Blogs don’t make money. But people with blogs can

Dave Winer has a great post in response to Dan Lyon’s article in Newsweek. Dave’s 100% correct and of course he has the rewards to prove it. When I first started the (now defunct) analyst blogs at Jupiter Research I had some initial pushback at the time as to how it might affect our business. In the end, they helped promote the brand, exposed us to audiences that weren’t familiar with us and served as a great marketing tool for us to showcase insight and expertise.

Oh yes, they also brought in revenues as well.

My new role with Interpret

Yes, it’s true. I’ve started a new job with Interpret as VP of Strategy and Analysis. The data we have on the digital consumer is just amazing, I’ve never seen this level of breadth and depth, it’s going to be fun sharing this stuff with clients.

Here’s the full text of the press release.

Interpret LLC Names Michael Gartenberg Vice President of Strategy & Analysis

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ — Interpret LLC, a leading media and technology research firm, is bolstering its new media measurement and insight capabilities by appointing veteran analyst Michael Gartenberg as Vice President of Strategy and Analysis. A noted technology strategist, author and speaker, Gartenberg specializes in research and analysis in personal technology. Gartenberg will report to Michael Dowling, Interpret’s CEO and Co-Founder.

In his new role, Gartenberg will further Interpret’s commitment to providing strategic new media analysis for clients. He will be responsible for strengthening and expanding Interpret’s custom and syndicated research products for consumer technology clients. He will also work closely with Interpret’s practice leaders in the video games, mobile, theatrical/home entertainment, digital media and advertising sectors to provide clients with incomparable cross-media analysis.

Dowling stated, “Michael is a tremendous asset to Interpret, bringing a unique voice and breadth of insight to help clients digest and optimize emergent consumer technology platforms. Michael also delivers a vast wealth of expertise, depth of industry knowledge and leadership to clients looking to understand how rapid adoption of consumer technologies is transforming their industries.”

“I am pleased to join the exceptionally talented team at Interpret and add my insight on the growth of digital media and personal technology as consumers further embrace digital lifestyles,” said Gartenberg.

Gartenberg is a frequent contributor to many news and media outlets providing broadcast commentary and print analysis. His blog on mobile devices can be found at gartenblog.net.

Prior to joining Interpret LLC, Gartenberg was Vice President and Research Director at Jupiter Research (now owned by Forrester Research) where he led coverage on emerging consumer technology platforms. Leveraging Jupiter Research’s expertise in these areas, he launched Jupiter’s PC & Console Games service, Wi-Fi Mobility service among others as well as Jupiter Research’s Analyst Weblogs. Before joining Jupiter Research, Gartenberg had the roles of Managing Director at Hudson Ventures, a Manhattan-based venture capital firm and Vice President and Research Area Director of Gartner Inc., leading the Personal and Distributed Technologies research area. At Gartner, his research focused on personal and mobile computing. He was also recognized at Gartner and throughout the technology industry as the leading watcher and analyst covering Microsoft Corp.

Michael holds both his B.A. and M.A. from Yeshiva University in New York.

About Interpret LLC

Interpret is a leading entertainment, media and technology measurement and market research firm that applies proprietary, cutting edge methodologies and extensive category knowledge to help companies plan, test, and measure their business strategies. As the first research firm to focus on evaluating and measuring the intersections of content, technology, advertising and consumer behavior, Interpret provides clients with premium quality insight across the media and entertainment landscape, including leaders in the home entertainment, video game, new media, mobile content, and theatrical industries. Interpret’s syndicated measurement products and custom market research services continue to address many of the challenges faced by marketers, programmers and technologists in the evolving digital age. Based in Los Angeles with offices worldwide, Interpret’s “on the ground” staff, strategic partnerships and strong vendor relationships in key territories give the company a global reach with services throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

What do you think of open source funding?

Mark Cuban offers his own version of a stimulus package he calls Open Source Funding. What do you think of this idea? Would you post a business plan for Mark to look at?

I will invest money in businesses presented here on this blog. No minimum, no maximum, but a very specific set of rules. Here they are:

1. It can be an existing business or a start up.
2. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days
4. It must be profitable within 90 days.
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
8.  You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
13. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm)

Win 7 Starter should be a non-starter for vendors

Despite Microsoft’s claim that most consumers will only see two versions at Windows 7 at most, it seems that vendors aren’t playing along.

