In Defense of the Power of Paper. From @nytimes

PAPER still matters. The frequent whirring of printers in offices — despite the Internet, Microsoft Word, social media, scanners, smartphone apps and PDF files — attests to that. We may use less of it than we once did, but reading and writing on paper serves a function that, for many workers, a screen can’t replicate.

Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten, he said. Some of his clients are returning to paper planners for this very reason, he added.

Mr. Allen, the author of “Getting Things Done,” does much of his writing on a computer, but there are still times when writing with a fountain pen on a notepad “allows me to get my head in the right place,” he said.

Paper printouts also serve an important function, he said. For long texts, a printout can allow a reader to better understand relationships between sections of writing. And paper handouts are still a presence at meetings partly because they are useful for taking notes.

Reading a long document on paper rather than on a computer screen helps people “better understand the geography of the argument contained within,” said Richard H. R. Harper, a principal researcher for Microsoft in Cambridge, England, and co-author with Abigail J. Sellen of “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” published in 2001.

Read more here....http://wtr.mn/QdnB9Z    

Here’s the Rundown on Amazon’s New Suite of Kindle Fires and Kindle E-Readers. From @redgirlsays and @wired

Amazon packed a boatload of new products, services and information into its Santa Monica media event Thursday morning. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced a trifecta of new Kindle Fire Tablets, new software services to improve the tablet experience, and updated Kindle e-reader models.

On the e-reader front, Amazon introduced a new E-Ink Kindle, The Paperwhite. It’s 9.1mm thick and 7.5 ounces, with a 212 PPI front-lit display so you can read in the dark–just as we had hoped–and a black, buttonless bezel. New software features designed to enhance the reading experience include “Time to Read,” which gives you estimates of how long it’ll take you to finish a book, or the chapter you’re on, and X-Ray, which helps you learn more about the characters in a book. You can also purchase books directly from author biography pages now.

The base model of the Kindle Paperwhite is $119; the 3G version is $179. These are available for order today, and will begin shipping October 1. Amazon also dropped the price of the original Kindle from $79 to $69. It features minor improvements to fonts and texts, and will begin shipping September 14.

The bigger deal, however, is the company’s new tablet. Amazon debuted a next generation Kindle Fire: The Kindle Fire HD. It’s got great guts, with a TI OMAP 4470 Processor and double the RAM of its predecessor so things should run smoothly. The tablet is 8.8mm thick, weighs 20 oz, and has a 254 PPI 8.9-inch display. For WiFi, it uses MIMO technology, which basically means it uses dual antennas to establish a better connection. It’s the first tablet to incorporate MIMO, which Amazon claims makes its WiF 41 percent faster than the iPad’s. The Kindle Fire HD also has stereo speakers with Dolby sound and a front-facing HD camera. On the software side, a feature called X-Ray for video makes it a snap to find information on actors and movies through IMDB. It also includes a feature called Kindle Free Time, which lets you set time limits for when your kids are using the tablet.

Amazon also debuted a 4G LTE version of the Kindle Fire HD. It has 32 GB of storage, and a data plan that includes 250 MB per month, 20 GB of cloud storage, and a $10 Amazon credit for only $50 a year.

The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD with 16GB of storage is $199 and begins shipping September 14. The 8.9-inch model is $299 and ships November 20. The Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE is $500 and also ships November 20. The original Kindle Fire got a price drop to $159– but why would you grab that when you can get so much more for only an extra $40?

Original post can be found here....http://wtr.mn/NW4Hm0

The Cruel Paradox of Self-Publishing: for every self-published work that gains traction, the overwhelming majority of books don't. From @TheAtlantic

Self-publishing technology, like this Espresso Book Machine, has made book manufacturing much more accessible to authors.

Earlier this summer, Penguin Group, long a distinguished major publisher of books, paid $116 million to acquire Author Solutions Inc. A leading provider of self-publishing services, Author Solutions said that since it was formed in 2007, "it has enabled 150,000 authors to publish, market and distribute more than 190,000 books in print and electronic formats." The transaction is a significant breakthrough in what has become a vital factor in the publishing landscape of the digital age. For the first time, an established publisher, the second largest in the world, with about 40 imprints in the United States, is delivering its reputation and management resources to support the vast number of people who want to write a book that, for a variety of reasons, does not make it to a traditional list. By adding Author Solutions, with revenues last year said to be about $100 million, to such pedigreed Penguin names as Viking, Penguin Classics, Putnam, and Dutton, the concept of self-publishing has moved away from what was always known as "vanity publishing." While these authors are still mainly paying to see their works turned into finished print or e-books, they are no longer consigned just to the margins of the marketplace.

