MobileRead Forums - News and Commentary

Operation E-book Drop: For the Troops

Steve Jordan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:37:47 GMT

A discussion on TeleRead this week led me to discover Operation E-book Drop.

Begun by author Ed Patterson, Operation E-book Drop is a program where authors who make their books available on use Smashwords can create online discount coupons for 100% off the cost of their e-books... then send those coupons, with links to the e-books, to our fighting forces overseas.

This sounded like a great idea to me, so I e-mailed Ed to see if I could participate. Ed e-mailed me back with a list of soldiers who were just achin' for some reading material. I promptly sent my e-mail, with a link to Verdant Skies and my coupon, to everyone on the list. I don't know how many of them will get into SF, but I hope plenty of them enjoy it.

If you know an author who'd like to get in on this, visit the Operation E-book Drop link above, or e-mail Ed at ed#w#pat# @ #att#. #net (remove the #s and spaces). Do something nice for our troops. And be sure to wish them home soon and safe!

New ebook reader program for Windows Mobile- Freda

Jim Chapman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:59:20 GMT

I've written a program for reading eBooks on Windows Mobile devices. It can read txt, html and (DRM-free) ePub files. Screenshots attached.

The program is called 'Freda' - short for 'free reader', since it is free software (both in the sense of 'free beer', as I am not charging for it, and in the sense of 'free speech', as I am licensing my code under the GPL).

It's in 'public beta' at the moment, so please download it and let me have any feeback.

The program uses two third-party libraries, SharpZipLib and the Majestic-12 HTMLParser library; both are licensed on terms permitting their redistribution for commercial and non-commercial purposes. More information is here

Happy reading!

Very Strange IP Music Lawsuit - Beatles

kennyc — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:59:10 GMT

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/...beatles-songs/

"A federal judge on Thursday ordered a Santa Cruz company to immediately quit selling Beatles and other music on its online site, setting aside a preposterous argument that it had copyrights on songs via a process called �psycho-acoustic simulation.� ..."

Foxit eSlick to suport ePub in Firmware 2.0

RichyRich — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:16:55 GMT

Quote:

In its continuing effort to be the electronic reader of choice, Foxit is expanding eSlick’s support for more reading formats. eSlick customers will now be able to view documents in ePub and eReader (PDB) in additional to previously supported PDF and Text formats. The support for ePub and eReader enable customers to read books downloaded from any website which supports these reading formats.

via http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Foxit-....html?x=0&.v=1

and http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/06/f...ndle-to-shame/

How they sell e-readers in China (example of sales pitch)

taglines — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:31:19 GMT

Dear Sir or Madame,

I am Cathy Yu of YSF Company, and we are one factory in Shenzhen of China,
we empolder one new e-book product,so want to see if we have chance to cooperate in future days for
the new hot sell product.

Quotation For YSF-E108 E-Book
IMAGE Specification color Unit Price(USD)
Sample 100 500 1K
E-Book CPU 400 MHz Silver $199 $159 $149 $135
Operation system Microsoft Windows CE 5.0(English)
Memory 64M ( Mobile SDRAM)
Storage Device Nand Flash 64MB
LCD 7"High Resolution TFT LCD, with touch panel 800x480 16K
Keyboard support external USB Standard QWERTY Keyboard(English)USB Port Host: 1.1*1
Card Port TF card
Sound effect
Build-in stereo speaker
Build-in Microphone
WiFi External USB Dongle (Optional)
Battery Li-battery 3.7V/1500mAH
Last time 5-8 Hours
1.Delivery term: FOB Shenzhen.
2.Terms of Payment: 30% of payment in cash should be pre-paid, after product checking, the rest 70% should be paid before shipment.
3.Leading time: Depends on the quantity of order, about 20-30 days.
4.Minimum order quantity: 100PCS.
5.Quotation is valid for 30 days.

