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

Once again, our weekly roundup of highlights from the past seven days of MobileRead:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Harry Potter Pirated Editions on Kindle Again
• Ebook readers at IFA Berlin, 4-9 September
• Sony PSP Digital Reader Service
• Kindle US Marketshare at 45%, Sony at 30%

E-Book Devices - iRex Digital Reader

• iRex DR100S Software 1.7 Has been Released

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Meet-up in Phoenix, Arizona (US) Saturday August 29, 2009 at 1pm
• Meet-up at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Book Festival Saturday 22 August!

05:52 PM by RWood in E-Book General | News

In a recent study on e-book readers by the CleantechGroup they estimated that the total US market for e-book readers was slightly more than 1,000,000 units, increasing to 14.4 million in 2012. Of that, 45% were Kindles, 30% Sonys, and the remaining 25% divided among the remaining brands.

The focus of the study was to determine the life cycle impact of electronic book readers on the environment, in short, the carbon footprint. While they concluded that the number of units in use is too small to have any significant impact on the environment, they did conclude that:

... on average, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of a Kindle is fully offset after the first year of use.

The report, authored by Emma Ritch, states: "Any additional years of use result in net carbon savings, equivalent to an average of 168 kg of CO2 per year (the emissions produced in the manufacture and distribution of 22.5 books)."

A summary of their findings can be found here.

01:59 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Recently I had the freak occurrence of needing new reference books while at the same time actually having the money to buy them. I dug through the pile of borrowed books and noticed that several were published by Apress. (Yes, John, you can have them back now.)

I prefer to buy ebooks instead of paper copies, so naturally I checked the publishers website to see if they were available. I noticed a number of details. Apress is a pretty big technical publisher; if you're a SWE or in a related field look among your tech manuals for a black and yellow cover; it's their trademark.

The good news is that Apress publishes most if not all of their titles as ebooks. The not quite so good news is that the ebooks come in only 2 formats: password protected PDF and Kindle Topaz.

I, for one, don't buy PDFs. I've heard too many horror stories about PDFs mysteriously expiring and leaving the owner with no recourse except to buy the PDF again. I do not think Apress would do that; it's just why I avoid the format entirely.

Like many others, I don't ebooks in Amazon's Topaz format. Due to Amazon's ongoing mismanagement of the Kindle ebooks, I currently trust Amazon about as far as I can throw Jeff Bezos. It's good that the books are available on the Kindle; to be honest I'd like to see how they look on the DX. But I won't spend my money because I can't protect my purchases from Amazon (the DRM can't be removed).

I still bought the books, though, and I got them on Amazon for less than the ebook price. I just wish I could have them as ebooks.

UPDATE: A member pointed me at Apress's Deal of the Day. Each day a differnet title is offered for $9.99. Thanks Gary.

http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal

08:15 PM by Abecedary in E-Book General | News

Just saw this and thought it might be of interest to some of you. Starting in December, you'll be able to download comics to your PSP. Now, what's interesting to me is the end of the article: "The company further teased that the Digital Reader functionality will eventually extend beyond comics. Nothing else was said, but digital books seem rather obvious." I could imagine some people using their PSPs as ebook readers. After all, the screen is fairly comparable to an iPhone resolution-wise. And integration with the Sony eBookstore would make perfect sense. Also IIRC, there were some mentions from Sony last month that they were shuffling around some divisions, and that they were aiming for better integration between the Vaio, Playstation, and Reader lines. This looks like it's one of the first steps in making that integration a reality.

Sony via ShackNews

12:55 PM by Adam B. in More E-Book Readers | iRex

From the iRex Knowledgebase

iRex Digital Reader 1000S software 1.7 has been released.

There are a few minor, but useful changes.

• Tabbed task manager - With the Tabbed Task Manager you can quickly switch between open files, applications and the last opened folder.
  
• Spanish and Italian language support - Support for Spanish and Italian has been added. You can change your preferred language in the settings menu.
  
• USB Charger detected - The device will now automatically detect when a USB wall charger is connected and it will no longer ask to export to the PC in this case.
  
• Bug fixes
  • Fixed bug where setting the date or time would crash the device
  • The Main LED is now always on when lights are switched off in the settings.
  • Various small bug-fixes

I've found the tab feature alone to be very useful.

Those not using the companion software can download it from here.

09:34 AM by poohbear_nc in E-Book General | News

Apparently badly OCR'd editions of 6 Harry Potter titles are now available again for $19.99 each - now listed as published by Amazon!

[Link deleted by moderator]

These editions have been available since the 16th. Wonder how Amazon will handle this situation? Amazon Discussion board posts indicate CS has been repeatedly notified about it.

09:15 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

The IFA is a consumer electronics trade show held in Berlin every year. Several exhibitors will be bringing ebook readers this year.

Sony will be there (Hall 4.2/Booth 101). Currently only the PRS-505 is listed, so they might not be bringing the recently announced PRS-300 or PRS-600. I'm following up on this and will post new information as I get it.

There will also be a new Netronix distributor. It's a Netherlands based company by the name of Lubix. Based on the product description, they don't appear to have added to default firmware.

And we've been told that PocketBook, the Ukraine based ebook developer, will be attending. They do not appear to be listed as an exhibitor, so I can't guarantee the booth number (Hall 14/Booth 107).

I have 2 reasons to be interested in Pocketbook. The first is that hey developed their own firmware, including a better gui. The other reason is that Andrey, the sales manager, has said that they will be bringing all of their readers, the PocketBook 301, 302, and the 360 (their new 5" reader). Hopefully MR will be able to send someone to take a look at it.

06:57 AM by zelda_pinwheel in Miscellaneous | Announcements

This Saturday the Edinburgh Book Festival will be in full swing, and what better way to celebrate books than with a MobileRead meet-up ! This year's meet-up promises to be as much fun as last year's (or more! if such a thing is possible) so if you'll be anywhere in the area, hie thee to the cafe in Highland Spiegeltent for some stimulating discussion of books, gadgets, and the e-book experience! A splendid time is promised to all!

MobileRead member Mike L gives us the following details about the event:

Date:
Saturday 22nd August

Time:
2.30 pm

Place:
At the Edinburgh International Book Festival venue in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. We'll meet in the cafe in the Highland Spiegeltent, which is on your left as you come in through the main entrance.

How to recognise us:
Look for the A4 Mobile Read logo. Failing that, just look for a bunch of intelligent-looking people poring over various and-held devices.

Other details:
At present, the plan is to meet over coffee or a beer, and then perhaps to visit the festival together, with the possibility of continuing into dinner
in the evening.

About the festival
Entry to the festival is free and open to all. There are book displays, exhibits, and some free entertainment and vents. There is also an extensive
programme of talks, workshops and discussions. These are not free, and the more popular ones get booked up well in advance, though others can be booked at the last minute.

On the day of our meet-up, the programme will include contributions from Henning Mankell (creator of the Wallender books), Pico Iyer (the biographer
of the Dali Lama), Anne Fine (noted children's author), Alexander McCall Smith (one of our most popular local authors), and many more. More
information about these events from www.edbookfest.co.uk.

More information can be found in this thread. Please let us know if you're planning to be there by leaving a little message over here.