EBooks on a Nano

yvanleterrible · 04-09-2007, 10:13 PM

Yes! You've read right! An iPod Nano!
Last week for my 50th, I was given a sleek black 8 gb iPod Nano. While rummaging through its features such as Music, (obviously; I'm a fusion jazz fan) Pictures, Audio Books, Podcasts, Contacts and games, I noticed a Notes feature. Digging further, although the LCD is tiny at 1 ¼" wide by 15/16" high, there was a small tutorial sample that was…well… legible…barely!

"I have to try it!" Said the little unreasonable voice in my head!

I followed the instructions and downloaded an ebook to the pod. It didn't spit it back out, so I unplugged the iPod and turned it on to the Notes section and there was that book! Whooppee! Now that was COOL!!!

I sat back and started to read. It was hard but bearable until the text stopped there, about 700 words in…
"Drats!"
I plugged it back, took out the book and put an other one in.

Same thing!

I was not about to give this up! Since there are no more user manuals with iPods, I went to the site and did some sniffing. Apparently there is a 4kb limit to each note, it meant you have to cut your books into tiny parcels and try to rename each one and upload to the Nano…Not worth it. It's about as long as typing that said book!

Sniffing further, there is a blog of users on the Apple iPod site, and in there I found the pearl!!! That was a link to a neat service. It's called iPod Ebook Creator.

The concept is simple, you upload your txt ebook, it is converted for you and posted back on the site as a zip file with all the instructions. Download it, unzip and voilà! All you need to do is install on the iPod and read.

All the creator wants in exchange is that you grace him with one of the gifts on his Amazon wish list.

After installing the book on the Ipod I started to read it. Ten minutes in I was crying my eyes out and believe me, it was not because of the story! Now that thing is tiny!

Sure! It won't beat an eink reader but, the size of the Nano, its portability, the geekyness factor and the fact that it's always with me makes it fun and way cool! Now I see where you were going with the smart phones Bob!

The book I had converted was roughly 112 pages long at 10 points, more precisely a word count of 51,158. It was converted to 73 linked files.

Now that is Mobile Reading!

Moderator's Note: I'm sorry Yvan... I had to remove the attachment because it is a copyrighted file. (In fact, it's one of the files that caused the shutdown of Blackmask because of legal action.) If you like, please feel free to post a non-copyrighted text as an example, though! - Bob

Leaping Gnome · 04-10-2007, 10:18 AM

Yeah, I tested out the note function on iPods, made my eyes cry too. It will be interesting to see if the iPhone offers similar functionally with it's bigger screen. I expect the next generation of iPods will have a similar full frontal screen and that should make them closer to PDA-like in their eBook ability.

Bob Russell · 04-10-2007, 10:41 AM

I think that's right on.. I think the newer iPods are going to be increasingly video oriented. And people will have them handy all the time, so it could be great for e-books. As Yvan says, it's just what I love about e-books on my Treo. Sure, the Sony Reader and e-ink are better in many ways, but the Treo is always with me, and it has the advantage of a backlight. A lot of people may soon be saying the same thing about their iPods, and I think they will work well in tandom with dedicated e-book devices of the future.

nekokami · 04-10-2007, 02:52 PM

There are people in this world who are dedicated book readers. We collect, devour, cherish books... and those of us who aren't addicted to paper will probably purchase dedicated ebook readers, at least until multifunction tablets with excellent reading characteristics come along.

But for those who buy books in the check-out line at the supermarket and then leave them in bus stations or hotels for others to read, or who read occasionally, but not in depth, or even just like to read but have other, higher priorities in their lives... I'm betting that devices like the iPod or Nintendo DS or cell phones will be more common as book readers.

memobug · 04-10-2007, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

But for those who buy books in the check-out line at the supermarket and then leave them in bus stations or hotels for others to read...

This is kind of funny to me because I accidentally left an iPod Nano in the checkout line at the supermarket. It slipped off the stupid breakaway lanyard that Apple sells. So people are recycling e-books, too. Even if it's unintentional!

