Tuesday Midday Links Roundup: Microsoft unveils a beautiful new tablet with no ship date or price
Book Deals / Publishing NewsAmazon / Fair Use / Macmillan / Microsoft / Multifunction-Device / Waterstones19 Comments
Microsoft
Microsoft held a press event wherein they announced their new tablet called Microsoft Surface. It’s a beautiful, lust worthy device. The only problem? No price or ship date. Nonetheless, here are some specs. The basic design includes an integrated kickstand, two covers with integrated keyboards, and a touchscreen that recognizes and differentiates between finger input and pen input. There are two basic models:
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Windows RT
- Weight: 676 g
- Thickness: 9.3 mm
- Screen: 10.6” ClearType HD Display
- microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
- Office Home & Student 2013 RT, Touch Cover, Type Cover
- VaporMg Case & Stand
- 32 GB, 64 GB
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Windows 8 Pro
- Weight: 903 g
- Thickness: 13.5 mm
- Screen: 10.6” ClearType Full HD Display 42 W-h
- microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
- Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
- VaporMg Case & Stand
- 64 GB, 128 GB
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There was no mention of Barnes & Noble although I suspect that there will be a nook app that comes preloaded on the device but I also don’t have any question that Kindle and Kobo and Sony will be close behind. It’s Windows OS after all.
News
Why the Waterstones/Amazon Deal is Like Vichy France | Publishing Perspectives – “Some strange pricing situations may now occur in Waterstones stores in the autumn. Since the company will continue selling other formats, it is conceivable that the same title, if non-agency, will be at two different prices in what appears to be the same “shop.” Waterstones.co.uk will have the epub version at one price but will also allow customers to download the Kindle version at what will surely be a lower price. …. ” The agreement with Amazon is not exclusive,” Daunt says. “We continue to sell non Kindle e-books and these may vary in price to Amazon’s. The Kindle e-book price, of course, is the same. We have lived for a long time with a price variance to Amazon, but also a price differential between our own ecommerce site and our shops. Of course, there is also a difference in the price of individual titles between shops. No different then, to the John Lewis Partnership, and very few customers find this common retail practice to be odd.”” Publishing Perspectives
More info on the Waterstone’s / Amazon deal. This looks to be a mess. Can our UK readers chime in on this?
Reorganisation at Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck – “Stefan von Holtzbrinck has announced a reorganisation of the Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. Effective July 2, the group will now be composed of three divisions: Global Trade, Global Science and Education, and Holtzbrinck Media. The global trade division, managed by John Sargent, will consist of all the consumer book publishing operations of the Group, including all the US, German, UK and Australian houses.
Macmillan
Clearly Sargeant’s moves for Macmillan in the price fixing case was with the approval of his superiors.
Fair Use, Art, Swiss Cheese and Me – NYTimes.com – “And yet, such exotic questions are now before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where a three-judge panel will rule on a case with serious implications for the visual arts. In the fall of 2008, the Gagosian Gallery in New York exhibited a series of works by Richard Prince. Those works incorporated photographs that Mr. Prince had found in a book by the French photographer Patrick Cariou. The photographs were of Rastafarians living in the mountains of Jamaica. Mr. Prince borrowed one such photograph — a Rastafarian against a dense growth of plants — covered the man’s eyes with blue circles and placed an electric guitar in his arms. Mr. Cariou sued Mr. Prince for copyright infringement.” NYTimes
Lawsuit between origami enthusiasts unfolds | The Madeleine Brand Show | 89.3 KPCC – “Picture a square grid full of crisscrossing lines and overlapping shapes. A crease pattern looks like a graph in an algebra textbook or abstract painting. And that’s where the lawsuit begins. Sarah Morris is an abstract painter. Awhile back, she started exploring modern origami. So Sarah Morris took a bunch of crease patterns, changed some lines, added colors to the shapes and turned them into very large paintings.” SCPR
Sounds like she reversed engineered Robert Lang’s origami creations. He wants credit. She refuses to give it. Perhaps he wants money too but the article doesn’t say. This is fascinating. Is the origami pattern of Robert Lang’s copyrightable and if so, is Sarah Morris’ work transformative enough? These two fair use questions are fascinating.
Deals
Amazon is having June The Big Deal
Kobo coupons:
- Kobodollaroff ($1 off)
- c4auto40 (40% off)
- c4auto45 (45% off)
- RggiCA5091 (50% off)
- Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
- The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
- The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Death of a Perfect Wife by M. C. Beaton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Death of a Hussy by M. C. Beaton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Death of a Cad by M. C. Beaton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Do Not Disturb by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- First Comes Love by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Then Comes Marriage by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Not Another New Year’s by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Wish You Were Here by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- The Thrill of it All by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Must Love Mistletoe by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- This Perfect Kiss by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- The Care and Feeding of Unmarried Men by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- An Offer He Can’t Refuse by Christie Ridgway * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Babysitter’s Club Collection (Books 1-4) by Ann M Martin * $9.99 * A | BN | K | S
No idea on the Waterstones mess, sorry.