In his remarks when the purchase was announced, Penguin's CEO, John Makinson, was effusive: "Self-publishing has moved into the mainstream of our industry over the past three years. It has provided new outlets for professional writers, a huge increase in the range of books available to readers and an exciting source of content for publishers such as Penguin. ... This acquisition will allow Penguin to participate fully in perhaps the fastest-growing area of the publishing economy and gain skills in customer acquisition and data analytics that will be vital to our future."

Read on here.... http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/the-cruel-paradox-of-self-publishing/261912/

Julia Child's Lessons on Publishing and Perseverance. From @brainpicker and @TheAtlantic

On March 8, 1952, Julia Child, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday today, sat down at her kitchen table in Paris and penned a fan letter to American historian and author Bernard DeVoto, discussing the peculiarities of French and American kitchen knives. But the letter was answered by DeVoto's wife, Avis, described by one of her husband's students at Harvard as "very good looking and very sexy-seeming and the only faculty wife who might have said 'horseshit' even to [Harvard] President Lowell." This was the beginning of an epistolary friendship that unfolded into a rich and wide-spanning relationship, exploring the two women's deepest thoughts and feelings as well as their most passionate professional pursuits and aspirations, as Avis became Julia's confidant, great champion, and unofficial literary agent.

Perhaps most fascinating of all, however, is the absorbing insider's look at the publishing industry that the correspondence reveals as Julia and Avis navigate the maze of bringing Child's culinary ideas to the mainstream with the publication of her seminal book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which Avis steered first to Houghton Mifflin and eventually to its home at Knopf. Filled with romantic idealism about how publishing ought to work, they consistently brush up against barriers to creative freedom and integrity, shedding light on how much has changed and how much has remained the same in the half-century since.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/SwQbCY

The New Tablet Reality for E-Books: Will Readers Read Less? From @forbes

Whether you like it or not, it’s now a tablet world — we just live in it.

According to a recent survey, one out of every five e-book readers use a Kindle Fire to read and almost as many use an iPad. Some 35% use a Kindle e-ink reader but the two leading tablets combined have now surpassed the older technology and will soon leave it in the dust. With the new Google Nexus 7 tablet rising and Barnes & Noble lowering prices on the Nook tablet, reader momentum toward the newer technology will only accelerate.

So, what does this mean for the book publishing world? At least two things:
1. The rise of e-books and e-reading might slow.
2. Publishers have to start thinking about content in new ways.

Very interesting read continues here....http://wtr.mn/MuUMYC

Photos of Alleged iPhone Logicboard Suggest New Battery, Antennas. From @wired

As the launch date for the next iPhone approaches, there’s no shortage of rumors and purported images of the highly anticipated device. The latest development comes from a WeiPhone forum user who posted photos of the alleged next-generation iPhone motherboard, revealing that the phone could sport new antennas, a higher-capacity battery, and more.

While photos like this should always be viewed with a generous helping of skepticism, the particular WeiPhone user who posted the shots has some credentials. As 9to5Mac was first to point out, the user posted accurate images of the iPhone 4S motherboard last year, a couple months prior to its launch.NoWhereElse.fr has also taken the time to compare the size of the motherboard to the iPhone’s supposed rear plate (leaked in a video in June), and it matches up quite nicely, suggesting the WeiPhone forum user’s latest posting is legit.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/Nv0hWF

Here’s why tablets (yes, tablets!) will replace the smartphone, From @KevinCTofel and @gigaom

I’m sure to get the “you’re off your rocker” commentary on this one, but I make a living by looking ahead in the world of mobile technology. And what I see now is a trend that I have watched build for nearly half a dozen years. Thanks to the pace of mobile-network expansion, new audio and video technologies, the expansion of Wi-Fi, and more-capable hardware that runs longer on a single charge, I expect the tablet to begin replacing the smartphone within the next half a dozen years. There, I said it.

Why?

Our dependence on mobile media consumption is growing.

Voice on a tablet isn’t as bad as you’d think.

The user interface is moving beyond pocketable screens.

Tablets can do the same things as smartphones, only better.

Naysayers are still judging based on today’s use cases, not tomorrow’s.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/OLMhrh