Should you ask Santa for a tablet or an e-reader?

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY

Re-Post from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/story/2011-11-29/which-tablet-is-best-for-the-holidays/51474252/1

Folks haven't made this much fuss about tablets since biblical times.

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These slate-style computers and dedicated electronic readers top many wish lists this holiday season. Yet, the landscape for the popular devices is changing. Despite the iPad's dominance, multimedia-capable tablets are no longer the exclusive province of Apple, what with Amazon breathing Kindle Fire down the iPad's throat. Most other comers have barely dented Apple's lead.

Amazon is feeling its own heat in the dedicated e-reader market that it continues to rule. Barnes & Noble's Nooks and other rival e-readers are providing spirited competition. 

While two out of three future tablet buyers plan to purchase an iPad, there is now for the first time a real contender for the No. 2 spot, according to a survey by ChangeWave Research in Bethesda, Md. Some 22% say they'll buy a Kindle Fire. That's a "devastating blow to a range of second-tier tablet manufacturers, including Motorola, RIM, Dell, HTC, (Hewlett-Packard) and Toshiba," ChangeWave says.

In a recent PriceGrabber survey, 79% of consumers indicated they would rather receive a tablet than a laptop computer. And 72% of shoppers said they believed tablets would replace e-readers as gifts.

Which is it for you? Dedicated reader or tablet? Or both? What are the key considerations? If your passions spread beyond books — which can be read on either type of device — to music, games, Web browsing and watching movies, a full-fledged tablet along the lines of the iPad 2 or one of its rivals makes sense, if your budget can handle it. 

Still, a strong case can be made for single-purpose readers.

The case for e-readers

For starters, the E Ink devices represented by the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and other devices keep improving. Page turns are faster. Text is crisp. Reading electronically no longer strikes people as unnatural. The displays are easy on the eyes and don't drain the battery as do the LCD screens on tablets. Barnes & Noble claims you can read an hour a day for two months on its fast-turn Nook Simple Touch device. By contrast, battery life on the iPad and other tablets is measured in hours and minutes.

E-reader hardware is light and pocket-size. You can buy and download e-books in a minute or less if you have Wi-Fi or (as is the case with a single Kindle model) cellular connectivity. Nowadays, you can borrow e-books from the library and, in the case of the Nook, lend books to a friend — albeit under tight restrictions.

•Prices. Boy, have prices fallen since the Kindle made its debut four years ago at what now seems like an exorbitant $399. Today, you can buy a Kindle that displays "Special Offers" for just $79 or pay $109 for a version without the "offers" screensaver and home screen ads. The model weighs less than 6 ounces, relies on physical controls and connects to the Kindle Store, where you can download e-books in a minute or less via Wi-Fi. Meantime, Amazon added touch-screen controls on the aptly named Wi-Fi-only $99 (with ads) or $139 (without ads) Kindle Touch. You have to pay $149 ($189 without ads) for a touch model that adds no-fee 3G cellular for those times when connecting to Wi-Fi is out of the question. Amazon also sells models with a keyboard for $139.

For its part, the Barnes & Noble Simple Touch Nook Reader fetches $99, around the same price as an entry-level Kobo reader. Among the Kobo features is the ability to earn awards tied to reading milestones.

Sony makes a big deal out of the fact that its $150 Sony Reader Wi-Fi device is ad-free.

•Sizing up the screen. As mentioned, E Ink devices do a tremendous job of replicating real paper. But with conventional 6-inch Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers, you're swapping a color experience for shades of gray. That won't cut it if you want to admire illustrated children's books, picture books or shiny magazines.

E Ink displays on Kindles, Nooks and Sonys aren't back-lit, meaning you can't read in the dark.

But there are large upsides to E Ink: superior battery life, no glare and no eye strain.

Stepping up to a tablet

Last year, Barnes & Noble introduced Nook Color, kind of a hybrid between a conventional e-reader and a tablet with apps. With the recent launch of Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble stepped up its game with a tablet that streams movies and TV shows (via apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus). It goes head-to-head with Kindle Fire. As with Fire, Nook Tablet has a 7-inch screen, bigger than a regular Nook or Kindle but smaller than the iPad's nearly 10-inch screen. The result is you can stuff a 7-inch tablet in your jacket pocket, something you can't do with an iPad.

Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire are both tablets built on Google's Android operating system. But you'd be hard-pressed to tell that, because their interfaces are very different from what's usually seen on an Android slate. Nor can you grab apps on Fire or Nook Tablet via the Android Market store. Barnes & Noble and Amazon have dedicated app stores, each with fewer choices.

Most appealing is the price. At $249 for Nook Tablet and $199 for Fire, both tablets dramatically undercut the iPad 2 ($499 on up) and most other tablets that came before them. As always, there are trade-offs: Barnes & Noble and Amazon have far fewer apps than Apple. Neither device has a camera, which would be useful for video chat.

Weighing Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire is a bit like Coke vs. Pepsi: Which bookseller do you find tastier? Still, there are tangible differences. Fire beats Nook Tablet on price, and offers handy built-in stores for music and movies, which Barnes & Noble lacks. But the Nook Tablet comes out on top with on-board storage that is also expandable. And a neat Nook Tablet feature is that you can record your voice reading a kids book.

•Coming at the iPad. The first iPad and subsequent iPad 2 achieved market dominance for several reasons: excellent battery life, the most apps, and slick, easy-to-use iOS software.

Still, for all its popularity, the iPad has deficiencies. It doesn't run on 4G cellular networks, the fastest; there is no USB or HDMI port; and there are no memory expansion options. None of those are deal-breakers, but such holes do give rivals an opening.

Among the strongest competitors are Galaxy Tabs from Samsung that can tap 4G networks. These well-received Android models come in 7-, 8.9- and 10.1-inch screen versions. And the Galaxy Tab so closely resembles the iPad that Apple has sued Samsung, claiming the Galaxy tablets and some Samsung smartphones violate its intellectual property.

Generally speaking, companies chasing the iPad attempt to hook buyers with a fresh angle. Lenovo, the Chinese company behind ThinkPad laptops, pushed a $499 (and up) ThinkPad tablet that would appeal to a business-friendly consumer. ThinkPad Tablet is one of the few modern slates to take advantage of a pressure-sensitive digitizer pen, a $30 accessory that you can use to draw, doodle or capture notes in the boardroom. (The 7-inch HTC Flyer also has a digital pen.) Another cool accessory is a $100 keyboard folio that lets you prop up the tablet to use with a physical qwerty keyboard, a traditional strength of ThinkPad notebooks.

Toshiba also tries to compete by supplying features common to laptops. Its Android tablet, the $380 (and up) Thrive, has a full-size USB port you can use to connect flash drives with pictures, videos, music and documents. There's a full-size SD slot to accommodate memory cards that serve the same purpose. An HDMI port with an optional cable lets you connect Thrive to a high-definition TV monitor for viewing on the big screen. But a bulky design may be one reason that Thrive isn't exactly thriving.

Sony is coming at Apple with unusual designs. The "wedge" design on the Sony Tablet S ($500 and up) tablet is meant to evoke a folded-back magazine. Meanwhile, a new Android tablet from Sony, the Tablet P promised soon, has dual 5.5-inch displays. Why two screens? You might show a picture on one screen, and a map with the location where it was shot on another. The market will decide if the extra display is truly useful or merely a gimmick.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook is a handsome 7-inch tablet, and it's been discounted to as low as $200 in some places. But PlayBook has generally flopped because it lacks native e-mail, cellular connectivity or the number of apps of rivals, and a key software update that may address certain shortcomings is delayed until February.

The 10.1-inch Motorola Xoom Android tablet, as low as $359 on sale, was generally well-received when it arrived early last year, but, like many Android tablets, hasn't sold well.

Earlier this year, Hewlett-Packard pulled the plug on the slick WebOS operating system behind its TouchPad tablet. But you can still find TouchPads for sale at attractive sub-$300 prices.

Some rivals compete on price. A recent search on Amazon.com showed that you can buy a Coby Kyros 7-inch Android tablet for as little as $112, and a PanDigital tablet for $87. 

These surely aren't iPads, but most customer reviews at the site are positive.

•On the horizon. Apple has bested Google when it comes to tablet acceptance. Whether Android can make significant inroads is an open question. Google is rolling out a new version of Android dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich that will unify software on its smartphones and tablets. It also remains to be seen what Google does with Motorola Mobility in tablets, when and if its proposed acquisition of that company goes through.

And don't rule out Microsoft. 

In very early versions, the Windows 8 operating system that runs on tablets looks very slick.

But that's getting ahead of the curve. 

Buyers this holiday season have a variety of pleasing options at various prices, whether they're springing for a budget e-reader or a pricey, full-scale multimedia tablet.

