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Interesting interview for the fans.
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Yikes, the Sports Guy takes a look at the NBA's cash flow problems.
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Look at the Union Square retail situation. A Skechers (or some competitor) store also just closed on Market by the Rite Aid on the map, across from the Four Seasons hotel. I don't know anyone who shops at that Virgin–super expensive compared to Amazon, and a pedestrian selection compared to Aquarius, Rasputin or Amoeba.
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Analysis of whether the Kindle 2's read-out-loud feature is a derivative work.
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Good review. I've had my Kindle 2 for a day and agree with just about everything in the review. The biggest upgrade so far, as Ars highlights, is that reading newspapers (and magazines) is now viable on the device, due to a faster screen refresh and improved navigation within periodicals.
links for 2009-02-28
February 28th, 2009 § 2 comments
The kindle controversy is pretty funny. One of the reasons I enjoy audiobooks is because of the performances. (At least one major author, Orson Scott Card, considers it to be the ideal format to consume his stories). I don’t see the software holding a candle to the actors. Maybe more of a concern for non-fiction but that should encourage the addition of extra features not in the book version (interviews with authors etc.) which are better for the consumer. Publishers should see this as an additional market – use the kindle as a platform to sell the audiobook. Perhaps the kindle would allow them to bundle audio and a transcript. Incremental cost for electronic text (if any) and I doubt people would otherwise buy both versions. I would be extremely interested in purchasing such a bundled product, especially foreign language texts.
Yeah, good points, but it seems like publishers are just like any other content owners in that they fear new distro methods as threats, not opportunities. Some are indeed threats, but Amazon is not some pirate looking to steal from them. The right response would have been to call up Amazon and have a discussion about this on the side, not get it killed.