03:59 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Calibre

Calibre V0.6.13 has officially been released and it brings, along with a couple of bug fixes and new and updated download recipes, a new feature allowing you to convert LRF e-books to other formats including ePub. Note that the code is still very new and has only been tested with Calibre-generated books. Quote mastermind Kovid:

I should note that the LRF conversion code is very new and probably has lots of bugs (I did write most of it at it at an airport after all).

As always, get the latest version of Calibre from over here.

11:41 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

It is easy to say that reading more is good. We all seem to agree it's better to read more. And many find that e-books help with reading, because they make it convenient and enjoyable.

But does it also matter what we read? Mark Twain said, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."

Clearly, there are multiple ways for books to be good for us. They may profit us because we learn. Because they make us think about the world, our life, and the people we relate to. We read in books of people who we desire to emulate in ways. Some books are profitable because they are an escape and a chance to refresh ourselves and reset ourselves in a demanding world. (If we do that with TV, for example, we may feel all the more like we wasted our time or that we are more tired than when we started.)

But I think that it's true. I'm better off for reading some books, but could be all the worse after reading others. Think about the books you read. Are they harmless fun, clearly profitable, or are they potentially even not good for you? I tend to think that we say reading is always good simply because we all have different opinions of which books are good for you and which are not, and because we optimistically assume that we only read the books that are good for us, whether to make us a better person or just to provide entertainment.

So that's the question of the day - Why do you choose the books you read, and are they "good for you"?

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

Gosh we've talked a lot this week. Here's your weekly round up of MobileRead's events.

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Shortcovers.com now offering Adobe ePub downloads
• Amazon: "Refurbished" Kindle 1's for $149
• Hanvon N516 firmware update adds Adobe Epub
• Sony Reader Daily Edition model number is PRS-900
• PDF to Epub - a new conversion tool
• Onyx Boox 60 - first impressions
• Plastic Logic under the cover of Barnes and Noble?
• Avast, me hearties!

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Reminder : Paris, France meetup this saturday ! (19 September 2009)

01:14 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Today is International Talk like A Pirate Day. In honor of the day all Pastafarians hold dear, I bring you a list of ebooks here on MR about freebooters, privateers, sea rovers, politicians, and other marauders. Arrrgh!

Harry Collingwood

• Across the Spanish Main (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• A Pirate of the Caribbees (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• The Pirate Island (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• The Pirate Slaver (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Tales of Pirates and Blue Water (Lrf, Mobi)

Sir Ralph Sir Edward

• The Case of the Desert Pirates (Epub, Mobi, RTF)

Bret Hart

• Queen of the Pirate Isle (Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

John Hutcheson

• Afloat at Last (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• Ghost Ship (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• The Penang Pirate (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

Peter Kyne

• Captain Scragg (Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

Frederick Marryat

• The Privateersman (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

Max Pemberton

• The Iron Pirate (Epub, Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

Rafael Sabatini

• Captain Blood (Lrf, Imp, Mobi)
• The Sea-Hawk (Epub, Lrf, Mobi)

Robert Louis Stevenson

• Treasure Island (Epub, Lrf, Mobi)

Josephine Tey

• The Privateer (Lrf, Imp, Mobi)

09:12 PM by ZJH in E-Book General | News

Barnes and Noble's e-book reader has hit the FCC. See links here.

Engadget indicates that the e-book reader may well be from Plastic Logic, as Barnes and Noble is Plastic Logic's "exclusive eBookstore provider".

I hope Plastic Logic will roll out its large size e-book reader soon, so that the fat price tag of large screen readers will be slimmed down.

01:56 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The Boox was announced back in March at CeBit. MobileRead was the first to bring you information on this device, and now we're the first (well, second) to get our hands on it.

I've been wanting to see one of these babies since forever. It finally arrived today. I'm not a good photographer, so I won't be posting unboxing pictures. But that's not a big loss because a Chinese ebook site has already posted a review with several good pictures.

The pictures are here. A Goolge translated version of the site can be found here. I'd recommend that you have both open at the same time because the Google translation drops the pictures. MobRead also posted a copy of the English language user's manual in PDF.

I'm only going to post a few words because I want to get back to using it. The user manual has the technical specs and features. I'm using a pre-release version of the English language firmware, so i don't have all the features listed. For, example, I cannot sketch.

Formats

The listed formats include PDF, RTF TXT, HTML, PDB, CHM, Epub, and Mobi. Both Mobi and Epub work just fine and are quite readable. I'm pretty sure it's using FBReader to display Mobi. (I recognize the bugs.) I think it's using Adobe DE to display Epub. I can see those annoying page numbers on the side of the screen, and image links don't work (this is a common Adobe bug). Adobe is also listed on the About page. I just authorized the Boox under DE.

Part of the reason I'm not sure is that the user manual doesn't actually _say_ that the Boox has DE support. I tried to plug it in to the USB port to see if Adobe DE would notice it. The Boox is not recognize as a USB device by either of my computers. (I did mention that the firmware is pre-release, right? ) This was fixed.

screen refresh speed
I compared the Boox with the Cybook Opus after turning the full refresh off on both devices. The Boox is just barely slower than the Opus. The difference is so small that my eyes could be tricking me. I also noticed that both are displaying the same behavior with widows and orphans, which pretty much confirms that the Boox is using Adobe DE.

Touch screen & menu
It's a Wacom screen, so don't lose the stylus. All menu navigation is through the screen.

Readability
I can't answer this yet, but I do know that I'm going to set aside my Opus (even though the Boox is bigger and heavier) because the Boox has the one feature that the Opus desperately needs: a sleep mode.

Connectivity
I haven't tested the Wifi because my network is buggy. I will come back to this.

08:47 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

A few days back DNAML, an Australian tech company, announced a new Epub conversion tool. Teleread announce it; I held off becuase I wanted to test it first.

Well, someone beat me to it. One MR member has already spent the $99 license fee. He's commented on the quality of the conversion here and here. You can follow the ongoing discussion here.

On a related note, I've been told by DNAML that they are working on providing a trial version. When it's ready, I'll try this converter and give you my opinion.

11:50 AM by igorsk in E-Book General | News

...and not PRS-2121.
SonyStyle page, discovered by justincoe.

Available in December.