Life in the cloud can have its consequences. Remember back in 2009 when Amazon unilaterally decided to remove copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from customers Kindles due to a copyright issue. And what if we suffer a prolonged power outage? Or god forbid the Kindle becomes obsolete? How will ever be able to access our ebooks? Thanks to Jesse England and his E-Book Backup project we now have an insurance policy. Says England of the project: E-book backup is a physical, tangible, human readable copy of an electronically stored novel. The purchased contents of an e-book reader were easily photocopied...
Reinventing the Bookshop: Four architecture and design firms “create the bookshop of their dreams”
intelligent life magazine asked 4 companies to "create the bookshop of their dreams." Each were given the same instructions: to design a general-interest bookshop, selling fiction, non-fiction and e-books, in store and online, on a typical European high-street site, with two floors of 1,000 square feet each. The budget was £100,000—modest, we knew, but independent booksellers aren’t minted and that figure was ring-fenced for the fit-out; they could assume there would be further funds for training staff or running events. The four participants were Gensler, 20.20 , Burdifilek and Coffey Architects. Here are the sketches and some of the highlights of...
Tweet for a Read: Is this the bookmark of the future?
What if your bookmark could communicate with you. What if the writer of the book you put aside and haven't picked up in awhile can send you a tweet! Something like - I miss you, please pick me up again and hold me for awhile things are about to get really interesting #tweetforaread Welcome to “Tweet for a read” a campaign courtesy of Brazil’s Penguin Companhia das Letras Mood/TBWA Brazil that features a smart bookmark that helps readers keep in touch with the book’s storyline and serves as a reminder to get back to reading. [vimeo width="640" height="400"]http://vimeo.com/97274073[/vimeo] It's a brave new world. A Bookmark That Reminds You...
Introducing the Kindle Flare
[youtube]http://youtu.be/fDBzQkWeQ5g[/youtube] The Onion has the scoop on Amazon's latest release, the "Kindle Flare," a new tablet that will "loudly and repeatedly" announces the title of the book you're reading. A spokesperson for Amazon says "the Kindle Flare’s repetitive shouting will appeal to fans of print, who miss the ability to display a book’s cover to strangers." It also offers the revolutionary new technology "auto-explain" for the user who has a little shame about their reading choice. "Auto-explain" offers a rationalization for the book you're reading while also boasting about a high-brow title that you also like. God bless the Onion. h/t Poets and Writers.
Amazon vs. The Big 5: Infographic
Talk about an elephant in the room. via Infographic Plaza