For now, B&N only advertises its iPhone, BlackBerry, and PC/Mac software readers on its site, but the company doesn't offer any compatible hardware readers just yet. Since the launch of the eBook store, B&N has announced a partnership with iRex and we are still waiting for the mythical Plastic Logic eReader to appear.

A spike in interest right after the launch of a new product is obviously nothing unusual, but this data shows that B&N could challenge the Kindle in the long run. To do so, however, B&N needs to offer users a clear alternative to Amazon's Kindle. Sony, which offers numerous eReaders that are connected to its eBook store, is obviously also trying to make a major push in the eBook market and while its numbers are slowly trending up, Amazon and the Kindle remain in a clear lead. As Compete's McGovern points out, B&N has shown that it can easily drive its customers to its eBook store - thanks, in no small part, to a very successful email campaign - but it will need to offer a hardware eReader to really take on Amazon.

Effective immediately, the Sony Publisher Portal is re-launched and open for business. Aspiring authors and independent publishers can upload Microsoft Word documents and have distro-ready e-books within hours.

In addition to working out the Smashwords deal, Sony has also announced a similar partnership with indie publishing outfit Author Solutions.

"Additionally, we recognize that it is important to provide independent publishers the opportunity to quickly and easily bring their ideas and content to a wide audience of readers."

Smashwords first launched its ebook publishing and distribution platform 16 months ago. New ebooks published via Smashwords through the Sony Publishing Portal can receive immediate distribution in the eBook Store.

For Smashwords users who have already published more than 3,000 books through Smashwords, their e-books can also gain distribution into Sony's eBook Store within the next few months.

This most recent development stands as testament to Smashwords' growing momentum. In January, Smashwords launched a distro arrangement with the Amazon-owned Lexcyle, meaning their e-books are listed in the native ebook catalog of Stanza, the e-reading app used by more than two million iPhone and iPod Touch customers.

And earlier this month, Smashwords began distributing through Barnes & Noble across such high-profile properties as properties including BarnesandNoble.com, Fictionwise, and the popular B&N eReader application.

Interested publishers can learn more at the Smashwords website.

$99 Is the New $199

In an earlier report, Rotman Epps argued that breaking the $199-barrier would be a major breakthrough for the eReader market and would allow these devices to become mainstream. Now it looks like $99 might actually be the point where eReader would become an impulse buy for the majority of consumers.

The good news for eReader manufacturers, however, is that those who intend to buy an eReader within the next six months are willing to pay up to $159 and those who actually already own one are even willing to pay over $250. A bargain price for eReaders for both of these groups would around $100, though.

Price Inevitably Comes Down

When it comes to consumer electronics, prices always come down in the long run, and we will surely see a similar trend for eReaders. For now, manufacturing costs for eReaders are still relatively high, but publishers could subsidize eReaders through a subscription model, for example.

It is clear, though, as Rotman Epps points out, that most consumers don't put a lot of value on these devices yet and that prices will have to come down substantially. Even then, Rotman Epps argues, eReaders will never be as popular as MP3 players because the majority of consumers "don't care enough about reading or technology to invest in this type of single-purpose device at anything close to realistic prices."

Everybody Now Offers Wireless Syncing

While wireless syncing and book delivery may not be that important to every potential eReader user, it did give Amazon a major leg up in marketing its Kindle and Kindle DX. In a month or two, this advantage will be gone. Amazon's competitors also offer more stylish devices, and some of the upcoming new eReaders will also offer touch screens - another feature that Amazon's Kindle doesn't currently offer.

EBook Price is Now the Same Everywhere, But Sony Supports Downloads From Local Library

In terms of pricing, Sony will soon offer an eReader for $199, which will put a lot of pressure on Amazon - though Sony's cheapest device will not offer wireless capabilities. As for books, prices everywhere are converging around a reasonable $9.99, the price Amazon pioneered as the default price for bestsellers in its Kindle store.

What's even more exciting is that eReader users will soon be able to borrow eBooks from their local libraries. Sony just announced a partnership with OverDrive, which supplies eBook technology to over 9,000 libraries. Amazon doesn't offer a similar program (yet).

