Archive for the ‘eBook Readers & Textbooks’ Category
Customizable Digital Textbooks & Some More Thoughts on Publishers vs eBooks 1 comment
In the NY Times Motoko Rich reports that Macmillan’s new DynamicBooks software will allow professors to edit and customize digital textbooks to suit their classes.
Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.
Macmillan will start the program with 100 titles that students can purchase through CourseSmart, dynamicbooks.com or through college bookstores. The etextbook versions should be lower priced than the paper versions. Rich cites one example: “Psychology” has a list price of $134.29 and sells for $122.73 at Barnes & Noble. The DynamicBooks version will be $48.76.
The current model for paper textbooks has many students selling their used textbooks for about 50% of retail. The stores then resale the used textbooks for about 75% of the retail price of a new copy. This goes on for several years until a new edition is published. In essence, many students are renting their paper textbooks.
The publishers get nothing from these used book sales and this is one reason that paper textbook prices are so high. Publishers also control the market by periodically releasing new editions with differing page numbers, updated (hopefully) content, etc. There are no used textbook sales with digital versions, and the publishers and authors get their cut from every sale.
DynamicBooks sounds really promising. It shows that at least some at Macmillan “get it” about ebooks. Similar principles apply to all of the other books we read. If we buy a pbook we can give or loan it to a friend, sell it as used, or donate it to the library. Neither the publisher nor the author get any revenue when we dispose of our books in such ways. With ebooks all of this is gone. If you recommend a good ebook to your friend, that person will most likely have to buy their own copy if they want to read it.
In addition, if publishers and authors were to make all of their backlist and out of print titles available in digital format they could enjoy the benefits of the long tail effect. These older and sometimes esoteric titles may not sell as many units per title, but when added up together would surely amount to a substantial sum.
Readers tend to read more with ereaders, in many cases a lot more. Publishers should be able to make up the lower per title revenue from ebooks with increased sales volume, especially as more and more people move to reading digitally. This is not to mention the cost savings of distributing ebooks; such as no warehousing, no remainders, etc. We should not be expected to pay hardcover prices for our ebooks, and probably not even paperback prices in most cases.
In any case, ebooks and digital reading devices are the future of reading, and the publishers need to figure out how to adapt and thrive with the new technology rather than worrying about whether ebooks are going to impact the sales of hardcovers – because yes they will have an impact. Just as in the past other revolutionary publishing technology impacted the practitioners of the old ways. Seen any scribes lately?
If the publishing industry does not adapt they are going to find themselves much less necessary as digital publishing and reading make it much easier for authors to self-publish.
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Plastic e-Ink Screens On Schedule for 2010 no comments
The Financial Times (via A Kindle World) is reporting that Prime View International, which makes e-ink screens for most of the current ereaders, has said that it is on track to release plastic e-ink screens in 2010.
The glass ereader screens which are in use now are prone to cracking. A relatively unbreakable screen would help pave the way for Kindle for Kids and the acceptance of ereaders for use in our school systems.
In a recent post about some upcoming technology affecting ereaders I said that I would be very surprised if the next Kindles did not have unbreakable screens – it looks like there is a very good chance that that was more than just wishful thinking on my part.
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Sony Touch eReader to Go to School no comments
Sony of Canada announces in a press release (via Sonyinsider.com) that high school students at Blyth Academy will be using Sony Touch ereaders “that are pre-loaded with course textbooks, outlines, assignments, reference materials, background reading and personal timetables.”
Amazon’s Kindle DX ereader did not receive many good reviews in its own academic trials at the collegiate level. I think that this was to be expected and came as little surprise as the necessary study tools are just not in place in the current version of the Kindle DX. Presumably Amazon will use the feedback that they received to make Kindle DX 2 much more viable for use in the classroom.
The Kindle DX also ran into problems with the National Federation of the Blind, which claims that the Kindle DX ereaders discriminate against the blind. While the Kindle’s TTS feature would be great for visually impaired readers, it is difficult for a blind person to turn it on without sighted help. The Federation says that the menus should have a spoken option as well.
While this seems true and the Kindles do need more accessibility (Amazon is reportedly working on this), the National Federation of the Blind’s tactics of boycotts, filing complaints with the Department of Justice against schools in the trials and even filing suit against one school seem rather heavy handed. Wouldn’t it be more productive to work with Amazon to improve accessibility rather than just blocking the trials? After all, this is a relatively new technology, and one which holds promise for all students, especially those with disabilities.
I’m not sure if the Sony ereaders will face this particular hurdle in Canada – it does not have any text to speech feature. It does have somewhat better study tools than the Kindle DX with its touchscreen and stylus. I would think that the Kindle DX ereader’s larger screen would be much better suited for use in reading textbooks though.
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enTourage eDGe eReader/Netbook no comments
Entourage has an interesting device they are calling the eDGe (somebody really needs to get ereader names under control), which is supposed to be available in February 2010.
As you can see from the photo, it is half netbook and half ereader.
