07:34 PM by NatCh in E-Book General | News

Last week in Denver the American Library Association's held their Mid-Winter meeting. One interesting thing to come out of it is a new cooperative initiative between Sony and the OCLC's (Online Computing Library) Netlibrary service.

Many here will already be familiar with NetLibrary, but the nutshell version is that they focus on making more material available electronically to more people. You can find the long version here.

Now NetLibrary has worked out an arrangement with Sony to use Sony Digital Readers in that effort. They're going to be offering their users access to what they are calling "Sony Reader Mobile Collections" (five of them to start with), which are basically small collections of books that are readable on the Sony Reader -- all properly licensed, of course.

But there is a bit more to it than just the content. They have evidently worked out arrangements to use Readers in the mix, both on-site in the libraries, and for patron check-out as the individual library chooses to arrange, details of that apparent arrangement are not currently available.

“OCLC member libraries have indicated a strong interest in providing a mobile device that library patrons can use to read eBooks on the go,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. “The NetLibrary collections available with Sony’s Reader Digital Book offer great variety for readers with different interests, and make it possible for library patrons to enjoy many eBooks on one portable device that offers state-of-the-art readability.”

Library staff will handle the transfer of the content to the devices themselves, which relieves nervous users of that particular techno-hurdle.

This is part of libraries' efforts to keep up with changing times and habits amongst their patrons.

“In an era of diminishing time and resources, libraries can provide valuable convenience and flexibility for their patrons with downloadable books and the opportunity to read them electronically,” said Susan Hildreth, State Librarian of California. “Twenty-first century libraries are successful when they offer content in the widest variety of formats.

This whole arrangement goes to support Sony's repeated claim that they are less concerned with locking their customers into buying content from Sony for their Readers, and more concerned with providing a good overall experience with the devices themselves:

“From the beginning, we have emphasized the importance of choice when it comes to content for the Reader,” Haber said. “In addition to our Sony eBook store with its strong selection of premium titles, libraries offer another option for those who prefer to borrow books at no cost without having to leave home.”

I see this as a hopeful sign that e-reading will continue to penetrate more and more deeply into the general public's awareness. Though I do see some rather obvious concerns about lending out hardware to folks which is, after all, both rather pricey and rather delicate. What do you think? Brilliant, forward-thinking move, or hair-brained scheme, destined for failure from the outset?

Sony's press release is here, the OCLC and NetLibrary don't seem to have anything on it yet on their sites.

02:06 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Just a friendly reminder that if you're anywhere in Europe we're going to have to insist that you come to our MobileRead Reader Meetup in Paris tomorrow. We promise some excellent Sicilian food, and a chance to complain in person to Zelda about how MobileRead is ruining your life.

The important information you need:

When: Saturday, January 31st, 6:30PM to open-end
Where: La Trottinette, 23 rue de la Fontaine au Roi, Paris 11th arrondissement

For more details, including a list of who is going to come, check out this thread (English) and this thread (Français).

04:48 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

As the salivating e-book junkie, you'll be pleased to hear that Plastic Logic is rumored to announce the identity of their first publishing partners during the O'Reilly conference in New York on Feb 9th. Former WSJ and Washington Post reporter Bill Richards writes:

Plastic Logic, a privately held Silicon Valley startup that plans to begin field testing its version of an e-reader later this year, says it will announce the identity of its first publishing partners at the O’Reilly conference. The company has been working for more than a year with Hearst’s secretive e-paper venture, FirstPaper, in Palo Alto. Plastic Logic officials confirm that their 8.5-inch-by-11-inch display screen is designed to accommodate traditional newspaper layouts.

We can't deny that we wish we could wrap our hands tightly around this beauty, slim and light enough to fit into a tuxedo without mussing your lines; alas, as Plastic Logic has recently stated, it's likely not going to happen before early 2010.

