08:09 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I found an interesting article on canadaeast.com:

"Unfortunately the message that people get when they buy those ebook readers is about where to buy ebooks, but a lot of them don't realize there's a lot of free ebooks available," said Anne O'Shea, assistant manager for electronic resources with the Vancouver Public Library.

With very little fanfare, libraries across the country have been offering access to ebooks for years, well before the Amazon Kindle and Sony's Readers became hot, trendy tech gadgets.

There are ebooks and electronic audiobooks available for download to compatible e-readers, computers, MP3 players and smartphones, as well as music and movies.

And best of all, they're automatically returned so there's no late fees.

from:
http://www.canadaeast.com/article/901510

09:55 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

They’re not exactly page turners. But soon, patrons of the North Bend Public Library will be able to read books in a new way.

Starting in January, the library will begin checking out three e-book Sony Readers that will let a library user lug hundreds of books in an apparatus that weighs less than a pound.

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles...a640055218.txt

Coos County is in Oregon, in the northwestern USA.

10:48 PM by quicksilver in E-Book Software | Calibre

Congrats, kovid! You deserve the praise.

Article here.

07:39 AM by Forkosigan in E-Book General | News

The winners are:

1. Sony PRS-505
The "Classic" and the absolute winner among all the readers since sales began. But it is no longer manufactured since 2009.

2. Pocketbook 301+
The company pocketbook began its triumphant climb with this model, and so they captured 2nd Place in the rankings.

3. Pocketbook 360 °
The novelty of the year 2009! Pocketbook 360 ° could prove a better place if the price is not with the "classical" 6" models would have been comparable.

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

If you missed our frontpage news at any point this week, here is the best way to catch up:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Brother SV-100B user manuals online
• Ebooks at CES
• Aigo EB6301 - new ebook reader
• Ebooks at CES - pt 2
• Penguin releases iPhone app for Hoffman's "The Left Hand of God" (TheBookseller)
• 10 Places to Buy Digital Textbooks Online - from DegreeDirectory
• EFF's guide to e-book buying & privacy
• Sony Reader Daily Edition starts shipping, gets more newspapers
• Libraries should buy ebook readers (from The Boston Globe)
• Two articles on digital reading
• Free PDF - “First Look: Microsoft Office 2010”
• Amazon releases new Linux compatible mobi generation tool
• Study: E-books Attract Internet-Savvy, Educated
• Borders CEO nixes idea of own e-reader (Reuters)
• Aiptek Story Book in Color - a brief review
• Ebooks at CES (pt 3)
• E-books in physical bookstores, even without internet
• Foxit eSlick Review - Quick
• E-Book Piracy: The Publishing Industry's Next Epic Saga?
• Entourage Edge hands on

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• January 2010 Book Club Nominations

E-Book Devices - Bookeen Cybook

• Finally! Cybook Firmware upgrade available for download!

09:04 PM by kjk in E-Book General | News

The idea of exclusive e-book rights tied to devices seems as annoying as being allowed to play a particular new CD only on a certain company's CD players. But Ian Fried, the vice president of Amazon Kindle, has stated that Kindle consumers don't mind its DRM.

I'm sure they all told him personally.

from:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/185335/ebook_piracy.html

08:54 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I picked up the package containing my newest reader at the post office this morning. I've used it about half an hour, and I'm really having trouble not saying rude things about Aiptek.

The Story Book in Color has an 8" LCD screen, and the dimensions are about an inch taller and wider than the original Kindle. It doesn't have a touch screen, but it does have speakers, USB Host, and a SD/MMC/MSPro card slot. It has a white book like case that is covered with speckles of color. The inner lining of the case is soft green faux leather with 3 slots stitched in the opposite face for spare SD cards.

It can play MP3s and show jpeg images, but the only ebook format that it supports is proprietary to Aiptek. I've already asked for a copy of the software needed to make the ebooks; they said no.

It came with 20 ebooks, and they all have a target audience in the 4 to 8 year old age group. All the ebooks have color page images, and all are narrated. Eric Carle's works are a good example of the type of book that would fit the design intent of this device.

Now let's consider what's wrong with the Story Book in Color. It's obvious that the target audience is small children. I do not understand why Aiptek would expect that the average 6 year old could be trusted with a $200 piece of electronics. Nothing against children here; it's just that they're destructive little buggers.

Think about this device's abilities. It shows images and plays words. Why would someone buy this when they already have a television that does the same thing? Literally the same thing.

Consider the locked in format. One must buy all ebooks from Aiptek. Why would you do that when anyone who had kids probably already has a collection of kid's movies?

Lastly, why did they add those slots for spare SD cards? Don't they realize that some kid would take the card out of the slot and try to swallow it? I figured that out right away, and I don't even _have_ kids.

Frankly, I do not see why anyone would buy this.

08:49 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the Entourage Edge on Tuesday.

If you are thinking of the Edge as an ebook reader, don't. It's not fair to compare the Edge with the dedicated ebook readers in its price range (Sony Daily Edition, Kindle DX, and the Irex Digital Readers) because it is capable of so much more. It would be more accurate to refer to dedicated ebook readers as a group in a way that does not include the Edge. If you want a frame of reference, think of the Edge as the first dual screen netbook.

The Edge has Adobe DE support, of course. But since it runs on Android you will be able to install more software (FBReader, for example). It comes with an email client. It has a complete browser, and Google Apps are quite usable with the touchscreen.

I'm at a loss in trying to describe the best features, so I'll have to take you through an example.

Let's start in the Library menu (on the LCD screen). If you already loaded files into the library then you'll see them here. But, if you just copied a bunch of files to an SD card and inserted it, you'll need to switch to the file&folder menu to find them. Let's select one and open it.

It opens on the epaper screen. If you didn't opened the file from the Library Menu, then you will need to add it to the library before you can make full use of the annotation capabilities. There is an icon in the upper left hand corner of the epaper screen to do this. (I like that you can open an ebook and then add it to the library while reading it.)

At a minimum, you can highlight, bookmark, search the dictionary, and sketch directly on the page. These 4 abilities are provided by the Adobe software, and the Edge can do more. You can select a word or phrase and search Google or Wikipedia. The search results will be displayed on the LCD screen while the ebook is still open on the epaper screen. When you find a relevant result, you can then attach it to the ebook (specifically the word or phrase you just searched for).

The attachments can include files, webpages, or handwritten notes. The annotations will also be listed in the TOC interspersed among the existing entries. This is where the Edge excels. The ability to collect separate pieces of content into one file elevates the Edge above the dedicated ebook readers in its price range. Think of how useful this could be as a research or educational tool.

Shortcomings

Let's briefly consider the Edge by its shortcomings: connectivity, weight, battery life. The Edge weighs about 3 pounds (device+charger), which is significantly more than any of the dedicated readers mentioned above. It only has Wifi ("only Wifi", ha), and its competitors all have a cell connection of one kind or another. The battery life is reportedly 6 hours when using both screens, and 16 when only using the epaper screen. Obviously this is shorter than any dedicated device (other than the Irex units, where it is comparable).

So, if you know that you won't have access to Wifi and _need_ the connectivity, or if you won't be able to charge the unit every day and _need_ the run time, then you should consider one of the dedicated readers. That being said, I still like the Edge over any dedicated ebook reader because it can do so much more.

One last note: the Bezel
I wanted to mention that the screen bezel is not nearly as big as it appears in pictures. Until I saw it in person I thought it overwhelming. It's not.