For anyone interested in manga, there is a free, open source software available called Mangle.  Manga is a series of Japanese cartoons or comics that cover all genres such as action, comedy, romance, sports, science fiction, fantasy and others.  Manga has become a huge hit in Japan and worldwide.  Usually the comics are printed in black and white, but there are a few color versions floating around.

Mangle was created by Alex Yatskov several years ago for the older generation version of the Kindle.  This software works really well with the Kindle 3.  Click here for downloading instructions, and for images of software demonstrations.

The Kindle 3’s improved screen makes graphics much easier to read.  Graphics have been a common complaint among Kindle users, but that seems to be improving.  You can zoom in or out and rotate the images as desired.  Manga pages in the physical books are small, but there are a lot of them.  More pages take up space, so transferring them to a digital format solves that issue.

The other cool thing about providing manga in a digital format is that it attracts an audience who might not like to read regular books.  Some people just enjoy reading a story through graphics rather than words.  It would be awesome if this option could be provided on all of the Kindle platforms: PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad.  When I think about it though, the black and white aspect of manga might just be a better fit for the Kindle device itself.

There is a good selection of manga available in the Kindle Books section on Amazon.  A lot of them seem to be either in the romance or horror category.   Anyone know of any particularly good novels they would recommend?  I have been introduced to the world of manga, but would like to hear about what great titles are out there to check out.

Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series has been all the rage recently.  At the moment it holds the #5 spot on Amazon.com’s Kindle and Kindle DX bestseller list.

So, for a little background, the Hunger Games Trilogy consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  The setting of the trilogy is a futuristic country called Panem that is separated into 12 different districts. Two young teenagers from each district are drafted to participate in The Hunger Games each year.  Out of the 24 contestants, only one will live.  This country is a result of the collapse of the United States, and plays off of reality show culture.

The first book in the series, The Hunger Games, introduces Katniss, the main character of the series.  She takes her sister Prim’s place in the Games along with Peeta, the other representative in District 12.  They are out to woo their audience while outlasting their competitors, literally.  One reviewer quoted the movie “Jaws” when describing the nature of the torture this book:

“you don’t actually need to SEE the shark in order for it to be terrifying. Sometimes not seeing the shark is even worse.”

Catching Fire explores Panem’s political structure, and the rebellion that comes from the results of the previous year’s Hunger Games.  Katniss takes on more of a leadership role and the novel provides a great lead in for the final book in the series.

Mockingjay is a war story.  Panem is at war, and Katniss has to fight the battles while facing the ghosts that have cropped up after three years of relentless brutality.  The lives of her family and friends are at stake.  All of this has come from the government and the evil President Snow.  I have friends who have said that this book is a real thriller, and that they couldn’t put it down.

There is a bit of romance in this trilogy and physical violence of course, considering it is about fighting for survival. The mind torture is what makes the trilogy a hit with adults in what appears to be strictly young adult reading material.  The reviews are awesome.  Collins manages to take an idea that is not so new and adds a fresh spin to it.  She also adds a bit of humor to provide comic relief.  One Amazon.com book reviewer claims this is the first series that they’ve had such a strong connection with since Harry Potter.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is an excellent novel that chronicles the life of Jacob Jankowski and his experiences in the Benzini Circus, one that is second rate at best compared to the Ringling Bros.  Water for Elephants opens in the present day with a cranky old Jankowski living out his last days in the nursing home. The novel flashes back to the Depression era when Jankowski’s parents are killed in an automobile accident one week before he is supposed to take his final exams for vet school.   Left with nothing, he abandons his exams and randomly ends up on the circus train where he spends the majority of his adult life.

There are some heart wrenching moments in this book, and Gruen touches on heavy issues such as animal cruelty, human-animal bonds, the experiences of being a misfit and living life in a nursing home.  It was interesting to hear from the viewpoints of the people who have to live as a freak in the circus, or who go to a nursing home knowing that is where they will die.  Gruen has definitely done her research into the circus life and lingo.  This novel has a lot of depth to it that makes it much more than a simple beach read.