But I want one of those MS tablets like I never wanted an iPad. They look amazing.
I used to own all 900 books in the Babysitter’s Club series when I was in elementary and junior high. Then I gave them all away when we moved and I went to High School. More fool me.
Oooh, Hamish MacBeth. Those are the MC Beaton books; she wrote Regency trads as Marion Chesney. Her MC Beaton mysteries are cozies.
I love the keyboard in the Windows tablet. The ones you can buy for the iPad are terrible. Surely someone is going to make a similar one compatible for the iPad soon, right? I would buy it in an heartbeat.
I can start to understand a lot of artists’ issues. Can no one create without using another person’s work first?? Especially the case of the Rasta pictures – that one is just sad.
@Sunita: I just recently discovered M.C. Beaton’s Travelling Matchmaker series set in the Regency. Lovely books: Penelope Goes to Portsmouth, Emily Goes to Exeter and so on.
Love The Book of a Thousand Days. It’s my second favorite after The Goose Girl.
I had no idea there were difference prices between Waterstones’ shops. It sounds like a mess with the two different tier shopping options.
I was amused, though, by the Death Star reference to Amazon in the article. Light sabers at the ready!
@Sunita: I like the Hamish MacBeth books but was never able to get into Marion Chesney. I need to try again.
Somebody recognized the origami guy’s crease patterns? Really? My mind is boggled by that. Initially, I thought the painter unfolded some of his figures but apparently she used his computer generated patterns. Are they freely available, I wonder. I’m not sure I have a lot of sympathy for the origami guy.
Tablet devices never interested me because (for me personally) they’re a waste of money. I already have a laptop, ipod touch and ereader. A tablet would just be redundant. However, Microsoft’s tablet has me seriously considering going tablet when I need to replace my laptop.
@Lazaraspaste: I did too. My misfortune is that my family’s housing situation changed drastically and I wasn’t able to take my books with me. I’ve been thinking about sweeping through a few library book sales and used book stores to rebuild it, because e-book versions just aren’t the same!
Ohhh, Book of a Thousand Days on sale! I can only recommend that ^^
The Julia Knight book Carina Press is advertising in the sidebar was $0.99 at B&N yesterday. It’s a sequel to Ten Ruby Trick, which I loved. And the price was right.
@Dabney: The Book of a Thousand Days is a truly wonderful story, but the Kindle version is probably the #1 worst ebook for typos that I’ve *ever* read–and I’ve read more than my share of crappy, messed-up books so that’s saying a lot. I bought/read my copy in 2010 and I just saw a review posted yesterday that indicates they still haven’t fixed (any/all?) the problems yet. Criminal. This goes hand in hand with DA’s other post on tolerance, but even at the 99 cents price it may be hard for people to tolerate that level of shoddiness. The book is worth reading, so consider buying it in paper.
(Sorry for the rant, but you can tell this really bothered me. And I paid way more than 99 cents.)
“No price or ship date.”
Ah, yet another vaporware tablet. Excuse me if I am skeptical that this one will ever appear.
I’m surprised DA didn’t link to Jeff Bezos’s rather extraordinary pimping of YA author of Jessica Park on the front page of Amazon yesterday. Extraordinary because the author is (a) self-pubbed (b) her book is apparently crap and (c) she’s an enabler of the notorious Badly Behaving Author, Jamie McGuire, as can be seen on some of the low rated reviews of McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster. It’s irked a number of the people who do their best to police BBAs on Amazon forums:
http://darkwriter67.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/badly-behaving-authors-pt3-when-a-broken-axle-gets-the-front-page/
@Ann Somerville: That woman is a menace. She harasses reviewers like she wants a medal for it.
@Ridley:
And now Amazon has given its offical stamp of approval to authors who harass reviewers. Great.
On a slightly different note to the Waterstones discussion but still in the UK, I received an email yesterday from The Book Depository saying that they were, as of 30 June (I believe) ceasing to sell ebooks. The email said that after that date I wouldn’t be able to re-download any ebooks I’d bought from there. I know that TBD was bought out by Amzn (or at least I think they were trying to but perhaps there was govt. intervention from a competition perspective, I’m unsure). Anyway, if Amzn did buy TBD I wonder whether that has anything to do with the decision to cease selling ebooks? Does anyone have any insights?
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic however , I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring
a blog article or vice-versa? My blog goes over a lot
of the same subjects as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other.
If you might be interested feel free to send me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you! Awesome blog by the
way!