Amazon's Problem: The Kindle is Closed

What's giving Amazon's competitors a major advantage right now is that their devices are far more open than the Kindle. As Slate's Farhad Manjoo points out, Sony and company could still be far more open and do away with all copyright restrictions. But at least you will be able to move your books to different devices, even though Sony still uses the standard EPUB format with a DRM wrapper, for example. Amazon's proprietary format, on the other hand, doesn't allow you to move your Kindle eBook to your new Sony Reader, for example.

For now, most publishers are still wary about releasing books without copyright DRM. We can only assume that the book publishing industry will go through a similar cycle as the music industry, however, and that DRMed eBooks will also go the way of DRMed MP3s.

The eBook market is still young. For now, Amazon's only other advantage over its competitors is that it currently has a lot of momentum among early adopters. But, as Forrester Research's Sarah Rotman Epps argued in a recent report, as eBooks move into the mainstream, late adopters may not feel the same loyalty towards Amazon that early adopters had.

Of course, Amazon could still come out with a new eReader and a more open strategy. But for now, it doesn't look like Amazon is planning to change its strategy anytime soon, and we haven't heard any news (or even rumors) of a new Kindle for quite a while. If Amazon doesn't watch out, it could soon be left behind, because other eBook vendors and hardware manufacturers offer a more open and attractive platform for publishers and users.

Sony Gets a Wireless Reader, Too

As for the hardware devices, Sony's new Reader Daily Edition is obviously aimed at Amazon's Kindle and Kindle DX. It will be able to display 16 levels of grayscale and will be housed in an aluminum body with an integrated cover. Users will be able to read books, newspapers, and magazines in portrait and landscape orientation.

The wireless connectivity, courtesy of AT&T's 3G network, is the most exciting news here, though. Both Sony and B&N are following Amazon's lead, of course, but Amazon's success with the Kindle has also clearly shown that a lot of consumers now expect this kind of functionality at the high-end of the eReader market.

What's even more exciting, though, is that by the time the holiday season comes around this year, users will be able to choose between far more eReaders and eBook vendors than ever before, without having to compromise on the number of available books.

With its five-inch $199 Reader Pocket Edition, Sony will be able to offer the cheapest device on the market, while the seven-inch Reader Daily Edition at $399 is priced to fall between the cost of a Kindle ($299) and Kindle DX ($489).

While it isn't quite clear what the specifics of Sony's DRM scheme will look like, the company did announce that it will use Adobe's Content Server to power its DRM solution. Adobe's server relies on a proprietary DRM solution. EPub is a very flexible format and allows developers to put a DRM-wrapper around eBooks. Publishers won't have to wrap DRM around their offerings. However, it is unlikely that a lot of book publishers (who are just as fearful of piracy as most music executives) will be able to resist this. In effect, this gives Adobe a lot of power in the eBook industry, as our friends at TeleRead point out in more detail.

Opening up the Store

Still, Sony should be lauded for adopting the ePub format and making its eBook store compatible with more devices from more manufacturers. All of Sony's eReaders, including the first-generation PRS-500, will be able to read these books, but what is far more important is that users will not be locked into having to buy a Sony device just to make use of the Sony eBook store. In addition, as other publishers adopt this format, Sony's own Reader will also be able to access books from a wider variety of stores.

Sony is clearly taking the eBook market very seriously. Just last week, it brought the prices for most of the books in its store down to $9.99 and announced two new eBook readers that look very promising.

Will Amazon React?

The question now, of course, is how Amazon will react to this. Amazon's Kindle ecosystem is almost completely closed - starting with the proprietary eBook format up to the Kindle's inability to display ePub-formatted books. In the press release, Steve Haber, the president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division, argues that ePub is "quickly becoming the de facto standard for eBooks." If that is indeed the case, Amazon will have to adapt quickly if it doesn't want to be left behind.

While Sony has always offered very attractive eReaders, the prices in Sony's eBook store were a deal-breaker for many who had been considering buying a Sony eBook reader. Amazon generally charges $9.99 for an eBook, but until today, Sony often asked for $11.99 or more.