Gruen, also known for her earlier sequels, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes, has a new book called Ape House coming out September 7. Ape House features the communicative behaviors of bonobo apes.  It presents another human-animal bond that is present in all of Gruen’s books.  One of the critics says that this book does not fare very well compared to its predecessor, however, another critic says that it is a wonderful book.  So it is a matter of preference I suppose.   Water for Elephants will be a tough one to beat.  It was published in 2006 and still remains in the Kindle Top 100 list.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has remained a huge hit since its release in 2006.  Gilbert recently published a new book called Committed that didn’t quite meet the mega star standards of her first book.  Eat, Pray, Love is in the top 10 on the Kindle Bestseller list.

Eat, Pray, Love chronicles the events of the year following Gilbert’s sudden decision that she didn’t want to be married anymore.  She spends her time in Italy, India and Bali enjoying the culture while searching deep within herself.  I was amazed at how well she captured her experience with the yogis in the Ashram in India.  While reading, I felt like I was right there with her experiencing the same enlightened emotional response that she did during meditation.

Some reviewers argue that this book is self centered, annoying and obtuse because Elizabeth Gilbert focused on herself, and not the political issues in the countries that she visited.  The counter argument is that this is meant to be a book of self discovery and is meant to be taken with a  bit of humor while Gilbert fumbles her way along that path.

The reader gets a chance to learn about spirituality, life and relationships in a lighthearted, witty manner as opposed to a wise and more serious one.

Committed, Gilbert’s newest book about marriage, has a completely different tone than Eat, Pray, Love.  It discusses what marriage is and isn’t, and the implications of transitioning from an independent life to spending it with someone else.  Gilbert addresses marriage as an institution that has been through a lot of analyzing  and has evolved a great deal over the centuries.  How has this institution remained intact despite these changes?

Some reviewers thought Committed was too chatty, whereas others pointed out that the deeply personal insight into Gilbert’s life made them uncomfortable.  It is all a matter of preference and what you take from it.

Both books are geared towards women and their viewpoints on marriage, spirituality and relationships.  Each book has its unique strengths and weaknesses, and are not meant to be compared to as sequels to each other.

This week we have seen a new standard set for eSook sales, specifically those for Amazon’s(NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle.  Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, which we recently mentioned in a review of the Kindle Editions, has now sold over One Million copies for the Kindle alone.  This comes just weeks after James Patterson’s amazing announcement that he had hit over a million eBooks in general between all formats. All three of Larsson’s books are among the Top 10 Bestselling Kindle Editions of all time, according to Amazon, have places on the New York Times and international Bestsellers Lists, and have met with rave reviews seemingly everywhere they have been encountered.

This only serves to emphasize for us how the shifts in the way the publishing industry operates are going to effect us as time moves on.  First we have Kindle book sales overtaking hardcovers, now we have authors managing to sell in the millions of copies range.  It is becoming increasingly clear that while print is far from dead, there is little chance for the traditional model to reassert itself.  As time goes on and more authors find themselves members of this exclusive group, we can only hope that the achievement will continued to be noted, both for these authors and for the eBook industry in general.  It can’t be seen as anything but truly impressive.

Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) has recently released some very interesting news for eBook enthusiasts.  Apparently, in recent months, Kindle eBook sales have begun to exceed those of traditional hardcovers by an average of 40% on the Amazon website with recent weeks showing the difference as high as 80%.

As more and more people weigh in on the topic of eBooks and the eventual state of the market, it’s not unusual to find that most fall into one of two camps.  First, we have those who believe that paper books are a thing of the past and that the publishing industry as it stands is going to collapse under its own weight in the near future.  Then, also, you have those for whom nothing short of a paper book will do and who are convinced that no matter how great the experience with a Kindle or other similar device can get, it will simply not measure up favorably by virtue of being made of plastic and having buttons.  The truth, as usual, is fairly certain to fall well in between these extremes.  That said, this is certainly a sign that more and more people are willing to draw away somewhat from the traditional model and experience a new way of doing things.  The numbers can’t be anything but encouraging.

Recent releases from Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) have indicated that the Kindle, proving it deserves its place as Amazon’s #1 Best Selling item, has tripled in sales this year compared to last, in part due to last month’s price slashing.  While many deride that move as the end of the Kindle as a profitable endeavor, there can be no doubt that the greater the availability of the eReader and the platform in general, the healthier the product-line it supports will become.

