10:17 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Tuesday morning Barnes and Noble reported earnings for fiscal Q1 2014, and while a majority of analysts expected a loss, it was larger than expected. Net loss for the three months ended July 27 totaled $87 million, compared to a loss of $39.8 million in the prior year.

The NOOK business (which includes NOOK devices, accessories and digital content) didn't do too well either. Total revenues fell to $153 million (that's 20 percent less than last year). Revenue in device and accessories sales decreased by 23 percent, while revenue in digital content sales declined by almost 16 percent. B&N was able to make up some of the losses by reducing expenses.

On the positive side, the company noted that it intends to continue its NOOK business and that it plans to launch a new NOOK device this fall.

“Our top priority in our operating strategy is to increase all categories of our content revenue. We are working on innovative ways to sell content to our existing customers and are exploring new markets we can serve successfully,” said Michael P. Huseby, President of Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of NOOK Media. “The company intends to continue to design and develop cutting-edge NOOK black and white and color devices. We will continue to offer our award-winning line of NOOK products including NOOK Simple Touch®, NOOK Simple Touch® with Glow Light®,NOOK® HD and NOOK® HD+ at the best values in the marketplace. At least one new NOOK device will be released for the coming holiday season and further products are in development. All NOOK devices will continue to be backed by world-class pre- and post-sales support in Barnes & Noble stores, as well as ongoing software upgrades and improvements to the digital bookstore service.”

09:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Apparently NFC technology is not only convenient for mobile electronic payments, but you can also use it to energize an ultra-low power, bistable E Ink display. A team of researchers demonstrated how you could use NFC to transfer documents from your handset to a E Ink display with a single tap.

The inclusion of NFC isn't to simply push data to the display. The team, lead by Alanson Sample, have succeeded in wirelessly powering the display through an NFC transaction with an Android phone.

NFC uses inductive coupling to provide power to passive tags. The NFC E-ink display takes advantage of this through its use of a wireless power harvester microchip to store the energy from an NFC transaction in a 0.17mm thick 1mAh battery. This energy is then used to power and update the device's 2.7" display, with enough excess energy captured from the NFC transaction to allow for cycling of images when away from the phone.

Check out the following video for some hands-on action.

[via Gigaom]

08:53 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Last month, the US Department of Commerce's Internet Task Force (IPTF) issued a tentative report titled Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy (download PDF) to advance discussion on a set of copyright policies. From its introduction:

It is time to assess whether the current balance of rights, exceptions and responsibilities – crafted, for the most part, before the rapid advances in computing and networking of the past two decades – is still working for creators, rights holders, service providers, and consumers. The Internet must continue to support a legitimate market for copyrighted works as well as provide a platform for innovation and the introduction of new and dynamic services that drive digital commerce. And we must ensure that free expression, respect for consumer privacy, and cybersecurity are preserved in the online environment. The government can promote progress as a convener of the many stakeholder groups – including creators, industry, and consumers – that share an interest in maintaining an appropriate balance within the copyright system.

According to Shira Perlmutter, Chief Policy Officer at the US Patent and Trademark Office, the report calls for your input:

The Green Paper calls for new public input on critical policy issues that are central to our nation’s economic growth, cultural development and job creation. It is intended to serve as a reference for stakeholders, a blueprint for further action, and a contribution to global copyright debates. As promised in the paper, we will soon be reaching out to the public for views on a variety of topics. Please stay tuned for announcements about how to share your thoughts, insights, and recommendations.

If your input could really make a difference, what is it first and foremost that you'd want to change about current copyright policies?

[via Slashdot, source: Recording Industry vs The People]

08:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

MobileReader chaley has been quite busy these days preparing the final release of his well-received Calibre Companion app, which just hit Google's Play store. Calibre Companion enables Android devices to connect via WiFi to your remote calibre desktop installation. Not only can you browse and download your books, but you can also use it to remotely organize your library. Very handy if you're often on the go!

Changelog V3.0.4 (19/Aug/2013) (major release)

NEW FEATURES:

• View books by cover in a grid
• Grouping functions are available from book lists by opening a "drawer".

BUG FIXES:

• In content server, queuing a book for download that has no acceptable formats no longer hangs the queue.
• In content server, force a disconnect and go back to the book list if the content server has disappeared.
• Fix searching after choosing a user collection

Related: Calibre Companion 3 beta for Android released, Changelog and FAQ

07:39 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Breaking with naysayers foretelling the demise of the paper book, we're happy to report that they were all wrong; in fact, here's the ultimate proof that paper books do have a future.

(credits: Mark Parisi, Off the Mark)

[via @Book_Fair and Beattie's Book Blog]

07:05 AM by frahse in E-Book General | News

Some time ago, people spoke of their iPhone (3.5" screen) being their eReader. Well, that might work ok, but a 6.3" screen definitely gives you a bigger page.

Samsung's supersized Galaxy Mega smartphone will finally roll out to U.S. consumers starting this month.

The 6.3-inch phone will be offered in the U.S. by AT&T, Sprint, and US Cellular, Samsung revealed Monday. The actual launch dates will vary among the three. [...]

The Galaxy Mega's huge screen offers an HD Super Clear display with a resolution of 1,280x720 pixels. Equipped with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the phone has a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, 1.5GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. Users can expand the capacity to 64GB with an external microSD card. An 8-megapixel camera graces the rear.

read on: Cnet

01:51 AM by WT Sharpe in Reading Recommendations | Book Clubs

MobileRead Book Club
September 2013 Nominations

Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for September, 2013.

The nominations will run through midnight EST August 30 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

Book selection category for September is:

Banned or Challenged Books

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.

Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

(2) Complete Works of Sappho (Delphi Ancient Classics) by Sappho of Lesbos (Author), Peter Russell (Translator)
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Apple Store / Delphi Classics

(3) Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: lrf

(4) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

(5) Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
ePub and Kindle Links at bottom of page

(6) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / Sony (Also available on Overdrive.)

(7) No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase [orlok, HomeInMyShoes, tlaine]
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

(8) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [caleb72, fantasyfan, Billi]
Amazon UK / Amazon US / B&N (US) / Google Play (AUS)

(9) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck [Synamon, John F, drofgnal]
No links provided.

(10) Fade by Robert Cormier [orlok, odiakkoh, Synamon]
Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Google / Kobo

The nominations are now closed.

05:21 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | General Discussions

The NYTimes' widely read technology columnist, David Streitfeld, together with Christine Haughney, have devoted a refreshing article to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, tracing what he has accomplished and how he has been perceived.

Just don't expect to find anything revealing about the much anticipated upcoming Kindle devices.

Even a number as basic, and presumably impressive, as how many Kindle e-readers the company sells is never released. There are no bold signs on its growing Seattle headquarters complex to identify what is contained within. And there are fewer leaks out of Amazon than the National Security Agency. [...]

“Every story you ever see about Amazon, it has that sentence: ‘An Amazon spokesman declined to comment,’ “ Mr. Marcus said.

Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, declined to comment.

You can read the full article over here.