At $199, the Pocket Reader is now a very attractive option for more cost-conscious users (Amazon's cheapest Kindle costs $299, though it comes with a slightly larger screen). It is also important to note that none of Sony's devices currently offer the convenience of Amazon's wireless transfer anywhere within the U.S., but Sony is committed to delivering a wireless device in future.

In contrast to Amazon's Kindle, however, the Sony devices can read files in the open EPUB format and Sony now also offers over 1 million free public domain books through Google Books. The new Sony eBook Library software (available for Macs and PCs) also makes it easy to convert PDF and Word documents and transfer them to Sony's eReaders.

The Default Price of eBooks: $9.99

The new price of $9.99 per book in the Sony eBook store is quite interesting. As David Rothman points out on the Teleread blog, Amazon is actually subsidizing its eBooks to keep the price at $9.99. The question then is whether Sony got a better deal from the publishers it is working with or whether Sony is also subsidizing the price of the books in its store?

Amazon currently has the lead among early eBook adopters. Once eBooks become mainstream, however, Rotman Epps argues, this lead could easily dissipate. While Rotman Epps doesn't talk a lot about hardware devices in her report, the reality is that the Kindle isn't exactly a major step forward in the history of industrial design. Early adopters and 'tech optimists' (as Forrester likes to call them) are willing to look beyond this, but in the mainstream market, hardware design might play a major role in consumers' buying decisions.

The Next Wave of eBook Adopters

According to Forrester, the next wave of eBook adopters tends to read more books per months than early adopters and will probably consist of younger males who are less likely to be married and have children. The problem for eReader manufacturers, however, will be to get this group to buy dedicated devices. Rotman Epps argues that a large percentage of this group will probably read eBooks on devices they already own (like the iPhone), unless prices for eReaders come down significantly (under $100).

It's All About the Price

Forrester's Rotman Epps argues that the high price of eReaders is currently holding back mainstream adoption. A $99 device, Rotman Epps notes, would bring a lot of additional readers to eBooks and eReaders. Most importantly, though, the eBook and eReader market is still in flux. As the next generation of readers is likely to be very different from the previous generation, Amazon will have to work hard to keep its current lead.

Can Amazon Hold On to Its Lead?

Unlike Rotman Epps, however, we think that Amazon will likely be able to hold on to its current lead. After all, it has already forged strong - though sometimes contentious - relationships with most publishers and it currently offers the best integration between its store and its eReader. Barnes & Noble's new eBook store will be a strong contender here, though we have yet to see the Plastic Logic eReader device that B&N will use to compete with the Kindle. Sony, too, is making a major push in the eBook market again, though in terms of mindshare in the US, Amazon and the Kindle are currently the clear leaders (both in the mainstream and among early adopters).

While "Later Adopters May Not Be As Loyal To Amazon.com" makes for a good subtitle, the next generation of eBook adopters is just as likely to consider Amazon as the natural place to go to for eBooks, especially given that the company is already the #1 online retailer for regular books.

What About the B2B Market?

The Forrester report only focuses on consumers. We would argue, however, that there is also a large professional market for eReaders, where the current price isn't too big an issue. Just last week, for example, iRex, an eReader manufacturer that mostly aims for the B2B market, announced the launch of its electronic flight bag for pilots - which is basically an iRex eReader with Jeppesen's charts loaded on them.

What's the Killer Product for eReaders?

The Forrester report argues that once eReaders hit the $100 barrier, users will quickly start to adopt these devices. But is price really the only issue here? Are there any other "killer apps" or devices that could drive mainstream adoption even before $99 eReaders become a reality?

Our own Dana Oshiro just argued in our backchannel that a subscription book club (maybe run by Oprah) could bring a lot of new users to eReaders. And then, of course, there is still the mystical Apple tablet that might make for a great eReader - among other things - and which will surely cost more than $99.

Would You Buy an eReader?

What is holding you back from buying an eReader? The iPhone? The price of the current generation of eReaders? Or the well-designed reading solution called 'the book'?