Bob Russell · 04-10-2007, 04:18 PM

Interesting. <Wheels turning.>
So... where and when do you usually shop, memobug? I've been wanting an iPod!

But, seriously, leaving these things behind can become a problem as mobile devices become more and more popular. Already, there are stories about huge numbers of devices (mostly pagers and cell phones now) lost in taxis, bathrooms and all kinds of other places.

TadW · 04-10-2007, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

...(In fact, it's one of the files that caused the shutdown of Blackmask because of legal action.)

Wow, I must have lived under a rock, because I didn't even know that Blackmask was threatened. What exactly was the allegation?

NatCh · 04-10-2007, 05:04 PM

Nutshell version (as best I understand it) is that they got sued by the copyright holders of the Doc Savage stories (apparently BM disputed whether the material was still under copyright, if I understood things correctly) and ended up ordered shut down until they could prove that they wouldn't ever distribute the material again (which is, of course, impossible, but that didn't seem to matter to the judge), and is no more. A lot of the material (sans Doc Savage, most obviously) is available at Silk Pagoda.

Someone please correct/elaborate anywhere I'm off.

Liviu_5 · 04-10-2007, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Nutshell version (as best I understand it) is that they got sued by the copyright holders of the Doc Savage stories (apparently BM disputed whether the material was still under copyright, if I understood things correctly) and ended up ordered shut down until they could prove that they wouldn't ever distribute the material again (which is, of course, impossible, but that didn't seem to matter to the judge), and is no more. A lot of the material (sans Doc Savage, most obviously) is available at Silk Pagoda.

Someone please correct/elaborate anywhere I'm off.

I posted a while ago the summary of the legal decision against Blackmask. Blackmask lost in court against Conde Nast and that's that. Now I understand that Guttenberg Australia may have Doc Savage available legally at least for non US residents since there the copyright is just 50 years. The "new" Blackmask is called Munseys and is here:

http://www.munseys.com/

For the court decision see this link (click on any Doc Savage books):

http://gutenberg.cc/Black_Mask/pulpfiction.htm#0_0_3

"The eBook you are looking for has been removed because the source of the eBook, Blackmask Online, provided the eBook in violation of the rights of the copyright owner, The Conde Nast Publications.

In recent litigation between Conde Nast and Blackmask Online, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the books are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced or distributed without Conde Nast's permission.

A copy of the Court's decision is available at Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. v. Leach, 466 F.Supp.2d 628 (D. Md. 2006)"

yvanleterrible · 04-10-2007, 08:46 PM

Sorry for the goof about the chosen book!

I wanted to test the Nano once more...I tried and cried again!

Brad · 04-10-2007, 09:33 PM

Manybooks.net has free public domain ebooks available in iPod Notes format.

I very much hope the iPhone will have this capability.

yvanleterrible · 04-11-2007, 08:57 AM

Thanks for the tip Brad!

