Three by Three

Three by Three in Seattle used to be known for their vast array of super-mini "Mighty Magnets" with uncanny magnetic power. It seems like overnight they've expanded their collection of offerings to include a number of other great items perfect for students. Our favorites include the magnetic boards and strips with REAL wood finish, the magnetic hooks (with signature uncanny staying power - see their site for the photo of one holding a cast iron frying pan!) and super cute ShapeUp bookmarks (sorry, no magnets here).

A Good Type of Bundling

In this instance, bundling of e-books refers to getting a variety of formats so it does not matter what reader device is being used:

http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/03/pragmatic-programmers-now-doin.html

An Argument for Open Publishing

An interesting video interview with a leading proponent of open publishing....



http://vimeo.com/3341489 from http://vimeo.com/user1295106 on Vimeo.

Awaiting an I-Pod for Books?

Another interesting read...

http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2009/03/will_the_real_ipod_for_reading.html

Digital Future is Confusing and Inspirational

This is a very interesting commentary on the impact of the Google settlement on digital publishing:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6636986.html

"How these rights will be secured and exploited by Google or someone else should keep the lawyers and the visionaries busy for some time. In fact, Rosenblatt says that it will probably take as long as two years just to get the BRR up and running to service the initial business models, let alone the aspirational ones. Rosenblatt and Kreisa say the future business model will require publishers to restructure their content in ways most of them don’t do at present. How do you secure and define the rights to set up a custom-publishing service that combines content from different publishers? What about textbooks with a multiplicityof content—photos, text, art and charts? Dealing with multiple publishers can be difficult enough, but what about out-of-print titles whose rights have reverted to the author—will aggregators need to negotiate with every single author? “It will be very complex,” says Rosenblatt."

Lunches & Laptops

We've been big fans of Built NY ever since they launched with one simple (but clever) thermal lunch bag. Fast forward to 6 years later and they now have a whole range of quirky yet brilliant lunch bags, bottle totes, laptop cases, and sleeves at very affordable prices. What's not to love??

FreeAgent by Seagate

The FreeAgent hard drive by SeaGate seamlessly merges style and function. With its own docking station (to connect, simply pop it on the dock) and a wide range of colors and capacities (250GB, 320 GB, and 500GB versions) this is the only external drive you may ever need. It even automatically backs up all files and has a password encryption, but is unfortunately only compatible with windows.