In a vote of confidence for Windows 7‘s suitability for use on netbook PCs, Hewlett-Packard Co. said it will likely offer at least three different editions of the upcoming operating system on future models of its Mini netbooks. That includes the Professional and Home Premium editions, which Microsoft Corp. last week said will be the two primary versions of Windows 7, and the low-end Starter edition, which will limit users to running three applications at a time.

This is a huge error, especially using Windows Starter in the US. Starter was designed as a low cost platform for emerging markets (where presumably no one wants to run more than three apps at a time). One big issue with Vista was different flavors of Windows, running on different hardware platforms, with different performance levels confused the market and often led to frustration (and a few lawsuits). It doesn’t appear that this is something MSFT will be able to control and they need to get ahead of this quickly. Aside from too many OS choices, there’s no way Starter is going to meet the needs of most users. I understand that Microsoft is trying to avoid the cannibalization of higher license priced license SKUs by devices like netbooks (which is what’s happening now with most netbbooks shipping with XP and not Vista) but this isn’t the proper approach to take. It’s time for MSFT to cut down the number of SKUs now and focus on delivering optimal experiences, even on low end hardware.

Does Amazon have the right to read books out loud?

One of the new features of the Kindle is the ability for it to use text to speech to read books out loud. The demo was impressive as a demo but given the flat, robotic speech I can’t imagine anyone actually ever using that feature. There’s a reason they hire actors with good voices to read audiobooks. What’s interesting is that the Author’s Guild is a little up in arms about this feature. From the Wall Street Journal

Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice. “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

Now, I know that if I buy a song, I don’t necessarily have the rights to use it as a ringtone (or do I?). I also know there’s been a lot of legal issues preventing places like iTunes from embedding lyrics to songs they distribute. But isn’t the ability for an end user to read or have the book read aloud something that’s an implied right? I’m not a lawyer (much to my parent’s chagrin) but it seems to me, this one’s a little silly. Perhaps the Author’s Guild didn’t quite understand what Amazon’s doing. Perhaps they’re concerned about a future where synthetic actors could replace audiobooks and they want to stake an early claim. Of course what makes this all the more amusing is Amazon owns Audible who’s probably the largest retailer of digital audiobooks. Let’s see where this one goes.

 

Update – The folks at Engadget ask a lawyer for an opinion. It appears there might be some merit in the claim. As I speculated, this might not be about the current state of the art but where things might be headed in a few years.

Will convergence trump best of breed devices for eBooks?

James Kendrick mentioned there was an update last night to the iPhone/iPod Touch version of eReader to version 2.0. Sure enough, there it was in the update apps section. Here’s a rundown of the new features from James.

• color themes (day and night time, I find this very useful reading for reading in the dark)
• Book cover art
• user defined book categories
• indicator to let you know what books are already on your device
• percentage read indicator in the bookshelf
• additional fonts
• margin options
• line spacing options
• larger tap targets for links
• auto-scroll  (I love this feature a lot)

There’s some pretty nice stuff in there, and I actually like the day/night themes depending on where and when I’m reading. The real question I’m pondering is the role of dedicated eBook readers like the Kindle relative to reading on devices such as the iPhone. No doubt, the Kindle is the better experience. The Kindle’s resolution is much closer to paper than the iPhone’s and a probably a good deal better than any screen you’re reading this on. On the other hand, devices have come a long ways since eReader used to be called Peanut Press and the device of choice to read was a Palm VX. eReader on the iPhone delivers a good deal of the Kindle experience. There’s a good selection of content (not great, but good and they’ve finally added Tom Clancy, of the last holdouts against eBooks). There’s the ability to download and purchase content directly, with no PC required. The screen’s not as high quality but there’s no annoying eInk page refresh and the small size of the device makes it much easier to hold and use one handed. In short, it’s not a perfect experience, but then neither is the Kindle.

I do believe there’s a market for dedicated devices. Cameras have not been displaced by music phones, media players have not been displaced by music phones and the Kindle will still serve a market of bibliophiles, especially those that travel a lot. The potential that apps like eReader have are to tap into the more casual market, allowing users to leverage the investment in screens they already have. That’s one reason why I think it’s important for Amazon to get the Kindle platform onto as many devices with screens as possible.

So what do you think? Is there a market for dedicated eBook readers or is this one area where convergence will trump best of breed functionality?

