Some News Features on E-books and the "iTablet"

Not a day goes by now that those in certain quarters anticipate and report about anticipating Apple's iTablet, which Steve Jobs has been working on (off and on) for years now.

Steve Jobs is someone I definitely admire from afar. I know virtually nothing about him, except the Company and its products which he has created and that he has had cancer and a liver transplant (and I recall something about his buying a poorly built house he cannot demolish because of local protests regarding its historic value). All of these small facts are what excites my admiration. In any case, I hope he can pull this off, although it's going to take a lot more than creating the Mac, the ipod or the iphone. Sure, he has redefined "smartphone," but the iTablet is very different in that it is neither fish nor fowl. It may be good for someone like myself who maybe can read books, research and write blog posts at the same time.

To create buzz, Apple has started hinting at when it will unveil the product, as if it were a concept car. Announce and then, promise to ship in three months. The show-&-tell date (maybe) will be 27 Jan. Rumor has it that the Company has reserved the Buena Yerba . An Apple spokesman said the company doesn't comment on rumors and speculation," reports the Wall Street Journal. This is guerrilla marketing in plain sight at its finest.

Textbook publishers are excited.

Meanwhile, it is reported that China may be the next great market for e-books. Given that copyright protection for print, films and other creative or intellectual property is not extremely strong there, it's difficult to say whether the promise of anything beyond Chinese language content (I really want someday to write an entire post on that word, "content.") exists right now.

I continue to be delighted by Graham Beattie's Book Blog and love that he was in my favorite city (New York, NY) for the holidays. Meanwhile, he passing along news reports like the one on on a new e-book store in Brazil, Cato Sabido (translates to "Wise Cat" -- oops, just checked and I see that the journalist who wrote it translates to "Smart Cat" -- we agree!) and whether e-books will become popular in the emerging nations of Brazil, China, India and Russia.