10:47 AM by doctorow in E-Book General | News

A new critical vulnerability has been discovered in Adobe Acrobat and Reader 9 (and earlier versions, too), which could allow attackers to cause a vulnerable application to crash or execute arbitrary code by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted PDF file.

According to Adobe's advisory a fix is scheduled for March 11th, 2009. If you don't want to wait that long, I suggest you go for one of the many (free) alternatives (like Foxit Reader or SumatraPDF) which are not affected.

Adobe is planning to release updates to Adobe Reader and Acrobat to resolve the relevant security issue. Adobe expects to make available an update for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 by March 11th, 2009. Updates for Adobe Reader 8 and Acrobat 8 will follow soon after, with Adobe Reader 7 and Acrobat 7 updates to follow. In the meantime, Adobe is in contact with anti-virus vendors, including McAfee and Symantec, on this issue in order to ensure the security of our mutual customers. A security bulletin will be published on http://www.adobe.com/support/security as soon as product updates are available.

Link: Adobe advisory

06:55 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

New Team members
I'm a little late with the announcement, for which I apologize. It's my real pleasure to introduce our latest three additions to the MobileRead team: Pilotbob, Elsi and pshrynk.

Please welcome them warmly!

Writers' section
A new forum section has arrived. The goal of the Writers' Corner is to provide a place for a writer to showcase her latest literary work, to share her experience with publishing and e-books, and to give tips to others who would like to learn the craft. Everyone is invited to join.

04:56 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Rumors popped up today claiming that by using the right Python-based tools, it's now possible to strip the DRM from protected Adobe ePub e-books. Note from the cracker:

By way of a concrete reverse-engineering contribution, I have successfully circumvented Adobe's ADEPT DRM scheme for EPUB files. The same circumvention probably also allows decryption of ADEPT-encrypted PDF files, although I haven't looked into it yet... And on a preachy note, please don't be a jerk with these. DRM is bad, but piracy is wrong kids, and only validates the opinions of those who think they need DRM in the first place.

Of course we have no way of verifying whether this is the real deal - and it's safe to say that removing DRM is illegal in at least some countries - so folks, you're warned.

04:07 PM by DixieGal in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

I got the promotion email and this looks like a good sale. Books that were made into Oscar nominated movies are on sale, all except one is under $10. Also a bunch of recent year books that were previously nominated are on sale in the $6 to $9 range.

The sale goes till March 2nd and a list can be found here.

09:22 PM by TadW in E-Book General | News

Enjoy the show.

http://vimeo.com/3205133

Tzu's The Art of War -- is it a good book for a presentation?

10:15 AM by TadW in E-Book General | News

Bloomberg columnist David Pauly is contemplating the potential effects the Kindle might have on the future of home libraries. And the future ain't looking good (if you ask David).

When my wife and I made our house bigger several years ago, I pampered myself and reserved one of the new rooms for books. The library cost about as much as our new kitchen, so it was an indulgence.

With the advent of digital books, I’m afraid people will start asking me why I don’t just download everything we have on our shelves onto the Kindle -- Amazon has 230,000 digital titles available -- and convert the library into another bedroom for the grandkids?

It’s just a bit of progress I can do without. I’m convinced I can hear Johann Gutenberg rolling over in his grave.

So I started a new poll. Do you think an e-book reader might at one point replace your library at home (or perhaps did it already)? If yes, would you be worried?

11:44 AM by Kris777 in E-Book General | News

The most promising open-source e-book format received a big vote of confidence earlier this week when O'Reilly, the technology book publishing giant, threw its weight behind the Bookworm project, a web service for reading books online.

The company is now hosting the Bookworm website, and it plans to use it for various experimental e-publishing projects in the coming months.
More details:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/...orm-gives.html

11:32 AM by zelda_pinwheel in E-Book General | News

Straight from the horse's mouth : Adobe announced today a Mobile SDK which will allow the development of mobile phones capable of reading pdfs and epub ebooks.

Software Development Kit Enables Reflowable PDF and Content Protection for Smartphones and Reading Devices

BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 16, 2009 — At the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of the new Adobe® Reader® Mobile SDK, a software development kit (SDK) designed to enable companies to deliver mobile phones and handheld devices that can easily download, manage, and display PDF content and eBooks. The new software engine delivers support for reflowable PDF technology, Adobe’s content protection technology, as well as the EPUB file format, an XML-based eBook standard with broad support from the publishing industry.

In support of the new Adobe Reader Mobile SDK, a number of companies announced plans to ship devices or applications in 2009 that integrate the new Adobe technology, including Bookeen, iRex Technologies, Lexcycle, Plastic Logic, Polymer Vision Ltd., and Spring Design. The Adobe Reader Mobile engine is already integrated into the groundbreaking Reader Digital Book™ by Sony.

Notice that among the companies planning to integrate this technology in 2009 are Bookeen, Plastic Logic, Polymer Vision... 2009 is off to a good start !

thanks to Guillaume for the tip.

Read the whole article here or download the pdf version attached.