I sound a bit like a broken record these days. Speed and video. Speed and video. Only last week it was the new iPhone touting these two words. Now it’s the turn of the Mozilla Foundation who today released a new version of its wildly popular Firefox browser. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Zbc-Rg6e8[/youtube] Firefox 3.5 comes with a slew of new features but the ones that most interest here at Vook are its pronounced improvements in rendering Javascript (in layman’s terms, makes everything feel Read more…
I recently reread the Wall Street Journal article “The Digital Future of Books” by L. Gordon Crovitz. I was looking for guidelines to help me describe what a Vook is. Even though we’re building the product, it’s still tricky to articulate exactly what Vook is going to do for books — and someone has to do something for books. As a recent Onion piece joked, “90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles.” The Internet, with its trove of Read more…
I don’t mean to brag or nuthin’ — but the recent article by Adam Penenberg in Fast Company is all about us, all about Vook. Well, ok, he never mentions us by name, and the piece is supposed to be about the war between Amazon and Apple for publishers and readers’ dollars — but listen to this (italics and commentary mine): ” Taking on the charateristics of our present online habits, and riding a wave of rapid innovation in screens and Read more…
I wasn’t going to upgrade. I swear. But my gadget lust got the better of me and I caved. So I spent the weekend with a new toy; my brand new iPhone 3G S. This is now the third generation iPhone I’ve owned after its launch weekend. Pretty pathetic I know. But I’ve kept my batting record at 1000. In my defense, it’s all for research purposes. Yeah, that’s right… research purposes. (At least, that’s what I told my wife) Read more…
Is there a more e-savvy publisher than Harlequin , the Toronto-based “romance” publisher? Sure, you think they’re all about bodice rippers for old ladies, and mass market paperbacks you throw away. But did you know that a full 4% of the company’s business last year was e-business? That’s about 400 times the amount estimated by most major publishers. I was on a panel at a conference in Toronto last week with Harlequin’s digital guru, Brent Lewis. We were talking about Read more…
Here at vook we always have one eye on what’s coming down the pike in terms of hardware. We love our iPhones and Kindles but are anxiously anticipating the day that technology catches up with our dream of integrated video and text. The good news is I think we’re almost there. Here’s a handful of devices that are getting us excited right now. 1. Fujitsu’s FLEPia Shown here as a prototype in 2024. FLEPia is color e-paper (which does not Read more…
We were pleased to see Vook’s editorial consultant Sara Nelson quoted in a USA Today article on young adult readers and book culture yesterday – and we couldn’t agree more with her point: kids are reading, they’re just not reading in a way we’re accustomed to seeing. I’ve been hearing this point from a lot of different experts in the educational and publishing world. Last year, I briefly worked with Alan Sitomer, a Teacher of the Year and published author, Read more…
I’ve not been the worst Luddite, it’s true. I started reading on a Kindle a week or two after the first version was launched, and still use it and a Sony reader for I’d say about 1/2 my reading. (More, if you count newspapers) But since I got to Vook six weeks ago, my tech knowledge/interest/time spent has increased probably 100fold. But, still, I’ve been a bit of a Twitter hold-out — have address @saranelson, but rarely use. But all Read more…
Summer at Vook is about work, very little play. Our team plans to launch five Vook titles in September and several more in October and many more in November and December of this year. The team is moving on lots of fronts: building out our technology; finalizing contract agreements; shooting video stories, author profiles and trailers; preparing marketing plans and building out partnerships. We are excited about our titles, our partners and the technology, and how this new offer is Read more…
Comics have pretty much lost their stigma as being just for kids and nerdy adults – even cute girls seem to have realized the geeks are onto something – and the Internet has been a huge player in making graphic storytelling more accessible. At Vook, graphic novels are a medium we’re really excited about, and not just because Watchmen did fairly well at the box office. Animation is definitely something we want to bring to Vook: charts, diagrams, even sharp Read more…