02:40 PM by doctorow in E-Book General | News

[Moderator Edit: If you bought eligible e-books between 2010 and 2012, you're likely to receive up to $3.06 per book. For detailed information how much you're likely to get in the settlement, see AnemicOak's post, and onward.]

Original post:

No refund for me. My inbox is empty and sad.

Publishers Weekly:

Representatives from Rust Consulting, the firm retained to administer the settlement fund, confirmed to PW that 23,073,840 customers of Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, and Sony have been directly notified via e-mail or by postcard that they are eligible to participate in the settlement. That figure represents consumer accounts, a Rust representative explained to PW, not the number of individual consumers, as some consumers have accounts with multiple retailers, or multiple accounts at a single retailer.

Who is eligible?

An eligible consumer is defined as anyone “who purchased e-books from an ‘Agency Five’ publisher from April 1, 2010 to May 21, 2012.” Anyone who received notice by e-mail or postcard purchased at least one qualifying e-book from one or more retailers. The figures do not include Minnesota, which has a separate settlement.

More details on the settlement Web site

02:23 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

There are many ways to get content onto the Amazon Kindle, but if you also happen to wield an Android device, the Push to Kindle app offers one of the most elegant ways to do so. Once installed, it hooks into the Android's share menu, making sending articles to the Kindle quite easy.

Available at Google Play, at 50 percent off the regular price (till end of September).

11:16 AM by WillAdams in E-Book General | News

Heretofore, the Cintiq was a graphics tablet w/ integrated LCD --- Wacom has now squeezed in a full-fledged computer (your choice of Windows 8 or Android) and battery:

http://cintiqcompanion.wacom.com/en/

Looks like the dream device for someone wanting a larger screen (it's 13.3") --- no word on daylight viewability yet.

11:13 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's been a long time coming, but word hit the street (in German) that Gembird is going to launch their EnerGenie ePP2 e-reader at the IFA conference next week. Actually, e-reader is not the right term. Rather they call it an "e-paper printer", based on its capability to function as a printer. It works by connecting the reader, uh, printer, to a computer via USB, where it's then being recognized as a printer. When you print a document, it will be automatically stored onto the device.

Down to the details:

• Display: 9.7-inch E-Ink, 1600 x 1200 pixels
• CPU: 800 MHz
• RAM: 256 MB
• Storage: 4 GB, expandable to up to 32 GB (microSD)
• OS: Android Gingerbread (2.3.4)
• Battery: 2350 mAh
• Dimensions: 270 x 188 x 11.5 mm
• Weight: 600 g
• Price: rumored to be around EUR 399 and EUR 499

Below is a video showing the EnerGenie in action:

10:09 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | General Discussions

Oh yes, what would we do without the lovely revolving door? The Software Alliance (BSA, aka the "world's premier anti-piracy organization") announced this week that it has named Victoria Espinel to be its President and CEO. Until recently, Espinel was the White House's intellectual property coordinator - a position also dubbed "IP czar" or "copyright czar" - who fought against all kinds of infringement in a world full of nasty infringers and counterfeiters.

"We are thrilled to have Victoria leading BSA forward in an important phase of growth and evolution for the software industry," said BSA Board Chairman Pascal Di Fronzo, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Autodesk, Inc. "Victoria brings an extraordinary wealth of expertise on key issues at the intersection of trade policy, market access and IP protection. [...]

BSA President and CEO-designate Victoria Espinel said, "I am looking forward to working closely with BSA's member companies to ensure markets around the world provide the enabling environments necessary for technology innovation to continue flourishing. Software drives growth and productivity in all sectors of the global economy, and it enriches modern life. BSA will continue to be a forceful and effective advocate on issues central to the next phase of the industry's growth as rapid changes in the digital landscape create new opportunities and policy priorities."

