09:06 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Instapaper has been getting a lot of attention the past few days. It's a pretty good tool for saving webpages to read later, but it's not the only one out there. I know of 4 or 5 tools that do pretty much the same thing.

• Web2FB2 - This is a single page at a time conversion tool. You have to navigate to its page and give it a URL. The only out put is FB2, which is primarily a Russian format.
• Zinepal - This tool is very similar to Web2FB2 except that it can take multiple URLs as input and it can produce PDF, Epub, and Kindle formats.
• Simplicissimus BookMaker - This is an online tool that doesn't work from URLs. Instead it accepts 9 different file types and can output Epub, PDF, or Kindle.
• mjBook - This tool can be downloaded and run on your computer. It accepts txt and MSWord files, and creates Jar files that can be read on any Java enabled cellphone.
• Feedbooks - It's been a while since I looked at this one. At that time I was using it to collect my RSS Feeds into a digital newspaper. The neat thing about Feedbooks is that it makes self-referencing ebooks. That digital newspaper I made had a link in it that, when clicked, caused Feedbooks to make an updated version and download it to me. Feedbooks is also a publication platform. It does more than I can describe here.
• Instapaper - This still my favorite at the moment because it gives you the option of placing a button on browser toolbar. If I'm looking at a page I want to read later, I can click on the button and it will be saved in a queue. Instapaper outputs in paper, PDF, Kindle, and Epub.

09:05 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I didn't think of this until I was at CES, but it turns out that a lot of us have an ebook maker in the office. It's not your computer; I don't know about you but I can't install any software on mine. No, the ebook maker in your office is:

the copy machine.

Bear with me. Do you have a high end copier/printer/scanner/etc? If it was made in the last few years there is a good chance that it can copy and print to a PDF file instead of paper. Admittedly, it's not very useful for anyone with a small screen ebook reader, but there is still some value in it because you can use the PDF with your computer.

I spent a few minutes looking, and it turns out I was wrong about how much the equipment costs. Brother has a couple dozen multi-function devices and all can export a PDF, even the one that retails for $80. Canon's website has hints that some of the cheaper multi-function units can export PDFs, but Canon is doing a very good job of keeping it a secret.

Given how easy it was to find units capable of exporting PDFs, I'd be surprised if any manufacturer released a devie this year that didn't export PDFs.

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

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for our weekly roundup of what's new and interesting in the world of e-books.

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• LibraryThing releases Local Books iPhone app
• Hanvon announces 5 new ebook readers
• Samsung ebook readers
• Asus DR-570 ebook reader
• Pocketbook 302
• Another Asus ebook reader leaked: DR-950
• Astri dual screen E-ink/LCD ebook reader
• Sony Daily Edition review
• E-books in New Zealand (Stuff.co.nz)
• Publishers slow to plug into e-books (The Age)
• Pegasus ebook readers
• Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion
• Food for vision [Bonnier Mag+ Prototype]
• German Publishers Go After Google...
• Amazon announces a 70 percent royalty option
• Apple is going to announce an ebook reader next week
• Maplin A10JQ MID now available
• Why Software Will Determine the Future of E-Reading (PC Magazine)
• Entourage Edge will come with Docs2Go
• Steve Jobs was wrong - People still read as much as they always have
• Ebook reader survey results
• BookMyne: a new library finding app for the iPhone
• Donate $20 to Haiti Relief, get $1481 worth of RPG ebooks
• OPPO Enjoy - Android based E-ink e-reader
• Eros tablet
• Anthology Featuring MobileRead Authors
• Amazon announces Kindle SDK
• Viewsonic VTablet101
• When will the press get it right?
• Update on the Astri dual screen ebook reader
• Irex DR800S unboxing and first impressions
• Amazon allows DTP publishers to opt out of DRM
• Lenovo to release ebook reader in China
• Kobo sets date for new reader versions
• Read an E-Book Week for 2010
• O'Reilley ebook sales doubled in 2009
• Asus DR-950 photos on Flickr

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources

• Refurbished Pocket and Touch Editions on Sonystyle

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• February 2010 Book Club Nominations

03:10 PM by Steven Lyle Jordan in E-Book General | News

Read an E-Book Week is March 7-13 this year, and Rita's site is freshly cleaned and polished for 2010 (with a bit of my assistance). I urge all MR members to check the site out, to see a bit of the face Rita is putting out to the public. A few MR members can be seen in select places on the site, as well as written contributions from MR members and others, and from the MR site itself.

In addition, REBW is still getting support from the likes of E Ink and Sony, and new e-book producers and retailers are contacting her every week to find out how they can be involved! You can contact her as well, and check out the Promotions page for suggestions you might be able to do for REBW2010. And this year, if you can write up your thoughts on E Ink screens, or on what feature most interests you about e-book readers, you might win an E Ink watch! Details on the Contest page.

So stop by Rita's site, and lend your support!

02:01 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I just came the Flickr phtostream posted by someone going by the name of AsusUK. Based on the other photos in the stream, I think these are real. I recognize a couple of Asus laptops that haven't been released yet.

You can see the phots starting here. I'm attaching the originals in full size just in case Flickr gets overloaded.

11:58 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

From the press release:

With applications in development for Windows 7, Android and additional operating systems, Kobo, Inc. today announced that the service will be available for various tablet and slate computers in February 2010. Kobo (www.kobobooks.com) is a global eReading service that offers mobile applications on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm Pre, as well as support for netbooks and dedicated eReaders, like the Sony eReader.

********

I would hope this means new versions of the Kobo Reader that are touch screen friendly. But this also strikes me as the standard non-announcement announcement which was released because they're justifiably panicked over the Apple event next week.

11:30 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

from the blog post:

During the past 18 months we've seen a dramatic shift in customer preference from print to digital when looking at sales from oreilly.com, which is a substantial sales channel for us. And looking across all of our sales channels for individual ebooks -- including mobile apps -- 2009 ebook revenue was up a staggering 104% on 2008 (which was more than 50% above 2007):

Overall, printed books are still the biggest sellers for us (though Safari Books Online is our second-largest individual sales channel), but with the market for printed computer books declining at a double-digit rate, digital sales will overtake print much sooner than most people realize.

09:13 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

A usually reliably source, MobRead, is reporting that Lenovo is getting into e-readers. The Lenovo DNT IBook EB-605 has a projected retail of 2000 yuan, and based on the format support I would say it that it uses FBReader.

If you look at the picture, you should be able to see the obvious resemblance to the Oaxis reader developed by Gajah. Good for them. The mainland China market has the potential of being bigger than even the USA.