09:35 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The title says it all. I can't find anything else, not even in the original Chinese.

04:25 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I just came across this on TeleRead, and thought it worth repeating.

Gamers, Let's band together and see how much we can raise to help the people of Haiti.

Donate $20 and get a coupon for over a thousand dollars in RPG titles. After you make the donation, you will receive the coupon code in your email. It will also be available in your order history.

A listing of the free products available with this coupon can be found on our Gamers Help Haiti page.

Add any of the products to your cart, and use the coupon on checkout. Any products that are part of the Haiti relief package will be discounted to $0.00.

Unfortunately the overwhelming generosity of the gaming community is hampering our ability to deliver the orders purchased with the bundle coupon to you. Your products will be safe in your order history, so if you could wait a day or two before downloading them, it would be much appreciated. Please contact us if you have any questions.

from:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produc...adlyfredly.com

Some of the ebooks have DRM, some do not.

04:04 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

It has nothing to do with ebooks, but I thought someone would get a kick out of it. From the press release:

PROVO, Utah, January 14, 2010 – SirsiDynix®, the world leader in library automation technology, announces the most comprehensive Apple iPhone® application for library users is near release, pending Apple’s standard review. The free application locates nearby libraries and allows users to search library catalogs for available materials. Users registered with a library can also place and cancel holds at their library using their iPhone.

“BookMyne® provides meaningful patron interaction with their library, which is one of the fundamental objectives that drives all development at SirsiDynix,” said Talin Bingham, chief technology officer for SirsiDynix. “Mobile technology has undoubtedly changed the way we interact with each other and how we access information and services across the board. BookMyne is only the first in a line of SirsiDynix mobile solutions; libraries and users can expect applications for other mobile devices that will access more SirsiDynix libraries and offer incredible functionality for patrons and staff in the future.”

Note that it's still awaiting Apple's approval.

03:57 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

L.E.K. Consulting just released the results from a media survey conducted in December 2009. I'm not surprised by the results. I've been listening to MR members for the past couple years and my anecdotal evidence agrees with the survey results.

Here is the part about ebook readers:

E-readers are driving readership and becoming a growth driver for the book and magazine market -- the “iPod Nation” consumer segment is good, but the “e-reader Republic” offers even more opportunities for new media services
- Among active readers who own an e-reader, about 48% reported reading more books as a consequence of having such products, as compared to those who do not own an e-reader where only 15% reported reading more books (44% vs. 23%, respectively for magazines)
- 36% percent of the books read by people with e-readers represent incremental consumption—meaning more than one-third of the books read on e-readers would not have been read in print
- 40% of respondents indicated that affordability of books on e-readers was driving their increased consumption, and 47% indicated the release of more interesting books as a reason for spending more time reading print media (likely due to better discovery on e-readers)
- iPod owners consume roughly 14% more new media (8.9 hours vs. 7.8 hours per week) than the general population, while e-reader owners consume a whopping 18.2 hours of new media per week in comparison

from:
http://www.lek.com/About/Hidden_Opportunities.cfm

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If there is a publisher reading this, I'd like you to go back and reread the part about how ebook reader owners actually buy more books, not less. That whole "a digital book sold equals a lost paper sale" is nothing but horsepucky.

03:42 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The Kaiser Family Foundation has been conducting a national survey on the media used by children from 8 to 18 y.o. The findings were just announced today. You can find the full details here (press release, prsentation, summary, and more).

Here's the good news: book reading has actually increased in the last 5 years, both in the number of kids reading and the amount of time spent (p30). Unfortunately, newspaper and magazine reading decreased. I'm not surprised; we all know Old Media is in trouble.

press release
report

12:19 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

from the press release:

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--enTourage Systems, Inc.™, creator of the world’s first dualbook™ – the enTourage eDGe™ – announced today that the Documents To Go® software from DataViz is now available on all enTourage eDGe units. This partnership with DataViz, a leading provider of mobile office compatibility solutions, further evolves the multi-functional enTourage eDGe into a comprehensive solution for reading, note taking, Web surfing and working from anywhere.

On a related note, you can now have the Entourage Edge shipped to Canada. Also, all pre-orders have been sold out and the second set of deliveries will be in March.

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I'm glad they did this. Most users would have needed type of office software anyway. I'd say it about doubles the number of possible uses for the Edge.

11:17 AM by sahmad88 in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

The readers have finally showed up in Sony's Outlet. Here is the link.

The Pocket Editions are $159.99 and the Touch Editions are $239.99. It looks like all colors are available except the Pink Pocket Edition.

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

In my last post, I talked about the display technology that makes e-readers possible.But the screen is only one part of what it will take to make a successful market here. I'm convinced that, as in most cases these days, it's the software that will drive the hardware and determine the eventual winners and losers in this market.

from:
http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2010/0...r_software.php

He's right, you know. Do you remember the Sony Librie (shudder)?