Breaking: eReader.com changes hands again, acquired by Fictionwise

[spanky]

I like what fictionwise did with the old hardware ebook readers. Until I dropped my ebookwise I loved it. I hope they use ereader to expand the availability of ebooks on the only truely afforable ebook reader.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NatCh

It might, but it would help Reader sales.

Is eReader format really that popular? I've absolutely no "feel" for how "big" or otherwise it is, unfortunately, never having used it myself. I have a vague feeling that it at least used to be mainly a "Palm thing" (is that right?) and I was never "into" Palm devices.

You're right - if there are a lot of people out there with large collections of eReader format books, then being able to read them on a new device could indeed be a selling factor.

[kkingdon]

I acquired a lot of eReader DRM-locked books while I used various generations of Palm PDAs as eBook readers. At the time I began buying eBooks, eReader was the best format available. Now it has fallen far behind Mobipocket, IMO.

I, for one, would welcome a way to read my eReader-format library on my shiny new Cybook Gen3.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is eReader format really that popular? I've absolutely no "feel" for how "big" or otherwise it is, unfortunately, never having used it myself. I have a vague feeling that it at least used to be mainly a "Palm thing" (is that right?) and I was never "into" Palm devices.

You're right - if there are a lot of people out there with large collections of eReader format books, then being able to read them on a new device could indeed be a selling factor.

eReader began as Peanut Reader. Peanut Reader was created by Peanut Press, an early ebook publisher targeting Palm OS PDAs. It uses a markup format called Palm Markup Language, which allows fonts, text attributes, hyperklinks and embedded images. It can also display Palm "doc" files -- ASCII files compressed to save space in RAM, and decompressed on the fly by the reader.

Palm bought Peanut Press and made them the Palm Digital Media division. An older freeware version of the reader called Palm Reader was provided with many Palm devices.

Palm sold the Digital Media Division to Motricity, Inc., a B2B mobile content solutions provider. Motricity renamed it eReader, and made the website eReader.com. Motricity eventually did a port of the eReader viewer to Windows Mobile for use on PocketPC devices, and was supposedly considering a version for Blackberry.

There's a fair amount of content out there in eReader format, DRM and otherwise. It would be nice it it could be read on things like the Sony Reader.
______
Dennis

[NatCh]

Hmmm. I feel a poll coming on ....

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have a vague feeling that it at least used to be mainly a "Palm thing" (is that right?) and I was never "into" Palm devices.

Pocket PC as well, if I recall correctly.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Hmmm. I feel a poll coming on ....

Yup, here it is, in fact.

[bspline]

I still have lots of eReader books that I'd like to read. Unfortunately for me here in Brazil we don't have e-ink readers yet, but I can do with Mobipocket on my E-61. The fact that motricity offered no support for Symbian V3 led me away from eReader, which I used a lot with my Palms and WinMobiles...

But the thing that no one mentioned is that eReader used to have one of the least intrusive DRM methods (as far as DRM goes). Unfortunately there are no "convertLit"-like solutions for it.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by bspline

I still have lots of eReader books that I'd like to read. Unfortunately for me here in Brazil we don't have e-ink readers yet, but I can do with Mobipocket on my E-61. The fact that motricity offered no support for Symbian V3 led me away from eReader, which I used a lot with my Palms and WinMobiles...

But the thing that no one mentioned is that eReader used to have one of the least intrusive DRM methods (as far as DRM goes). Unfortunately there are no "convertLit"-like solutions for it.

It still does use the same DRM it always had. No need to crack.

Dale

[TallMomof2]

The best thing about the eReader format is the page numbering. It's very consistent, nothing like MobiPocket. You can go backwards and forwards in a book and the pages stay the same unlike MobiPocket. The fonts are nicer in eReader. If you have to have DRM at least this scheme allows you to move your books to different devices. But the biggest problem is that you can't read eReader books on an eInk device.

[bspline]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

It still does use the same DRM it always had. No need to crack.

Dale

Yes, I would have no need to crack if they had a version that supported Symbian V3 phones (which I use to read e-books). They actually replied me that a new version is on the way, but they had no timeframe for the release. This was before this change-of-hands. Now I don't know where they stand.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by bspline

Yes, I would have no need to crack if they had a version that supported Symbian V3 phones (which I use to read e-books). They actually replied me that a new version is on the way, but they had no timeframe for the release. This was before this change-of-hands. Now I don't know where they stand.

They will probably be faster at doing the conversion.

Dale

[astra]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

The best thing about the eReader format is the page numbering. It's very consistent.

You can say the same about LRF.

P.S.
That's why I would never buy CyBook, because it doesn't have page numbers, unlike Sony Reader which has the same page number system as a pbook.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

You can say the same about LRF.

P.S.
That's why I would never buy CyBook, because it doesn't have page numbers, unlike Sony Reader which has the same page number system as a pbook.

I just didn't like the way the Sony felt in my hands. Even though I'm a huge Sony fan this product didn't wow me. YMMV