Simon and Schuster and more recently, John Wiley & Sons, creators of the Dummies series of books.

Currently, getting Scribd PDF content onto a Kindle requires that a customer email the document to their private Kindle address for conversion and delivery to the Kindle. It’s not always reliable, but it works.

The point being, you can do it right now – it’s just not convenient.

So then, this deal is about migrating content to a portable device? That hardly seems newsworthy.

DotMobi to Email

Simple content migration doesn’t even require a deal between Scribd and Amazon. When Amazon bought MobiPocket, they clearly acquired them for their proprietary ebook format (.mobi) and it’s ability to be protected with DRM. However, the MobiPocket Creator software is still available for free and there are even other software applications that can create Mobi files.

Emailing a Mobi file to your Amazon address costs you 15 cents for the privilege. All it would cost Scribd is some backend development work to convert Word or PDF files into Mobi format and their content migration is “seamless.”

No, the deal is probably bigger than that – most likely, Scribd will become a feeder source of indie books into the Amazon Kindle Store. What the revenue model looks like will be anyone’s guess.

[The Business Insider]

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclzr.us/0

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Scribd To Sell Books For The Kindle Next Year? is a post from: TechStartups.com

I’m a New Yorker. Ok – I currently live in New Jersey, about 30 minutes outside of mid-town Manhattan – but I’ve lived in or around New York City my entire life.

If there’s one thing I have the pleasure of seeing frequently, it’s performers of all types – drummers, violinists, guitarists, saxophonists – even actors and the occassional mime.

Not in theaters, though.

These folks perform their hearts out in the subways and on street corners, hoping you’ll compensate them for their skill, hard work and the brief moment of enjoyment that they may have added to your day. They don’t set a price for their services – you pay what you feel the performance was worth.

Startup Anjuno wants to apply that concept to your digital media.


Billed as the “The World’s First Pick-Your-Price Digital Media Community,” Anjuno wants you to upload your music, books and games for all to consume and hopefully, pay for.

How It Works

Artists join and upload their creative works. Fans join and add money to their Anjuno account. As fans consume the content, they are encouraged to pay whatever they want and Anjuno takes 15% as the market maker.

As Radiohead and other artists have proven, this model can work – but can it work for both big names as well as unknown artists?

Even if the answer is yes, a system for transferring value (content & funds) needs to be nearly ubiquitous. As much as I’d like to see Anjuno succeed, I’m unsure if they’re going to be the company that can bring the street performance business model to digital media.

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclzr.us/0

Anjuno Wants to Power the Pick-Your-Price Model for Digital Media is a post from: TechStartups.com

With that in mind, I’m not really inclined to write about many of them unless they have truly differentiating features. The Aluratek Libre eBook Reader PRo has two.

First is the price: $179 for a 5-inch eReader makes a nice stocking stuffer this holiday season. Plus, it supports all common formats including Adobe DRM (for both ePUB and PDF) ePUB, PDF, FB2, TXT, Mobi, PRC and RTF, plays MP3 audio and displays BMP, JPG, GIF and Animated GIF (‘cuz you never know when you want to watch a grayscale animated gif).

Second is how they arrived at that price. Instead of the typical pricey e-ink screen, this eReader uses a monochrome reflective light LCD display technology which the company claims offers the same readability and appearance of printed paper. Given that the display has no backlighting, the company also claims 24 hours of battery runtime.

That, my friends, is impressive – and innovative.

To sweeten the deal even further, the Libre comes in white or black with a 2 GB SD card pre-loaded with “100 of the most popular downloaded books of all time.” Er, we’ll have to wait and see what they might be.

It lacks any wireless capabilities, but if you’re looking for an entry-level eReader at an entry-level price, this could be for you.

I haven’t had my hands on the device, but this is one booth I will visit at CES this year to grope the gadgets.

[Source: BusinessWire]

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclzr.us/0

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Aluratek Jumps in with $179 Libre eBook Reader PRO, Reflective LCD Display is a post from: TechStartups.com

Information marketers are a group of entrepreneurs that very often produce and sell eBooks on niche subjects that may be overlooked by the traditional publishing industry. These ebooks are usually produced as PDF’s and for the most part, they have to be read on computer screens, printed on desktop printers or sent off somewhere to be printed and bound in order to be more useful and portable.

