Sony Reader Goes ePub and Lowers Prices

Sony Pocket Reader

Sony Pocket Reader

Sony is stepping up its efforts to compete with Amazon’s Kindle. In fact, they’ve made some significant changes lately that might have Kindle users wondering whether they should switch. By the end of this year, Sony will be offering all their digital books in ePub format instead of Reader format. Developed by IDPF and now used for Google’s public domain books, the format is compatible with Sony readers, iPhones, Android handsets, and quite a list of other readers. Actually, Sony provides a link to Google’s books on their website. Sony’s also ditching its own anti-copy software and picking up Adobe software instead. The new software limits how often e-books can be shared and copied, so when you buy from Sony’s store, you can use your purchases on other supported readers, like your iPhone.

Sony’s goal is not only to compete with Kindle , but to keep a one-company domination of the e-book industry from happening (re: Apple iPod with digital music). By attempting to standardize e-publishing and reader platforms, they might accomplish their goal…and win over some Kindle users. They aren’t scrapping anti-piracy software completely, but they seem to have a much firmer grasp of what people want and what methods don’t work than does Amazon.

Just this month Sony announced price cuts on its e-books from 11.99 to 9.99, now matching Amazon’s. They launched two new readers priced at $199 and $299. I’ve got to admit that their new readers are definitely sleek and attractive (anyone else thinking iPod when they see those?). This piece from the New Yorks Times expounds the price wars and the future concerns for authors caught in the middle.

10 Days in Google Books — Win a Sony Reader!



I’m a little late posting about this one. This contest started July 27th (Monday), but it runs until August 5th. Each day, visit the 10 Days in Google Books Game page and click “Start Playing Now.”

Here’s what you need to know: Each day Google Books will pose five questions (each day the theme changes). Use Google Books to find the answers. Once you find the answers, you must write 50 words (GB calls this “a brief essay,” but I think that’s an overstatement) about it. Currently the site says you must write on the topic of books, but I’m not sure whether this changes or not. You may only submit one per day, though. The essays are judged based on correct grammar and punctuation, originality, creativity and humor, expression of theme, clarity and conciseness. Also, if you stick with the 50 word max. you really shouldn’t struggle in the conciseness department.

Bonus: “
If you are the one of the first 20,000 people who submit their name and address online on the Contest Site during the Contest Period, Google will send you a commemorative Google Books laptop sticker. “

Via: Frugal Freelancer

BookArmy.com

Recently BoingBoing wrote about BookArmy. They called it a last.fm for books. The site is in public beta, so it’s a little buggy, but so far it looks promising. Like Shelfari, the site allows users to have a bookshelf online. However, unlike social book sites, BookArmy recommends books for you based on member recommendations. It refines recommendations for you based on the favorite books in a users bookshelf.

HarperCollins has a big stake in this company and it looks poised to become very popular, perhaps the Myspace of social book-sharing websites. In fact, in the forums is very lengthy discussion about Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and whether the series is a crazy fad that should go away or the author should be praised for getting the young folks reading (a la Harry Potter).

I signed up today. This is my profile. I haven’t filled out much of the info. yet, but BookArmy is definitely a site I’ll be hanging around frequently for a while. And of course, BookArmy is on Twitter @Bookarmy.

Shelfari vs. Google Library

I’m a Shelfari user. I don’t know if I’d say I’m crazy about the site because I really only use it to catalog my books. I visit the site about once a month. It is technically a social networking site, though (self-proclaimed, “premier social networking site for people who love books”). I do use my account to feature My Shelf on Myspace and Facebook profiles. Anyone interested in connecting can find me here on Shelfari. Aside from a few recent book purchases, you can also see every book I own. I took the time to put in every single ISBN and in a few cases had to dig around (old books that didn’t have ISBNs). I like it. I like the hominess of the site, the community. That said, I like the clean look of Google Library and I already use so freaking many Google products, that it would be nice to have them all interconnected. I haven’t yet added anything to my Google Library, but like all things Goog, I automatically have a library. I could go on a tangent here about Google-addiction, but I won’t. I’m sure that by this point in time, everyone out there can feel my pain love for Google. Here’s my very empty library. You can use Google Book Search to find a library in use. One major plus I noticed with Google Library is that you can type or import a list of ISBNs instead of adding each book to library one at a time. I can tell you, that is incredibly time consuming. I couldn’t find that feature in Shelfari, but with Shelfari you can actually import your Amazon Wishlist or other book lists from a URL. You can also import txt files with your list of books. For now, I plan on sticking with Shelfari, but I may just fill up the Google Library and really give it a chance to defend itself.

Which do you use? If you don’t use anything, tell me why not.