Is the iPad the Future for Magazines?

By Jillian | November 24, 2011

Does anybody remember when you used to go to these things outside of your home called stores to buy these glossy paper things called magazines? Well maybe we aren’t quite at the point yet where those paper copies are extinct, but it certainly seems like it’s moving in that direction.

American Media, Inc. announced today that they are releasing a custom publication digital edition of SHAPE magazine that will be free for consumers. Sponsored by Revlon, the Shape Your Life app will provide high-quality active lifestyle content to your iPad. Building on the success of the two company’s editorial section built over the last year.

This app celebrates the relationship that Revlon has enjoyed with SHAPE over the last year. As described in the press release, the Shape our Life App will include SHAPE’s favorite time-tested beauty products, expert style advice, get-the-look videos offering beauty tips for all of life’s biggest moments, the latest diet and nutrition news including the best foods to eat at specific pages, and exclusive access to the “Women in Action” panel which discuss topics ranging from career and relationships to beauty, style and entertaining.

As more books, newspapers and magazines move toward providing digital content, the more relevant the format becomes. It seems like a logical progression when we can take automatic and immediate delivery of the latest issues, save bookmarks within each that replicate across multiple devices and can carry entire libraries with us wherever we go. I know a lot of people will insist that they love the way paper-in-hand feels, but that only matters to the current generation that is used to that –soon that won’t be a reality that people remember. Imagine those who said all those years ago that they can’t imagine life without their 8-tracks or VHS tapes.

American Media, Inc. is responsible for some of the biggest brands in publishing, including Star, OK!, National Enquirer, Globe, Country Weekly, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Pixie, Shape, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy and Natural Health. As early adopters of digital media technology, they also operate 18 of the largest web sites such as RadarOnline.com, OKmagazine.com, Shape.com, MensFitness.com, MuscleandFitness.com and FitPregnancy.com.

Why QR Codes Matter (And Not For the Reasons You Think)

By Linda Ruth | Posted on November 14, 2011
re-post from: http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588

Full disclosure: I love QR codes. I have ones that point to my Google Places pages, ones that link to various forms of contact information, one that ties people to my mobile site. So when the publisher of a pretty big magazine came to me last week to ask: why should we use QR codes, I found reasons to do so spilling from my lips (more accurately my keyboard).

You use them because they link the physical and virtual spaces via a little scannable code. You use them because this technology, known as 'hard linking'—physical to virtual, instead of the virtual-to-virtual, which is all that has been available til now—is analogous to the print-to-digital
transition publishers are negotiating, and an important tool in understanding and mastering the transition. You use them to push the envelope, to try new things, to think out-of-the-box. You use them because they are cutting edge. You use them because they are cool.

All of which, of course, are reasons many of us are using QR codes; but none of which is a valid (that is to say: bottom-line-based) reason.

Yes there are publishers that have intrigued their audiences and pleased their advertisers and made some money with these scaly little widgets, and I for one feel chuffed when they do. But is there a current, business-based reason to be using them—and are there ways of improving their chances of success?

Two of the current difficulties in making QR marketing effective are:

1) Many people still don't know what they are or how to use them, and;
2) It still often feels easier to type in a SMS keyword or number than it is to scan a QR code

To effectively market with QR codes requires the solution of both problems in one marketing effort. The solution to the first is simply to never put together a program of any sort without including instructions to the user in a clear, sequential way how to participate—beginning with downloading the reader app.

The solution the most successful marketers have found to the second, apart from doing all their marketing to geeks like me and you that just love to try anything new, has been to make the slight additional level of difficulty part of the game. Don't just plaster QR codes all over things and have them lead to ordinary business cards, site pages, or product listings (as I already admit to having done myself).  Include it as part of an insider's game, and make the payoff something not otherwise available—an exclusive prize, bonus, opportunity, or tip, a bit of QR-exclusive esoteria. 

Which still doesn't answer the question: why should a publisher market with them? And to that I would answer: a decade or so ago we were all asking each other the same question about our online presence. It's up to publishers, and to marketers, to make sure they have a level of theoretical science developed so they have something to use when applied science catches up. In this case the application is the consumer. And the consumer will be caught up to us—and pulling ahead—before we know it.