Being spread, as it is, between the Kindle device, iOS applications, Android applications, various smart phones, and PC applications, there are surprisingly few people left who cannot, should the choose to do so, access the eBook of their choice in a convenient and comfortable setting.  As some reports indicate that the eBook market has grown by more than 160% in the past year, this increasingly pervasive presence gives Amazon an impressive advantage and even further encouragement to keep the momentum up.  We already know that Kindle Editions are outselling hardcovers by a significant percentage these days, even if you exclude free eBooks from consideration and don’t exclude hardcover sales for books not available on the Kindle.  It’s starting to feel like this is only the beginning of a much larger trend, however, that could truly change the way we enjoy books.

Any thoughts?

Barnes & Noble(NYSE:BKS) has announced an August release for their new NOOKstudy software package.  Following in their recent tradition of following up Amazon’s original moves with some further refinement, it appears we’re looking at a few old favorites with a couple new twists.  The Kindle DX has proven to be slightly less than ready for big-time school exposure so far, which leaves the field open to the nook and its related software for the time being.

As anybody might expect, looking at software for students, there will be highlighting, annotation, and in-text note-taking for follow-ups.  In addition, annotations and notes in general will be tagged for easy searching and full-text searching will be, obviously, much faster than the existing search feature native to the nook device. There also appears to be some browser integration to allow for fast look-up of formulas and definitions as you read.  Users will be able to open two texts at once for simultaneous reading/reference on the same screen, a tabbed browser will allow multiple documents to be open for use at any given time, and students will likely find the ability to organize documents based on class and topic quite helpful.

This all comes at the same time as an announcement of integration of the Barnes & Noble eBook Store with the ever-popular Blackboard educational software, which will allow students to download any available texts directly from a list of what is required for their classes.  Basically, B&N is hoping to take the college scene by storm and they seem to have a good idea of how to go about it.

Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) has recently announced the Kindle Previewer, a feature that will allow users to sample the texts of interesting eBooks directly through the main Amazon web site without recourse to any sort of special software.  Users will simply be able to open the site from within any HTML5-compatible browser and view a bit of the book in question.  Should it be what they’re looking for, these same users can click on a conveniently placed “Buy” type of button that will put through the purchase and send your new book to your Kindle, Cell Phone, Computer, iPad, or whatever you happen to be Kindle-ing on these days!

This announcement only emphasizes the often-overlooked fact that the Kindle platform is about a lot more than the Kindle device.  Whether the hardware continues to do well or not, and I sincerely believe that it will be even better than ever with the upcoming release and a fairly steady stream of firmware updates adding new features all the time, Amazon isn’t going to be letting go of their grip on the eBook marketplace any time soon.  Paper books are here to stay, as many people have said since the eReader concept began to become popular, but never again are they likely to be the exclusive medium for their content.

As things come to a head between publishers and providers, and as Barnes & Noble(NYSE:BKS) and Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) compete over the digital self-publishing market, Amazon is attempting to place themselves firmly in the forefront of publisher attention by offering the potential for doubled royalties to users of their DTP self-publishing platform.  The gist of the announcement is simple; If you publish a book through their service and the digital copy is at least 20% cheaper than the print copy, listed between $2.99 and $9.99, and have Text-to-Speech enabled, you will get 70% royalties on all your eBook sales instead of the standard 35%.

Let’s face it, this gives Amazon a huge advantage when it comes to providing content for the Kindle and all related software readers.  As much as the traditional publishing industry balks at the concept, independents are coming out of the woodwork these days and some of them are making big names for themselves in the eBook marketplace(J.A. Konrath makes a good example).  By keeping them happy and coming back for more, money in this case, Amazon has a chance to gain fairly exclusive rights to loads of great talent.  It’ll be interesting to see what the response is both from the industry and the competition!

As of today, 6/16/2010, Random House’s Magic Tree House series, a childrens’ staple since 1992 by Mary Pope Osborne has been released for the Kindle.  All 43 books in the amazingly popular series are now up for sale in the Kindle Store as I write this, with the 44th already available for preorder, anticipating its September 14th release.

The Magic Tree House series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, been translated into 28 languages, and distributed in 31 countries over the course of its life cycle so far.  It is a widely acknowledged tool in promoting childrens’ literacy and can be(and often is) coupled with Random House-distributed educational material related to the stories for use in classrooms as a teaching aid in any number of subjects.

