06:47 AM by jl_carter in E-Book General | News

Yesterday, the Australian House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications handed down its report into IT pricing in Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-lif...729-2qtxn.html

The report was prompted by the fact that Australians pay significantly higher amounts for electronically distributed goods, with Microsoft software and songs on iTunes costing 66% more in Australia than the US. Microsoft, Adobe and Apple were all witnesses before the committee and gave testimony on why they consider the price difference to be justified.

Australian Courts have consistently ruled that region coding and other similar geo-restrictions are not copyright protection devices, but market protection devices. The Standing Committee’s has built on that history by recommending greater consumer entitlement to circumvent geo-restrictions.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_...ing/report.htm

Below are the recommendations of most interest (my paraphrasing, see the report for the full recommendations).

• The Copyright Act be amended to clarify right to circumvent technological protection measures that control geographic market segmentation.
  
• Australian consumers be educated as to the extent to which they may circumvent geoblocking mechanisms and the tools and techniques which they may use to do so.
  
• The Australian Government consider

• The Australian Government consider enacting a ban on geoblocking as an option of last resort.
  
• The Australian Government investigate amending the Competition and Consumer Act so that contracts which seek to enforce geoblocking are considered void.

JL

Related: Aussie regulator: E-book price fixing is not our problem

[image: Flickr]

04:01 AM by SuzanneTF in E-Book General | General Discussions

I forget what post made me think of this, but I think a hinged two page e-ink device would be amazing.

I found a picture of this horrid looking hybrid device (the ShuBook by 1 Cross). However, the outer casing does NOT look horrid to me!

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gadgets...he-hard-cover/

If that kind of casing was on a dual e-ink display device, I think it would be awesome. It would "shut" like a laptop or any other clamshell device to protect both screens when you weren't reading it.

Then I saw more pictures of another "concept" device that never existed that on the inside looks great with the two screens. The outside is so-so. I don't like the page turning/sliding.

http://www.designboom.com/design/kar...igital-e-book/
http://www.dvice.com/sites/dvice/fil...?itok=Qw2BNCRi

http://vimeo.com/14084338
http://vimeo.com/14084312

Finally, saw an article about a dual screen eReader by PlasticLogic from fairly recently. However, it is a larger page size and is just a display with no storage.
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...r-at-ces-2013/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=2YzBoEs0B1o

I think a 6" reader with two touch e-ink screens (+ Glo?) and the "book" outside casing would be great. You could even "skin" the outside to your preference. As for weight, I'm curious how much two Kindle/Nook/Reader/Kobo sized devices stacked together would weigh compared to a regular reader with the attached covers and lights (especially if there was less hardware involved with the cover/left screen). The extra thickness might also allow for more battery power. However, I'm aware that making anything have more moving parts (hinge) can be a bad idea with electronics.

There has been discussion about these types of devices before and I understand what everyone is saying about moving away from books, weight, etc. But I can't help thinking it would be a neat ereader!

2010 seemed to be the year when these concepts were being explored. PlasticLogic seems to be the only article I could find about something more recent.

03:59 AM by stop__dreaming in E-Book General | Reading Recommendations

Am struggling to know what I'd like to read next.

11:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

This isn't exactly a secret being kept under lock and key. Adult literature is selling well. So well, in fact, that various online booksellers, including Amazon, have been tweaking their search and rating algorithms to downplay the importance of that category. The Atlantic writer Noah Berlatsky makes a persuasive argument that it may, in fact, be this very erotica that has helped the Kindle to thrive:

The Kindle, then, provides both privacy and the promise that somewhere, someone has written exactly the gay werewolf paranormal romance you've always wanted to read. Combine the privacy and range of titles, and there's little doubt that for readers digital is the perfect porn delivery system.

[...]

Porn may have helped make the Kindle successful, but a big part of the reason that the Kindle is so perfectly made for porn is that it doesn't look like it's made for porn. Women (and men, too) who want to read porn on the Kindle don't want to be buying their porn from some place that screams porn! Amazon's advantage as a seller of porn is precisely that it sells lots of things that aren't porn, and that it is known primarily for selling things that aren't porn.

Who would have thought. The Kindle - the ultimate camouflage gear for porn aficionados?

03:47 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Calibre

A new update of our favorite e-book management software calibre has been released.

This release contains a new improved database backend that is now ready for testing. You can read more about it here.