A camera carried is a camera that is used

Robert Scoble, who makes his living taking ubiquitous videos of people takes a look at three popular point and shoot video cameras and comes up with my choice as a favorite, the Flip Mino HD. Robert also makes an important point.

The Flip is the best because it is the best designed and smallest. It is — in talking with my friends — the most likely to end up in their pocket. A camera carried is a camera that is used and a camera that is used, even if it has slightly lower quality that some other camera, is one that’s better.

Robert’s point is true of every mobile device. The device you have with you is worth much more than the one you had to leave at home. There’s an upper limit to how many devices people will carry with them and there’s a huge divide between devices that are pocketable and ubiquitous and those that need to go in a bag with something else. It’s a critical distinction that I think is often lost on vendors.

Modu Lives

It’s been a long road to market for the folks at Modu but it looks like they’re making some progress with the news that they’re on track to ship the first phone later this year along with several “jackets” to add functionality. I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Dov Moran, the CEO and he has a pretty compelling stoy to tell, even with the delays that they’ve had to market. They’ve upped the specs on the phone along with a new UI since I last met with them nearly a year ago.

I still think the core concept is sound, it’s now a question of timing and pricing. If they can hit the market this spring with a first device and keep the price relatively low, there’s a good chance they can get the necessary traction to keep things moving and get to the point where they can introduce a v2 product.

Context remains the killer application for mobility so the ability to have a device that’s capable of morphing functionality based on where I am and what I’m doing is appealing, especially when the core functionality for telephony remains a constant. In fact, it’s exactly this type of modular design I’d love to see in higher function devices. I still prefer small, pocketable voice only devices on occasion. Other times i want the larger screen, keyboard and functionality of a smartphone. A device that can take on different attributes when needed would be fantastic and at the same time provide some interesting upgrade and aftermarket accessory options. This is still an interesting story to watch.

My Dad’s World

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of the mobile space and it seems to me I live in a very different world than my father did. For him, work was work and home was home. Rarely was their an intersection between the two places. I don’t recall calling my father at work (unless there was some sort of emergency). Likewise, when my father was at home, he rarely engaged in work activities, certainly there was no email or voicemail to check.

There was also no mobile space. Mobile was defined simply as the place that was neither work nor home. It was travel or commute time and for the most part dead time. You could listen to the radio, read a newspaper on a train but your activities were limited and there was no connection back to either work or home.

By contrast, I live in different times and those distinct worlds and the mobile space between them has changed quite a bit. But that’s a conversation for another post.

Coffee Nirvana for me

If you’re looking for something deeply technical in this post, forget it. Go back over to Techmeme. Likewise, if you’re a coffee snob. The kind of person who only grinds their own beans (in a hand grinder, of course, to avoid the friction of motor driven grinders that can affect taste), makes sure the water is of proper quality and temperature and only used a French press or a $3000 Espresso machine, this isn’t the post for you.

Ok. They’re gone. Now let’s talk. I like coffee but I hate making it. Years ago, when I worked for Jupiter Research and our offices were down on Astor place we had a magic coffee maker. Or so it seemed to me. You just took a little pre-packaged coffee container called a K-Cup. Dropped it into the machine, pushed a button and in about 30 seconds you had one perfect brewed coffee. A few months ago, I found the vendor of the industrial version of the machine, Keurig had a home version. After raves from my sister and my experience with the work machines I had to try it. And I fell in love.

For me, it’s coffee nirvana. I can brew exactly what I need without making a whole pot and go back and forth between different type of coffee as I’m in the mood. French Roast in the morning, perhaps some Green Mountain Wild Blueberry in the afternoon (I know, it sounds terrible but try it) or perhaps some Timothy’s German Chocolate Cake. The unit is a marvel of simplicity and it just works. and works well. If you like coffee (but aren’t a coffee snob) and you don’t need or want to brew by the pot, you need to check this out.

Did you miss Ted? Get it on your iPhone

This is great. An iPhone app that lets you access all the content at last week’s TED conference. Excellent. Definitely want to catch the billg speech among other things.

Quote of the day

"If you deploy a four or five-year old operating system today [Windows XP], most people will ask their boss why the heck they don’t have the stuff [Vista / Windows 7] they have at home."