While the Sony Reader and other eReaders may offer PDF support, they don’t have nearly the popularity and market penetration that the Amazon Kindle does, limiting the portability of self-published works.

With this recent announcement, portability for these works is almost guaranteed providing the document doesn’t have too many illustrations, photos or diagrams that could be difficult to reproduce on the Kindle screen. This portability allows people to treat this works more like, well, books making consumption – and purchase – much more likely.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

InfoMarketers Looking Forward to Amazon Kindle PDF Support is a post from: TechStartups.com

I say mistake because that browser incited geeks and technophiles everywhere to start complaining about the page rendering, the speed and the fact that the iPhone browser was so much better. Many bloggers and even digital media industry insiders decried that the connectivity was poor and really meant it was “only” good for reading your ebooks.

My response to this was twofold. First, it’s an eBook Reader, people! That’s what it was designed to do – not make phone calls, browse the web or make julienne fries. Second, who wants to read eBooks or other long form content on an iPhone? The screen just isn’t optimized for that type of experience. (Nerd Disclosure: I’ve since read some significant portions of some books on my iPhone so that my wife could use my Kindle. It wasn’t terrible, but I still prefer my eReader.)

And the chatter continues: “The Apple iTablet (if it’s ever released) will kill the Kindle and all other eBook readers!” “Netbooks will kill the Kindle!” “The [insert gadget with a screen here] will do everything!”

Today, I saw this post on Gizmodo about the possibility of eBook Readers having gaming capabilities.

Why? Is there a significant subset of the gaming community that loves books or avid readers who love games?

Just because a device can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean it should.

I’m happpy with a certain amount of convergence when convergence make sense, but to integrate features and functions just because you can doesn’t always make market sense.

Damn you, iPhone.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

How the iPhone Changed the Expectations of Gadget Consumers is a post from: TechStartups.com

The gadgets are flowing and they’ve got both publishers and subscribers in a tizzy over their options. Are they 3g? Can I put my content on it? Just wifi? What services do they deliver? Do I need to build an app? Am I locked in?

All great questions but not the one that is at the front of my mind. That question being where is the personal media hub for all of this content? Each type of media that we consume has a disparative quality of some sort that requires another gadget or format transcoder to allow usage – which means, users need a hub.

I just want to know where that hub will be. I’m not sure if it belongs in the cloud or can even exist there due to limitations placed on that content by rights holders. Which is a legitimate reason not to use the cloud since publishers need to eat.

A couple reasons to use the cloud would be transfer speeds, remote accessibility and backups. With increased gadget connectivity it would make sense to do this. An example of a gadget that needs to be fed from an outside source like the cloud is the PSPgo. It relies on connectivity to fetch games, video and browse the web.

The games on PSPgo arrive from a Sony controlled hub behind a firewall. If the cloud is too limiting due to rights management the other other solution would be to offer a private hub. Another gadget, but one that resides in the dwelling of an individual. Using the Sony model for control and privacy a device like this could be the next evolution of an inclusive hub. It seems to me to be the missing link.

Media management across multiples platforms and for varying devices would require some version of a standard protocol. The protocol probably already exists and could be as simple as HTTP with SSL. The device itself a web server that connects to cars, phones, tablets, computers, televisions, etc.

A device like this could also create new opportunities for rights holders to create new models for selling content. I’m thinking in the range of micropayments for ongoing usage or payments for amount of time used. An example would be a movie that instead of a 24 hour limit would allow the consumer to view it 2 times on any device before being crippled or offered for purchase for an additional few dollars.

My personal interest would be to have a media hub that I had control over and could add content to from any device like the PSPgo, Kindle, iPhone or computer. The ability for these devices to speak a common language for file storage and retrieval would increase consumption and sales as all of a users purchases become portable, even if lockedin to a device.

There are plenty of media hubs that exist today for personal use that can be net connected, but this device would find its niche in storing and delivering content without limitation.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Where is the personal media hub for ebooks, music and videos? is a post from: TechStartups.com