03:07 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Gather 'round, people, perk up your ears, for tales of Dr. Seuss. Born Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man is perhaps the world's most-loved creator of rhyming children's books, known for such masterpieces as "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." And he's going digital. Random House announced (PDF) Wednesday that 41 of Dr. Seuss stories will come out as e-books, starting on September 24.

Each of the forthcoming Random House Children’s Books ebooks will preserve Dr. Seuss’s original layouts and the beloved illustrations from their print editions. They also will be published simultaneously as Read & Listen editions that feature brand-new audio recordings of the full text.

“Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises have been publishing partners for decades. I am so pleased to announce the start of an exciting new chapter in our long and thriving relationship, as we embark on expanding the Dr. Seuss reading experience together with ebooks,” says Marcus [President & Publisher, Random House Children’s Books]. “We are delighted that today’s parents, their children, and educators can now add Dr. Seuss’s classics to their digital bookshelves, joining the cherished hardcovers that we have all grown up with.”

I'm usually more tech-obsessed than traditionalist; yet, in this regard, I find it difficult to see how Dr. Seuss e-books will offer any advantage over their board book counterparts. Board books are practically indestructible. They come in convenient child size, and they can be bend, dragged, washed, sucked and thrown without much damage. Basically, they are the first books a child is really allowed to possess and explore in a concrete sense. You think that'd work with an e-book reader? Unless your e-reader comes equipped with a serious rugged case that protects it from being chewed or dropped or thrown, I'd worry. I'd probably worry so much about my device being wrecked that unwillingly I'd take all the fun away from my kid to explore Dr. Seuss stories.

But you're obviously free to disagree vehemently.

05:00 PM by hwlester in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

I got an email today for a deal that if you subscribe to select magazines from B&N, they will give you a year of back issues. The selection of magazines is:

• Cooking Light
• Cosmopolitan
• Crochet Today!
• Essence
• Food Network Magazine
• Glamour
• Good Housekeeping
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Kids
• O: The Oprah Magazine
• Popular Mechanics
• Reader's Digest
• Real Simple
• Runner's World
• SELF
• Southern Living Magazine
• The Family Handyman
• Yoga Journal

The link is here although you may have to have gotten the email to redeem the offer. Terms & Conditions are here.

Edited to note that the offer has been extended to 2:59 a.m. ET September 13, 2013.

02:02 PM by ritoroy in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

TigerDirect offers the factory-refurbished Sony 6" WiFi eBook Reader in Black, model no. PRST2HBC, bundled with a $25 eBook Reader Gift Card for $59.99. This 5.9-oz. e-reader features a 600x800 6" touchscreen display, 1.3GB internal storage, SD card slot (up to 32GB), integrated 802.11n wireless, and MP3 player. A 1-year Sony warranty applies.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=8528682

11:34 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Thanks to countless leaks there is hardly anything surprising left for Sony to announce with the PRS-T3. Either way, the Sony PRS-T3 is a fine device, as you can read in the press release.

It’s our highest ever resolution Reader; the paper-like E-ink screen is sharper and clearer than ever, with crisp text that’s wonderfully easy to read. Every page turn is beautifully smooth, too. Thanks to advanced page refresh technology by Sony, you can stay focused on the story with an unprecedented 4 hours of flicker-free page turns. Press forward/back page turn buttons or simply swipe the touchscreen to read on – it’s wonderfully intuitive. When you’re done, close the cover to save power and protect the screen until you’re ready to read on.

Launch date in Europe starts in September and varies by country.

Update: Now also on display on various Sony Europe websites.

10:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Some of us have already wondered what "Carta e-paper technology" is all about when Amazon unveiled the Paperwhite V2 yesterday. Well, here we have the answer, folks! Carta is the latest imaging film employed by E Ink for their e-paper screens. According to their website, Carta offers enhanced readability ("a dramatic 50% increase in contrast over earlier generations") and smoother page turns (supporting "the new Regal technology").

E Ink Carta specifications in detail:

• Imaging Component: E Ink Carta ePaper Display Film
• Contrast Ratio: 15:1 (min)
• White State: 74 (min)
• Dark State: 19 (max)
• Color Resolution (# Bits): 1-Bit (B&W);4-Bit (16 Gray Levels)
• % Reflectance: 44%
• Viewing Angle: Near 180°
• Image Update Time: 120 msec (1-Bit)
• Update Modes: Full & Partial Page Update, Pipelined
• Available Display Sizes: 1.44 to 13.3 in
• Display Modules: E Ink Mobius Flexible Display, as well as Glass TFT

Source: spec sheet (PDF)

Related: All-New Kindle Paperwhite V2 (accidentally) unveiled. So what's all new?

10:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Yet another patent application from Mountain View today. While the first one was related to adding sound triggers to e-books, which may not appeal to everyone, this application serves a more practical purpose: the synchronization of reading and listening locations between e-books and audiobooks.