Related: E-book customer sharing with anti-piracy group BREIN faces political backlash, Rapidshare loses court battle against German booksellers

[via Wired]

07:11 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The buzz is now too loud to ignore. Sony is most likely going to unveil their upcoming PRS-T3 e-book reader in Berlin on September 4, two days ahead of the official opening of the IFA conference. This suggests that our earlier estimated release date of September 19 could be pretty close.

Meanwhile, we've received some more specs (in bold), in addition to what's been leaked before:

• 6-inch E Ink screen with "Clear Touch" IR, 1024x758, 16 grey levels
• WLAN (802.11b/g/n)
• RAM: 2 GB, expandable to up to 32 GB (microSD)
• 8 font sizes, 6 different fonts
• Fast-charging battery (three minutes), not sure for how much of a charge
• Browser included (said to be unblocked, so we assume any website can be visited)
• Direct shop access via browser and WiFi
• Support for PDF text reflow
• Support for Evernote Clearly und Facebook API
• 15 dictionaries included (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch)
• Support for word lookups via Wikipedia and Google
• Full-text search, marking and annotation features
• Three non-free e-books included
• Supported file formats: EPUB (with and without DRM), PDF (with and without DRM), TXT, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP
• Cover with automatic start/sleep function, integrated into the device
• Optional: Cover with integrated light
• Dimensions: 160x109x11.3mm
• Weight: 200g
• Available in the colors black (PRST3BC), red (PRST3RC), and white (PRST3WC)

Thanks to Mobilereader dieterpops for the heads-up!

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Ok kids, time for the weekly roundup of what we've covered this week:

E-Book General - News

• E-book customer sharing with anti-piracy group BREIN faces political backlash
• Kobo revs up its line of e-readers, unveils Kobo Arc 10 HD tablet
• calibre V1.1 released, with plenty of bug fixes
• NOOK for Android 3.4.1.20 out, adds accessibility feature
• Amazon Kindle, Bienvenido a Mexico!
• 84 percent of top 1,000 titles available as accessible e-books, study finds

E-Book General - General Discussions

• How important is text-to-speech capability to you?
• How annoying is the lack of quotation marks to you?

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources (No Self-Promotion)

• O'Reilly: 50% off all eBooks & Videos (valid until Sep 10, 2013)

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• September Book Club Vote
• The Book Club's Anniversary is upon us! Has it really been FIVE years?

E-Book Readers - Android Devices

• Aldiko Book Reader Premium V2.2.3 released (Android)

E-Book Readers - Barnes & Noble NOOK

• B&N Retail CEO sells stock

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Welcome Marvin e-book app to our forums!

06:29 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Although not all authors and publishers are keen to allow things that would make e-books more available, like electronic text-to-speech, overall e-books have been a blessing to visually impaired blind and partially sighted people, according to a new report by the UK-based Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). Over the past four years, the charity looked at what they consider the 1,000 most popular books and determined the proportion of those that were available as an accessible e-book.

In 2012, 84 per cent of the top 1,000 titles were available in braille, audio and large print, formats using eBooks.

In comparison, in 2011 it was 73%; in 2011 it was 45%; and in 2009 it was none, according to the study.

Other key findings:

• By genre, 99% of the Adult fiction, and 77% of the Adult non-fiction titles included were available as fully accessible e-books in 2012. These figures compare to 93% of Adult fiction and 62% of Adult non-fiction in 2011.
• 43% of Children's titles were available as accessible e-books in 2012, compared to 30 per cent in 2011.
• 49% of the top 1,000 titles of 2012 were available as audio books, compared to 42% in 2011.
• 25% of the most popular 450 Adult non-fiction titles were available as unabridged downloadable audio books, compared to 43% of children's titles, and 75% fiction titles in 2012.
• 81% of the most popular General and literary fiction titles were available as unabridged human speech audio books, compared to 40% of Saga and romance titles in 2012.

Related: How important is text-to-speech capability to you?, Amazon, Kobo and Sony request e-readers be exempt from accessibility laws

[via booktrade.info]