Related: Plastic Logic e-reader not before 2010 - Really!, PDAToday's Plastic Logic e-reader hands-on

04:12 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Yesterday we mentioned how Sony is having difficulties in coping with the current market situation. Amazon, on the other hand, seems to have done everything right. As Businessweek reports:

In the fourth quarter, Amazon (AMZN) lured customers and gobbled up market share, producing results that crushed Wall Street expectations. Revenue jumped 18% during the quarter, propelled in large part by overseas shoppers who—though shopping less—are spending more of that shrinking budget online. International sales rose 31%.

What is more interesting to us, of course, is how the Kindle added to Amazon's successful quarter. And here, too, we hear some positive news:

Amazon also trumpeted sales of its electronic book reader the Kindle, though it didn't disclose unit or dollar sales. "We are pleased with the demand," Amazon Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak said during a conference call with analysts and investors. "It exceeded our expectations and we're excited to see the growth that we've seen since we launched it."

During the conference call, Szkutak also said:

We are particularly pleased with Kindle demand during the fourth quarter. We want to remind everyone that Kindle revenue and cost are recognized over a two-year period. The Kindle Store contains the largest collection of e-books available anywhere in the world. Selection increased by 45,000 titles in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to 230,000 titles. 103 out of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers are available and, along with most new releases, are priced at $9.99 or less. In addition, the Kindle Store recently added the Arizona Republic, Baltimore Sun, Orange County Register and USA Today and now offers newspapers from eight of the top ten metro areas in the United States.

And FT reports:

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive and founder, did not comment during a call with investors on speculation that the company will unveil a second version of its Kindle electronic book reader on February 9.

He said that the company had been surprised by the strong level of demand for the Kindle in the fourth quarter, which led to it being out of stock for several weeks before Christmas.

“We had anticipated strong demand, and what we saw was stronger than that,” he said.

So everything looks good and rosy at Amazon on its way to world domination, wouldn't you say?

Related: Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

07:55 PM by Patricia in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

The London Guardian today is reporting that the a Spanish publisher, Leer-e, is offering two ebooks for 10 euros.

"As book prices go, €5 is a bargain almost anywhere. In Spain, where publishers like to keep prices on paperback novels above the €20 level, it is unheard of.
Now a ground-breaking deal involving Nobel prize winners such as Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Camilo José Cela has seen an offer of two novels for ¤10 on classics by the authors of One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Hive.
There is only one catch: the books do not come on paper, but as digital downloads... "

The full story is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...arquez-fiction

And here is the publisher's site:
http://www.leer-e.es/
They also appear to be selling Readers: Iliads, Cybooks, Sony readers, the Hanlin etc.

01:28 PM by gwynevans in E-Book General | News

There seems to be a few press-release-type announcements of this, but the list of supported formats seems extensive - PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT, PRC.

The Pixelar e-Reader is an open source format ebook reader, and as such it allows you to read a huge range of digital content. It enables you to ‘carry’ almost as many books, magazines, and documents as you like (including RSS feed downloads). It is a robust yet elegant device which is slim, and as light as a single paperback book.

http://www.pixelar.co.uk/ebookinfo.php

01:19 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Okay, I know that you are wondering why I posted that; it's not news. Here is the news:

All of those ebooks are free.

Most of the books appear to be have come from Project Gutenberg. None of the ones I've checked have a table of contents, nor any illustrations.

It's not a big deal, but this is a nice little treat for Kindle owners. Now a Kindle owner has no need to go elsewhere to find public domain ebooks.

Edit: As Moe the Cat pointed out, apparently Amazon simply took the free offerings from Mobipocket and ported them over to the Amazon store.

12:00 PM by vsalvaggio in E-Book General | News

Finally! Fictionwise is listing nine of Tom Clancy's books for pre-order (Hunt for Red October available Feb 3, the rest Feb 10).

Check it out: Link Fictionwise

Hopefully the rest of the Jack Ryan series won't be too far behind.