02:23 PM by ilovejedd in E-Book Readers | Apple Devices

For people who like to read fanfiction on their iPhones and prefer to do so using Stanza instead of Safari...

FLAG iPhone Companion is a collection of PHP scripts that creates XML feeds compatible with Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch for the FanFiction.Net website. The story retrieval system uses FLAG by erayd. The format of the catalog was heavily patterned on the output of Calibre's Stanza server. The ePUB conversion module (FLAG component) also makes use of the html2epub command-line utility in Calibre (0.5 & earlier).

Download and installation:
There are two files available for download. Please refer to the included readme.txt for further instructions.

ffnet.zip (104KB, md5: dd32671fc93349992f8b2cc8c05098a1) - For those who already have Apache and PHP set-up, this is a zip file containing just the PHP scripts themselves.

• Extract the contents of the zip file to an empty folder inside your document root. (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\ffnet)
• If you didn't extract it to ffnet, edit the settings.ini file and change dir to the folder (relative to document root) where you extracted the files.
• Edit catalog.xml to add your favorite categories.

xampplite-fic.exe (19.7MB, md5: 68bb12b6c98f8c9d16908a587883d882) - A ready-made Apache+PHP environment with the FiC scripts included. The php.ini has already been modified to load cURL and Tidy, and the pcre.backtrack.limit has been increased for compatibility with very long chapters. Apache configuration was also modified to enable mod_deflate. Uses XAMPPLite and can be installed on a flash drive.

• Extract the archive to the root directory (e.g. C:\, D:\, E:\, etc). Doesn't matter which drive letter, but it has to be in the root directory.
• Open \xampplite\xampp-control.exe, and click on the "Start" button for Apache. If you get a message from your firewall, select "Unblock".
• Edit catalog.xml (\xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\catalog.xml) to add your favorite categories. You can find the readme.txt in \xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\ for additional information.

Adding the catalog to Stanza:

• Go to Online Catalog
• Click on the plus (+) sign on the bottom right portion of the screen
• Select "Add Stanza Catalog"
• Type the Name and select the icon you want to assign
• For the URL, use http://your_ip_address/dir/ where your_ip_address is your computer's IP address (to get IP address on XP, click Start >> click Run >> type cmd.exe >> type ipconfig) and dir is the name of the folder where the FiC scripts are located (default for xampplite-fic.exe is ffnet). This only works if you're connected to your local network via wifi, though. For access over the internet, you're going to need to do some research on port forwarding. Getting a DynDNS or similar account would also be useful.

Notes:

• Calibre 0.5.14 or earlier must be installed for the script to work. You can download earlier versions here. Remember to restart your computer after installing Calibre so the environment path is updated.
• The Apache and PHP settings used are very lax since XAMPP was meant for development. If you plan on making the server available over the internet, I suggest you read up on Apache and PHP hardening. This seems to be a fairly good resource. You can't enable safe mode, though, since that would break scripts that require Calibre. Again, I'm not responsible if something bad happens.
• I highly suggest running this under a virtual machine. Not only is that potentially less harmful to your computer, it's also pretty much a requirement if you've already moved to Calibre 0.6.

Please post questions, suggestions and bug reports on this thread. Fair warning, I'm just a PHP beginner. Please be gentle.

08:44 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Quick: what's two to the eighth power? 256, of course, and if you knew the answer before you even had a chance to read it, we can say with some confidence that you could be a suitable candidate for one of the following two job positions. The Adobe eBook development team is looking for two motivated individuals to help improving the quality of their products. If you are interested, please contact Peter Sorotokin from the Adobe team through this contact form.

Below are the official job descriptions.

Software QE Developer.

Position Summary:
The Adobe Digital Publishing group is seeking a Software Quality Engineer.
The candidate will join a QE team that is responsible for Adobe’s Reader Mobile SDK, Digital Editions and Content Server. As a member of this high quality team, your responsibilities will include designing, developing and deploying test tools and test code for the Reader Mobile SDK and Content Server.
The candidate will work closely with the development team to identify appropriate test strategies, communicate and work with other QE teams to leverage and coordinate test efforts (as appropriate) and establish test coverage approaches. You will help drive the delivery of successful, cutting edge technology by working on a team with other highly talented Development and Quality Engineers.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Minimum of five years software engineering experience.
• BS in Computer Science or relevant experience
• 3-5 Years of Automation/ Whitebox testing experience.
• Experience developing automated testing; white box testing framework.
• Self motivated and ability to communicate well with different functional groups.
• Strong software design and development skills
• Desire to be on a highly productive, fast-paced team.
• Knowledge of C/C++ and/or Java required.
• Excellent trouble-shooting skills.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify and pinpoint issues at a very granular level.
• Strong scripting abilities, preferably JavaScript, Perl, or PHP.
• Relevant work experience with at least two of Windows, Mac, or Linux is required
• Knowledge of XML is a plus.
• Professional on the job experience using Flash and Action Script is a plus.