Steve Ballmer

Not sure I buy that argument at all. Too many folks who get home machines with Vista that look for ways to get XP back. Granted, this was the story when Windows 95 came out and a lot of IT shops at the time found users had taken the OS upgrade story into their own hands. I’ve not heard from too many IT departments that have been worried about end user Vista updates on corporate machines. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can recapture any of that Windows 95 end user excitement with Windows 7. I still recall the users lined up around the blog at the Egghead software store in Seattle the night before Win 95 launch. Have never seen anyone stand online for a Windows release since.

One additional point, I suspect that Ballmer wasn’t taking into account the number of folks whose home operating system isn’t even a PC at all but rather a Macintosh.

Four things missing in today’s Kindle 2 news

While the new Kindle seems to be a pretty nice update, (If I were looking to buy, i’d definitely go with v2 over v1, I’m just not sure I’d update to V2 if I already owned v1) there’s still a lot of stuff missing before this gets to become mainstream.

1. First, it needs to be cheaper. $359 is just way too high for mainstream consumers for a device that only does one thing (for the most part). It’s fine for folks like me who travel a lot, buy a lot of books and hate carrying paper. For the mass market, it’s got to come down in price. Amazon could do this any number of ways including book club offers and/or subscription services.

2. I want a backlight. Yes, I know the eInk tech doesn’t lend itself well to this tech but Sony found a way to add a series of LEDs to light the display when it’s dark. One of the big advantages of eTexts is not needing ambient light to read by, this is important in places like bed, airplanes etc. Something Amazon needs to add ASAP.

3. Fix the eInk refresh rate. It’s gotten a lot better since my first Sony Libre and the current model is 25% better than the old one according to Amazon. It’s still not good enough and I still find the flash distracting.

4. What Amazon most needs to do is make the Kindle a platform. Get content onto other devices like the iPhone ASAP so consumers can finally be taught how to read books and other long form content on mobile screens. At the end of the day as long as I”m buying my content from Amazon they should be cool with whatever device I’m reading it on (Even if they prefer I read it on a Kindle). This eco system push should have been part of today’s news. Bezos hinted at it when he talked about WhisperSync. It should have been explicit and part of today’s news.

Kylie is best Windows spokesperson to date

Forget those ads with Seifnfeld and Bill Gates, as I mentioned earlier, this how Microsoft should be telling the story that it has with products like Windows Live Photo Gallery (a name that perhaps could use some work in and of itself, doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as neatly as say, iphoto). It’s a good contextual ad, that actually shows someone using the product to achieve a desired result, something that Apple has excelled at for years. Even better, it’s a cute kid who’s getting the result (and I bet they didn’t have to pay her the 10m they wasted on Seinfeld). I could think of at least six more Microsoft products that could use this type of treatment.  

Video: Kylie uses Windows Live Photo Gallery

Sync Google calendar and contacts directly with the iPhone

Google just added support for direct sync of calendar and contacts to the iPhone. Directions are here. It’s similar to the approach the folks at nuevasync have used in the past, using the Exchange protocol to make the iPhone thinking it’s connecting to an Exchange server. Pretty slick and of course, supported directly by Google so it makes it a lot appealing for folks to use. If you’re using it, please note your experience in the comments.

Kindle 2 first impressions

WiFi got overloaded pretty quickly so hard to update via Twitter.

Amazon spent some time talking about the evolution of the book and the success of the kindle. Currently 230,000 titles (as I’ve mentioned, they’ve crossed the threshold of good enough). I tend to agree with most of what’s been said and why the kindle has done well to date.

So what’s new? Kindle 2. Much thinner 0.36″ thick. 25% thinner than iPhone. Still a one handed device. New eInk with 25% faster page books. Holds 1,500 titles on board. Still Whisper Net based. Overall design looks nice, spy shots were accurate. WhisperSync allows users to keep content and bookmarks in sync across Kindles. Mention made of “other devices”.

Screen refresh looks better. Still a bit distracting I think. New nav looks to be improved for jumping around. USB charger is nice as well.

Text to speech is integrated into all texts. Not bad. Sounds like an updated version of Macintalk. Audio book lovers will not likely be swayed to switch.

Steven King showed up and has an exclusive story for the Kindle. I’m not a big King fan but it was a nice coup to have him at launch. Was interesting have him read part of the story.

Overall, it’s a nice design. Will still likely appeal to folks who are mobile a lot and who like to read. Hardware is nice but still not quite as beautiful as Sony’s design. It’s a nice evolutionary step bit at $359 seems still a bit high.

