Archive for the ‘new zealand’ tag
eReader & Tablet News – 9/4/2010 no comments
Some of the happenings this week which I have not covered elsewhere.
The Kindle DX is back in stock, but the shipping date for new orders of the 6-inch Kindle 3 has been pushed back to September 20. I was hoping Amazon might release a Wi-Fi only Kindle DX, but this didn’t happen.
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Toshiba’s libretto W105 7-inch dual touchscreen laptop is 
now available at Amazon. Recently the W105 made a very brief appearance before quickly selling out.
The libretto W105 has twin 7-inch screens in a clamshell design and runs Windows 7. The two screens can be configured in different ways – you can stretch a single window across both screens or have each screen display a different window. You can also use one display as a virtual keyboard.
Toshiba’s ebook store has not opened yet, but when it does the libretto W105 will be using a reading app powered by Blio to read any ebooks purchased there.
The bad news about the W105 is its price – $1100. It is also rather heavy at 1.8 pounds, and battery life is under 3 hours. Laptop Mag has reviewed the W105 and found that the Kindle for PC app worked better for them than the Blio powered app that comes with the libretto.
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Losses continue to escalate at Borders while online sales grow. Borders reported that in its second quarter ending July 31, 2010, sales were down by 11.5 percent from the same period a year ago, with comparable store sales declining by 6.8 percent. Meanwhile online sales at Borders.com were up over 56 percent over the prior year.
It is good to see that the digital initiatives at Borders are helping, but there is still a long ways to go before they can offset the loss of in-store sales.
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Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and friends have launched the serial ebook they announced a few months ago. The work is titled The Mongoliad and is available on a subscription basis priced at $5.99 for six months or $9.99 annually. From the press release:
Bestselling authors Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear, along with Subutai Corporation, announced today the launch of The Mongoliad, the first digital novel on a social book platform. A speculative fiction novel set against the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century, The Mongoliad follows a small band of warriors and mystics in a ripping tale of action and adventure set at a time when the Mongol horde’s conquest of Europe seemed inevitable. Key to the development of this tale is the unique collaboration between the authors and the audience through PULP, Subutai’s new platform, which provides a participatory experience only possible in today’s connected digital world. To experience The Mongoliad, visit www.mongoliad.com.
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NASA has launched an HD version of its mobile application which is standing by to touchdown on your iPad. The new 
NASA App HD features live streaming video from NASA Television, an interactive map with links to all the agency’s field centers, quick links to feature stories and launch schedules, a scrolling "alerts banner," and a "NASA Featured" link. The first featured link focuses on women in space.
Free at iTunes.
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meBooks, which is New Zealand’s only dedicated ebook conversion and retail service, is now offering MOBI versions of all titles available through its online ebook store. This will provide support for the Kindle 3, which is now available for order to New Zealand.
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Que Publishing has announced the launch of its new USING series, which includes a free Web edition with each title. The Web version of each book will contain multimedia and will be updated with new content so that it is kept up-to-date.
USING titles are available in all major eBook formats, including Adobe PDF, Amazon Kindle, and ePub.
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Kindle 3 for New Zealand; eBook Price War Heating Up in UK no comments
New Zealand is finally being included in the Kindle family with the introduction of the new Kindle 3 ereaders. The Kindle 3 can be ordered from and shipped to New Zealand. Orders placed now for the Kindle 3 will ship on Sept. 10, 2010. The 6-inch latest generation Kindle with 3G + Wi-Fi is $189 USD and the Wi-Fi only Kindle 3 is $139. The Kindle 3 for New Zealand will not come with an AC adaptor, but will include a USB cable to use for charging. There will initially be 380,000 English-language ebooks available from Amazon for Kiwis to choose from.
The ebook price war brought about by Amazon opening the UK Kindle Store continues to escalate. WH Smith has dropped the price of all of its ebooks by 50 percent and some top selling fiction titles are 66 percent off. Even so, many titles still seem to be slightly more expensive than Amazon’s. Waterstones’ ebook prices seem to be the highest of the three on the titles I checked.
Amazon launched its UK Kindle Store earlier this month with over 400,000 titles. I have not been able to find any hard numbers as to how many ebooks are offered by WH Smith, whose ebook store is powered by Overdrive. Waterstones seems to only have a little over 30,000 ebooks available.
WH Smith has also lowered its price on the Sony Pocket Edition Reader to £99 to match the £99.99 price over at Waterstones.
£149.00
£109