Reader Mobile Support Engineer.

Position Summary:
The Adobe Digital Publishing group is seeking a Support Engineer for the Adobe Reader Mobile SDK.
The candidate will join a team that is responsible for Adobe’s Reader Mobile SDK, Digital Editions and Content Server. As a member of this high quality team, your responsibilities will focus on providing customer support for the large number of firms (e.g. Sony, Amazon and others) that have licensed the RMSDK. The support role comprises two major parts: answering questions, diagnosing problems and generally helping our customers successfully integrate the RMSDK into their devices. The second part is to handle the certification process for new devices developed by our customers. You will also be helping to develop scripts and sample applications that assist with the integration process for our customers. Finally, you will also be helping to improve the supporting documentation.
The candidate will work closely with both the core development team and the quality engineering team. You will help our customers develop and deploy the next generation eBook devices, working on a team with other highly talented Development and Quality Engineers.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Minimum of five years software engineering experience.
• BS in Computer Science or relevant experience
• Working knowledge of C/C++ is required.
• Self motivated and possessing ability to communicate well with different functional groups.
• Ability to learn quickly and switch contexts easily
• Desire to be on a highly productive, fast-paced team.
• Excellent trouble-shooting skills.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify and pinpoint issues quickly
• Knowledge of XML and/or PDF is a plus.

03:48 PM by ebookreaders in E-Book General | News

The new (beta) BeBook firmware update, which adds Adobe drm-ed ePub and pdf support to the first generation BeBook ereader, doesn't support drm-ed Mobipocket ebooks anymore, hence making your legally bought Mobipocket ebooks a heap of worthless bits&bytes.

Here is the August 2009 firmware update for your BeBook eReader.

WARNING: Read the full text and instructions before upgrading.

This release note is for the August 2009 update. Firmware version NL-2.10-20090803

Changes to last update:

WARNING: Removes the ability to read Mobipocket DRM protected files. (non DRM Mobipocket files can still be read)
CHANGE: This updates your BeBook adding support for DRM protected PDF and EPUB files using Adobe (r) DRM.
CHANGE: adds compatibility with Adobe Digital Editions book management software.
CHANGE: auto recognition in Adobe Digital Editions identifying the device as 'BeBook'
CHANGE: adds reflowable PDF and Epub file support.

Amazon is to blame here; they don't allow ereader manufacturers to add Mobi drm on ereaders that also have another drm system installed. So either you can stick with Mobipocket, and will not be able to buy drm-ed ePub ebooks, or you can switch to ePub, and say goodbye to your Mobipocket ebook collection.

More ranting in this Dutch article on the subject. Please join me and also sign the anti-drm petition at Defectivebydesign.org.

So what do you think? Would you rather skip the update, in order to be able to keep reading your drm-ed Mobipocket ebooks? Or are you ready to ditch your old ebook collection in order to switch to ePub with Adobe drm?

(please note that this is not BeBook specific; the Cybook update will also remove support for Mobipocket with drm. Also all new models (Cybook Opus, BeBook mini, etc) will not support protected Mobipocket if you want to read Adobe drm-ed ePub.)

12:48 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Alright, you have exactly six hours until the start of our free and all age reader meetup in Montreal tonight. The action kicks off at 6pm at Pub St-Paul, which is only a 15 minutes walk away from where the 67th World Science Fiction Convention is being held. And shhhh... don't tell anyone, but we're going to have a little firework later tonight.

Google Maps for directions: Link

Hit this link for details -- hope to see you there!

PS: Don't miss our Live from Montreal thread!

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

If you've been too busy to check out MobileRead this week, check out our usual roundup:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Sony PRS300/PRS600 available for pre-order
• Sigil moves in to a dedicated forum on MobileRead !
• Sony PRS-300 and PRS-600 press release and gallery
• Mainstream iRex 8.1-inch reader for 400$ (rumor)
• EU consultation on IT (and a bit on copyright and DRM)

E-Book Software - Sigil

• Sigil, the ePub editor

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Reminder: List of MR Meetups in August

04:34 PM by Who are you? in E-Book General | News

The EU has started the Public consultation on post-i2010: priorities for new strategy for European information society (2010-2015), wanting to know how to regulate Information and Communcation Technology for the next 5 years.

