We had suggested that the iPad would not be the only player in the tablet game. We now we have the WePad from Germany. The ‘We’ vs ‘I’ is clearly intentional I am sure. –

Some people seem to think life is all about the I, and the Me, Me, Me.

We beg to differ. To us, the power of many beats the power of one. That’s why we came up with the WePad: It’s the smarter solution for enjoying the Internet your way. Why? Because when you’re locked in, you get the Internet their way. It’s the opposite of free. Being told what you can see, what you can buy, and all the things you can not do – somehow, that just seems so 1984.

So we took a seriously stylish, state-of-the art media tablet and put a whole lot of fun in it. With the WePad, you can browse the Internet, watch YouTube, check your e-mail, chat with friends on Facebook, and much, much more. You can even get some work done, if you absolutely must. Most importantly, we created an open system, so that everyone can participate.

We built a platform based on two established, well-known technologies, Android and Linux, meaning that software developers can dream up apps for anything you may want to do with your WePad (and even some things you might never have dreamed possible yourself). It’s quick and simple – and needless to say, any app that already exists for Android also runs on the WePad. Right out of the box.

Specs are here. I have to say that the WePad has a much better range of inputs and supports standard eFormats out of the box.

No info on pricing. They do have a preorder request link for those that are interested but no commitments desired.

Won’t be long before this is a very crowded niche market. Whether it is a fad or will last is yet to be determined.

linky.

Ever the enterprising niche player, Amazon is now in the textbook selling and BUYING game. They will sell you the budding college student that new textbook at a discount for better than the school store AND they will buy your last semester stuff too boot. —

New Textbooks: Save up to 30% off the price of over 100,000 new textbooks. Shop for the latest test prep, reference, and study guides.

Used Textbooks: Save up to 90% off millions of used listings. All used textbook purchases are backed by our A-to-z Guarantee.

FREE Two-Day Shipping: Get FREE Two-Day Shipping for three months with a free trial of Amazon Prime™. Just add any eligible textbook to your cart to qualify. Sign up at checkout.

Amazon has been doing this for a couple of months but it just now caught my eye. What I love about this is that the textbook publishers really can’t complain. –

[Amazon] We want 50% off all your physics titles.
[Schuster] Gasp! Sputter? That’s outrageous. No way.
[Amazon] {taps on the keyboard ensuing} No problem. Now NONE of your titles appear in our website. {rep looking at watch…}
[Schuster] Well on second thought….

It warps the market. Personal story. Last year my daughter took a college computer course. The ‘textbook’ was a spiral bound customized product that included a USB thumb drive as a package. Total price $160. If you break it down the 512mb thumb was worth $20. Even at Best Buy prices. So in essence the book was going for $140 for a soft cover non-bound title. What a rip.

I hope Amazon is successful. The student needs a break. Quite honestly, college ePubs ought to be going for $9.99. A group of designated distinguished professors publish it. They split the proceeds as they see fit. The ePub is on Lulu for download. Updates are a $1. They sell a million a year. What’s not to like?

Linky.

Want to read your you Kindle purchases on a bigger screen? You just may be able to, but that won’t make Amazon and the old school book publishers happy. My guess is that unlocking the Kindles’ files violates something in the end user agreement. Moving media from one device to another may be more convenient for you, but copyright holders aren’t always interested in making things easy for their customers.

One hack reportedly resulted from a Kindle DRM challenge issued on Israeli forum Hacking.org. On that site, an Israeli hacker known as Labba claims to have created a tool that lets e-books stored on the Kindle be transferred as PDF files.

A U.S. hacker who goes by the name “i♥cabbages,” meanwhile, created a program called Unswindle that promises to convert books stored in the Kindle for PC application into a different file format.

The free Kindle for PC app lets book buyers read their books right from their PCs without having to buy a Kindle reader. Unswindle has to be used in conjunction with MobiDeDRM, a program by another hacker named “darkreverser.”

Posters on i♥cabbages’ blog give Unswindle mixed reviews, ranging from “works like a charm” and “worked flawlessly” to descriptions of various errors. (Cnet)

The ereader business is taking off withnew competiors in the market and more to come. It would seem that Sony’s erader division honcho  is ready to take a fall. Declaring DRM is here to stay and that electronic copies should sell for more than $9.95, he’s defined the formula for failure.

PaidContent has the details on an interview with Steve Haber, the boss of Sony’s ebook reader business, where he trashed the $10 ebook and praised DRM. And now you all know why no one buys Sony ebook readers. Basically, the product’s boss has decided to take an anti-consumer stance. Why would anyone want to shell out hundreds of dollars on a product when you know the company that makes it wants to screw you over?

On the price of ebooks — a topic of widespread debate — he insists that $10 can’t possibly work:

“The $9.99 price point is not a money-maker. Certain bestsellers are sold at that price for retail, competitive reasons. But you need to have a range. You could go from $10 to $20 even to $100 for an e-book. There’s no sweet spot and it’s certainly not $9.99.”

Well, first, let’s be clear. The only reason that $9.99 isn’t a money-maker is because publishers are still charging more at wholesale for the ebooks, still pretending that the lack of printing, materials and shipping shouldn’t result in a lower price. Basically, the publishers are in denial, and Sony shouldn’t be supporting them. (Techdirt)

Barnes and Noble’s android based Nook eReader may be finding who new class of buyer that the retail book giant must not have foreseen. A dedicated group of hackers has found a way to access the units Andriod OS root, making all sorts of things possible that BN never intended. That neans if you own a Nook, you’ll probably  be able to run Android apps on it very soon.

Barely weeks after its launch, Barnes & Noble’s Android-based Nook e-reader has been hacked and ‘rooted’ (root, or full system access, has been obtained). A loose team of hackers reported the work on their wiki, Nook Devs.

If you tear open a Nook (which the team has done) you’ll find that the Android operating system is contained on a microSD card (separate from the microSD expansion slot). From here, it’s a simple matter of using a card reader to mount this card on your computer and changing a single word in the init.rc file (the file that’s in charge of which services are begun at startup, similar to a Linux boot). (Wired)