I’ve made no big secret of the fact that I’ve been eagerly awaiting the coming of the PlasticLogic reader, the device shown at DEMOfall08 that’s due out early next year. Since we talked about the device a couple weeks ago on Mashable Conversations, there’s been a couple other announcments from other manufacturers (including Sony and iRex).

While I’m not completely against the idea of the Amazon Kindle anymore (because if it’s good enough for Matt Mullenweg, it’s good enough for me), I much prefer these other devices in theory. While their pricepoints may end up being higher than the slightly-subsidized Kindle, the open architecture leaves it open to working with other cool applications aside from what the designers intended.

What am I talking about? Things like what Google announced today: a Book Search Data API designed to bring the functionality of its Data APIs to Book Search. ProgrammableWeb has the run down on all the technical specifications:

The REST- and Atom-based API lets applications search for and get information about books and fetch data like reviews and labels (tags) from Google Books’ My Library feature. Authentication is required for writing data back to a My Libriary collection, for which web-based applications can use AuthSub while ClientLogin support is supplied for stand-alone programs.

[..]

To coincide with the API updates, Google has partnered with high-profile organizations like WorldCat, Goodreads, and the University of California’s California Digital Library, all of which are now using embedded Book Search previews on their sites.

In English, this means that through the aid of the API, a lot of free functionality and content is going to become available to applications and devices that grab from Google’s own (and partner) libraries. 

We in the blog business generally salivate over eReaders primarily because it can mean a whole new distribution channel for the content we put our blood, sweat and tears into creating. The average Joe, though, who doesn’t eat, sleep and breathe every post from every tech blogger might actually find it a major selling point for their eReader to access something other than the latest blog posts from their favorite magazines (be they Old or New Media).

Certainly this functionality isn’t outside the reach and ability for Amazon to implement on the Kindle, but given the walled garden nature of the device as opposed to the openness of many of its competitors, I say it’s a pretty safe bet we’ll see it elsewhere first.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Google Book Search Adds New Organization FeaturesGoogle and Random House Considering Book Search PartnershipRevish to Launch Social Network for Book LoversSocialbib is a Free Book Swap for College StudentsGoogle Book Search Lets You Embed a Library Into Your BlogShould Google Book Search Change its Terms?BookBump is iTunes for your Library

Sean and I were chatting the other day over IM, and though it’s been a few minutes since DEMOfall08, we were still talking about how cool we thought the PlasticLogic device was. Sean comes from, previous to Mashable, a number of traditional magazines (that is, the kind that are printed on actual paper), and I’ve been working with electronic magazine or some incarnation thereof since before the web was invented.

In the view of Sean and I, there’s been a collision course between what’s now being termed “heritage media” and New Media for a while, and we’re now convinced that eInk and digital readers are finally entering the stage where they’re becoming a viable device for regular media consumption, and online news sources are formatting their data in a manner both visually condusive to magazine stylings as well as making available full RSS feeds, which work perfectly in these sorts of digital devices.

In today’s Mashable Conversations, Sean and I spend a bit talking some of these trends as well as show off some of the video we’ve shot and collected of the relevent devices (the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle, PlasticLogic’s device and the Esquire 75th Anniversary e-Ink). You can see it all by watching the embed above or by downloading the MP4 directly.

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—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:The Digital Magazine Vs. the Digital Magazine

This morning Mike Arrington wrote a great advice piece to Amazon on the Kindle.

The gist of Mike’s argument is that Amazon should offer Kindle up as an operating system and reference design. This would allow third parties to create Kindle compatible devices in the same way that Dell, for example, makes PCs compatible with Windows. This would create an ecosystem around the product which would be incredibly powerful. And at the same time, Amazon would still be doing what it really wants to do, which is to sell books. By offering their own product which they should continue to sell, they get to work out all the kinks without any meddling third party companies telling it what to do. But by opening up the platform, they really get to have their control cake and to eat their large marketplace cake too.

Interestingly, this is really what Google should be doing with Android. Google is indeed licensing the Android OS to third party phone manufacturers, but by not creating and controling an initial reference design they are leaving important pieces of the design to third parties, in a field (mobile phones) where important design elements can be critical.

Anyway, getting back to Kindle, I have been a fan of the product concept but I do believe it will be very hard for Amazon to build up the kind of market that they really need and should have with such a device without getting some help. I hope they take Mike’s advice.

This article was authored by Hank Williams who is a New York-based entrepreneur who explores the tech marketplace from 10,000 feet at Why Does Everything Suck?.

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It appears we scooped the Amazon CEO with our post yesterday that that Kindle book reader is back in stock at Amazon. This morning CEO Bezos has taken over the Amazon home page with the news about the ready-to-ship quantities of the Kindle. He has also prepared a letter to shareholders regarding the Kindle and its instant success with it selling out in 5 hours of launch. So far I can’t find how many Kindle’s they have sold. Over 2,000 Kindle users have reviewed the device so we know they produced at least that many.

A couple snips from the letter:

We knew Kindle would have to get out of the way, just like a physical book, so readers could become engrossed in the words and forget they’re reading on a device. We also knew we shouldn’t try to copy every last feature of a book—we could never out-book the book. We’d have to add new capabilities—ones that could never be possible with a traditional book.

At the beginning of our design process, we identified what we believe is the book’s most important feature. It disappears. When you read a book, you don’t notice the paper and the ink and the glue and the stitching. All of that dissolves, and what remains is the author’s world.

As I’ve noted, this year will be the test for the Kindle. The early adopters have theirs and now the difficult part begins - getting the average book reader to change something they have been doing all their lives.

I also wonder whether the masses will want to pay for an electronic book when they it’s clear that they won’t pay for content or music. Could Bezos usher in a new time when people will pay for content no matter how it’s consumed?

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One of the most popular emails I receive on CN is, "Do you know when the Kindle will be back in stock?" I can only assume these inquiries come from my Kindle-related posts: Kindle availability issues, initial reasons for its failure and Scoble losing it on CEO Jeff Bezos. The Kindle has remained out-of-stock for most of the holiday and post-holiday season. It is back in stock now and you can pick one up for $399. This includes the wireless connectivity and the ability to purchase books, magazines and blogs.

Now that the initial early adopters purchased their Kindle device, will it continue to help push Amazon’s digital goods goals? If you have one, please report in on how you are using it and the number of items you’ve purchased to-date.

Here’s Alltop CEO Guy Kawasaki pimping the Kindle — Amazon does not that this was an unpaid endorsement.

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