But there is a better reason—or at least a more immediately justifiable one—according to mobile marketing whiz Dan Hollings. Hollings has been testing subscriber retention on his mobile site, and what he's found is this: his highest success rate for keeping subscribers to his mobile list comes from the segment of subscribers that opted into some offline tie in. In other words at the convergence of physical and virtual space, where there exists a link between the two, is the place where those who opt in are less likely to opt out again.

That is reason enough to capture every publisher's attention, and opportunity enough for every publisher to leverage.

Gain insights from in-depth interviews with the presidents and CEOs of leading publishing companies in The Power of Print free whitepaper and learn how these companies are growing their print products.

David Meerman Scott Talks Tablets

By Dianna Dilworth on November 17, 2011 2:45 PM

Business book author David Meerman Scott thinks that the Kindle Fire is going to change everything for business book publishing. The author of  Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas Into A Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage caught up with eBookNewser for an interview about how tablets change the reading experience for books.

EBN: How do tablets change the reading experience for business books?

DMS: Tablets bring a seamless non-linear experience to reading a book. You can instantly jump from one part of the book to another which is something I’ve always wished for, as a reader of business books and as an author of them. While a black and white graphic is okay in a print business book, the color component and the ability to size for detail is compelling. And you can instantly link from the book to external content too. It means a book read on a tablet is like reading a blog post with links to valuable content from other places. This new book experience means watching the video the author mentioned with one click. It means you can check out the Twitter feed of the expert cited in the text. You can see the cool picture that was once worth 1,000 words.

EBN: Will it require authors to keep updating their content to make sure links are current and content is updated?

DMS: Yes. Links constantly break and new content becomes available. I have an intern who helps me review links on a regular basis. Using a spreadsheet, we check each link to find ones that are broken or redirecting readers, and update them. With my print books, I’ve been doing that as new editions come out (I have links as footnotes). With tablets, I hope to push new versions out on a regular cycle.

EBN: Do you think of the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet will be as popular as the iPad?

DMS: Most tablets are just technology. The computer is built because every company needs a tablet but it is not deliberately built to drive a content-driven experience. Apple (with the iPad) and Amazon are both pioneers in this new world of optimized electronic content. I am watching Amazon closely in this marketplace for one simple reason, online content. Amazon is a content company that happens to create technology. For example, Amazon pioneered user reviews which they own hundreds of millions of. They have a fantastic algorithm for categorizing their product listings in a way that makes them easy to both search and browse. No doubt that Amazon is one of the biggest content companies in the world and the Kindle is built to serve the content, not the other way around. For that reason, I predict it will become very popular.

EBN: How do you read eBooks?

DMS: I travel nearly every week from my home base in Boston to speaking gigs around the world. When I am on a plane, I like to read on my Kindle. I got the first version when it was released and have continually upgraded and now have a Kindle Fire. I carry a few dozen books on the Fire so if I start a book and don’t like it or feel like a biography or thriller or business book, I always have one ready.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Draws Heat From New Nook: Rich Jaroslovs

By Rich Jaroslovskyre-post from: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-16/amazon-s-kindle-fire-draws-heat-from-new-nook-rich-jaroslovsky.html

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- There’s a lot of heel-nipping in the tablet market these days.

Amazon.com Inc. just released the Kindle Fire, the most serious attempt yet to take on Apple Inc.’s mighty iPad 2. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble Inc. has shipped the Nook Tablet, which in turn takes aim at Amazon.

I’ve tried both new devices and my conclusion is that there’s no clear winner. They’re both compact, capable color- screen media-consumption devices for budget-minded users who don’t need all the features and functions of a full-blown tablet.

There’s a lot to like about the Fire. I like the way Amazon has integrated its content services -- books, magazines, videos, music. I like how it uses the Cloud, in this case, Amazon’s remote servers, to store content and make it accessible when I want it, reducing the need for a lot of storage. (The Fire only holds 8 gigabytes -- same as the base model iPod touch.)

Most of all, I like the price: $199, less than half the cheapest iPad.

When I booted up the Fire, all my previous Amazon purchases appeared automatically and Amazon made it exceedingly easy for me to add more content. I bought a couple of books, some songs and a movie for a long airplane ride. All downloaded quickly and efficiently. There’s also an Amazon site with some 8,500 Amazon- approved apps, far fewer than Apple has for the iPad, but still respectable.

Prime Content

Users of Amazon’s $79-a-year Prime service get access to a library of thousands of TV shows and older movies, somewhat akin to Netflix Inc.’s streaming service. The Fire comes with a one- month trial subscription.