The netbook has internet browsing, can play movies and lets you view pictures from books you are reading on the ereader in color. It has a 10 inch screen and also comes with a video camera and audio recorder. Wi –Fi is built-in, but 3G requires an optional EVDO or HSDPA modem. There is a virtual keypad, but BlueTooth is also included, so you could add an external keypad. There is an SD card slot and you can also use a USB flash drive. The eDGe is based on Google’s Android. Battery life is not that great, but the battery is removable so you could carry a spare.
The ereader has a 9.7 inch e-ink screen with Wacom tablet technology. This gives you a stylus based touchscreen without glare issues. There appears to be a robust set of study tools including annotations and freehand drawing, etc. Your are also able to email your notes and journals to others.
Currently only ePub and PDF are supported. Entourage says they will have their own ebook store, but support for Adobe Digital Editions would add access to DRM’ed content.
Obviously at 2.5 lbs the eDGe would not be good for reading in bed, or for carrying around in your pocket, and all the bells and whistles the eDGe comes with are not cheap. The eDGe will sell for $490.
What interests me is that Entourage was able to put together a package like this for the same price as the Kindle DX. And if you just look at the ereader half of the eDGe equation it is pretty impressive. Full on study tools like the eDGe’s ereader has are what are needed in order to be embraced by students in the classroom. If Amazon is serious about being accepted in schools and used for etextbooks the DX needs to have features like this. And with Amazon’s much larger resources and sales volume they should be able to bring it to us at an acceptable price.
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Download Your Textbooks no comments
Back to school time is here again already, and with it come all of the related expenses. More and more textbooks are becoming available as digital downloads, and in many cases will be significantly cheaper than their paper versions, not to mention easier for you to carry around. Of course it would be great if
all digital textbooks were available for Kindle or other ebook readers. Unfortunately we are not quite there yet, but if the textbooks you need are not available on your ebook reader, they may be available in a digital version for your computer. There are an increasing number of online providers for etextbooks, and we will take a look at some of the largest:
CourseSmart
Offers over 7,000 digital textbooks for college, costing on average 50% less than the dead tree versions. Search capabilities, highlighting, note taking, and copy/paste are supported. You can also print out pages from CourseSmart’s etextbooks. Students can subscribe to either a downloadable version of an etext or an online version that can be accessed from any computer. Subscriptions last for 180, 360, or 540 days. Subscribers can also access their etextbooks via their iPhones and iPod Touch.
Textbooks.com
eTexts from Textbooks.com are downloaded to your personal computer and read using Adobe Digital Edition, Adobe Reader 7.1, or VitalSource Reader. Printing is allowed unless banned by the publisher. Subscriptions last for a minimum of 12 months.
iChapters
iChapters sells not only entire etextbooks, but also individual chapters. This can enable you to buy just the chapters that you need, or to pay as you go through the course. iChapters’ digital textbooks can be either viewed online or downloaded to your computer. You get two licenses for each title, so you can access from two different computers. Printing is allowed.
Update: iChapters is having a contest, you can enter to Win $1000 in Free Textbooks from iChapters.com. Expires August 26, 2009.
www.ecampus.com
This online seller of both paper versions and digital textbooks has over 4,000 etexts available. Titles are available in either an online or downloadable version. Subscription lasts for one or two semesters. eCampus also buys your used paper textbooks.
Cafescribe’s e-textbooks support note sharing and text to speech functions in addition to the other common features. Purchasers are granted a lifetime license to a title on up to three computers. You must use the company’s MyScribe reader software. Limited printing (up to 30%) is permitted, and the same limits apply to copy/paste. MyScribe is also available in a portable version that you can install on a USB key.
Textbookmedia.com
Digital textbooks from this provider are free, as they are supported by in-text advertising. You can also upgrade to ad-free versions. Free versions support only very limited printing capability; if printing out passages is a priority you may want to upgrade.
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eBook Readers and Textbooks no comments
One major path to wider implementation and use of ebook readers will be their use for reading textbooks, but are the current devices up to the task?
In May of this year, When Jeff Bezos introduced the Kindle DX, one of his focuses was on textbooks; which this new, larger addition to the Kindle family should be better suited for than it’s smaller sibling, the Kindle 2. Definitely the screen shots of the Kindle DX displaying diagrams are looking good. “We’re going to get students with smaller backpacks, less load”, he said. He also announced five colleges and universities that will be trying out the Kindle DX in the upcoming fall session: Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, Reed College, and University of Virginia.
Mr. Bezos also announced that Amazon has reached agreements with three of the leading textbook publishers: Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley.
Some pilot programs at universities have met mixed results. In several cases, students requested print textbooks after becoming frustrated with the digital textbook. Most of the problems seem to arise from navigational problems. Results so far would seem to indicate that additional features are needed on the devices before the use of ebook readers for reading textbooks can really take off. Advanced search functions, annotations (including shared annotations), and reliable multiple bookmarking functionality for example. And wouldn’t it be great to have easy access to Wikipedia! Another problem is mismatched pagination between users of printed and e versions of books. And finally, of course, color would be much better for those anatomical drawings! Looks like we’ve still got a ways to go. Certainly the Kindle DX is currently best of breed when it comes to digital textbooks; it does include many of the features necessary. It will be interesting to see how well the device is accepted by the students in the trials this fall.