Live shot of the Amazon event

MSFT reveals well kept software secret

Last week I called Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Photo Gallery two of the most compelling reasons to use Windows. They are both best of breed and easily could justify and OS upgrade to use. (oddly, both work fine on XP so there’s no need to update to use them). I also called them some of the best kept secrets on the industry ad few comsumers know they exist.

Last night MSFT took the wraps off a new ad showing a four year old using Photo Gallery. It’s a well done spot and nicely showcases how accessible these programs are. Two of the biggest adoption inhibitors are users who don’t think they have access to this kind I software or don’t know how to use it. This ad was aimed directly at the heart of those two issues and it was aimed well. Even better, Jerry Seinfeld was nowhere in sight. Nicely done Redmond.

Live at the Amazon event

I’m grabbing some coffee across from the Morgan Library where the Amazon event will star shortly. Lots of leaks over the weekend show a much slimmed down device but that’s only going to be part of the story. Some things to look for.

1. How much content has been added,
2. Is there support for audioboos or MP3s from the Amazon store.
3. Will there be device subsidies for frequent purhasers?
4. How much better is the latest generation of e-ink.

I’ll be posting my thoughts later on and will also be covering live on Twitter.com/gartenberg

Press or media looking for comment should feel free to give me a call at
201.862.0443 after the event.

Mobile Blogging from here.

How much would you pay for Windows 7?

Are these seriously the prices for Windows 7?

• Windows 7 Starter: $200
• Windows 7 Home Premium: $259
• Windows 7 Professional: $299
• Windows 7 Ultimate: $319

Let’s see, how much does  good netbook cost these days? What percentage of that cost will be Windows 7? I have a bad feeling about this if these pricing models are correct.

 

UPDATE – Ars, which originally posted the pricing rumor now says: Upon further reflection, we regret posting this rumor. The source was anonymous and not one of our usual, trusted tipsters

I’ll hold off further comment until we get formal pricing from Redmond, suffice it to say, price will matter quite a bit in terms of how well Win 7 gets adopted. The percentage of costs allocated to Windows just isn’t something that’s going to be sustainable in the current market. Both business and consumers are going to pay a lot of attention to what migration costs will look like.

A little statistical humor before the weekend.

I just love this old joke.

It seems there are three statisticians who go hunting. The first aims at the bear and misses widely to the right. The second aims and misses widely to left. The third one jumps up and down and yells "we got him!"

People often say numbers don’t lie. That’s not true, numbers lie all the time.

It’s past time for Media and Mobility Czars at Microsoft

This is a follow up note to some folks I know over in Redmond (but it’s OK for the rest of you to read it as well.)

Hi guys. There’s no doubt that you must be frustrated. Really frustrated. After all, you were in digital music long before Apple, had cool phones that played music long before Apple and in general had a pretty compelling story for the digital consumer that no one really listened to. There were WMA players on the market long before iPod. In fact, Microsoft might have been dominant in digital music if it weren’t for that pesky little iPod thing (along with iTunes). Worse, Apple introduced a flash player years after anyone else, actually removed features and had customers waiting 2-4 weeks to get one. Gladly waiting I might add and ignoring all those other devices your partners brought to market. I won’t even get started with what’s happened in the phone space. First you ignored Apple, then you denied the iPhone was a problem. Today, I hear more and more folks wondering what the future is for Windows Mobile, Zune and Windows Media Player.

Let’s face it, while you have all the tools to respond but at the moment, you seem to lack the leadership to tie it all together. A few years ago, I suggested you needed a Music Czar. Today, I think it’s time you thought about Mobile and Media Czars. You need master strategists that can deliver what Brad Silverberg and Brad Chase did for Windows and Yusuf Mehdi did for IE back in the last century, for products like Zune and Windows Mobile today.

Folks, It’s time for you to create that type of leadership role. You have a differentiated set of products and services along with business models that can work. You have subscription services and hardly any consumers understand how they work. You have a viable DRM, not to protect old business models but to enable new ones. You have partners to deliver services and devices with diverse offerings.

What you don’t have is a coordinated strategy to make all this stuff work together. To make sure that internal technology is aligned with handset vendors and initiatives like Zune and Xbox. There’s no single, coordinated marketing message that can be presented to consumers, press and analysts articulating what your vision is for the 21^st century digital consumer.