V0.9.41 also includes the following new features and changes:

New Features

• Add a button to clear the current virtual library easily
• Driver for Surftab Ventos
• Ebook-viewer: Allow re-ordering bookmarks in the bookmarks manager by drag and drop.

Bug Fixes

• DOCX Input: Fix conversion breaking for files that use heading style paragraphs to insert line rules
• Content server: Fix last search query not being fully sanitized in results page
• Book polishing: Fix page margins being removed if an unused font was found during subsetting of embedded fonts.
• PDF Output: Do not error out when the input document uses a font that cannot be subset, such as the Symbol font. Instead print a warning and embed the full font.
• Conversion: Fix a regression in the last release that broke conversion of a few files with comments just before a chapter start.

New news sources

• Blindbuch and No names, No jackets by Armin Geller
• El Tribuno Salta and Jujuy by Darko Miletic

Improved news sources

• Something Awful
• Spektrum der Wissenschaft
• mediapart.fr
• Dilbert
• Antyweb
• Scientific American
• taz.de (RSS)

06:53 PM by Smashwords in E-Book General | General Discussions

Poll: You learn your favorite author has a new ebook coming out in a month or two. It's available for preorder at the click of a button from your favorite retailer. Q: Do you order a copy now, or do you wait until it comes out?

Background on preorders: When an ebook is listed for preorder, you can reserve a copy today. When the book's official "onsale" publication date arrives, your credit card is charged and the book is released to you.

06:43 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

When we learned about the recent resignation of their CEO, we knew there was trouble in the air for Barnes & Noble. Seeking Alpha has an article explaining why that is. They cite three market segments in which the bookseller is still operating: tablet market, retail business, and college bookstores. Neither of these markets appear to offer any hope.

In the tablet market, the only upside for Barnes & Noble is Microsoft's recent involvement in the Nook business:

Maybe there's hope for the Nook, though. Last year, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquired a 17.6% stake in Barnes & Noble's Nook business segment. Through this investment, Microsoft breaks into the e-reading market with the goal of developing a Windows 8 operating system to replace the Google Android operating system currently running on the Nook.

The rumors of Microsoft paying $1 billion for Barnes & Noble's e-book business segment should temporarily keep investors onboard.

Don't even consider the retail business, if you read the numbers.

As aforementioned, though, its e-book division's future does not look bright. Last fall, it reported it had 27% of the e-book market share. Just a few months later, that number fell to 25%. Because its tablet segment is downsizing, its market share will continue to fall.

Lastly, while revenues in college book sales are on the rise, earning margins have been decreasing (due to investments, they say) and might continue to do so in the long-run.

This segment may boast increasing margins as margins on textbooks increase, but I see this practice tapering off. As textbook rental sites like Chegg further develop and refine their business, college students will seek the all-inclusive services that go beyond just the textbook.

Things certainly aren't looking good for B&N. Question is, what's really left for this company that used to be a behemoth in the book industry? Or, differently asked, does B&N even deserve to have a future?

Somehow, the publishing world calculus has deemed Barnes & Noble an evil lesser than Amazon. And there is, perhaps, some valence to that argument. But mostly, it just shows how myopic we can be about the business we love so much.

As is so often the case, the cleverest take on the ironic saga of Barnes & Noble comes courtesy of The Onion, where a recent article reported that Fox & Company — the triumphant, megalithic bookstore from You've Got Mail — has closed in the face of "Amazon and Apple absorbing the lion’s share of the market." The article also noted, as Radosh does, that the fictional chain, like the real one that is its obvious basis, had "a cold approach to revenue." This is a satire of the truest kind.

[related: Are bookstores still worth fighting for?, image: Flickr]

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

It was the week that was. Here's what MobileRead's been talking about since last Sunday:

E-Book General - News

• BookVibe mines the Web to find your next read
• Jane Austen to appear on Bank of England £10 note
• EPUB3 is dead, long live EPUB3Lite...
• PW: Conspiracy Fines detailed, so far...
• Penguin ends Apple Agreement

E-Book General - General Discussions

• Your next e-book reader - powered by urine?
• Ditching DRM on all e-books. Could Apple do it again?
• Trend Watch: Paper books back in vogue
• Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans prefer paper books
• Finland: Crowdsourced copyright law will be put to a vote
• Aussie regulator: E-book price fixing is not our problem
• Ectaco caught using MobileRead to create fake buzz about Jetbook

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• August 2013 Book Club Vote