Overdrive releasing reading apps

[AnemicOak]

Overdrive will be releasing apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry...

OverDrive to Release eBook Reading Apps
Free applications designed to integrate eBooks, audiobooks, and interactive and multimedia content into one application

(Cleveland, OH) - May 19, 2010 - OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), a leading distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and digital content for libraries, schools, and retailers, announced that it will release a series of apps that will combine eBooks, audiobooks, and interactive and multimedia content into one user-friendly application. The apps will be available for both mobile and desktop operating systems, including Windows®, Mac®, iPhone®, iPad®, AndroidTM, Windows Mobile®, and BlackBerry®. Millions of end users will benefit from a single software solution for all OverDrive-supplied content, as well as on-the-go access to eBooks from OverDrive-powered library and retail catalogs.

For a preview of the OverDrive eBook apps, as well as other service enhancements, visit booth 3258 at BookExpo America, May 26-27, in New York City (http://bit.ly/bgVSmL). OverDrive will also exhibit in the IDPF Digital Book Zone, booth 2323, at BEA.

http://www.overdrive.com/aboutus/get...cleID=20100519


Originally found on TeleRead...
http://www.teleread.com/2010/05/19/o...-applications/

[Maggie Leung]

Wow. Looking forward to this.

[AnemicOak]

Assuming the apps will support DRM'd ePub it could be nice for the platforms that don't have a reader for it yet.

[batgirl]

I'm surprised Jobs would let an app using Adobe anywhere near his iPad.

[pendragginp]

Good news for sure.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by batgirl

I'm surprised Jobs would let an app using Adobe anywhere near his iPad.

I'm pretty sure there's an app for the iPad that does Adobe DRM already, at least there is for iPhone/Touch.

[da_jane]

The only iPad app that allows Adobe DRM is the iBooks app. Overdrive providing an app is pretty exciting.

Edited to add: I'm sorry but I was wrong. Epubbed books in iBookstore are FairPlay DRM'ed. Not Adobe DRM. Txtr App uses Adobe DRM and that was allowed in the App Store (it's iPhone only right now).

[FizzyWater]

The OverDrive website specifically says - at this time - its books cannot be read on the iPad (or Kindle).

[wallcraft]

This is a very good news. In particular:

This and other mobile apps are being developed under a license agreement with Adobe® and using the Adobe Reader Mobile 9 SDK. All OverDrive apps will support EPUB, PDF, and eBook content protection functionality, including library lending and expiration.

It has been a limitation of Adobe's 3rd-party licensing approach to the RMSDK that they don't produce any reading apps themselves. So this requires someone else to pay for a license and the associated development and maintenance costs. With the exception of txtr (Txtr iPhone app - Adobe DRM, over the air downloads, and more), there had previously been no known licensees targeting smartphones. It now appears that Adobe's strategy has paid off handsomely, since OverDrive will port the RMSDK to most smartphone platforms at no cost to Adobe. This is a good deal for OverDrive too, because the apps will help maintain their head start on lending library ebooks in the US

[Darqref]

My question on this is: Do I need to have ADE installed to use the Overdrive app? My goal is and has been to NEVER install ADE. I'll happily use an epub file (when I get around to needing one....), but I don't want to infect my machine with ADE. So far, I've used the Overdrive mobi files from my library, which of course doesn't need ADE.

I would assume that this would still be possible for mobi files, but does this RMSDK license allow for the creation of an Adobe-DRMed file that can be downloaded completely withing Overdrive?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Darqref

My question on this is: Do I need to have ADE installed to use the Overdrive app?

Currently, you do need to install Desktop (Windows or Mac) ADE to "side-load" Adobe lending library ebooks onto handheld devices. These new apps will change this by allowing direct download of Adobe lending library ebooks to your portable device. In the press release OverDrive calls this "on-the-go access" and it has also been called OTA (over the air, i.e. via wireless). So you will be able to avoid Desktop ADE entirely.

Note that it is almost certain that you won't be able to read MobiPocket lending library ebooks with these apps. MobiPocket (Amazon) has essentially stopped licensing its reader to 3rd parties.

[JSWolf]

My question is, will we be able to use this Overdrive App to load non-DRMed content that we have on our computers? If we could, we could have the font of our choosing instead of the weak fonts chosen by Apple for iBooks.

[DixieGal]

I got the Overdrive app last evening. My public library doesn't lend ebooks, but I get my audiobooks that way. It handled a direct audiobook download just fine without needing iTunes. I want to find a library with ebooks and see how it works as a reading app.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I got the Overdrive app last evening. My public library doesn't lend ebooks, but I get my audiobooks that way. It handled a direct audiobook download just fine without needing iTunes. I want to find a library with ebooks and see how it works as a reading app.

The ebook apps aren't out yet. They'll be previewing them next week at BookExpo America (May 26-27).

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The ebook apps aren't out yet. They'll be previewing them next week at BookExpo America (May 26-27).

Can I depend on you to PM me with a reminder when you get the info? Please?