03:39 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

A sharp eyed MR member noticed that Shortcovers has changed its name this morning. It's now known as Kobo Books. They also updated their iPhone app with the new name.

I was a little surprised when I looked over the new site. I hadn't realized that Shortcovers supported Adobe DE DRM, or that it had reader apps for Palm Pre, iPhone, and Android. Kobo also just added 1.8 million books from the Internet Archive to its store.

continued here

11:38 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

A friend just sent me this press release:

Scribd, the world's largest social publishing company with more than 50 million readers each month, has entered an agreement with top global publisher John Wiley and Sons, Inc. to market and sell thousands of popular eBooks through the Scribd Store, Scribd's e-commerce marketplace. Wiley titles will include the For Dummies series, Frommer's travel guides and CliffsNotes study guides.

Scribd also recently signed agreements with Sterling Publishing, Chronicle Books and University of Chicago Press. They join the more than 150 professional publishers that are now selling in the Scribd Store. Sterling Publishing is a leading publisher of non-fiction books and a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble. Its multiple imprints include Hearst Books, which publishes popular brands Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Vogue.

from here
(Bookseller beat me to it)
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I looked through the Scribd Store, and the several books I checked all have Adobe DE DRM. No big surprise there.

11:03 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

SEATTLE, Dec 14, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that Kindle for iPhone App for iPhone and iPod touch is now available from the Apple App Store in more than 60 additional countries. The Kindle for iPhone App features Amazon's Whispersync technology that saves and synchronizes a customer's bookmarks across their Kindle devices and Kindle cross-platform applications, which include Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, Kindle for PC, and in the coming months, Kindle for Mac and Kindle for Blackberry. Kindle customers can read a few pages on their Kindle, a few more pages on their Kindle-compatible device such as an iPhone and never lose their place.

from:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....306&highlight=
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You're probably wondering what took Amazon so long. After all, the Kindle PC Reader and the international Kindle both came out in October. But it's not Amazon's fault. The problem is with Apple, and how Apple allows apps to be made and distributed for the iPhone. With most any other OS (Windows, Linux, Maemo, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, DOS*), the reader software would be available everywhere you could download the day it's released. Not so with Apple.

The funny part about this announcement is that the app has been accessible since forever. All you needed to do to get it was set up an App Store account with a US address.

* There is something seriously wrong when a system doesn't compare well with DOS.

09:00 AM by Jellby in E-Book General | News

According to El País, the Spanish government has approved a reduced VAT of 4% for ebooks, the same as for paper books (compared to the standard 16%). This should reduce a bit the price of ebooks in Spain, but the real problem is the lack of ebooks at all. Maybe this will encourage publishers to release ebooks, though.

The article also says that the reduced VAT obeys to a EU recommendation, and announces the launch of the Enclave project of the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (Hispanic Digital Library), which will supposedly be a portal for publishers to sell ebooks... Well, we'll see.

08:54 AM by anurag in E-Book General | News

This is bad news for S&S and publishers in general, because others big name authors are very likely to follow Covey in taking ebook rights away from traditional publishers and granting them to Amazon (and perhaps Google, B&N and Sony if they set up similar arrangements)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/te...amazon.html?hp

Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely.

Now, one well-known author is doing just that.

Stephen R. Covey, one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights to two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster, a division of the CBS Corporation, to Amazon.com for one year.

Amazon, maker of the popular Kindle e-reader and one of the biggest book retailers in the country, will have the exclusive rights to sell electronic editions of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and a later work, “Principle-Centered Leadership.” Mr. Covey also plans to gradually make other e-books available exclusively to Amazon, which will promote them on its Web site.

...

04:56 PM by Nate the great in Miscellaneous | Announcements

It is my pleasure to announce that members of MobileRead have now uploaded a total of 14,000 ebooks.

We shall celebrate in the manner of my people. Bring forth the finest cheese puffs and potato chips in the land. From my special reserve, I give you my best barrel of root beer. Eat, drink, and be merry! Let the games commence! A prize to the first to slay the grue!

A few key dates to put things in perspective :

• March 3, 2009: 10,000 uploads
• December 10, 2008: 7,000 uploads
• May 16, 2008: 5,000 uploads
• Feb 19, 2008: 4,000 uploads
• Jan 08, 2008: 3,000 uploads
• Nov 02, 2007: 2,000 uploads
• Sep 04, 2007: 1,000 uploads
• Mar 27, 2007: First upload

06:53 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

There is an interesting article on Wired.com:

OLED displays are not just for consumer electronics. With a dash of creativity, they can be modeled into a nice dress. English fashion designer Gareth Pugh put together an outfit made of flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays. OLEDs are gaining popularity because they are more energy efficient than traditional LED screens.

U.K. based company PolyPhotonix made the OLED display used in the dress that was shown earlier this week at a conference to promote plastic electronics. Plastic electronics technology allows circuits to be printed onto any surface and over large areas and is seen as a a low-cost alternative to conventional silicon-based electronics.

from:
Wired via Teleread

******
I can't wait for this to be practical technology. "No, ma'am, I wasn't staring at your cleavage. I was reading your dress."

04:50 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Many of you've requested this and my apologies for taking so long: the ability to ignore selected threads from showing on your forum listings as well as from searches. We wanted to make sure to implement it in such a way that it scales well without causing potential server hiccups. That's often more difficult than it sounds.

Why would you want to ignore a thread? Perhaps because it deals with a kind of discussion you don't feel very comfortable with. Or, because it's a kind of thread that always shows up on your screen again - maybe it's a very active one that gets constantly bumped - despite the fact that you aren't really interested in it.

To ignore a thread, use the "Thread Tools" menu as depicted in the screenshot.

And as you can always ignore threads, you can also selectively "unignore" them again, using your User Control Panel.

One caveat: In a forum, when a post is being made in thread that is on your ignore list, the forum icon could indicate that there's a new, unread post, but obviously you won't see it. This is not really a biggie, but I thought to let you know. We may look into this sometime later.

Feedback always appreciated!