Amazon to debut e-book reader

Heat by Makoto Fujisaki has shipped out from our printer, which means it should be on store shelves in one or two more weeks.  Be sure to pick it up!

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CNet News has a write-up on the impending launch of Amazon’s “Kindle” ebook reader.  Tech blog Engadget has had pictures of the criminally unattractive device since September of last year… iPod, it is not.

With a resolution of 800 x 600, the Kindle won’t be able to match the viewing experience one already has with a laptop, or even other multi-purpose handhelds such as the iPhone and Zune… since it doesn’t have color.  And with a hefty price tag that’s equivalent to about 50+ paperback novels or a Playstation 3, chances are it’s not going to be the one to finally usher in the e-book age, unless it has some super-secret hedge trimming or tax-filing functionality we don’t know about yet.

I can’t understand how a company like Amazon would allow such an important device to have such a brutishly offensive design, if the final product does indeed resemble the leaked pictures thus far.  $20 bathroom scales at Target have more flair.

Edit: The Kindle is now officially on sale at Amazon.  Even in better lighting, the device still looks like a calculator from the 70s, but Amazon will be shipping it with a clever faux-book cover/holder so you won’t look like a complete fashion disaster reading it in public.  Its wireless abilities aren’t too shabby, either.  Knock $300 off that pricetag, and I might be interested…

Edit 2: Engadget has a report from the launch.

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I have no idea what this is about, except that it’s horrible and I must link to it.

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MangaNews has an interview with the editor in charge of Tokyopop’s RSoM, Hope Donovan, with some customary advice for creators, although there’s really only one universal rule when it comes to submissions of any kind… make it better than the other guy’s.

Semi-related is this profile on Adam Warren, who worked on an original licensed version of The Dirty Pair years before that manga thang became cool.   Of particular interest though is the concern he raises about the current publishing system employed by OEL publishers… such as, say, Tokyopop… which he feels combines the worst aspects of the comic industries of East and West.  (Found via Journalista)

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Not manga-related, but noteworthy nontheless… Japanese publisher Takashi Asai has been allowed by the Japanese Supreme Court to appeal a customs seizure of a book by controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

That customs seized a book on the charge of being obscene is really nothing surprising, but the headslap-inducing irony in this case is that the book that was seized is the Japanese edition of Mapplethorpe… published by Asai himself.  In other words, if you’re a Japanese erotica connoisseur, you would be well-advised to leave your collection at home when you travel abroad.  (Okay, it’s the same situation with Canada as well, so this is not unique.  But it’s still preposterous.)