Nevertheless, in the case of this wedding video, Sony (copyright owners of Forever) chose to capitalize on the clip's success rather than blocking the file. They added a simple pop-up overlay that offers users a chance to purchase the song from iTunes or Amazon. According to YouTube, in the last week, the year-old song has risen to #4 on the iTunes charts and #3 on Amazon.

To Google's glee, Sony's success in working with users is likely to inspire other copyright owners to rethink their past actions with DMCA take-down notices. And this would be a welcome change for many. Take downs have shown a history of hurting user morale, reducing valuable community content and decreasing channels of monetization for content hosts. In the case of the wedding video, while it's obvious that Sony made money, YouTube has likely earned profit from AdWords as well as referral revenue from Amazon and iTunes.

Because Sony left the wedding video up, the community continues to receive free hosting and feedback, the copyright owners profit from their licensed goods, YouTube earns new revenue, and the remix community continues to proliferate. Since last week, some of the remixes and re-creations include the Divorce Entrance Dance, a WIS-TV anchor version and the couple's own appearance on the Today Show.

With the Kindle, Amazon has created the current de facto standard for hardware eReaders, but the market is still young enough for others to be able to regain the lead again. The fact that Sony bothered to send out press releases about the fact that it now offers 1 million free books clearly shows that the competition in the eBook market is heating up.

Sadly, most eReaders are locked down with digital rights management software, so that users can't just transfer books from one device to another. Because of this, users are locked into one store once they buy an eReader, and the availability of books in the eReader's eBook store could easily sway customers in one direction or another. While Sony offers more free books than other companies, the average price in the Sony eBook store is generally higher than the standard $9.99 that Barnes & Noble and Amazon are charging.

It is worth noting that Google only scans these free books and doesn't edit them in any form, so that they often contain spelling errors.

If you own a Sony Reader and want to access these free eBooks, you can download the necessary software here. The PRS-500, one of Sony's first eReaders, however, is not compatible with the Google Books software.

To keep up with the changing times, the new National Geographic Games division (NGG), will attempt to connect with people once again on the platforms of our modern age, including the Wii, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, PC and Mac, the PS3 Network, and the iPhone. There will also be free Flash games online at nationalgeographic.com/channel. As always, the company's goal is to encourage people to explore their world, this time though, it's through play.

Lest you think these games will be wimpy attempts at educational experiences, it's worth nothing that Chris Mate, a former executive at Take2 Interactive, the company behind "Grand Theft Auto," will serve as VP and GM of the games venture. Hopefully, his history, which also includes Bethesda Softworks, will bring some spunk to the usually dry "learning is fun!" gaming experience.

The first game to launch will be "Herod's Lost Tomb," an online game which blends in content from both the December 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine as well as the National Geographic Channel feature broadcast on the biblical figure King Herod, architect of the ancient world.

Even though Joost does not rely on its P2P architecture anymore, the video quality is still high, especially in full-screen mode, but it does not rival that of the 'HD' offering of ABC or Vimeo.

More Social

Joost has also added a wealth of social features to its site. You can now easily share videos with your friends on Joost and join one of the newly established Joost groups. Also, everything you watch is stored in your 'JoostFeed,' which you can choose to make public. If you really do not want your friends to know that you have been watching Brittany Spears videos all night again, you can also turn on a 'Stealth Mode.'

Because of its reliance on a plugin, however, Joost does not offer the ability to embed videos yet. We assume that this feature will be available once Joost has moved over to using Flash.

Too Little, Too Late?

Overall, we think it was about time for Joost to move to the browser. However, a lot of what Joost set out to do in 2006 has already been done on the web. Its biggest competitor is probably Hulu, which has content deals with almost every large TV network and is slowly adding more HD content. Joost will have a hard time competing, unless it can sign up a similarly large number of quality content producers.

What Does Infovell Do?

The engine scours through open-access repositories of information like PubMed Central and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Claims, but it also allows access to scholarly journals such as those from Oxford University Press, SAGE, Taylor & Francis, Annual Reviews, Mary Ann Liebert Publications, and more. The culmination of these billions of pages currently unindexed by other engines, gives you access to content in the areas of Life Sciences, Medicines, Patents, Industry News, and other reference content from expert sources. In addition to just functioning as a search engine, Infovell can also deliver breaking news alerts which are automatically sent to your email, PDA, or any other device you choose.

