Dissecting the Amazon Kindle eBook reader…

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, March 19, 2010, 01:40 PM

Amazon.com is pulling out all the stops. Their Kindle eBook electronic reading device is the early leader in the field with an estimated 90% of the fledgling market for electronic book downloads. But Amazon’s dominance could vanish just like that.

Here’s why; Apple’s iPad tablet will be released in April and if it is even half as dominant as the Apple iPod has been then Apple will be looking to knock the Kindle off the throne.

Amazon ran a full page ad today in the New York times. It trumpets their claims that the Kindle possesses the following attributes:

“Amazon’s #1 Bestselling Product”.

Who can dispute that? Amazon won’t release their sales figures. I guess we have to believe them.

“Long battery life. Read for up to two weeks without recharging”.

Kindle users? Is this true in your experience?

“Paper like display is easy to read, even in bright sunlight”.

I have some friends who just took their Kindle to Jamaica on vacation. They claim it was fabulous to use it there. I assume it was quite sunny there. Kindle users, what do you think? Can you read it easily in bright conditions?

“At 10.2 ounces, Kindle is lighter than a typical paperback.”

What?! Wait a minute. Hold your horses. I am feeling like the “typical” paperback weighs less than 10.2 ounces? OK, I’m grabbing a stack of typical paperbacks from my pile here on my desk. I’m placing one on my postal scale. It weighs 5 ounces. Here’s another one: 7.5 ounces. Another: 8 ounces. One more: 8.2 ounces.

Uh uh. Sorry Amazon. I think your claims about the weight comparison of the Kindle with the “typical” paperback is perhaps a bit tenuous.

OK, I just dissected the Amazon Kindle. Don’t tell me you expected me to actually take one apart? Those things are expensive!

Dissecting Amazon’s full page ad was satisfaction enough for me…oh, and Amazon.com really, really, really wants you to order your Kindle before April. (wink, wink).

Vick Mickunas

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Amazon Kindle/Apple iPad showdown looming…

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, March 18, 2010, 09:25 AM

There’s a fascinating article in the New York Times today about Amazon.com. Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader is dominating the market for electronic book reading devices right now. Since you can only purchase eBook downloads for the Kindle from Amazon.com this means that Amazon is also dominating the market for selling eBooks. But this early advantage could wither quickly. Watch out-here comes Apple.

In April the Apple iPad tablet will be released. As Apple lines up publishers to provide eBook content for the iPad the battle lines are being drawn by Amazon over eBook pricing. This is going to get rather interesting.

To read the article click HERE:

Vick Mickunas

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The pint of it all….

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 08:12 PM

aye!

I hope you have a blessed Saint Patrick’s Day. Take it easy on the green beer now. Best be leavin’ that shillelagh in the umbrella rack.

When you get yourself home from all your wearin’ of the green why don’t you set yourself down and read a good book?

I’ll be reading “The Pint Man” (Doubleday) by Steve Rushin.

Tip one for me…

Vick Mickunas

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“The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, March 15, 2010, 12:38 PM

how it all went wrong

The new book by Michael Lewis was published today. “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” (W.W. Norton) is a painful dissection of how the US economy took that huge swerve into the ditch. We are still trying to extricate ourselves from this financial muck job. Lewis takes readers through the depths of the chicanery that created this massive boondoggle. As Bernie Dingle, my next door neighbor used to say: “It ain’t pretty.”

This timely book was an instant number one in sales today on Amazon.com.

Vick Mickunas

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Moms should love this book…

By Vick Mickunas | Saturday, March 13, 2010, 10:35 PM

“Lift” by Kelly Corrigan (Voice/Hyperion, 89 pages, $16.99)

Once in a great while, a small book comes along and packs a mighty punch. These books are quick reads, yet they stay with us. I call them soul searchers. When you read such a book, you’ll often end up pondering big questions — things like what is the meaning of life?

Let me offer examples. Robert James Waller’s “The Bridges of Madison County” comes to mind. A seemingly simple tale of sudden passion, “Bridges” mines some deep soul caverns. Then there’s Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie,” a book that celebrates a deeply lived life.

I just found another. “Lift” by Kelly Corrigan is a deceptively simple book. Corrigan’s first book, “The Middle Place,” was a memoir in which she described her bout with breast cancer.

This mother of two young girls was dealing with that situation when she learned that her father had bladder cancer.

This second book is quite short. It is written in the form of a letter to her daughters. Corrigan decided to write it when she realized that her eldest, a third-grader, was already changing and spending more time with her friends, on the computer or sending text messages. Childhood can be so fleeting.

She worried that her daughters will not recall enough of their childhood. She writes: “You won’t remember how it started with us, the things that I know about you that you don’t even know about yourselves. We won’t come back here.”

Corrigan’s reasons for writing are poignant: “You’ll remember middle school and high school, but you’ll have changed by then. That means you won’t ever know me as I am right now — the mother I am tonight and tomorrow, the mother I’ve been for the last eight years, every bath and book and birthday party, gone.”

This fond letter to her children will resonate with readers, particularly women. The author reflects that “people rarely rave about their childhoods, and it’s no wonder. So many mistakes are made.”

Her perception of her own reactions will ring true with many moms out there: “Almost every day I yell at one of you so loudly that my throat hurts afterward.”

Their mom’s observations will be appreciated one day: “I don’t mirror your emotions enough, though I can’t say why because when I do, it seems to calm you down. I forget to praise your effort instead of your achievement…”

The book’s candid reflections are enhanced by the author’s decision to include some other maternal perspectives.

Her cousin Kathy has lost a child in a tragic accident. Her friend Meg is single and wants to have a child so she takes a different route to motherhood. This book honors the power of the maternal bond.

Corrigan wrote an essay, “Transcending.” The video of her reading it has generated more than 4.5 million views so far on YouTube. Her writing reveals a perspective that is by turns wistful, humorous, and incredibly wise.

From her essay on YouTube: “Things will break — they always do.”

Vick Mickunas

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Senator Brown signs deal to publish his memoir…

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, March 12, 2010, 09:57 AM

No, not our Ohio Senator Brown, the other one. You know, the guy who just won a special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s empty seat in Massachusetts? The Republican won. You know the guy, Senator Brown. First name Scott.

Publishers have been fighting over the chance to publish this book. The publisher Harper Collins won the bidding war. (They also published Sarah Palin’s recent memoir).

To find out more click HERE:

Vick Mickunas

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You might consider discarding your cell phone…

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, March 11, 2010, 01:16 PM

After watching this video. Perhaps you have seen it already? I hadn’t. While the participants seem quite amused I had a different reaction; sheer terror. This video has a sort of HG Wells meets Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” element going on. Microwaves are us.

Watch this - click HERE:

OK, and here’s the link that disproves it all: click HERE:

I’m so gullible. That reminds me. I actually believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass distraction based on evidence as flimsy as that cell phone video. I’m so naive.

Vick Mickunas

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