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The Free Flores Girl eBook Novel is at 1000 Downloads a Month!

On August 2, 2010, In Blackberry, buddhist, Flores Girl, free ebook novel, iPad, WattPad, writers, writing fiction, By Erik John Bertel

Great news! One of my goals was to up the download rate for Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot from a relatively sleepy 100 downloads a month to a 1000 downloads a month and the good news we are fast approaching that goal! For the Flores Girl podcast that 4000 downloads per month has been held steady for the past two years and we are rapidly approaching a 150,000 downloads. For those who haven’t read the novel Flores Girl is a science fiction adventure story about two scientists, Sarah and Richard, who unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity. This is their adventure, combining a clash of cultures, religious ardor with the oldest stories of all: the meaning of friendship and true love. This is the first of a trilogy of Flores Girl novels!

My next goal is far more ambitious for the free ebook: 10,000 downloads a month from www.floresgirl.com site! I better get some larger servers if I continue to pursue my goal of being one the better known self-published fiction writers!

I want to thank everyone who has downloaded the novel and I promise you that the sequel, The Scared and Profane, will not disappoint as Sarah learns the truth about her past and Richard’s fate! And for those of you who have emailed me I have not forgotten your free copy of the sequel!

Cheers,

Erik John Bertel

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Tagged with: flores girl;erik john bertel; free ebook; free ipad ebook;kindle ebook

AppleGate: Did Steve Jobs Know about the iPhone 4 Death Grip a Year Ago?

On July 16, 2010, In apple, iPad, iPhone, Mac fanboy, steve jobs, By Erik John Bertel

There are reports that Steve Jobs was aware of the iPhone 4 design flaw well over a year ago and decided to go ahead with the flawed release anyway. Appears Herr Jobs was so impressed with the design he decided that the phone function wasn’t really all that important after all. In case you have been living in a cave or just using your iPhone 4 to communicate with the outside world the new billion dollar plus iPhone 4 has a sleek antennae design that causes you to lose your signal when holding your iPhone 4 in a certain way.

When consumers complained to Apple Steve Jobs famously replied by email, “Just avoid holding it in that way,” he wrote. Apple was hoping the entire mess would go away but then Consumer Reports refused to give the iPhone 4 its recommendation and blessing citing the antennae design flaw (there are 3 separate antennaes in the iPhone 4). They then recommended, horror of all horrors, that people use duct tape to fix the flaw.

Talk about form over function! And that’s why I have been commenting so much because this entire fiasco is so indicative of a materialistic, consumer society that finds personal validation in the brand of electronics they use. Hell, it’s not like I’m a troglodyte. I use a Blackberry and rely on it for email, meeting info, contacts, texting and the occasional odd phone call. Hell, I even browse, take photos and once even listened to music on the damn thing. But it’s not the core element in my social life like the way Apple fantards treat the iPhone. Nor will I stand on line with the other tards for hours so I can posess my precious.

The only recommendation I can make is that Apple should come clean and do so very quickly. Otherwise, Apple will be joining the likes of Toyota and BP in terms of having prickly consumer perception issues to deal with in the years to come. And once you lose that it’s hard to regain.

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Tagged with: apple • applegate • death grip • iPhone 4 • steve jobs

John Dvorak and the Apple iPad Fantards

On June 29, 2010, In Internet Technology, iPad, iPhone, Mac fanboy, Uncategorized, By Erik John Bertel

I can’t believe I am writing about this again but somebody has to stop the madness. John Dvorak, the old curmudgeon himself, decided to write an article not on the iPad but on the fantards that droll over themselves in singing their praise for the iPad and the crappy apps you can get for it. You know the same kind of fantard who stand on line for the new iPhone 4 for hours on end and then suffer through the miserable AT&T service for two years just so they can use their iPhone. When nobody is looking these very same neo-techno nerds fondle their iPhones while cooing “my precious” to it.

Needless to say the Mac fantards were in full attack mode regarding Dvorak with most of their diatribes calling him an old fossil who doesn’t get it. Really? But you know sometimes the fossil does get it right and sometimes the technology is just some bright and shiny plaything for the natives!

Not that the iPad is a bad piece of technology. I did get a chance to play with one and if the cost were closer to let’s say $199 I’d buy one in a heartbeat. However, at $499 I can secure a decent, much more serviceable laptop with a bigger screen. I can easily forgo a touch screen as well since I’m a keyboard and mouse type. And this goes to my central observation about the iPad, it’s for consumers rather than producers of the Internet. For example, just try touch typing on one! You can’t. Or trying installing an application not from the iStore or whatever the hell they call it. However, to read a book or surf the net it’s great with some gorgeous eye candy. To me it’s the greatest eBook reader ever made but not the greatest thing since the PC despite what the Mac fantards woud lead you to believe.

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Tagged with: apple • iPad • iPhone • jobs • john dvorak • mac fantard

The iPad: Laptop For People who think a Tweet is Writing

On March 4, 2010, In iPad, Mac fanboy, Uncategorized, By Erik John Bertel

This is my first blog of the year and I find myself once again returning to the issue of the future of publishing. I watched the Apple iPad announcement today in its entirety with great interest as an author of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot. Is the iPad a game changer? No, I’m not a Mac fanboy, so to me the iPad is too expensive and there is not enough new functionality to get me really excited. I just keep thinking about how the entire concept of eBooks needs to evolve. The problem with most PC’s including Apples is that most computers are basically digital replacements for an analog world including the iPad. Keyboards and monitors in essence replace paper. I am old enough to remember when my job was entirely paper based; I didn’t have a personal computer during my first job from college. We moved paper from one desk to another and we had secretaries to type our important reports using dedicated word processors. Calculations were done on calculators. PC’s were to be a revolution but PC’s just allow us to create more paper faster but metaphorically it’s still paper!

My interest in the iPad is for the eBook technology, of course. The present eBook readers so far just replicate a paper book electronically. Plus most readers don’t take advantage of images and other playback formats. The Kindle is particularly guilty of this and partly this is a function of price point. The iPad is far more satisfactory in terms of a multimedia experience; the iPad can add sounds and beautiful color graphics that put the Kindle to shame. If I wanted a dedicated eBook reader I want the iPad, not the Kindle. However, at $499 I really don’t want the iPad eBook reader nor is there an overwhelming reason to want to one to replace a good old-fashioned books that could be had for all of $20. Give me a reason and a damn good one! Oh, I know it can do more than the average reader but still not more than a laptop. Make me want an iPad to pay that amount and want to lug it around!
First and foremost, we need to take advantage of the hardware and the technology. In others words, do not replicate thousand-year old technology such as paper books. Books are tactile and so is the touch screen on the iPad. Okay, I get it but I want more! I want to rethink how we read. More importantly, we have to rethink the novel experience and become less serial in our approach to the entire reading experience. I’ll have more on this in a later blog.

Bottom line: I don’t have the overwhelming urge to say “Oh my Gawd, I got to have it!”

PS: I want to extend my condolences to Tee Morris and his family regarding their recent loss. Tee is one of the podcasting pioneers involved with Podiobooks and is truly one of the good guys in the industry. I have to say when it comes to a loss of this magnitude words do fail me.

Try these sites for the free Flores Girl novel download for the iPad, Kindle, Sony, BlackBerry, iPhone ebook Readers:

WWW.iPADeBOOK.ORG
WWW.A-FREE-EBOOK.COM

WWW.SCIENCE-FICTION.MOBI
WWW.iPhone-Novel.com
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