It May Look Boring, But It's Not

In the demo (see video below), the team from Infovell showed how their engine could be used for researching a medical condition - something that many people try to do today using Google, but with little success. Generally, web searches only return results to sources of general information like the Mayo Clinic results, WebMD, or online support groups. To be able to research something by reading through the actual journal articles that the doctors have access to would be a huge step towards democratizing the world's knowledge.

Why Can't Information Be Free?

Unfortunately, that knowledge is not being set free with Infovell. Instead, the service will exist behind a pay wall, which once again puts the power of information into the hands of those that can afford its access. Although expected, it's disappointing to see that this service will be yet another source of critical information which most people won't have the time or financial resources to use it. Case in point, if someone needs to research a medicinal condition in that much detail, it's a sure bet that they have doctors' bills that are a bigger priority than a subscription fee to a search engine.

Why isn't anyone building a Google for the Deep Web? If Infovell is offering a collection of scholarly information and putting a price tag on its access, why can't someone else build a similar collection and wrap ads around the service to monetize it? We love the idea of this type of service, but would would rather see a bigger effort to open up the unindexed web and deliver it to the public for free.

Infovell will be available for a 30-day free trial, starting September 22nd.

There are many different types of bloggers in the world today - new media journalists, "journalers," video bloggers, and others. One of the types - "diaryists" - record their innermost thoughts and feelings in a way that's very much similar to how people (yes, usually girls) once recorded their thoughts in small books kept under lock and key and stuffed beneath their mattresses.

Of course in this day and age, the thought of actually putting pen to paper seems like something from a bygone era. But the urge to create a diary hasn't been abandoned - it's just that the format has changed.

There are a few sites today that allow you to go private easily. LiveJournal and Vox cater more to the journaling crowd than WordPress does, for example, but there are many smaller sites like www.opendiary.com, www.mydeardiary.com, www.webbookdiary.com, and www.digitalexpressions.nu, that provide an online diary application.

Unfortunately, outside the larger blogging communities like LJ and the like, the quality of the online diary offerings is somewhat lacking. The digital scrapbook site, Kronomy, kicks it up a notch in terms of being a more modern tool than those previously mentioned sites above, but it's more focused on letting you share your digital, multimedia memories. And other sites like Our Story, Story Of My Life, dandelife, and My Family are more family-focused than private. None are really a quiet hideaway on the web for true diary writing.

Introducing Diary.com

But now online diaryists and diaryist wannabees can rejoice - there's a new site that's tailored just for them. With a big focus on privacy - it is your diary after all - Diary.com is a great starter blog for the little (over)sharers of Generation Z who are at the perfect age to begin their very own start blog, err, diary, right now.

Entries can be up to 1000 words max or you can paste in the URLs for photos or videos found elsewhere on the web. The site then displays the video or photo embedded in your diary. Amazingly, even just pasting in the URL of a YouTube video manages to post the video into the diary - no messing around with embed codes here - it's dead simple. Click the thumbnail of the video and you'll go to the permalinked page for the entry where the video can be played - all without having to leave the diary.com site.

Gen Z's First Lifestream

Diary.com isn't really very blog-like at all though. It's more like a lifestream than a blog, which furthers solidifies the argument that lifestreaming is encroaching in on blogging's territory. Here's a whole generation whose first blogging experience will be more like a FriendFeed sharing experience than an attempt at long, thought out writing. In fact, Diary.com's format is more like a cross between FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr combined. It's like FriendFeed because of its multimedia capabilities and stream-like look and feel, but the structure also resembles Twitter with its entry box at the top and posted items below. Of course, the idea of posting multimedia along with text is a lot like Tumblr, except this Tumblog is for your eyes only - no peeking.

Shared Diaries

Private diaries aren't the only feature of the site at Diary.com. On today's social web, there is a desire to share with friends, so in addition to supporting private diaries, the option to create a shared diary is available, too. A shared diary can be sent to anyone you choose - you simply enter in their email address and share. You can create multiple shared diaries and they're available from a drop-down at the top of your screen. It's easy to envision the shared diary option used as the digital age slambook, filled with naughty observations about fellow classmates.

