Apple's New iPod Line: the Shuffle, Nano, and Touch

Apple today announced a refresh of its iPod line, with new models of the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch adds the iPhone’s 960×640 IPS “Retina” display, A4 processor, and gyroscope. It also adds front- and rear-facing video cameras, designed for use with Apple’s “FaceTime” video chat software. Prices are $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB.

The iPod Nano has the most drastic change: its size was cut roughly in half so only the screen remains (no more click wheel). The screen is now a touchscreen and has a home screen with specialized “apps” (like audio and photo players), but it won’t run normal iPhone apps and games. It gains FM radio capability and Nike+ pedometer support, but it loses its camera and the ability to display video. The prices are $149 for the 8GB version and $179 for the 16GB. It now has a clip like its smaller Shuffle sibling.

Finally, the iPod Shuffle actually gets its clickwheel back, but otherwise remains largely unchanged from the last version. It holds 2GB and costs $49.

Of note, the iPod Classic hums along unchanged, at $249 for a model with a 160GB hard drive.

The New Sony E-Reader 350

Today, Sony refreshed its line of e-readers, bringing the new e-Ink Pearl screen (used in the Kindle 3) to the Sony line. One could argue that Sony started the modern e-reader revolution (as its first model came out before the Kindle), but it wasn’t until Amazon’s Kindle 2 came out in 2009 that e-reader sales really took off. Since then, Sony has been the forgotten one of the “Big 3″ (Amazon, B&N, Sony) — and has even taken a back seat to Apple (which doesn’t even make e-readers) in the eyes of many.

Like with much of their other technology, the Sony hardware is impressive, but somewhat quirky, expensive, and lacking in ease of use.

First, the good news: the new Sony e-readers have the higher-contrast e-Ink Pearl screen we’ve discussed when covering the Kindle 3. They are also very small and light — even smaller and lighter than the K3. They all sport new touchscreens that are layered behind the e-Ink screen and supposedly don’t impede reading (the old touchscreens made the screen harder to read and thus kinda sucked). And they support DRMed ePub files, so you can read library books on them (although it’s a bit of a hassle).

On the down side, they’re considerably more expensive than the Kindles, their entry-level version only has a 5″ e-Ink screen (compared to the 6″ one found on Kindles and Nooks), and only their most expensive model (not yet available) has wireless connectivity — the 2 models available now don’t even have Wi-Fi, let alone 3G. That means you have to use your computer to purchase, download, and transfer books to your device.

There are three models: the 5″ Sony PRS-350 (“Pocket Edition”) for $179, the 6″ PRS-650 (“Touch Edition”) for $229, and the 7″ PRS-950 (“Daily Edition”), due out before the holidays for $299.

All 3 models use the new e-Ink Pearl displays and improved touchscreens. The Touch Edition adds the larger (standard-size) screen and memory slots. The Daily edition adds an even larger screen and Wi-Fi + 3G wireless connectivity.

The 5″ PRS-350 Pocket Edition has 2GB of built-in storage (no memory card slots), weighs only 5.64 oz (the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi weighs 8.5), measures just 5.71 x 4.11 x 0.33 inches, and costs $179. Compared to the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi, you pay $40 more to get a touchscreen, ePub support, and smaller size, but you lose out with a smaller screen, no wireless connection, no Internet, no text-to-speech, worse battery life, less storage, and you don’t get to use Amazon’s Kindle e-book store: Sony’s E-Reader Store is far inferior. For just $10 more, you could even splurge for the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi + 3G, and get unlimited 3G connectivity for life.

The 6″ PRS-650 Touch Edition (does that name make sense when they all have touchscreens now?) costs $229, and brings you the larger screen and expandable memory in a slightly larger but still light (at 7.93 oz) package. For $90 more than the K3, you get the same size (and type) screen, so it’s more of an apples-to-apples comparison. Unfortunately, the library book support (an important feature), touchscreen (which I don’t think adds much to the reading experience), and slightly lighter weight don’t outweigh the $90 cost savings and other advantages of the Kindle.

The 7″ PRS-950 Daily Edition adds wireless (Wi-Fi and 3G) connectivity, along with a larger 7″ screen. At 8.99 ounces, it’s fractionally heavier than the K3, but still light enough for easy one-handed reading; that’s probably a good trade-off to get a larger screen (which means more words per page and fewer page turns when reading, especially if you like to read at larger font sizes). The problem is the $299 price tag, which pushes it almost into the 9.7″ Kindle DX2 territory ($379).

