07:00 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

• Smart Q7: Is this the Kindle Killer?
• Hanvon N510 available for preorder

04:02 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

One of MobileRead's members just received an email from EnWo, the first Hanvon distributor. EnWo is currently taking preorders for a June shipping date. For the first 150 who sign up the price will be 225€ (~$313). I suspect that the offer is only open to residents of Germany.

If you want to sign up, click here.

Thanks, juergen_grendel, for letting us know.

P.S. One member has had experience with the N510, and he was underwhelmed.

03:42 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

If you've been following UMPC Portal, then you may know that a few weeks back they came across a $189 new Linux tablet called the Smart Q7. Here are the specs:

* CPU: 667MHz Sansumg ARM S3C6410
* 7" Touchscreen, 800 X480 resolution
* Memory: 128MB DDR RAM
* Storage: 1GB Flash Memory
* OS: Ubuntu Linux
* Languages: Chinese/English/German/French/Portuguese
* microSD slot (up to 32GB)
* WiFi 802.11b/g
* Connectivity: 2.0 USB HOST supported to connect the high-speed EDGE, HSDPA network adapter or mobile phone
* Weight: 480g
* Battery: 4500mAH
* Warranty: One year

I held off on reporting on the Q7 because I wanted to make sure that the seller was reputable (they appear to be), and that the device would make a decent ebook reader. Well, our friends at UMPC Portal have had one for about a week now, and they're deeply impressed. They've reported a 10+ hour battery life, and that the Q7 comes with FBReader. They've posted severals times, and have added the following clip and gallery:

unboxing video
Q7 as EReader video
Q7 photo gallery (the pics will make you drool)

We have an ongoing discussion over here.

P.S. MR will be posting a review of the Q7. A MR member by the name of ColdSun has ordered one. We'll post his review once it's ready.

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

Here it is again, our weekly roundup! Enjoy!

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• New Device: Bookeen Opus
• Epub dictionaries
• Kindle for Iphone 1.1 released
• Random House launches ReadersPlace for book clubs

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Collaborative fiction on MobileRead

07:57 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Maureen from Random House just dropped us a line to let us know that her company has officially launched ReadersPlace, an online community where book clubs can interact and have live chats with their favorite authors.

From the press release:

The Random House Group is launching ReadersPlace (www.readersplace.co.uk) - an innovative social networking site for book clubs. ReadersPlace provides complete online guides for book clubs and enables users to interact with each other and like-minded groups around the globe.

Friends separated by geography or time restraints can meet up virtually online to swap thoughts and ideas about their favourite books. They can also webchat live and direct with authors – giving an extra special new dimension to book club discussions with unique and firsthand insight into featured titles.

11:08 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I just received word that Amazon released an updated Kindle app for the Iphone. There were no reported bug fixes (I'm not sure there were any bugs to fix), but they did add new features.

NEW Features:
· Read in portrait or landscape mode
· Pinch to zoom images in books
· Select alternate background and text colors to improve
reading comfort in low light conditions.
· Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages

03:21 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

I want to move from Mobipocket to Epub. The main reason I haven't is the lack of features like dictionary support. No Epub reader software supports it (aside from maybe FBReader).

I was just exchanging emails with someone at Adobe, and I was told that while it's a neat feature, most people don't use it. Let's see if that is true.

This poll is open to everyone who reads ebooks, not just Epub users.

01:15 PM by zelda_pinwheel in Miscellaneous | Announcements

It seems natural enough that a site called "MobileRead" should be frequented by people who love reading. And love of reading often goes hand in hand with love of writing. Our recently inaugurated Writers' Corner has been an immediate success, with writers of all stripes participating in discussions about their activity and sharing their work, whether it's professional or simply a personal pleasure. We're especially happy to see more and more original writing being created by and for our community. Take a tour of the writers' forum to read some of the wonderful stories we've enjoyed so much by members like pshrynk and Ralph Sir Edward to name just two of the most prolific.

Writers and readers together in the same forum, it sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship... Now only a few short months after its creation, our writers' forum has taken the activity to a new level of innovation with a collaborative writing project.

In this thread, local hero Moejoe asked for story suggestions : members could propose a title and three objects he would have to use in the story.

The result is the short-story collection Suggested Oddities available on feedbooks in the e-book format of your choice.

We're very excited to see this sort of participation and collaboration and we can't wait to see what happens next... which I'm sure you'll agree is always the mark of a great story.