Much publicity has focused on what the Kindle can do on college and high school campuses, but this brings useful attention to the fact that an eReader with a properly durable case, perhaps even a library’s worth of them, could easily enhance the learning experiences of children at any age.  The Text-to-Speech feature is helpful for any struggling reader and the ability to vary the font size can make a text more approachable for easily overwhelmed young readers still unsure of their ability.  Clearly a step in the right direction.

Everybody has their little pet peeves when it comes to their favorite eReader.  Nobody ever has every feature quite the way we want it and nothing will ever be quite perfect.  One of the complaints I’ve heard surprisingly often with the Kindle has been its lack of normal page numbering.  While this seems like a simple sort of thing to deal with, since we are given a progress counter of sorts anyway, I can certainly understand it getting on the nerves of some.

In response, we have The Natural Page(TM) from Forbidden Stitch Press.  Their first book, Spirit in The Sky, is now available for download from the Kindle store for $9.99.  The basic premise is that by setting a page length at right around 400 words, it is possible to put a page number, formatted as (Page 12), at the bottom of each screen as the reader moves through their book.  It’s a novel concept, if you’ll pardon the pun.  While there’s little chance that this will work out as a long term solution, being rather un-dynamic and therefore breaking any time the reader changes font size or a Kindle DX, it’s a good thing to have around, most likely.  If nothing else, the reader response could point out to Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN)  that this is a desired, and quite possibly easy to include, feature for a future patch.  The best way to get your point across about a product has always been to vote with your wallet, after all.

After years of Amazon’s dominance in the self-publishing ebook marketplace, Barnes & Noble(NYSE:BKS) has decided to enter the scene.  Eligible independent publishers and self-publishing authors will be able to add their content directly into the BN.com and Barnes & Noble eBook Store Catalogs, giving them immediate exposure to one of the largest electronic book marketplaces on the net with all the perks already built in.  Books published through this PubIt! system, as it is called, will be accorded the usual digital rights management one would expect out of Barnes & Noble, an industry standard ePub format for distribution, and a presence accessible through any of B&N’s many platforms including the nook eReader and their many computer-based software and cellular downloads.  While there has not, as of yet, been any discussion of what the royalty model will be for these publishers and authors, there have been assurances that it will be competitive and simple to use and understand.

Make no mistake, this isn’t a groundbreaking new technology or idea.  It does, however, bring Barnes & Noble in line with Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) as they attempt attempt to secure their place alongside or even ahead of the Kindle and its ever-growing pressence in the ebook market.  Sure Amazon got there first, but who will make it most worth their authors’ while as time goes on?  More options have to be good for the lesser known names out there.

Apparently at some point recently, somebody over at Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) gave it some thought and found themselves wondering why so many of their Bestsellers(63/100 as of March 12th) were never actually “sold”, as such.  The plan is to eliminate the free book presence from the Kindle Bestseller list.  The date on this is still up in the air as far as we know, but the apparent aim is to have two lists: one for sold books and one for free ones.

To publishers, this seems like a no-brainer.  It highlights what books people are spending their money on and gives readers a chance to vote with their wallet on whether or not a book does well.  Others, on the other hand, may be hit a bit hard by this move.  It has become somewhat common for new or self-publishing authors to give away a free book or portion of a book in order to direct attention to their further works.

We’ll have to wait and see how this is handled, but I for one am hoping to be able to access both lists on my Kindle device rather than having to shop the website.  I find it interesting to know what new finds people have made lately when I’m looking for something new to pass the time with.

Preorders are now being taken for the June 17th US release of the Kobo eReader through Borders.com (NYSE:BGP), and this is only the beginning of their increased association with eReading devices.  In a move that apparently abandons their previous efforts at an eBook store through Sony’s (NYSE:SNE) distribution channels, Borders will be launching a Kobo-powered eBook store along with the release of the device.  This store will service the obviously affiliated Kobo eReader, but also work with just about anything else you have handy to read on, in keeping with the Kobo store’s existing philosophy. Supported devices currently include just about everything but the Amazon Kindle, including but not limited to the B&N nook (NYSE:BKS) and the IREX DR-1000S.