04-09-2007, 10:13 PM	#1
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	EBooks on a Nano Yes! You've read right! An iPod Nano! Last week for my 50th, I was given a sleek black 8 gb iPod Nano. While rummaging through its features such as Music, (obviously; I'm a fusion jazz fan) Pictures, Audio Books, Podcasts, Contacts and games, I noticed a Notes feature. Digging further, although the LCD is tiny at 1 ¼" wide by 15/16" high, there was a small tutorial sample that was…well… legible…barely! "I have to try it!" Said the little unreasonable voice in my head! I followed the instructions and downloaded an ebook to the pod. It didn't spit it back out, so I unplugged the iPod and turned it on to the Notes section and there was that book! Whooppee! Now that was COOL!!! I sat back and started to read. It was hard but bearable until the text stopped there, about 700 words in… "Drats!" I plugged it back, took out the book and put an other one in. Same thing! I was not about to give this up! Since there are no more user manuals with iPods, I went to the site and did some sniffing. Apparently there is a 4kb limit to each note, it meant you have to cut your books into tiny parcels and try to rename each one and upload to the Nano…Not worth it. It's about as long as typing that said book! Sniffing further, there is a blog of users on the Apple iPod site, and in there I found the pearl!!! That was a link to a neat service. It's called iPod Ebook Creator. The concept is simple, you upload your txt ebook, it is converted for you and posted back on the site as a zip file with all the instructions. Download it, unzip and voilà! All you need to do is install on the iPod and read. All the creator wants in exchange is that you grace him with one of the gifts on his Amazon wish list. After installing the book on the Ipod I started to read it. Ten minutes in I was crying my eyes out and believe me, it was not because of the story! Now that thing is tiny! Sure! It won't beat an eink reader but, the size of the Nano, its portability, the geekyness factor and the fact that it's always with me makes it fun and way cool! Now I see where you were going with the smart phones Bob! The book I had converted was roughly 112 pages long at 10 points, more precisely a word count of 51,158. It was converted to 73 linked files. Now that is Mobile Reading! Moderator's Note: I'm sorry Yvan... I had to remove the attachment because it is a copyrighted file. (In fact, it's one of the files that caused the shutdown of Blackmask because of legal action.) If you like, please feel free to post a non-copyrighted text as an example, though! - Bob Last edited by yvanleterrible; 04-11-2007 at 08:55 AM. Reason: Correcting a terrible blunder I made...

04-10-2007, 08:46 PM	#10
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	Sorry for the goof about the chosen book! I wanted to test the Nano once more...I tried and cried again! Last edited by yvanleterrible; 04-10-2007 at 08:51 PM.

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04-10-2007, 10:18 AM	#2
Leaping Gnome Evangelist Posts: 490 Karma: 1641 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Louisville Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	Yeah, I tested out the note function on iPods, made my eyes cry too. It will be interesting to see if the iPhone offers similar functionally with it's bigger screen. I expect the next generation of iPods will have a similar full frontal screen and that should make them closer to PDA-like in their eBook ability.

04-10-2007, 10:41 AM	#3
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I think that's right on.. I think the newer iPods are going to be increasingly video oriented. And people will have them handy all the time, so it could be great for e-books. As Yvan says, it's just what I love about e-books on my Treo. Sure, the Sony Reader and e-ink are better in many ways, but the Treo is always with me, and it has the advantage of a backlight. A lot of people may soon be saying the same thing about their iPods, and I think they will work well in tandom with dedicated e-book devices of the future.

04-10-2007, 02:52 PM	#4
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	There are people in this world who are dedicated book readers. We collect, devour, cherish books... and those of us who aren't addicted to paper will probably purchase dedicated ebook readers, at least until multifunction tablets with excellent reading characteristics come along. But for those who buy books in the check-out line at the supermarket and then leave them in bus stations or hotels for others to read, or who read occasionally, but not in depth, or even just like to read but have other, higher priorities in their lives... I'm betting that devices like the iPod or Nintendo DS or cell phones will be more common as book readers.

04-10-2007, 04:18 PM	#6
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Interesting. <Wheels turning.> So... where and when do you usually shop, memobug? I've been wanting an iPod! But, seriously, leaving these things behind can become a problem as mobile devices become more and more popular. Already, there are stories about huge numbers of devices (mostly pagers and cell phones now) lost in taxis, bathrooms and all kinds of other places.

04-10-2007, 05:04 PM	#8
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Nutshell version (as best I understand it) is that they got sued by the copyright holders of the Doc Savage stories (apparently BM disputed whether the material was still under copyright, if I understood things correctly) and ended up ordered shut down until they could prove that they wouldn't ever distribute the material again (which is, of course, impossible, but that didn't seem to matter to the judge), and is no more. A lot of the material (sans Doc Savage, most obviously) is available at Silk Pagoda. Someone please correct/elaborate anywhere I'm off.

04-10-2007, 09:33 PM	#11
Brad Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 201 Join Date: Sep 2004 Device: Cybook Gen3 / EB1150 /iPhone	Manybooks.net has free public domain ebooks available in iPod Notes format. I very much hope the iPhone will have this capability.

04-11-2007, 08:57 AM	#12
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	Thanks for the tip Brad!

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