01:52 PM by zelda_pinwheel in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Well, the ebook world has been jumping lately with all kinds of exciting news ! So it's the perfect time to get together and discuss it all in person over a nice glass of hot wine to fight off the winter chill ! Come join us this saturday for an evening of lively discussion and good food (and hot wine. or christmas beer. or hot chocolate. or your drink of choice), and special bonus, the return of the prodigal Alfy. Please leave a note here to let us know you are coming !

Here are all the details. /!\ PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION !

When : Saturday, 19 December starting at 6pm

Where : bar La Sardine, place Ste. Marthe (room behind the bar)

google map

more infos

___________________________

Hé ben, ça bouge dans tous les sens ces temps-ci dans le monde des ebooks ! C'est donc le moment idéal pour se retrouver et discuter de tout ça en personne, avec un 'tit vin chaud (ou thé, ou chocolat, ou Leffe de Noël...) pour chasser le froid hivernal ! Retrouvez-nous ce samedi pour une soirée comme on sait les faire ; des discussions passionnantes, des boissons chaudes (ou froides, pour les réchauffés), de la bonne cuisine, et en prime, le retour de l'Alfy prodigue !

Merci de nous confirmer votre présence ici.

Voici tous les détails. /!\ ATTENTION, CHANGEMENT DE LIEU !

Quand : samedi le 19 décembre, à partir de 18h
Où : salle du fond au bar La Sardine, place Ste. Marthe,

plan google

plus d'infos

08:52 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

There's an interesting article in today's NYTimes on this topic. From the article:

On Friday, Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House, sent a letter to dozens of literary agents, writing that the company’s older agreements gave it “the exclusive right to publish in electronic book publishing formats.”

Backlist titles, which continue to be reprinted long after their initial release, are crucial to publishing houses because of their promise of lucrative revenue year after year. But authors and agents are particularly concerned that traditional publishers are not offering sufficient royalties on e-book editions, which they point out are cheaper for publishers to produce. Some are considering taking their digital rights elsewhere, which could deal a financial blow to the hobbled publishing industry.

from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/bu...er=rss&emc=rss

11:46 AM by pilotbob in E-Book General | News

Jim Chapman, Mobileread member and programmer extraordinaire has released version 1.0 of Freda.

Freda is eBook reader software for Windows Mobile devices. It displays DRM free ePub and well as HTML and Txt ebook formats.

From Jim's announcement:

It's here: version 1.0 of Freda is now released.

Main new features:

• CSS Style sheets are recognised, with some limitations
• Controls/gestures can be customised
• Line spacing, indent and justification can be customised
• ... and a bunch of other features and fixes

See the freda home page for more details, and for alternative download locations.

Ongoing discussion about Freda with Jim and other members can be found here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61539

08:29 AM by AprilHare in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Just had to share this

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

Been so busy reading e-books that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's news? Here's some of what you've been missing:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• FBReader 0.12.0 released
• Epub coming to the Sony Store on 11 December
• Foxit Opens the eSlick Ebook Store
• Simon & Schuster is delaying ebooks by four months
• PRS-900 manual is online
• Cool-er 3G ebook reader announced by Interread
• Txtr iPhone app - Adobe DRM, over the air downloads, and more
• HarperCollins joins S&S, Hatchette plan to encourage piracy
• Sungale Cyberus review
• Pixel Qi will be at CES in January
• "E-book access not so equal" from the Daily Illini
• Rumor: Asus Eee Pad
• Aiptek Ebook reader
• New firmware for the PRS 505 - Sudoku, clock, and more
• Kobo: Is Shortcovers launching their own e-reader?

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources

• Fictionwise: eSlick Reader for $259 with $100 for eBooks

E-Book Software - OpenInkpot

• OpenInkpot 0.2

07:00 PM by pilotbob in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Just got this offer in my email, thought I would share it for those not on their email list.

Buy the eSlick reader for $259 and you are credited with $100 of micro pay (store credit) to help you fell that thing with ebooks.

BOb

Update: eReader.com has the same offer.

02:34 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

We just received this interesting tidbit from eagle-eyed MobileReader Nic "nboshart":

---
Hey folks,
I was reading an article at Mark Bertels' blog about Shortcovers buying a domain name called Kobo. A quick check on the Canadian Trademark page reveals that it's the name of an ereading device. Here's an article in Quill and Quire: http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/in.../what-is-kobo/

Not much info, but I guess it's on its way.
---

Link to the trademark: here

01:22 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I almost didn't write this review. This "ebook reader" is so bad that I'm almost too embarrassed to admit I bought one. Eh. It's going back tomorrow, so who cares.

Background
Sungale is a manufacturer of small electronic devices like digital picture frames. The Cyberus is one of 2 digital picture frame models that were adapted into ebook readers. The other model is slightly less capable, but details are sketchy. I don't know exactly how less capable (except that it can't read PDFs).

The Cyberus has a 7" touchscreen with a resolution of 800x480. It's slightly narrower and slightly taller than the original Kindle. The case is a minimalist matte black, and it comes with black leather book style case. I don't know the CPU or RAM, but I have used the Wifi to get online.

Negatives
It has no sleep function. The battery life is atrocious (somewhere around 2 hours). The speaker is behind a tiny hole on the left side. The sound quality is marginal at best, and the max volume is low. But it has a headphone jack which has decent sound.

It can only read PDFs and text files, and it does a really bad job. I couldn't set the zoom level right, so none of the PDFs I tried displayed properly. Some of the characters were pushed together, others were pulled apart.

If you want to know how bad, look at the third PDF picture. The characters are not supposed to be filled in like that. Then look at the fifth PDF picture. The dropcap is supposed to be uppercase, and the text is supposed to have quotation marks.

Positives
Compared to anything in its price range, its media capabilities is best defined as adequate. It has no browser, but it does have a very limited ability for Youtube, Gmail, IP Radio, weather, stock reports, traffic, etc. From the way it accesses Youtube and Gmail, I think it uses a proxy server run by Sungale. I could be wrong, though.

My recommendation
Take the $200 this thing costs (Walmart) and go buy an iPod Touch, Sony Pocket Edition, Aluratek Libre, or any of the several small tablets discussed here on MobileRead. Anything is better than the Cyberus.

P.S. Sorry about the picture quality. I don't have access to my main camera.