While not granted (yet), the USPTO filing outlines an "e-book system" that would synchronize reading locations not only between e-books stored on different devices (perhaps even in different e-book formats), but also locations between audio/audio-video content and text content. For that purpose, the audio content is first transcoded into text and then compared to the original text version.

Oftentimes, e-books are available for consumption in a variety of different modes. For example, an e-book may be available in a traditional text-based version for consumption by reading, and also available in an audio book version for consumption by listening. The audio book version may be narrated by a human actor or other voiceover professional that reads the text with added nuance such as tone or inflection that enhances the enjoyment of the listener.

A user may desire to occasionally switch among the various consumption modes for an e-book. The user may read the text version of the e-book when relaxing at home, but desire to listen to the audio version of the e-book at other times, such as when the user is driving. However, switching among the consumption modes is difficult because the different versions of the e-book are independent. There is no easy way for the user to maintain the same reading/listening position between the text and audio versions of an e-book. Thus, the user must manually locate the correct position when switching consumption modes. This extra effort is time-consuming and detracts from the user's overall enjoyment of the e-book. [...]

The above-described and other issues are addressed by a computer-implemented method, computer-readable medium, and computer system for switching between synchronized consumption modes of an e-book.

Source: USPTO

08:54 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Next time you read Homer's Odyssey, don't be embarrassed if your e-reader suddenly outputs seductive songs, in particular when you're somewhere in the middle of the book where Odysseus approaches the island of the lovely Sirens. Google has applied to patent a system that plays sounds that are associated with a user's reading location within an e-book.

The above and other issues are addressed by a computer-implemented method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and a computer system for triggering sounds in an eBook. An embodiment of the method includes receiving trigger point information from a client. An eBook is analyzed to determine trigger point information for the eBook. The trigger point information includes information identifying a location of a trigger point in the eBook. The trigger point information also includes sound information indicating a sound to play at the trigger point. The determined trigger point information is transmitted to the client in response to the request for trigger point information. The client is configured to track a user's reading location in the eBook and play the sound indicated by the sound information responsive to the user reading the eBook at the location of the trigger point.

In one variety of the implementation it's the responsibility of a remote "sound server" with a "sound database", which is connected via WiFi or 3G to the reading device, providing sounds in response to specific trigger points. In another implementation, trigger points don't need to be specified individually in every book; rather, a book would receive a unique identifier and a client could access a remote trigger point database to fetch the related sound information.

The concept is simple enough that we wouldn't be surprised to find it in future reading apps.

06:46 AM by Katsunami in E-Book General | General Discussions

The one thing I always see with regard to new e-readers is that people want the software to do specific things. One e-reader can have 20 custom fonts, the other has 20 settings for margins, while a third has 15 settings for line height. That sort of stuff. No reader has everything.

I've read that there are some nice reading applications for tablets, and that some people prefer a tablet for readin because of the choice of apps and their customizability.

Let's say, a manufacturer would do something like this:

• Create a line of e-readers: 5 inch, 6 inch, 7 inch, and 9.7 inch.
• Capacitive touch screen
• Front light, 30 settings, from completely off to as bright as a tablet.
• The reader has back/forward-buttons, but with a twist. You get 2 faceplates: one completely out of plastic, hiding the buttons, and a face plate that allows you to press them. (Rubber at the button positions, a clicking mechanism, whatever.)
• NO internal memory. Nothing, zilch. BUT, it will accept SDXC cards up to 2TB.

But most important:

It will run a completely stripped down version of Android, but you won't ever see the operating system. The reader itself would only provide the utter minimal stuff: WIFI connection, handling the front-light, setting page flash (between 0-10); basically, make the hardware usable. (Isn't that what an OS is supposed to do?) Everything, and I mean *EVERYTHING* related to reading would be left to the applications, from choosing reading fonts up to Facebook/GoodReads integration.

The manufacturer of the reader will have a marketplace, but with only one type of applications: reading apps. Anything else is not allowed. Comics, books, PDF's, an internet browser, etc... whatever. People who have a reading app in the Android store could probably port it quite quickly to the e-reader.

Not all reading applications may be free, and some could cost up to $10. The manufacturer itself will have a free reading application in the market, comparable to what a Kindle Paperwhite has to offer now; it won't be installed by default.

If you have only one reading application installed, it will start by default when booting the reader; if you have more than one installed, you can choose which one to start by default, or start none and present you with a choice when starting the device. This way, you could be reading a book in one application, and read a PDF in another.

Of course, this would be a high-end device, with a high-end price: the price will be between $150 and $300 depending on the size.

Would you buy this "Uber E-Reader"?

(People might say: But this is just an e-ink tablet, stripped of everything except a market to install reading applications? Yeah, you'd basically be right. That's why it's an Uber E-Reader, and not a generic tablet.)