My brother Ryan is an excellent writer. He often gives books as gifts. I came across this article in the WSJ: A True Adventure at Sea and on Shore by Angus Phillips and was reminded of one of the great gifts he has given me over the years.
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. is an amazing true story. Dana was part of the well-heeled Bostonian political class. He was in this third year at Harvard when he contracted the measles. Recovery was slow and his eye sight poor, so he decided to go to sea as a sailor. This class jumping was unusual. He and his family could have easily afforded a passenger trip; however, he determined it would do him more good to work. He left on the brig, Pilgrim, in 1834 and returned in 1836. Crossing the Horn twice and traveling round to California before the Gold Rush and before it was part of the United States. It is a fascinating tale of men, new worlds and character. I will agree with Philips, it is not an easy read, but it will grip you.
Low, low price of $0.00 on the Kindle. Happy reading.
Lots of chatter about iPad as the Kindle killer. The chatter is bunk. Kindle has a specific target audience, a niche. That niche loves the Kindle. Niche is the new critical mass.
Look at some of the advantages Kindle has:
- Battery Life. Kindle can last up to 7 days without a charge. Seriously.
- Content delivery. Kindle has it included. No extra charges or higher price tag.
- Readability. Do you want to read a backlit screen all day?
- Opening an App Store that people will care about.
The iPad is a very slick device, but it will not be the only one to change the tablet game. Apple App Store developers will start to run into some of the issues that cross-platform mobile developers are dealing with. Namely screen size and incompatible devices. Apple has been very smart with their device hardware and software release cycles. This will become more difficult as different devices begin to proliferate. The iPad will face way more competition than the iPod. Repeating success is, in fact, harder than initial success. Other players and other platforms (HP, Asus, Dell, Everyone on Microsoft or Android) are ready this time. My take is that the biggest losers will be the publishers. Their pricing models will now be more fully exposed to the buying public. That new knowledge will suppress their margins.
On of the better reads on the “Kindle killer” iPad at TechFlash: 5 reasons why the iPad is not a Kindle killer
Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, does not work on Kindle, and does not read my blog.
