The Digital Reader

OnSwipe, the new service that’s supposed to be the next big thing in tablet publishing, was updated today. This was the 2.0 release, and like most second gen releases it was supposed to be the one that worked well. Unfortunately, it’s still not worth using.

This new release offers quite a few more layouts as well as support for blog comments, and I was all set today to say nice things about it. I’d been unfair when I posted about the original release; I didn’t know at the time that VCs often push a startup to launch before they’re ready. But they’re still not ready.

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Apple forces Amazon to remove their in-app purchase button from the Kindle app and Amazon complies. Meanwhile, Amazon was obviously developing their HTML5-based Kindle Cloud Reader for all platforms. Advantage, Amazon! If Apple ever had any hope of grabbing 30% of all Kindle content sales taking place on iPads/iPhones that dream just crumbled.

If you’re a Kindle device user this development doesn’t mean a whole lot to you…yet. You’ll continue using your Kindle hardware like you always did. But if you own a tablet like the iPad you’ll find Kindle Cloud Reader is a terrific alternative to Amazon’s native app for those other platforms (e.g., Apple’s iOS, Android, etc.)
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A new ebook making tool launched this week, and I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do what I want.

Kindle Writer is an all in one tool for making basic Kindle ebooks . It can handle all the steps from editing the text file, adding formatting/cover/images, to creating the ebook and uploading it to KDP. As a single compact tool it is rather nice.

I can see that this would be a pretty good tool for a beginner, but it is not nearly sophisticated enough to suit me, an experienced ebook maker.

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Onswipe launched their new tablet publishing service a few days ago. There was a lot of hype, and even a little substance. The service isn’t live for the public yet, but the press release mentioned a half dozen major websites as launch partners.

Unfortunately, most of the launch partners haven’t actually launched yet. As I sit here editing the post on Thursday morning, the Onswipe website shows only 3 active partners. One of them, Gary Vaynerchuk’s blog, still doesn’t work right.

First, a word of background. The idea behind the Onswipe tablet publishing service is that it would give publishers an easy way to publish for tablets. The free service would provide an app-like experience with page style layouts (instead of scrolling) and an automatically constructed TOC (instead of the usual home page).

The TL;DR Review

This service lacks most all of the better features of a website and it adds little that you might find in an app. The regular Slate website is significantly better than the iPad edition. I really don’t see a reason to use Onswipe at this time.

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Did you know that the satirical singer Weird Al Yankovic wrote a children’s book? I didn’t, at least not until the app came out last week.

The book is titled When I Grow Up. It’s a collection of visual jokes based on absurd professions (milking giraffes, for example).  A lot of the scenes are written on the same level of absurdity as his songs, so if you’re a fan you might want to get the app. It’s $3 in iTunes.

Even though it’s based on a children’s book, this a pretty fun app. It’s based on the book, but the app also adds narration (by Al himself), games, and other extras.

This app is half a step away from being the kind of product someone could develop just to sell to fans.  It’s easy to pirate a song, but hard to pirate this app. Tweak it a little and I think it would appeal to them.

What do you think?

via iTunes

Late Friday night I learned that the National Geographic Magazine was available for the Kindle, so I immediately downloaded it. That turned out to be a disappointment, but it inspired me to go check iTunes for an iPad app.

The app came out in February, and it didn’t get nearly the attention of Wired or any of the big, flashy magazines. That’s a pity, because this is a fun app.

Let me start the review with this: Go get the app. Now. The February 2011 issue is free and is most definitely worth seeing.

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I’ve just discovered that the National Geographic Magazine is now available on my Kindle. (So far as I can tell, it was just released in May.) I’ve downloaded the latest issue and it is an incredible disappointment. The Kindle Edition has the writing I remember, but it lacks the impressive photographs that make it worthwhile.

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Kno are a company that have been in the press a lot the last year or so. They were going to sell  a dual screen tablet/laptop thingie for the academic market. But then they learned that there was no market for a tablet that costs twice as much as the iPad, so it eventually died.

Kno then turned their attention to the iPad, and their app hit iTunes yesterday. It’s not very good.

BTW, they’re planning to release their textbook app for more platforms (the FAQ mentions Android, Mac, MeeGo, and Windows).

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