Sony is known for making great hardware, but they tend to drop the ball on customer experience (why are they still forcing us into Memory Sticks instead of letting us use the SD and MicroSD cards we have lying around?). Here, Sony doesn’t offer a way to buy and download e-books wirelessly, whereas the Kindle lets you buy any book you can think of in 30 seconds, without a computer. Even when using your computer, you’ll find the Sony E-Reader store almost an afterthought, with lower selection, worse prices, and an inferior browsing experience to the Kindle store. I’d only recommend the Sonys to someone a bit computer-savvy and who enjoys the hassle of finding e-books from other sources (like Project Gutenberg and libraries).

And, as with most Sony products, the bottom line is that they’re too expensive compared to the competition. I just can’t see paying close to double the price (compared to the $139 K3 Wi-Fi) for the $229 Touch Edition, and not even getting Wi-Fi connectivity.

But, if you really like touchscreens or library books, and are OK with using your computer to find, organize, and download e-books, the new Sony E-Readers are nice devices with great screens. They also offer options, if you prefer a slightly smaller or larger screen. Just don’t look too closely at the prices. =)

Staples announced today that they will be carrying the new Kindle 3 e-readers in their retail stores “this fall.” They will carry the $139 Kindle 3 Wi-Fi, the $189 Kindle 3 Wi-Fi + 3G, and “in late fall,” the larger $379 Kindle DX 2. This should offer more people the opportunity to see in person how easy on the eyes and paper-like e-Ink displays really are. Until then, you can still see the older Kindle 2 models at Target, or see the Nook at Barnes & Noble or Best Buy.

In other news, on the heels of the introduction of the lower-price Kindle 3 Wi-Fi for just $139, Kobo has wisely discounted its own Kobo E-Reader (which trails the Kindle and Nook in speed and features) to $129 to compete. While I like the Kobo’s light weight and focus on reading, I still think the new K3 is a better value. But the lower price is a step in the right direction — you can go check out a Kobo at a Borders store near you.

Please excuse me for poking a bit of fun at all the “iPad [or whatever magical device] is a Kindle Killer” article headlines, but it seems to me that the only real device with a chance of “killing” reading is the television. I just saw this report by Bowker, which proudly announced that “More than 40% of Americans over the age of 13 purchased a book in 2009.”

Now, not to delve too deeply into the math, but if 40% of Americans bought a book in 2009, then that means almost 60% of adults didn’t buy even one single book all last year. That’s a pretty depressing number to me. I mean, I know reading isn’t “cool” anymore, but I would have thought more than half of Americans would buy a book in a whole year.

It’s especially depressing when you compare it to TV statistics: 99% of American households own a TV, and on average, watch it between 4-6 hours a day. Hours a day vs. not even one book in a year. I couldn’t even find statistics for the percentage of people who watched at least one show on TV last year, presumably because everyone knows it’s 100%.

The sad thing is, most of the crap on TV is just, well … crap. Anything even remotely good (*sniff* Firefly *sniff*) gets cancelled anyway. If it wasn’t for Gator football games, I’d have pretty much no use for TV. As it is, I don’t own one (my wife has a small one hooked up to rabbit ears — no cable), although we do watch a few shows on Hulu.

Anyway, I need to head back to some reading / e-book forums to restore my faith in humanity, by hearing more stories of people who read 10 books a week and have a “to be read” list of 500 titles on their Kindles. Until then, feel free to leave a comment below telling me how often you read instead of watching TV.

Yes, I guess I can wait until the next commercial. *sigh*

Does DRM Prevent Piracy Or Cripple Legitimate Users?

DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management, is a form of copy protection sometimes embedded into electronic media (like e-books, MP3 music files, etc.). Its purpose is generally noble: prevent piracy (unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted material) so that the content creators (authors, musicians, publishers) can earn the money they deserve for their work.

NOTE: If your stance is that copyright is evil and “all information wants to be free” and that people shouldn’t get paid for creating music or writing a book or researching a newspaper article (but should get paid for fixing your car or writing bad advertisements or whatever you do for a living), then I don’t think we’ll see eye to eye and you may as well move on to another blog.

