ubook 0.9b e-book reader available

[Colin Dunstan]

David at Gowerpoint has just released a new version of his wonderful Pocket PC e-book reader ubook - version 0.9b.

Here's what's new:
# New e-book formats supported (eReader, MobiPocket -> if not encrypted, PML, Rocket eBook, CHM, PDF -> if not encrypted)
# Increased (artificial) limit of num words per minutes to 1200.
# Fixed images, nag, tables and stream bugs.
# Updated manual
# New skin: n0de by Marcus Kopp

Click here for a full overview of all ubook features including screenshots.

ubook is a shareware product. A licence costs $12US and works for all versions of the reader. The unlicenced version is not crippled in any way, but pops up an about screen every now and then.

[Mobipocket]

The fact is that the support of Mobipocket file format is forbidden (encrypted files or not)... They may have done some reverse engineering on the file format, which is not allowed by the EULA any Mobipocket user agree when installing the Mobipocket software.

[TadW]

Mobipocket, with all due respect I don't understand your problem here. As far as I see it, uBook is not breaking any DRM scheme. How can it be forbidden to support an e-book format without breaking any kind of protection? For instance, look how many people have reverse engineered the Adobe Acrobat format, which at least to my knowledge, has never been made officially public. Is Adobe suing the Open-source community, or one of those third party PDF-generation companies now? Not that I have heard of.

You say it is not allowed to reverse engineer the format due to some text in your EULA; do you know that in many countries, such as Germany, the End User Agreement is not worth anything UNLESS you receive it first in a) PRINTED form and b) at the time when you actually BUY the product -- in which case it requires my signature (and not just a mere mouse click of mine) to make the contract valid.

Anyways, I like your reader; but I also like uBook a lot which seems to be getting better and better!

[cheshire]

I find it a little disheartening to hear Mobipocket's comments, if it represents the official view on this.

I was hoping to see the MobiPocket format becoming more prevalent and being supported on a number of other readers, and have the MobiPocket Reader emerge as the most popular reader (I find the Reader very well-written by the way) due to its quality rather than its support of a supposedly "closed" ebook format.

[gadgetguru]

What is the last freeware version of uBook and where can I download it? I understand that the unlicensed version is full featured save for a few nag screens... but I prefer freeware if possible...

I think I will uninstall Mobipocket from my system... The release of an compatible reader other than its own is really a blessing since it pushes the format and doesn't affect its business. While EULAs can be written to prevent reverse engineering, it's not enforceable otherwise Microsoft would have prevented Openoffice or other Office suites from viewing Microsoft Office formats like .doc and .xls . I may be wrong here, but whatever, it still leave a bad taste in the mouth.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by gadgetguru

What is the last freeware version of uBook and where can I download it? I understand that the unlicensed version is full featured save for a few nag screens... but I prefer freeware if possible...

0.8o was the last freeware version and is still available from here.