The Kobo device will not be the only eReader technology being embraced by the Borders physical store presence, either.  Beginning in August, we should be seeing what Borders is calling Area-e(TM) boutiques that highlight multiple devices at any given time including, most likely, the Sony Reader line and the upcoming Spring Design Alex eReader, both of which have existing ties to the company.  Time will tell if this move secures the Borders Group a real place in the eBook market, but the additional exposure of less well known devices will certainly be a boon to consumers as they try to balance budgets against a plethora of options and features.  So far, the nook and the Kindle seem to have a strong lead on the features and functionality in the market, but not everybody needs quite such a wide range of options in their device.

Amazon Kindle English-Russian Dictionary

One of the Amazon Kindle features that I love the most is the built-in dictionary that lets you easily look up definitions for almost every word in any book. Since Kindle allows you to install and change dictionary that is used for lookups you could look up pretty much everything, including translations. There were some English-Russian dictionaries in circulation for some time but they weren’t perfect.

First, most of them used Cyrillic letters. This means that users need to install Unicode Font Hack in order to use it (and not everyone is willing to do that).

Second, these dictionaries lacked support for word forms. So you could look up the translation of word “read”, but if you were to move your cursor to word “reading” there would be nothing.

We decided that it’s about time to fix that. We’ve compiled “English-Russian Dictionary with Transcriptions” that you can now download from Amazon Kindle Store, install and use for word lookups. This dictionary has over 55,000 words in more than 250,000 different forms which gives it much better coverage  than freeware dictionaries available elsewhere. We used transliteration for Russian words so that this dictionary could be used without replacing default Kindle fonts.

Hopefully some day Amazon will install Unicode fonts on Amazon Kindle so no hacking would be needed and we could publish this dictionary with proper Cyrillic letters. But for transliteration is the way to go.

Several of my friends tested this dictionary and they couldn’t be happier about the ease with which they could read English books, learn new words and improve their language skills.

If you are a native Russian speaker who likes to read English books on Kindle but needs to looks a translation of some word on a occasion – this book is for you! People who are learning Russian will also find it useful.

One of the things that B&N has been advertising since the nook first debuted is an enhanced in-store experience.  With the recently released 1.3 patch, they’ve really delivered.  Here’s how it works:

1. Take your nook to any B&N store and get access to the store’s hotspot.
2. Open up the nook’s store browser and find a book you’re interested in.
3. Select your book and choose the “Read in Store” option from the menu.
4. Enjoy!

It’s ridiculously simple and works for every last book in their ebook catalog.  You get an hour per book per 24-hour period, so you’re not likely to see your way through to the end of a book in a single sitting, but there seems to be no daily limit on number of books per day or number of days per book.

I don’t claim to understand the business model, but it’s certainly fun.  I anticipate many a lunch break around the country being spent in the local Barnes & Noble cafe.  Whether you’re reading a bit at a time or previewing that new release you were on the fence about, you can’t really go wrong.  It ties the nook device into the physical store better than anything else I could think of.  I would really love to see something like this coming from the Kindle, honestly.  It’s a neat feature that’ll give the nook a huge advantage should it catch on.

With the recent launch of the iPad and battle with book publishers, Amazon’s Kindle book prices are starting to rise.  Books on the bestseller list that used to cap at $9.99 now start at $9.99 and up.  Bestselling author Jodi Picoult’s latest novel, “House Rules”, is available for Kindle at $12.99.  Others such as “The Bridge,” by David Remnick is $14.82 and “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang,” by Chelsea Handler is $12.99.  More info is available in this article from The Baltimore Sun about the Apple iPad’s influence on e-book prices.  There are still a good many bestsellers holding at $9.99, but it remains to be seen what the future holds in terms of e-book price inflation.

It will be interesting to see what the reader response is to the price hike in the long run.  Based on observations of the comments on the Kindle forums, they are not happy campers.  There are many mass market paperbacks available for nearly half the price of the Kindle versions of the same books.  According to the article about the new e-book prices, publishers claim that paperback versions are often printed by different publishers than the Kindle version, thus leading to inconsistent prices.  Time will tell whether the price hike will be a short term or long term issue.  If they stay high for long term, it will be interesting to observe the impact on e-book and e-reader sales.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is a childhood favorite for many young girls and women.  On the Kindle, you can get this cherished book for free.  The best part is that the book doesn’t get worn out or become unreadable from the usual wear and tear of reading it over and over.

In addition to Little Women, there are many other classics available for free to download on the Kindle.  These books include Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and Homer’s the Illiad just to name a few examples from the selection. 

