Three new books are coming soon to SmartGo Books on the iPad and iPhone:

- "Vital Points and Skillful Finesse for Sabaki" by Yoda Norimoto 9 dan
- "Shuko: The Only Move - Volume 1: Joseki / Fuseki Collection" by Fujisawa Shuko, Honorary Kisei
- "Shuko: The Only Move - Volume 2: Fighting Middlegame Collection" by Fujisawa Shuko, Honorary Kisei

See http://smartgo.com/booklist.htm for details. These books are awaiting approval of the updated app in the App Store.

Also, as Kiseido announced in Go World, we're working with them on "Modern Master Games: The Dawn of Tournament Go" and "The Games of Fujisawa Shuko".

It would have been nice to get these all released before the US Go Congress, but didn't quite make it. Catch me in Santa Barbara so I can show you how these books look on the iPad.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

You're pretty evil, Anders. If I got an iPad, I would probably only use it for this, which seems senseless, but you're starting to make me want to see if I can scrounge up a used one.

Apple has approved the update, so these three books are now available.


I have some more evil plans up my sleeve.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

Is it a way to buy it outside of Apple?

No, sorry. I was thinking more in terms of making SmartGo Books on the iPad even harder to resist.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

Ah ok. That will continue to be easy for me to resist, but good luck!

As you can tell by my avatar, I'm extremely excited about this Shuko book Maybe I will start renting an iPad from my cousin...

Why do you need the updated app to sell these books? Do they make use of improvements to the reader that are in the new version?

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Occupy Babel!

It's important to me that people can access the sample portions of the books without being connected, Thus the list of books, the samples, and the cover images need to be included in the app. I may change that implementation in the future to make it possible to add books without updating the app.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

we need an android version

Anders,

any plan to make Kiseido Elementary series available as SmartGo books?

Also, IMO Sakata's Middle Game would also be a great addition.

And Fujisawa's Tesuji Dictionary 1-4, and ....



Thanks, D

All great ideas that I'd love to pursue, but they depend on cooperation of the publishers. Will see what I can do.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

Since one from Michael Redmond was already added (about Sanrensei) - would it be possible to add "The ABC of Attack and Defense" too? Its so hard to get for me in paper.

There's apparently some rights issue that keeps that book from being reprinted, unfortunately, and I suspect the same issue would apply to publishing it as an ebook.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

Why are these limited to iPads and iPhones (not even older iPhones)? Why not an application for desktops and laptops which would broaden your potential market enormously?

It might not broaden the market that much. It's not the sheer number of devices that counts, it's the number of devices that people will want to read a book on. And desktops and laptops are just not that great for book reading.

As a case in point, there are many more Windows computers out there than iPads, yet SmartGo runs on more iPads than Windows computers.

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Anders Kierulf
@smartgo

I agree with this. Reading books on a desktop or even laptop is such a drag for me. I'd much rather read it on an iPad/iPhone/any kind of tablet really.

Maybe I'm odd then because I use Kindle for Mac and Kindle for iPhone (old enough that it can't run OS 4). I also like the way they sync with each other.

I don't understand why people wouldn't want to read a book on a computer but don't mind reading web pages on them. What are you reading this on?

Hi I just bought one book from the smartgo book. I like the smartgo book engine alot(the virtual board). However, in the future i hope the virtual board can be more powerful, so that I can try out myown variations on it:)

Eh, I read books on the computer from time to time, but it's a pain. I read web pages on the computer because it's easier to get to them. If I woke up in the morning, picked out ten pages to read, and those were my ten for the day, I wouldn't read them on the computer.

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Occupy Babel!