Sony, Google Throw Down the Gauntlet at the Kindle

Sony and Google announced on Thursday a deal whereby 500,000 public domain books from Google's book digitization project will now be available for free for the Sony Reader Digital Book PRS-505 and PRS-700 devices.

Owners of the older PRS-500 readers are out of luck, however.

While this is a nice add for the two devices, which compete head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle 2, it loses something in the translation, at least in the U.S. Why? The lack of a wireless connection for the Sony Readers.

Of course, since the Kindle and Kindle 2 use Sprint's CDMA service, that means that Sony has an opportunity in GSM-only regions, and it needs to take advantage of that while it can.

To use the service, you need to install the Sony eBook Library software. Search the library and when you find something, load it onto your device.

The Kindle is sort of the iPod of digital e-book readers. They don't use the open ePub format, they definitely don't want you to buy books from somewhere else, and they sure are dominant.

Makes you wonder what would happen if Apple jumped in and started offering an e-book reader of its own, linked to iTunes. Of course, Steve Jobs feels that books are more or less dead.

In fact, here's a jab at Amazon.com in the press release. Steve Haber, president of the Digital Reading Business Division at Sony Electronics said (emphasis mine):

"We have focused our efforts on offering an open platform and making it easy to find as much content as possible - from our store or others - whether that content is purchased, borrowed or free. Working with Google, we can offer book lovers another avenue for free books while still providing a seamless experience from our store."

Just remember, these are public domain books, so while you can find classics like "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," and "Black Beauty," don't expect anything new.

In conjunction with this announcement, Sony lowered the price of the PRS-700 to $350, while the PRS-505 is $300.

Laugh --- and Learn --- While You Cry, with Layoff: The Game

The recession and its toll can be seen every time new unemployment figures come out. And a new game by Tiltfactor's Layoff: The Game, which lets you save companies untold billions by laying off sets of workers.

Layoff: The Game is very similar to Bejeweled. You swap worker figures to create matches of 3 or more, which then clear off the board. But bankers can't be laid off. And as you layoff people, more and more bankers appear.

If you match 5 or more workers, you get a corporate takeover (in other words, more cash than normally).

To make things more humanistic, if you hover your mouse over a character, you get a brief character description. This enables you to feel what many do not when they layoff people: rather than just a number, you are laying off a person. You learn their their hopes, dreams, fears --- and what will happen if they are laid off.

Additionally, Layoff: The Game displays depressing little factoids about the financial crisis in a scrolling headline running across the lower part of the screen.

Tiltfactor describes itself as follows:

The Tiltfactor Laboratory is the first academic center to focus on critical play–a method of using games and play to investigate issues and ideas. Our mission is to research and develop software and playful art that creates rewarding, compelling, and socially-responsible interactions, with a focus on innovative game design for social change.

Here's a comment that Tiltfactor Labs posted on their front page:

"Kind of a sad game if you start reading the personal info of all the people. They become real people and it becomes hard to lay them off. Maybe I just feel this way because it hits close to home. This week is my last week at my relatively decent and moderate good paying job before I get put on a 'indefinite' layoff.

Unemployment rate is 11.6% here so that means I probably won’t be getting another job anytime soon."

No-Commitment iPhone 3G Pricing Coming, But at a High Cost

According to internal documents obtained by BGR, AT&T is set to offer no-commitment pricing for the iPhone 3G (meaning no activation, no contact) starting March 26th. While this further gives credence to the "new iPhone" rumors, it's also true those new offerings will be quite pricey.

The new no-commit pricing will be $599 for the 8GB model and $699 for the 16GB model. Only existing customers can buy, and only one device per line, though the documents say there's really no way to tell if a customer has already purchased one.

Don't think you will get away cheap; if you activate on AT&T's network you will have to add a data plan.

While that gives you the opportunity to get a device with no contract, it's not unlocked, so I don't see much of an attraction. Personally, if I were in the market, I would just hang tight until the announcement of the new phone.

Will they sell? We'll see.