Charles Dickens' Hard Times

Classics in general are relatively inexpensive to purchase, and many are available in paperback.  On Amazon, a copy of Little Women costs about $3.95, but for college and university students, this small expense can add up.  Many of these classics are required readings for English Literature courses and students often have to purchase other, much larger and more expensive textbooks.

Often, after the course is over, the book never gets picked up again.  Can you imagine reading  Hard Times for pleasure?  Downloading it for free on the Kindle saves the expense and the student can put the money towards something else.  Another great advantage of accessing free classics for the Kindle is that they can be viewed on other platforms such as the PC, Mac, iPhone and Blackberry.

PC World has a good article that compares the Kindle application and the Apple iBook application.  The Kindle is not a device, but a platform, that runs on multiple devices such as the Blackberry, iPhone, PC and Mac.  That is one advantage that Amazon has over Apple because currently,

Kindle for iPad

Apple’s new iBook application is only limited to the iPad.  Amazon recently unveiled plans to provide an application for the Apple iPad, which demonstrates that Amazon’s strives to reach out to the widest audience possible.

Considering that the iPad is a newly launched device, and that the price tag is pretty hefty at $499, Apple’s choice to keep the iBook application exclusive does not appear to be a very smart one.  However, eventually, there will most likely be an iBook application available for the iPhone and iPod touch.  It will be interesting to see if Apple branches out to allow an iBook application on Blackberry and Android.

Another marketing strategy that Amazon has going for it in terms of the Kindle platform is the amount of e-books available to download.  The iBook application only has 60,000 titles currently available.  This number will surely increase over time, but Amazon is ahead of the game at the moment with its much larger selection  of 450,000 titles available for readers.

According  to ReadWriteWeb’s article on comparing the two applications, the Kindle application is simple to use and doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that the iBook application uses.  For example, the user sees one page at a time on the Kindle application, whereas with the iBook application, the user can see two pages at a time and the pages turn in a more “engaging” format.  From a user’s standpoint, simplicity is key to create an easy, pleasurable reading experience.



Where earlier attempts to target students via eBook readers may have failed to gather steam, as in the case of the Kindle DX, the iPad seems poised for success as prominent universities such as Seton Hill and George Fox have begun programs to provide all incoming undergraduate students with iPads for the upcoming school year. Perhaps part of the appeal for the moment lies in the expanded capacity of the tablet over a dedicated reader device, but it cannot help but give eBooks a boost along the way, especially given the fairly overwhelming response to the offering of the Kindle app for the new device.

Certainly it can’t hurt to be getting the device out there and in the hands of students who might not otherwise be able to justify such an untested product as an academic expense. This sort of widespread exposure, while providing a nice bonus for students, also serves as a motivation for teachers who might have been on the fence regarding the move to digital since it ensures that all their pupils will have uninterrupted access to the new medium.

Will this solve all the problems and do away with the paper textbook altogether? Not a chance. But where one program succeeds, others are bound to follow and therein lies the chance for a real change for the students.

This has been a question that I’ve been wondering about for some time.  As an avid reader with a habit of finishing at least a book or two per week, I’ve often wondered if, as seemed logical from a knee-jerk instinctive point of view, I was actually saving resources by switching away from printed material in favor of a Kindle. I’m sure many of us have. The answer is a little bit surprising.

A recent article broke things down for me in terms of resource extraction, environmental impact of manufacturing and transportation, energy usage and disposal, within the limits of general understanding since the composition and manufacture of individual screen types and such are often not a matter of public record. Apparently, depending on what factors you choose to gauge your green-ness, an eBook Reader gains the edge after between 50-100 books. This seemed like a lot at first glance, but since that’s about a year of a book per week(not something I consider an unreasonable rate of consumption) it’s easily less than what I plan in the life of any eBook Reader I might happen to pick up. That doesn’t even begin to take into account the resource savings on things like periodical and newspaper subscriptions, which are an area in which the Kindle shines.

It might be a small change, but it’s nice to be aware that in a world increasingly aware of resource deficits and “green guilt” hitting me left and right, I can be proud of this rare intersection of technical convenience, enjoyment, and ecological soundness. Not quite as proud as if I were to start walking to the used book store every week instead, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

Since the Kindle was introduced in 2007, it has eased the burden on visually impaired readers considerably by incorporating six font size adjustment options.   The font size adjustment on the  Kindle is a great feature because it eliminates the need to buy heavy, cumbersome large print books.  Large print books are often very expensive and are not readily available.  However, more can be done to make reading more pleasurable for this group of readers.

