Hasta La Gadget!

A tablet for readers has always been a tricky proposition. For starters, the manufacturers that have attempted to create such a thing also make dedicated e-readers — devices with longer battery life and screens designed to make text look as much like print as possible. Barnes & Noble has given the category a shot with its Nook Tablets, though there are lingering questions as to whether that line will even survive. Amazon, meanwhile, has gone the opposite route, with reading representing just one of many features. Kobo’s latest readers see the company doubling down on reading, with a trio of tablets built around a reading core.

The Arc 10HD is the top-of-the-line model, a slate that doesn’t skimp on the specs (or price, for that matter, at $400). Most notably, it maintains a clear focus, promising to be (in Kobo’s own PR speak) “the best 10-inch HD tablet for readers.” For Kobo, that means loading up on book-centric features, including one that turns off all of those tablety distractions so you can just read. What, precisely, does it mean to be “the best 10-inch HD tablet for readers”? Does Kobo even deserve that distinction? Most importantly, is it a category within a category that really needs to exist in the first place?

Filed under: Tablets

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Exactly a day after gracing the Fire line, Amazon-owned Goodreads has arrived on the Paperwhite — if you’re willing to take a little initiative and download yourself, that is. And in all honesty, this was the upgrade we’ve been waiting for since the acquisition was first announced. It’s nice functionality to have on the Fire, certainly, and folks who own multiple Kindle devices will appreciate being able to use it across the tablets and readers, but the addition of social reading means a lot more on e-readers, where things tend to be a lot more locked down, due to hardware limitations. Overall, we were a bit underwhelmed by the implementation on the HDX. With a few exceptions, Goodreads feels more like an app than an integral part of the ecosystem. Given that the Paperwhite offers a less open platform, however, we had higher hopes for the e-reader.

And indeed, once installed, Goodreads is front and center — well, slightly to the right of center, added to the homepage toolbar, sandwiched between search and settings. If you’ve already tied your Amazon account to the social network — as we did with yesterday’s Fire update — you should be good to go. Tap the “g ” icon, and you’ll bring up the Goodreads app, which has been styled to match the rest of the Paperwhite UI. The app’s front page shows you updates across your network, including ratings and who wants to read what. From there, you can like and comment on statuses and mark those titles and “Read” or “Want to Read.” Up top, the My Shelves link lets you see your own collection. From that page, you can also click through to add books from your Amazon library, a nice way of back filling all the electronic and physical books that you’ve read over the years. It’s the next best thing to inviting people over to your place to see your real life bookshelf.

Filed under: Amazon

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Amazon’s really laid off the pomp and circumstance this year. Between a new Paperwhite e-reader and a trio of tablets, the company’s hosted nary a press conference; just a couple of small-scale meetings. In the case of the Paperwhite, the reason seems clear. From the name on down, nothing about the device screams “major upgrade.” Both the hardware and software received some tweaks, sure, but, well, if this were an Apple product, it would almost certainly be called the Kindle Paperwhite S. Then again, we loved the Paperwhite the first time around, so why mess with near perfection?%Gallery-slideshow99545%

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The phrase “virtual book club” may not conjure romantic visions of low-lit rooms and vintage wines, but you don’t necessarily need those things to throw fancy words around. Amazon-owned Goodreads hosts user-created online clubs, but a Google patent application that’s surfaced today imagines a different way of bringing bookworms together. It describes a system that automatically prompts the buyer of a new title, presumably acquired through Google Books, to join a club. To make this virtual version a little more like the real thing, it’ll suggest specific groups based on your age, location, interests, preferred club size, reading speed and literary tastes. Furthermore, you’ll only be coupled with those who’ve bought the work recently, so your new-found chums aren’t on page 400 before you’ve even started.

It’ll all be managed through a social network, of course (we hear Google has one of those), and members will be able to fill specific roles within the club hierarchy. They’ll also be able to schedule “activities,” which we assume is patentese for Hangouts and the like to foster discussion. The patent filing also talks of financial rewards to tempt participation, which sounds like the perfect strategy for building millions of inactive G+ pages.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: USPTO

After plenty of tussling over the DoJ’s proposed injunction against Apple, preventing it from striking untoward pricing deals with e-book publishers, a judge at the Southern District Court of New York has today laid down the law. The final injunction prevents Apple from setting prices with any of its partners for terms of between two and four years, with the exact term depending on which publisher it’s working with and how long they originally took to settle with the DoJ — which means Apple’s relationship with Macmillan faces the harshest restriction.

Crucially, Apple also won’t be able to make “most favored nation” pacts, in which e-book prices and discounts are set across a range of publishers or retailers. This particular bit of the injunction will last for five years — a lengthy period of time in this industry, and one that can be extended by the court if it sees fit, but hardly the ten-year term that Apple’s lawyers initially feared. Finally, another key clause prevents Apple from doing business with publishers behind closed doors. For the next two years, Cupertino will have to bring in an independent third party to serve as an “Antitrust compliance officer” in all deals. Sounds humiliating, perhaps, but again, given the relatively short duration, it could have been a lot worse.

Filed under: Apple

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Source: NYSD Court