Coming up: Economics of ebooks/readers – a detailed study

Watch this space closely as I collate information and present an analysis on this shortly. Someone left a feedback for me that I was totally deviating from the primary objective of this blog – Economics and Finance and I think their point is indeed valid. I have been all over the place again. I need to refocus my priorities on this blog’s original objective with which it was setup 3 years ago and that is to concentrate on Economics and Finance.

Just look at the competition in this field:

1. amazon.com kindle e-book reader

2. Barnes and Noble Nook e-book reader

3. iRex, (a Royal Philips spin-off in 2005) e-book reader

4. PlasticLogic e-book reader

5. Sony e-book reader

This will be an interesting analysis.

My NLSIU classes resume for the 2009/2010 season

I resumed attending my NLS classes last week. However, it is going to be focused solely on trying to bridge the gaps where I had not attended last season else there will be repetition. I need to take up the exams also due in February 2010 and that will bring this law school course in IPR law to a logical close and ready for application to the real world.

My MacBook turned 1 yesterday!

Time truly flies! It’s 1 year since I migrated to a Mac from a PC and it’s been a well deserving switch! Apple has since introduced some revolutionary new products in the form of it’s iPhone 3G-S, the new iPod range with video, the new range of Macbook Whites with the unibody enclosure and a new lineup on the iMac’s for the holiday season, and of course, the return of the iconic Steve Jobs! Windows 7 is yet to launch here in India for me to move my desktop – a DELL Vostro – from Vista Ultimate to it’s successor – Windows 7 Ultimate.

Coincidentally, last week, Fortune magazine named Steve Jobs as the CEO of the decade!

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/04/technology/steve_jobs_ceo_decade.fortune/index.htm

Harvard business review – Becoming a High Performance Manager

This was my fourth book on my kindle. At the rate I am downloading books on my kindle through amazon.com’s Whispernet, I have to control my reading habits!

HBR - High Performance Manager

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Business-Becoming-Performance-Manager/dp/B0027ISANC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257486249&sr=1-10

The Toyota Way

This was the third book on my kindle2. It downloaded effortlessly on my kindle using Whispernet in less than 4 minutes. Given the EDGE (Enhanced data rates for GSM evolution) we get in India, this is very good.

The Toyota Way

Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Toyota-Way/dp/B000SEGIVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257433076&sr=8-1

I was researching excerpts of this book way back in 2006 for my Project Report on General Motors (GM) and Toyota and was enthralled with it since then so it’s after three long years that I have managed to lay my hands on this piece of beauty!

Since we are on the subject of Toyota, I must say that I am quite disappointed that Toyota pulled out of Formula 1 – they were only one of the four engine manufacturers left in F1 – the other three being, FIAT, Mercedes Benz, Renault with the pull out of BMW earlier this season and of Honda last season.

Patagonia kindle2 case procured!

My Patagonia kindle2 case arrived today from amazon.com and must say it was quick and efficient – it took 4-days for it to reach me from the USA. I am impressed by the DHL service. My Blackberry Bold case which was shipped by USPS a week before this has still not reached me and even their status tracker using the infamous “track and confirm” is pretty average and does not reflect it’s current status.

Here is a picture of my Patagonia cover for my kindle2 and it’s cute and fits my kindle that sits snugly inside this case.

My kindle2 Patagonia case

My kindle2 now supports Wikipedia!

How cool is this? I came across this on some blog and decided to check it out. It works – flawlessly! The first word I searched for on my kindle was, well, you guessed it, “kindle”! The web browser functionality of the kindle is still disabled as it’s not enabled for International editions of the kindle anyway – this is a known point.

Meanwhile I had some issues downloading a book and called amazon.com kindle support and they immediately reversed the charges on that book because it showed the wireless download status on their systems as “pending” as well. For some reason the book just did not download despite all my tries!

My first book download on the kindle

The Presentation secrets of Steve Jobs – Source: http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Secrets-Steve-Jobs-Insanely/dp/B002NPC0QC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257221443&sr=1-1

Steve Jobs is my business guru after Jack Welch and Warren Buffett and I count him as among my top favorite business leaders who can make insanely great products and better still, showcase them insanely. I must have seen his 2007 iPhone keynote at least a dozen times and have memorized the sentences – such is his aura! Anything he does only adds to his charm! This HAD TO be the first book on my kindle book reader. Reviews follow.

The Intelligent investor by Ben Graham

The Intelligent investor – Source: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Revised-ebook/dp/B000FC12C8

This book is so heavy on the head with it’s concepts that I had read a few hundred pages and took almost a 1-year sabbatical from it. This had to be the second book on my kindle in order of my Guru’s – Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett.

Needless to say, this book was my second purchase on amazon.com kindle device via amazon.com kindle’s Whispernet service which is flawless. I also liked the level of personalization that the kindle device provides to avid book readers like me and this itself makes for the switch from the deadtree version to the kindle version more effortless! Thanks amazon.com for this nice touch!

I will post reviews as I read up the next hundred pages from where I left off last year (Oct 2008).

Older posts on this book read can be found here and here

Zagg/Patagonia cover/case for my kindle2

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Patagonia-Kindle-Display-Latest-Generation/dp/B001GVIUMW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257156589&sr=8-1

Source: https://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/amazon-kindle-2-cases-screen-protectors-covers-skins-shields.php

I had to take this decision to buy something worthwhile. The regular amazon.com kindle2 case had mixed reviews, the Belkin’s case was also not great so I went for the Patagonia case.

The Zagg case is an invisible film for my kindle2 device.