Saturday, February 6, 2016

Most books are bought by non-readers!

On the latest The Kindle Chronicles, guest Bufo Calvin made the wonderful point:

Most books are bought by people who only buy a couple a year, and mostly as gifts, and they don't have book shelves. 
Why didn't we know that??? Seriously.

Just for one thing: That's why the ebook revolution slowed down and changed to an evolution... An ereader only makes sense for heavy readers. I grew up with bookshelves, and I have them in every room. It's spooky to me to visit homes without bookshelves, but that is most homes! (Especially now, with video games and TV and home cinemas.)

It also, by the way, explains why the world sometimes seems a bit ignorant: I try to learn a lot and expand my horizon... How? By reading books! And if 97% of people don't do that, what do you expect? Do you expect Vogue or The Sun to educate people?

Glowing review of iPad Pro

Read this Glowing review of iPad Pro.

It's just how I feel. It's the iPad done right.

First and foremost, it’s the fastest and most powerful iPad to date. Everything feels faster than on any other iPad I own or have used. For example, editing photos and videos is virtually lag-free, and opening and working with large documents is noticeably faster, too. 
 Moving right along, its 12.9-inch Retina display is not just stunning, it also boosts productivity by displaying 78% more than an iPad Air’s 9.7-inch Retina display. This makes the iPad Pro great for just about everything you like using an iPad for — reading, videos, games, web surfing, and almost everything else. They say more is better and in this case it’s definitely true (unless you fly coach; I'll tell you more about that in a moment). 
 Speaking of videos and games, the iPad Pro is the first iPad to include four separate speakers and it makes a big difference. It’s much (much) louder, with a wider frequency range and significantly better stereo separation than other iPads. I was a little surprised — it's the first iPad that actually sounds OK without attaching (or connecting wirelessly to) an external speaker.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Publishers beginning to go ebook-only?

I think it's a clear sign of the economic advantages of ebooks over paper-books when publishers are giving up the latter and going all digital. The latest is Foundation For A Course In Miracles, a publisher of spiritual (non-religious) books. They say:

The world is going digital and so are we! February marks the beginning of our "Going Digital Warehouse Sale." We are clearing out the warehouse of all printed books as we make the transition to electronic books. After the current supply of books is sold, the books will not be reprinted, and will be available only in digital download format.