But here’s the problem with DRM: it generally doesn’t prevent piracy, since almost all forms of DRM have been hacked, and it just ends up annoying legitimate, paying customers. So the pirates strip out the DRM and continue sharing files illegally, and the actual customer (who we as content creators should be bending over backwards for) is annoyed, limited in how they can use the music or e-book they purchased, and sometimes has to buy it again just because they got a new computer or e-book reader. Lame.

Let me give you a simple example to explain why DRM is broken: I have a few MP3 songs on my computer. Most of them came from old CDs that I had bought. I bought a few from Apple through iTunes several years ago. They’re all mixed together, and I don’t really remember which songs came from which source — except that I was forcefully reminded of it when I tried to do something as simple as transfer the songs to my wife’s iPod.

Now, let’s make this clear: I own the music. I own the Mac. I own the iPod (OK, I’m borrowing my wife’s iPod for a trip). I listen to the music on the Mac, and now want to listen to it on the iPod. No piracy is going on.

I go to copy over all my music onto the iPod and get an error — iTunes tells me that certain songs (the ones I had purchased through iTunes) are copy-protected and can not be used on my wife’s iPod. Now think about this for a second. Had I pirated (stolen) the songs, I could copy them over no problem. But since I paid for them, I can’t do something as simple as listen to  songs on an iPod? What? (NOTE: there might have been a way to authorize the iPod or blah blah, but at that point I was just frustrated and didn’t want to troubleshoot and figure out something that shouldn’t be that difficult.)

Now, when I offer a product (like my e-books over there in the right-hand column) for sale, I want to provide a quality product at a fair price. I want my customers to get a pristine file, the best one available. I ensure that it looks good, has no formatting problems, no typos, and it’s the newest and best version. If someone is paying me money, I want them to have a pleasant, easy experience. I want them to get value for their money — so even if there were a pirated version of my e-books floating around out there, I want the customer who buys from me to get a superior product. I want their $2.99 to buy them peace of mind (knowing they’re doing the right thing and supporting the author), a pristinely-formatted file, “tech support” if they have issues with it, and the ability to legitimately use that file and enjoy it — even if they trade in their Nook for a new Kindle 3.

And that’s why I don’t put DRM on my files (NOTE: e-books you buy directly from my website have no DRM, and neither do my e-books at Amazon or Smashwords. B&N, Apple, Kobo, and Sony currently put DRM on files and there’s no way for me to opt out of it, like I did with Amazon.) If a customer asks, I’m also happy to send them my e-books in any other format they’d like. It’s not that I support piracy — in fact, I think many “anti-DRM” arguments are actually “I want stuff for free” rationalizations. And I’m not supporting taking DRM off files that have it — that’s against the law. But I personally generally avoid buying files that have DRM attached — there are plenty of DRM-free e-books out there that I choose to buy instead.

So, back to my song problem. I have the iPod connected, and my choice is now: (a) buy another copy of these songs through my wife’s account or figure out how to “authorize” her iPod, (b) not have the songs I paid for on the iPod, (c) find a way to download something to strip the DRM off the files (against the law), or (d) download pirated copies of the songs I paid for and not have to deal with DRM at all (also illegal, but by far the easiest and quickest solution). This is why, in my opinion, DRM is broken: it doesn’t actually stop piracy, it just annoys legitimate customers — even to the point of pushing them toward piracy! Maybe someday they’ll invent some better, less invasive form of DRM, but the way it is today just sucks.

So, what would you do? And why should DRM force purchasers to make that choice?

Inspired by a reader who found the Right Ascension Theme and enjoyed listening to it on her Nook as she read the e-book, I thought I’d highlight the musical score that my good friend John Main created to accompany the novel. (You can find a synthesizer version and a guitar version at the link above.) John delivered a haunting score that mirrored the plot arc of Right Ascension: from the mystery surrounding the discovery of a new alien species, to the suspense and buildup as the story progressed, and the climactic showdown at the end.

Please feel free to listen using the player below or download it to listen on your computer or mp3 player — or even on your Kindle or Nook while you read the e-book version of Right Ascension. And please be sure to leave any comments you might have below — I’ll be sure to forward them on to John.