In addition to large print books, visually impaired readers use another device called a CCTV.

A visually impaired user uses a CCTV to enlarge the font on her book.

These devices tend to run in the $4000 price range, which is a pretty hefty price tag. The reader places the book on a platform under a computer screen and adjusts the font size and color schemes to fit their reading needs.  If the Kindle can include more font sizes into its options available, just imagine how much easier, less expensive and more portable reading would be for these readers!

The dream takes a closer step towards reality this summer.  Amazon plans to make more font size options available during the summer of 2010, according to this WebProNews article .   The amount of font size options will increase from six to eleven. The seventh font option, a “super font”, will be double the size of the largest font size currently available on the Kindle.  At last, visually impaired users will be able read with comfort and not have to worry about eye strain and muscle soreness from lugging a large book around.  The expense of purchasing large equipment such as the CCTV will be drastically cut by purchasing a $259 Kindle.

Looks like the publishers are not through making Kindle eBooks over all a much pricier place. After Hachette followed in MacMillan’s foots steps, it looks like Harper Collins might be the next publisher to re-negotiate their terms with Amazon. Rupert Murdoch has expressed his dislike of Amazon’s $9.99 policy for eBooks and he says that it hurts hardcover editions of the the same books.

Rupert Murdoch is the chief at News Corp, the company that owns, amongst multiple other media outfits, publishers HarperCollins. Hence, if he thinks Amazon is hurting Harper Collins book sales, there might be trouble for Amazon. Yet again that is.

It hasn’t been all that long since MacMillan settled their deal with Amazon to have their books priced higher on the Kindle. Murdoch has mentioned that even though Amazon pays them the usual $14 or whatever wholesale price they do charge, the ultimate low price hurts over all book sales from other outlets. According him, Amazon is willing to sit down with them and renegotiate the terms.

Even though he puts it as if they will talk things over, there is no doubt that he will really try to push Amazon into accepting a higher pricing scheme for HarperCollins eBooks. If this goes through, it might become the turning point in Amazon’s eBook pricing scheme. Once three such major publishers force their deals through Amazon, there will be little in the hands of Amazon to change the over all pricing of eBooks.

Of course, a lot of people will see opportunity in this and will offer books for cheaper than the major publishers. For light reading thus, a lot of people might choose cheaper alternatives. But for best sellers and major titles, buyers are the ones who will bear the price difference. Interestingly, Amazon will finally be gaining money on &9.99 books instead of losing it as they do now. But it will serve to lower their appeal to buyers, which is ultimately not a good thing.

In a recent drama, MacMillan made it publicly known that they were having problems with Amazon over the pricing scheme of eBooks on the Kindle platform. MacMillan was apparently already in talks with Amazon for quite sometime about the prices being raised from Amazon’s current $9.99 maximum price.

Whilst everyone can see that over pricing digital content can really backfire (look at digital music or movies for lots of examples), it seems like MacMillan has been really hell-bent on increasing the pricing based on their latest agency model. Under this model, MacMillan would like to make sales through agents, who would charge the normal 30% commission that standard throughout the industry. The extra cost of course gets pushed on to the buyers and this is where Amazon did not want to comply with MacMillan’s requests.

After negotiations broke down, Amazon took off all MacMillan books from the Kindle store. However, even then the Kindle makers acknowledged that MacMillan owned too many important titles for Amazon to be able to keep those books away from Kindles. And true to their predictions, Amazon ultimately had to give into MacMillan’s demands to increase the prices.

Under the current model, the eBook prices will be capped at a maximum of $14.99 instead of $9.99 as per existing models. The average prices are supposed to start from $5.99 and go up to $12.99 but the real situation would be that most important titles will be priced between $12.99-$14.99. MacMillan gave everyone a glimmer of a hope saying that they will bring the prices down dynamically. However, that simply means that they will gradually reduce prices on existing titles but will likely price newer titles high.

These new prices put Kindle costs on the same level as those on iPad, making the gap between the two become much smaller when it comes to pricing.