Conclusion

Although Diary.com isn't doing anything dramatically new, it's taking some of the best features of the social web sites we grownups know and love and simplifying them for use by first time bloggers/lifestreamers. It's worth noting that the Diary.com folks seem to think their demographic extends beyond kids - they suggest their shared diaries can be used for anything from travel diaries to baby diaries, for example. We suppose they're right, but we're betting that their best customers will be a bit younger than that.

Here on RWW, we've pulled together a huge list of Hurricane Gustav links for your reference. Below you'll find links to weather sites, mobile web sites, links to various news and governmental sites, links to social web sites, and links to those using Twitter to report the storm.

• BehindtheWeather.com - a huge collection of links put together by Charlie Anzman of SEO and Tech Daily
• Accuweather.com
• Wunderground - Weather Underground
• Stormpulse.com
• MSNBC site for Gustav
• National Weather Service page (NOAA)

Mobile

• Mobile Resource Guide which links to an iPhone version, a mobile version, and a Gustav Widget for your blog
• National Hurricane Center Mobile Website

Other Links

• LiveNewsCameras.com - a lot of Live News broadcasts
• Maroonspoon.com/wx/gustav.html - Several media players showing coverage from four Louisiana news stations
• http://www.dotd.la.gov/press/traffic_cameras/no_cameras.asp - Louisiana DOT Webcams
• http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Breaking+News/Tropical+Storm+Gustav - UK based NewsNow with over 30,000 global sources. Page auto-refreshes every five minutes.
• Texas's Division of Emergency Mgmt links
• FEMA: Hurricane Gustav
• NOAAWatch Hurricane Gustav
• Red Cross Online Newsroom for Gustav
• Earthcam's New Orleans cam
• MSNBC Hurricane Tracker
• Gustav Pets (animal rescue resources)
• Tracking Hurricane Gustav in Google Earth
• The Hurricane Watch Net (amateur radio)
• HAMweather Hurricane Gustav Track/Projected Path

Social Web

• FriendFeed Hurricane Room - http://friendfeed.com/rooms/hurricane 
• With Sweetcron, Sean Percival quickly deployed the Hurricane Gustav aggregator. It pulls in data via Twitter, Google, Flickr, YouTube and a few others.
• Mahalo has a Gustav page
• Gustav Information Center (GIC) - Ning social network for Gustav coverage
• Wikipedia page for Hurricane Gustav
• A gustavwiki page
• IRC channel - #interdictor to coordinate volunteer efforts
• A blogger using Utterz to share news
• Two gadgets for iGoogle
• USA Today Weather Guys who blog and post their tweets on their site
• Hurricane Gustav Digital Support Brigade (Facebook)
• New Orleans Metblogs
• Voices of Gustav (displaced evacuees) - WordPress blogs
• Hurricane Gustav on NowPublic
• Socialmedian's page
• Boing Boing Gustav Online Resources
• NewsCred topic page
• Ustream.tv - Hurricane Gustav From Luling, Gustav from Slidell, Crosby Tubs Gustav

Twitter

• CNN reporter named Rick Sanchez has been making heavy use of Twitter, even asking on air for Twitter users to send him information from the hurricane zone. His reporting is extremely good and the Twitter convos have even made an appearance on the Twitter homepage
• Tweets from NOLA.com - the New Orleans Times-Picayune
• Tweets from the Red Cross
• Tweets from Lafayette, LA
• Chicago Tribune reporters - http://twitter.com/GustavReporter
• USA Today Weather Guys' tweets
• Twitter stream from the Beaumont (TX) Enterprise-Journal
• Millsaps College in Jackson MS is in the path of the storm
• A government Gustav Twitter feed
• Ernie the Attorney's tweets from New Orleans
• Mark Mayhew, in New Orleans
• Twitter-based info via search results for hurricane + gustav 
• Twitter-based info via search results for just gustav

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hurricane_gustav_on_the_web_reference_guide.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hurricane_gustav_on_the_web_reference_guide.php Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:06:14 -0800 Sarah Perez