03:50 AM by rhadin in E-Book General | News

There is an interesting note at Teleread blog regarding Amazon's ebook listings. According to the blog and Adobe's Bill McCoy, "the selection of commercially relevant e-books at the Kindle Store is still very thin. Less coverage of what really sells in trade than a decent airport bookstore. Much of the 'vast' Kindle Store selection is filler eDocs. Some major publisher lists are MIA. . . . [T]he race to get everything that sells in digital isn’t over, it isn’t even half over. When you get beyond U.S. market, it has barely begun, and Kindle is not the leader."

I wonder how much of the Kindle Store ebook selection is simply filler as compared to the Sony Connect store.

02:52 AM by JSWolf in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Sony has added a "link" off of the FAQ that allows you to click on it to request the book's publisher issue it in BBeB format. The link is off of the FAQ.

Now we can ask a publisher to fill in those books in a series that have been omitted somehow from the BBeB format. Or those old favorites that we'd like to have available as a comfort book. No guarantees of course but this will give Sony some ammunition to persuade the various publishers to "Sonyize" specific titles.

I suggest that we all get busy and request our favorites.

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09:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Finally, my wait is over: Today the Asus Eee PC 1000H arrived in my mailbox. As promised, here are some first photos of my unboxing.

In the back you see my trusty Lenovo T61p notebook, which appears huge in comparison (15.4-inch screen). Nevertheless, the Eee shines, especially its LED-backlit display (10.2-inch) appears a lot brighter than the display of the much more expensive T61p.

Also note how tiny the charger is. Wonderful, if you are like me traveling a lot.

I am not exactly sure what to do next. I am tempted to install Debian. Or perhaps not. Must see first how far the Asus Eee community has come.

Btw, I apologize for the last four photos which are not exactly related... it's a mother squirrel carrying its kitten along in my garten, which kinda distracted me while I was doing the unboxing.

05:32 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

If you were among the chorus sounding the death knell for e-book devices, I recommend the following article, in which Saul Hansell of the New York Times tells us what he has learned from the unexpected Kindle's success.

Lesson #1: Don't underestimate the miracle that happens when you make something really easy for people.

Lesson #2: Just because Steve Jobs doesn't like it, don't give up your idea. It may still serve a market. Somewhere. Out there.

Link: NY Times article

Do have any more lessons from the recent boost in e-books? We would love to hear!

05:14 AM by cush in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

At last! Hopefully this is not old news but Amazon has added a "button" on the left side of a book's page listing in the Main Book Store that allows you to click on it to request the book's publisher issue it in Kindle format! The button is under the book's cover illustration.

Now we can ask a publisher to fill in those books in a series that have been omitted somehow from the Kindle format. Or those old favorites that we'd like to have available as a comfort book. No guarantees of course but this will give Amazon some ammunition to persuade the various publishers to "Kindalize" specific titles.

I suggest that we all get busy and search out our favorites in the regular pbook part of Amazon and then click on the button if it is not available in Kindle format. I did just that today for 30 minutes and clicked on all the Alexander Kent "Bolitho" series of maritime fiction.

03:07 AM by 6charlong in E-Book General | News

BooksOnBoard is the only bookstore selling current best-sellers in ePub format. I wondered why. It seemed reasonable to expect all bookstores to offer at least the same, available titles, after all, ePub is an open format. I wondered whether the holdup was coming from the publishers? The bookstores? Was there a lawsuit? What? So I wrote Fictionwise (because they’re the most responsive bookseller I know about). I thought I’d share their response in case others on the forum had the same questions:

“We are currently making our plans for epub compliance over the coming months. Please be aware that epub does not specify how books are encrypted, so it is not true that epub is a standard end-customer format for encrypted titles. Each vendor is currently using their own proprietary encryption scheme for epub. In addition, only one major publisher supports epub at this time, it will be months before more follow suit. We are still in the very early stages of epub adoption.”

07:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Battle? What battle you may ask. Sure, most of us were blown away by the overall success of the Amazon Kindle. The question is, why did Sony not have the same success with the Sony Reader, which was launched one year before the Kindle? And even more important is the question: Could Sony succeed if they brought out their own connected e-book device to the market? The Irish Times thinks not, for reasons it explains in this article today:

The Sony product is the Reader, a portable device for reading electronic books, which the company launched two years ago. This time Sony's competitor is Amazon, which has swept past Sony with the Kindle, a rival e-book reader that is showing every sign of becoming the iPod of this nascent market.

Stringer was not in charge of Sony during the Walkman debacle and partly owes his appointment three years ago to the recognition that new leadership was needed to pull the divided company together.

But the e-book battle occurred on his watch, after he identified the Reader as a product that Sony should throw its weight behind. So the ascendancy of the Kindle is - or ought to be - an embarrassment.

So what is the status quo? In terms of titles and features the Kindle seems to have a clear advantage:

• Sony eBook store: 45'000 titles
• Amazon store: 145'000 titles, including newspapers and blogs

• Sony Reader: no online connectivity
• Amazon Kindle: 3G "Whispernet" connectivity

According to the Irish Times article, there is reason to believe that the next Sony Reader will feature online connectivity:

Steve Haber, head of the business, says Sony is "open" to that idea. Sony has also tried to get one up on the Kindle by allowing owners to obtain books from other online stores and libraries.

But here are the reasons why the author believes that it could already be too late for Sony:

• Amazon has grabbed the market-leading position and established a strong brand;
• History repeats itself (iPod - Walkman);
• The Reader isn't part of Sony's core product portfolio (PlayStation, Bravia TV).

04:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Just a friendly reminder that we're having our MobileRead Reader Meetup in Edinburgh next Monday, if you're anywhere nearby you should definitely swing by. See this thread for more information.

Details:

When?
Monday, August 18th
7pm - open end

Where?
London Review of Books Signing Tent (Café Bar), Charlotte Square Gardens (possibly moving to Spiegeltent, if we are still going after 9:30)

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Cannot make it to Edinburgh? Check out our next upcoming meetups:

Washington, DC Area, US Details
When: August 23rd, 5:00pm
Where: Herndon, Virginia - Euro Bistro, 314 Elden Street (corner of Eldon and Herndon Parkway) 703-481-8158

Texas, US Details
When: August 23rd, 2:00pm
Where: Austin - Panera Bread, 2805 Bee Caves Road

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If you're not opposed to spending quality time with some e-book-addled crazies, we'd love to have you. And don't forget to bring along your shiny gadgets!