So I like almost everything about the Kindle Fire -- except, well, the device itself.

The Fire is plain, a chunky black rectangle with a 7-inch backlit color screen. It’s shorter than the Nook Tablet, a bit thicker and heavier. In action, it feels sluggish. There can be a noticeable lag when you’re turning pages in an e-book or using an app.

I also had trouble with the accelerometer, the sensor that changes the view from portrait to landscape when you turn the Fire. I sometimes found myself looking at an upside-down app for several moments until the Fire sorted things out. And my loaner fell short of Amazon’s claimed eight hours of battery life.

Silk Isn’t Smooth

Amazon claims that its Web browser, Silk, has been optimized for speed, but in side-by-side comparisons I couldn’t discern any advantage over the iPad’s Safari browser. A few times the device told me it was connected to a Wi-Fi network while Silk claimed it wasn’t. There’s no 3G data service for the Kindle Fire, nor are there Bluetooth, a physical volume control, or a camera of any kind.

The Fire runs Google Inc.’s Android mobile-phone operating system. So does the $249 Nook Tablet, whose earlier version, the Nook Color, remains on the market with a newly lowered $199 price tag.

The Nook Tablet, like the Fire, operates only over Wi-Fi and has no camera. In other ways, though, it is the reverse of the newest Kindle. Where the Fire is physically plain, the Nook is sleek and more visually appealing. The $50 price differential buys you not only twice the memory and twice the storage of the Fire, but also longer battery life and a slot for an SD expansion card.

Smooth Scrolling

Barnes & Noble’s one-year head start in developing software really shows: scrolling is smoother, the screen reorients itself faster and the device just generally feels zippier.

Where B&N falls short is exactly where Amazon shines -- in the variety of content available and how well it’s integrated into the overall user experience.

Books aren’t the problem. The Nook’s selection is impressive and it has some nice flourishes. On-the-go parents, for instance, will appreciate not only the kid-friendliness of the Nook Tablet but also a feature that lets them record a child’s favorite story in their own voice.

For many other uses, though, the Nook Tablet relies on third-party apps in place of the one-stop shopping approach of Amazon and Apple. For movies and TV shows, there’s Netflix and Hulu Plus; for music, Pandora; and so on. Each requires a separate membership with its own login and, in the case of Netflix and Hulu Plus, credit card information.

Like Amazon, Barnes & Noble has its own app store that pales next to the iPad’s in terms of both numbers and quality.

Ultimately, the choice between these two devices comes down to Amazon’s lower price and ecosystem versus Barnes & Noble’s polish and network of brick-and-mortar stores to provide in- person support. In either case, paying half what an iPad costs will require you to decide which half of the iPad experience you’re willing to do without.

(Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

--Editors: Jeremy Gerard, Zinta Lundborg.

Vook White Paper Tackles Common E-Book Formatting Errors

Re-post from: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/49360-vook-white-paper-tackles-common-e-book-formatting-errors.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=886920b518-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email

Vook has posted a white paper called "Ebook Errors: How to Avoid 5 Common Problems," highlighting common formatting errors that frequently pop up for publishers when transferring their titles to digital. The white paper features Elizabeth Castro, author of EPUB: Straight to the Point, Pablo Defendini from Open Road, and Kassia Krozser from Booksquare.

The focus of the report was a solution list for five common problems in e-book formatting. The problems were: Headers with Hyphens; Chapter titles, Headers, and Sub-Headers Separated on Different eBook Pages; Unsightly Indentation, and Random Blank Pages in the eBook; Strange Characters Inserted into eBooks; eBook Aesthetics.

For example, the report states that the problem of sloppy indentation and blank pages are often caused when converting EPUBs from Microsoft Word. Many users of Word use "Tab" to indent paragraphs and "Enter" to insert line breaks, rather than using Word's formatting styles. The solution: if hand-coding an e-book, one should apply styles to the document (in Word or InDesign) before converting the file to EPUB.

The report also outlined the various contributing factors that lead to errors, which Defendini said would persist as long as e-books "remain second class citizens in the production workflow," meaning that print worklfow still dictates e-book workflow. Krozser expects to see changes in workflows on an imprint-by-imprint basis, "particularly those where e-book sales are approaching 50% of revenues." On a more general level, both Defendini and Krozser agreed that creating a single XML file at the outset of production would address many of the e-book errors currently plaguing publishers.

Vook's white paper can be read here: http://thanks.vook.com/errors/.