03:36 PM by wallcraft in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

FBReader 0.10.0 was released today for Desktop/Netbook computers only (for both Linux and Windows platforms), with other platforms to be released soon. From FBReader Google Group:

• Network libraries integration has been added. FBReader can search and download books from Feedbooks.com and LitRes libraries. We plan to add more libraries in future releases.
• Partial CSS support for epub files has been added. CSS support in html and fb2 is coming soon.
• Epub and Mobipocket book formats support has been substantially improved.
• Library view usability has been improved: you can now organize the tree either by author or by tag.
• You can now select a word by double-click and a paragraph by triple-click.
• Right-to-left languages and bidirectional texts support has been added.
• Support for Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Turkish has been added.
• Czech localization has been added.
• FBReader now has a new set of icons.
• It's now possible to use OS scrollbar for navigating through the text.
• Partial CSS support for epub files has been added. CSS support in html and fb2 is coming soon.
• Epub and Mobipocket book formats support has been substantially improved.

FBReader is commonly used on the Nokia Internet Tablets, on the iRex iLiad and Digital Reader, and is the basis for the ebook reader in OpenInkPot.

The attached screenshots are from the 0.8.17 and 0.10.0 versions of Windows FBReader on an ePub. The 0.10.0 version reads the TOC, which was a major shortcoming of the previous version.

06:30 PM by RWood in Miscellaneous | Announcements

From the first upload on March 27, 2007 until yesterday, MobileRead members have posted over 8,000 free, well crafted e-books in multiple formats.

The milestones (as compiled by Zelda) are:

• March 27, 2007: First upload
• September 04, 2007: 1,000 uploads
• November 02, 2007: 2,000 uploads
• January 08, 2008: 3,000 uploads
• February 19, 2008: 4,000 uploads
• May 16, 2008: 5,000 uploads
• December 10, 2008: 7,000 uploads
• January 09, 2009: 8,000 uploads

Most of the e-books are in the "big 3" e-book formats of Sony BBeB, Mobipocket PRC, and eBookwise IMP; there is a growing collection of ePub books available. There is also a light assortment of other thinly used e-book formats including:

• FB (Fiction Book)
• RB2 (Rocket Book)
• PDF (A4, Letter, and 6" e-ink screen formats)
• Psion
• IMP (for the REB 1200)
• Hiebook
• MS Lit

I have been fortunate enough to be part of the members posting e-books that also include (in no particular order):

• Patricia
• HarryT
• Madam Broshkina
• nrapallo
• vivaldirules
• Dr. Drib
• mtravellerh
• Jellby
• crutledge
• Roy White
• tsgreer
• ravenne
• ProDigit
• mjh215

There are many more and I am sorry that AI cannot recall all of the names at the moment. On behalf of the rest of the MobileRead community I say, "Thank You."

Let the celebration begin, download a new e-book today.

07:00 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

• Overdrive will Stop Supplying Fictionwise on 30 January 2009
• New Palm OS & Phone Debut at CES
• Samsung 'Papyrus' E Ink device announced
• PDAToday's Plastic Logic e-reader hands-on

E-Book Software - OpenInkpot

• New OpenInkpot snapshot available - now with LocoPDF

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader PRS-700

• Two Weeks With The PRS700

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• MobileRead mobile site gets an update

11:25 AM by Moe The Cat in Archive | OpenInkpot

The new OpenInkpot snapshot (20090109) is now available. This one includes the new LocoPDF viewer, with the ability to trim white space from the margins of PDF files.

Give it a try- Flashed or Live from your SD card. The OpenInkpot developers are looking for feedback.

Documentation:

* Installation Guide
* Users' Guide

Downloads:

* http://openinkpot.org/pub/snapshots/20090109

05:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Lo and behold, today our friends over at PDAToday managed to get a Plastic Logic rep to whip out his e-reader prototype for a quick look at the CES 2009.

What an amazing product for an early prototype, it felt and operated like a product ready to ship and use. I was told early samples will trickle out in mid to late 2009 with shipping units in early 2010.

Click here for their full commentary. Some (approximate) specs:

• Windows CE powered
• Dimensions: 8.5 inch x 11 inch x 0.28 inch
• Weight: < 16 oz
• Touch screen

YouTube clips:

Thanks to Bill for the tip!

03:06 AM by imagitronics in E-Book General | News

Amidst all the commotion from Palm, this seems to have slipped through the cracks:

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2009/01...-e-ink-device/

I go the chance to play around with the Samsung Papyrus in the Samsung booth. While the Samsung representatives had absolutely no information about the Papyrus, I was able to find the information management, active digitizer notetaking, and, of course, book reading to be very functional.

Details are sparse. It doesn't look as though the device brings anything new to the table that we don't already have from iRex/Sony/Amazon - but I thought it was interesting just the same.

Tim

11:40 PM by RWood in E-Book General | News

After years of being behind the power curve, false starts, and major market share losses, Palm has introduced yet another new operating system for cell phones and related devices. Called webOS, the new OS described as task oriented rather than application oriented as other current competing cell phone operating systems are. Concurrent with the new OS Palm is also introducing a new cell phone called the Palm pré available in the first half of 2009.

The heart of the new OS is the simplified developer interface that requires only CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to develop applications. In short, there are no new programming languages to learn and almost all of the hardware is directly accessible through JavaScript.

The announced Palm pré has all the features expected of any modern Smartphone and will transition between communication sources such as Sprint EVDO and 802.11 b/g to ensure the best possible signal reception. The nearby picture of the new phone shows a very readable area for books. My first MobileRead eBook experience was PalmDoc on an old Palm OS equipped Samsung cell phone. This looks like the first real advancement since then.

Unlike some other prior Palm announcements that depressed the stock price, share prices rose 35% after the latest announcement. If the early enthusiasm is well founded then Palm is back and a viable alternative to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry.

Additional information is available from ars technical and Yahoo Financial. A Palm video of the pré is available here. More information at the Palm website.

04:05 PM by Snowman in E-Book General | News

This "heads-up" warning came through on the Fictionwise Group this morning:

"With effect from 30 Jan 2009, Overdrive is ceasing to serve files to Fictionwise customers."

There is an faq at http://www.fictionwise.com/help/Over...cement-FAQ.htm

DRM strikes again!

Snowman