Most questions are not all that relevant for the people here (nearly all questions are optional to answer, so don't worry about that), however some questions are relevant for all consumers, so if you're an EU citizen let your voice be heard.

6) Promoting access to creativity at all levels

In terms of expectations, Internet users' and the creative content providing sector have never been as at odds as they are today. Creative industry players are struggling to find new viable business models that are able to ensure sufficient revenues for creators and to meet consumer expectations. The market for digital content is still fragmented and broadcasters and other content providers, together with end-users are prevented from benefiting from a true digital Single Market.

Participative platforms have grown as passive users (readers, viewers, consumers etc.) have become active producers (or "prosumers"). These users tend to ignore their statutory rights and their obligations towards rights holders for the content they transform or/and simply share in web 2.0 communities. Moreover, intermediaries generally impose take-itor-leave-it complex standard terms of use to their users. Against this background, users currently do not enjoy a clear set of rights balancing the conditions set by rights holders (with DRMs [Digital Rights Management] and/or license agreements) and internet services or platforms imposing restrictive standard terms of use.

In a landscape characterized by peer-to-peer and other such offers, it is essential that SMEs in the EU content sector are capable of providing the content and appropriate platforms for distribution.

Public institutions and private partners are beginning to preserve the European cultural heritage digitally. So far only a tiny fraction of the works held by Europe's cultural institutions are available in electronic format. Digitisation of cultural resources is hindered mainly by the lack of adequate funding and by copyright-related issues.

A - Affirming users' rights in the participative web
Participative web enhances, among others, users' self-expression, creativity and media pluralism.

1. 6.1. How can users be empowered through transparent information? -multiple choices reply- (optional)
   • Warrant new forms of transparency obligations for standard terms and conditions imposed by web 2.0 services to ensure that end-users are aware and understand their rights and obligations
   • Reshape privacy rules to guarantee that users have access and can effectively control over their personal data stored online
   • Promote self-regulation
   • Adopt stricter measures aimed at protecting minors in the social networking web
   • Others
     please specify: -open reply- (optional)

2. 6.2. How can creativity be stimulated by building EU-wide easily accessible mechanism to allow users to clear rights and be free to work on existing content for non-commercial
   purposes? -multiple choices reply- (optional)
   • Ease the complexity of copyright management
   • Establish a rights clearance database to facilitate creation and distribution of content online
   • Make copyright law more flexible as regards non-commercial uses
   • Promote alternative open licensing schemes
   • Others

3. 6.2.1. Please give examples: -open reply- (optional)
4. 6.3. A "fair" non-commercial use of licensed content should be free of technological restrictions in terms of interoperability. Should interoperability of content be left to the market or should users have a clear statutory right to play the content they paid for anytime, anywhere and on any platform? -single choice reply- (optional)
   • Market
   • Statutory right

You can find the questionnaire here.

02:23 PM by kaas in E-Book General | News

From Gizmodo:

It looks like iRex, leading makers of giant, feature-packed ebook readers for real-life P.G. Wodehouse protagonists, is casting a monocled eye on the mainstream market. Crave's got details on a forthcoming 8.1-inch touchscreen reader, with wireless, rumored at under $400.

That should make quite a few people here happy

Here some more info from CNet:

Here's the little we know:

* 8.1-inch display
* 3G wireless connectivity (no carrier announced)
* Touch screen with stylus navigation
* Fall 2009 release

Until now iRex, one of the early e-reader pioneers (you remember the iLiad, right?), has mainly offered more business-oriented readers that are rather pricey and sold primarily to European customers. However, this model is a consumer model that will be sold in the U.S., as well as other countries (here in the States, I suspect it will cost less than $400 and possibly less than $350). Allegedly, the unit will have a tie-in with one of the large online e-book sellers, though iRex wouldn't say which one.

05:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Interested in the latest Sony news of tomorrow? Check out this press release, due to August 5th, announcing Sony's new Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300 and the Reader Touch Edition PRS-600.

Sony is today delivering on its promise of making digital readers and eBooks accessible and affordable for consumers with the introduction of two new Readers. Part of a new Reader line, the Reader Pocket Edition™ puts a library in your hands for as little as $199. Both the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition™ will be available at the end of August, at SonyStyle.com, SonyStyle stores and select retail partners. Also, new releases and New York Times bestseller titles in the eBook Store from Sony will now be available for $9.99.

Link to the full press release

In addition, check out these two images galleries depicting the new Readers in full hi-res beauty:

PRS-300 Reader Pocket Edition Image Album

PRS-600 Reader Touch Edition Image Album

Thanks to our member Igorsk for the tip! Please visit our ongoing discussion for the latest development.