It’s not too late. The market is still nascent and there’s still time to act. There’s time to pull together what you need from your partners along with internal products and services and really get out there and compete. The clock is ticking though and it’s time to get to work. Feel free to call anytime and we can discuss further.

Best.

m.

Retro Review, the original Sony Libre

On the eve of (possibly) a new version of the Kindle, I dug out my original Sony Libre that I bought in Japan. I called it at the time, the "The Best eBook Reader You’ll Likely Never Own". Sony eventually did bring a version to the US and evolved the product further. Of course it was Amazon that brought eBooks to the real mass market audience. Here’s what I thought of the original Sony back in 2005.

When I travel, I rarely take paper books anymore, they’re just too heavy and inconvenient. While I still buy a lot of paper books as each week (I usually buy one or two books a week on average) they’re mostly ones that I know others might be interested in reading, books I plan to read more than once and just stuff I like to keep.

As a big eBook fan myself, I’ve tried all the dedicated eBook devices that were on the market and found them all lacking. None of then did the job any better than my PDA or Tablet PC did and most did them far worse. The whole point of the eBook idea is to lug around less stuff, not take more things with you. But what about something different? After all, the reason most folks don’t like reading stuff on screen (I know folks who still print out all their email rather than read it online) is that screen resolution is just nowhere as good as paper. While I live with the tradeoff of convenience vs. resolution, as I get older, I find my 40 year old eyes having a harder time reading large quantities of text even on good laptop screens. What if there was a small device, no larger than a DVD case with high resolution screen so clear, it looked like ink on paper? What if it were digital ink? What if it ran on only a few AAA batteries forever. Well, that device is real and it’s called the Librie from Sony. Using a technology called digital ink, the device has a resolution of about 170dpi, (which is about twice that of the computer you’re probably reading this on). Is it paper res? Nope, but its good enough and an order of magnitude better than any other display I have ever seen. Words do not do it justice. When people see it, they comment it looks more like a display unit with the text printed on a sticker than an LCD. And then they see the screen change and go wow. The technology works using a monochrome display with four gray levels, which changes reflectivity by moving microscopic black and white particles held within spherical microcapsules. As a result, the unit only needs power when changing the image on screen so battery life is good for 10,000 pages of text.

So what’s the deal with this amazing device? Well for one, you can’t get one here in the US. Sony only sells the Librie in Japan and the unit and all the software is in Japanese. The bigger downside is that the only commercial content for the device comes from Sony’s Japanese eBook service that doesn’t sell you the books but only rents then for 60 days. In short, unless you really love technology, this isn’t the most practical device in the world at the moment. If, however, you are intrigued and want to see the future and how a dedicated eBook reader could be successful (if marketed correctly with content available for it) then you can pick up a version that’s been modified to work in English Dynamism.vYou can then use the included print driver to get .PDF files on your device. From there, you can head over to Phil Torronne’s and read the tutorial on how to create your own content for the Librie from text files. Finally the public domain booksite manybooks.net has most of their content in Librie format.

Sadly, this device might never reach US shores for the mass market. It’s the first eBook reader that’s actually good enough to warrant being schlepped around. It would be amazing if this device could work with the popular eReader format books, that would be a killer combination IMHO that could really jumpstart this market and make it real. For now, it’s still more concept car than mainstream product.

Acura TSX iPhone integration

It’s pretty cool. Nice to get the whole Apple UI on screen. Phone itself connects over Bluetooth for voice. So far this is the best integration I’ve seen. Car also supports Bluetooth audio. Alas, the iPhone doesn’t.

The art of social networking during a recession

There’s no doubt that these are tough times for lots of people. Over the last few months, I’ve seen lots of friend and colleagues who have either lost their jobs or are in fear of being out of work in the near future. These are folks who had "safe" jobs. I’m talking doctors, lawyers, bankers, analysts, marketing executives, some who had been working in the same firm for decades.

The first thing I’ve told folks to do is to read a post by Robert Scoble. It’s called "If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network". It’s a must read with a 19 actionable steps to start building an online presence to get noticed. It’s also a good read and worth implementing even if you’re working and feel comfortable. As Jeremiah Owyang points out, the best time to build up your network and online presence is before you need it. Posting a resume on Monster isn’t what’s going to lead to opportunities for most folks. It’s a tough market out there, but there opportunities to be had. The key is being proactive, standing out and using your network. If you are employed, it’s also good karma to use your resources to help others. The person you help today might be the person who can help you tomorrow.