Anything else, pls feel free to contact us through e-mail, hope we will have chance to cooperate in future.
Tks & Best Regards,
Cathy Yu

Shenzhen YSF Enterprise Co.,LTD
Address: Rm.2502, 25/F, Xinhua Insurance Building, Mintian Rd., Futian District, Shenzhen, China
Tel :86-755-88263168-813
Fax: 86-755-88264283
Mobile phone: 86-15818601815
Http: www.ysfimage.com
E-mail: smallware_sz@hotmail.com
MSN, xiaoyu125_8@hotmail.com

Washington Post Article on eBooks

cassidym — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:57:57 GMT

Interesting article in today's (5 Nov 09) Post on eBook readers in the upcoming holiday season. Check it out here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...110203751.html

Here's the text

The Best of Today's E-Book Readers
The number of high-quality e-readers available is mushrooming. We tested seven and gave our highest marks to one that might surprise you.

If you think the universe of e-book readers begins with the Kindle 2 and ends with the Kindle DX, think again. That universe is expanding rapidly. We recently completed thorough hands-on testing of seven of the top e-readers available today and came to a surprising conclusion: Our number one choice isn't from Amazon at all; it's the Sony Reader Touch Edition.

Duh - I finally Get the Problem

Sydney's Mom — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:15:10 GMT

A couple times a year, we used to go to the local bookstore (Borders, not a cute independent) and my husband and I would both buy a couple hundred dollars worth of books, to last us until our next bookstore run. But since I got my kindle, all my book shopping has been online. Online at the library, dependent upon Overdrive's listing of what I might like, online at Amazon, based on a book I might have heard about. I thought it was great, that I wasn't wasting an afternoon at the bookstore, wasting gas, looking for a parking spot, etc. But I wonder what books I am missing.

On the one hand, I am no longer able to judge a book by its cover. But what does this mean for us as a society? Of course, the bookstore was censoring what I would see, so I guess we are just switching to another censor, perhaps a more egalatarian one in the internet.

But maybe that is just the way shopping is evolving - I haven't been inside a yarn shop, for example, in five years - all my shopping is over the internet. And knitting is a more tactile activity than reading.

I see a big shift in how reading material is delivered. I guess it is no different than the shifts we have seen in other delivery models, such as yarn buying. The internet put the local yarn store out of business, and it will probably put the stand-alone bookstores out of business.

I would appreciate any further education - I am slow, but maybe I can join the conversation.

Thanks, Debra

AddALL E-Book Search with new features

Elsi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:40:52 GMT

AddALL, the E-Book search site, has added several new features:

1. many new sites added including:
- 18 USA ebook stores (amazon, b&n, sony ...)
- 7 UK ebookstores (Whsmith, Borders, Waterstones...)
- 2 Aus ebookstores (Dymocks, Harpercollins AU)
- 5 free ebook sites (gutenberg, feedbooks, MobileRead ..)

2. new Amazon and Sony free ebooks monitoring features.

3. Amazon, B&N and Sony bestseller price comparison pages.

With this update, AddALL now searches across more than 30 sites. In addition, they provide an easy-to-use search plug-in for both the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

You can find discussions about AddALL, including some search tips, in these earlier threads in the forum: New ebook price comparison site: AddAll Ebooks and AddAll Ebook price comparison

Marvell and E Ink Join Forces to Deliver a Radical New Generation of eReaders

FragFrog — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:13:56 GMT

Marvell and E Ink Join Forces to Deliver a Radical New Generation of Faster, Lower Power Ultra Thin eReaders for Mass Markets
Santa Clara, California (November 3, 2009) — Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL), a world leader in storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions, today announced its collaboration with E Ink, the supplier of electronic paper display (EPD) technologies for most of the world's eReaders. The two companies have begun to ship a highly integrated eReader processor available in complete turnkey platforms aimed at the fast-growing eReader market. These new platforms are expected to accelerate the rapid release of new forms of eReaders at a variety of price points.

