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Sub Warfare: Google and Apple Offer Rival Subscription Payment Plans

People still think of Apple as a hardware company that builds MacBooks and iPhones, but the subscription payment plan announcement shows its real value is as an e-commerce platform. Likewise, Google may be the first and last word in search, but the company can't seem to help sprawling into everything from robotic cars to digital book making. So it only makes sense that it would offer a rival payment system, called Google One Pass. Both moves are great news for consumers—it is about to get a lot easier to buy everything from newspapers and magazines to software and services online. For companies that make all that digital media, the prospects are a lot grimmer. It may not yet be time to "go to the mattresses," but it is definitely time to pull out the calculators.

5 Ways the Nook Could Beat the Kindle

Barnes & Noble will be making some big Nook announcements this afternoon at a press conference in New York City, but the one question on everyone's mind will be: How is the nook going to compete against the Amazon Kindle? Barnes & Noble and Amazon keep its e-reader sales numbers pretty quiet, but it seems safe to say that the Kindle has an edge at this point. Amazon announced yesterday that Kindle sales have already passed last year's totals for Q4. What can Barnes & Noble do to catch up? I have five ideas:

Ready more on PCMag.com

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The Kindle, FlipBoard for the iPad, and the Connected Reader

When Jeff Bezos launched the latest edition of its Kindle eBook reader , he did so with a solemn commitment to maintain the device's dedicated reading experience. Bezos's vision for the Kindle has always been the reader, the book, and almost invisible device between the two. It is a pretty thought, no doubt more comforting than the idea of pitting the mono-function Kindle against the multimedia powerhouse that is the Apple iPad. Still, it is fundamentally wrong. Bezos is quite correct to focus the Kindle on readers, but consider this fair warning, the way we read is changing.

Read more at PCMag.com. 

Ditch Mobile Apps, Invest in the Mobile Web

Even as participants at this year's ThinkMobile Conference showed off their latest Apple iPad apps, they expressed a deep exasperation at the effort and cost required to build separate applications for every mobile platform. After all, the iPad is just the latest in a long line of mobile platforms that developers and content providers must support in order to reach new audiences, a range that now includes the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Badu, Symbian, and, if one feels charitable, Palm's webOS. Meanwhile, everyone I spoke to said that the future was really in mobile Websites based on open Internet standards. So what is the hold up?

ThinkMobile is MediaBistro.com's bi-annual mobile conference, which, in the interest of full-disclosure, is a media partner of the PCMag Digital Network. (The program was also curated by PCMag.com contributing editor, Jamie Lendino.) The idea is to bring leaders in the technology and media spaces together to build better mobile products. Right now, that seems to involve trying to build half-dozen apps for marginal platforms and hoping a unified mobile Web eventually takes hold.

Read the full column on PCMag.com....

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Hands On with the New Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle launched the e-book market as we know it this week with the Tuesday introduction of a $139 Wi-Fi version of the device. The release shows how the company plans to continue to lead in the segment: focus on reading.

I got some hands-on time with the newest Kindle, which ships August 27, and found a device that was very similar to previous versions, but better in several important ways.

The first thing you notice about the new Kindle is the size. The device is 21 percent smaller than the previous version, making it much easier to slip into a coat pocket. You might think the screen is smaller, but it is the same six-inch screen as the older version. It is only the border that is smaller.

Read more at PCMag.com...

E-reading Between the Lines--Plus a Star Wars Quiz

The back story behind this clip is that I was 20 minutes early for my scheduled Fox Business hit only to find out that my segment was moved up by 20 minutes. It was wicked hot in NYC that day and I was drenched with sweat. Worse still, when I sat down, I had no idea that the cameras were rolling.

I say this, of course, just to explain why I spaced on Darth Vader's home planet. Everybody knows it is Tatooine. Everybody.

Sony Reader Pocket Edition Review: Portable and Cheap

 
Good things come in small packages. Size matters. You can't judge a book by its cover. Pick your literary cliché for Sony's diminutive Digital Reader Pocket Edition($199.99 direct), they all fit. And the device itself will fit nicely in a purse, a jacket pocket, or even a back pocket (although that last one might be a little rough on the screen if you plan on sitting). Despite a somewhat-dated-looking menu system and the absence of wireless connectivity, the Pocket Edition is very readable digital companion

Read the Sony Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300) full review on PCMag.com

Sony Reader Touch Edition Review: A Tough Read

The Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 ($299.99 direct) benefits from a sleek design and a touch screen that makes navigating menus a snap. Unfortunately, that touch screen is a little dull, making books harder to read than on competing devices. With the Amazon Kindle offering wireless delivery of books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs for $40 less, the Touch Edition is a tough read.

Read the Sony Reader Touch Edition (PRS-600) full review at PCMag.com.

Nook Review: Genuine Kindle Competition

The Barnes and Noble Nook E-Reader ($259 direct) will be difficult, perhaps even impossible, to find this holiday season, and that's a real shame. With a clever second display that acts as a touch-screen interface, a huge library of titles, and instant wireless downloads via At&T's 3G network or Wi-Fi, the Nook might just be the most sophisticated e-Book reader on the market.

Read the Barnes & Noble Nook E-Reader full review at PCMag.com

It's a Great Time to Be in Publishing!

Despite reports to the contrary, this is a great time to be in publishing. I don't mean to make light of the countless media layoffs, paper-thin magazines, anemic advertising revenue, risk-averse book publishers, or a once-venerable newspaper industry that seems to be printing more pink slips than papers these days. And, yes, I too am worried about my media job. Still, when I think about the vast array of new opportunities—the e-book platform, on-demand publishing, customized editorial, mobile commerce platforms, and an ever-growing global audience of sophisticated readers—I see a thriving industry in the making. Publishing will survive. It just won't look anything like what we're used to.

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