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 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…
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 2007. 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…
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…
If you are as big a geek as me, you spent yesterday glued to the Engadget or Gizmodo live blog of Apple’s WWDC keynote speech. As expected, we got a look at the new iPhone (3G s) and some of the new apps that will be launched when iPhone 3.0 comes out in a few weeks time. Personally, I’m really excited about the new iPhone – video alone is enough to get me to spring for a new device (though Read more…
Recruiting a new team from scratch is one part of the start-up puzzle. A time lapse video would capture the manic experimentation that goes into this process; no recipe exists when the company you are building is in an entirely new category where there are no legacy practices to follow. All of which brings me to Vook. One part video, one part book and one part social media, all put together into a single experience. Imagine a Japanese chef working Read more…
We’re serious book lovers at Vook – one of our producers just read 2666 between takes on a long shoot – but we also love, obsessively follow and make movies and online video. That expertise will set Vook apart from other e-book creators: We understand books and video culture. Now we’re combining those mediums into a new experience that will really make words pop. As we scour the Internet for inspiration, a few projects stand out. Once a week, we’re Read more…
Vook wasn’t the only e-book outfit at BEA, but we were one of the most visible, hanging around the floor and visiting lots of publishing folk to demonstrate our product. I’m a veteran of this book fair, but I have to say I have rarely encountered such enthusiasm, especially for a product that’s a little “out of the box.” For all the fretting that the book business is archaic and hidebound, there were dozens of “that’s cool”‘s and “I want Read more…