Press Release | Product Page

Seems like yet another advancement is made here, although it was to be expected. I find of particular interest the chips ability to handle both WiFi / Bluetooth as well as 3G - this would open up the road to a whole generation of interconnected eReaders. Improved native PDF support sounds like a nice deal too.

//edit
Posted to soon I fear, it's the same CPU linked in this post. Ah well :)

E-books' holiday charge

DonaldL. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:55:16 GMT

E-books' holiday charge

Quote:

This holiday season will be a crucial test of whether e-books can cross over from geeky novelty to mass-market must-have. Major retailers are pushing the format -- and, of course, the gadgets they've developed to display it. Barnes & Noble unveiled its first electronic book reader last month, with access to all of the retailer's titles and then some. Amazon and Sony, which make the two best-selling e-readers in the country, have introduced new versions just in time to stuff your stocking. And this holiday, for the first time, Best Buy is devoting store space to educating shoppers about e-readers.

All told, about 1.2 million e-readers are expected to be sold in the last three months of the year -- roughly 40 percent of the entire year's stock. By the end of 2010, industry experts predict, 10 million people will be carrying e-readers. As for the number of e-books that people have read, they've lost track.

"Do not buy this book till the Kindle version is priced correctly!" --WTF?

taglines — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:13:44 GMT

Adam Penenberg, author of a new book titled "Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves," is a journalism professor at at New York University. On a recent post at FastCompany's website, he spoke of how hard it is to get reviews for your books in today's media landscape, for both print books and ebooks together. At one point in his commentary, he talks about how "reviewers" on amazon's website sometimes say good things, resulting in 5 stars and sometimes say bad things, resulting in 1 star review, and some of the comments by "reviewers" border on you know what:

"...On my Amazon page, Frank Todaro, from Houston, Texas, gave my book a negative 1-star rating. Was it my research? My prose? My theories? No, he hasn't even read the book. He panned it because Amazon priced the e-book version above $9.99. "Why is the Kindle version too expensive?" Todaro wrote. "Do not buy this book till the Kindle version is priced correctly."

Penenberg's response to this?

"Dear Amazon: Please lower the price of the Kindle version of Viral Loop to $9.99. Hey, Frank Todaro! I'm the frickin' author, not Jeff Bezos. Take it up with him. In the meantime, don't buy the Kindle version if you can't afford fourteen lousy bucks, but don't blame the author for pricing. We have nothing to do with it."

Buy an ebook in a bookshop.

igorsk — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:34:30 GMT

Moskva , one of the biggest book shops in Moscow, started offering ebooks on their site and in the shop. For now the procedure is a bit complicated but it's a start.
Blog post about the experience (Google translation).
Basically for now it's not much more than a PC in kiosk mode locked to the shop's ebook site, but you can top up your account directly in the shop with cash, and the personnel is there to explain and help.

eBook Marketing Interview with Stacey Cochran

Madam Broshkina — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:11:55 GMT

Interesting interview with Stacey Cochrane talking about marketing books and the success he has had self publishing his books for the Kindle on Amazon.

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Books now one of every five new iPhone apps

tomsem — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:02:15 GMT

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/27796/Flu...e-October-2009

"The sharp rise in eBook activity on the iPhone indicates that Apple is positioned take market share from the Amazon Kindle as it did from the Nintendo DS. Despite the smaller form factor of the display, we predict that the iPhone will be a significant player in the book category of the Media & Entertainment space. Further, with Apple working on a larger tablet form factor, running on the iPhone OS, we believe Jeff Bezos and team will face significant competition."

ACM article on Electronic Paper

kennyc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:40:04 GMT

I just opened my new issue of Communications of the ACM to find this article:

Electronic Paper's Next Chapter

The technological challenge for researchers working on the next generation of electronic paper is to render color as brightly as traditional paper, without increasing power requirements or end-user costs.
....
full article:

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/1...apter/fulltext

(hopefully not already posted here)