06:14 PM by Donnageddon in E-Book General | News

Do free eBooks affect sales? For most of publisher Tor's authors the answer seems to be "Yes", and in a positive way.

From Bloggasm.com

A few months ago Tobias Buckell noticed a trend in his book sales that most midlist novelists don’t typically see. His book Crystal Rain, which had been released in mass market paperback a year before, experienced a sudden spike in sales, more than doubling from the previous week. Perhaps even more noticeable was the jump in sales of the sequel to that novel, Ragamuffin, which saw an even more dramatic increase.
…
But what caused this sudden increase? Because of all the myriad factors that drive product buys it’s incredibly hard to pinpoint specific triggers, but it just so happened that the jump occurred right after Crystal Rain’s publisher, Tor Books, had released a free ebook version of the novel online.

Read more about it here

05:19 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

This week, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, revealed to CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin that he'll "probably" get an Amazon Kindle as he "edges" into the 21st century.

Julia: Does this mean you're going to be getting a Kindle?

Buffett: I probably will, after hearing about it today. And I ran into a number of people that have Kindles and who are just in love with them. In fact, a woman that is the wife of another attendee here, came in on the plane with us, and she was using a Kindle and was wildly enthusiastic about it.

Julia: So this is going to be your new technology?

Buffett: Well, who knows? I mean, I kind of edge into technology. I'm just getting into the 20th century. I'll be working on the 21st century pretty soon, yeah. (Laughs.)

The Kindle may not be the iPod; but if it's the 21st century device that could turn a Mr. Buffett, with his ever-present folksy, low-tech wisdom, to cutting-edge technology, then this would be an achievement hardly surpassed by any other device.

Edit: My apologies to daffy4u who was quicker in spotting the news!

02:56 PM by rmeister0 in E-Book Readers | Apple Devices

The FictionWise link is http://www.ereader.com/iphone/.

I can't download it yet, since the 2.0 firmware isn't out for my first gen iPhone, but the App Store is open now in iTunes 7.7, and a quick browse through the entertainment category turned up eReader.

[After you install iTunes 7.7, open preferences, go to the General tab, and check the box to display "Applications". Then you can view Applications...which will be empty, since you don't have any yet, and click on the "Get More Applications" in the lower right corner.]

The reader itself is free. From the description, it appears that you download the books to the iPhone directly within the eReader app...I'm curious how you get books that you buy from someplace other than FictionWise onto the phone.

01:30 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

I am happy to announce our very first MobileRead reader meetup -- right in the heart of Paris. Thanks to Zelda who has been planning the meetup! Tebaldo is already coming, and so is MobileRead editor and Feedbooks mastermind Hadrien.

Here's the scoop:

Friday, July 18th @ 7pm

La Fontaine
33 Rue Juliette Dodu
75010 Paris
(01 424 536 27‎)

Google Maps

Please tell us that you're thinking about coming, or our egos will be mercilessly permanently wounded, ok? And prepare for an insane amount of geekery!

03:59 AM by rmeister0 in E-Book Readers | Apple Devices

ZappTek has announced their entry into the game. From the press release:

Each book displays as an icon on the Home screen. Users will appreciate how books automatically remember where they've left off, particularly when changing songs or even answering the phone. Any page may be easily bookmarked to revisit later, or make notes on any page.

This suggests to me that each book is sold as an individual app through the App store...if so, that seems like a pretty backward way of doing it, though it does solve the 'how do I get it on my device' question. Still, the implied lack of real library management makes this little more than a curious experiment.

04:21 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

So we were promised that Adobe Reader 9 would load faster than previous versions -- but, let's be honest, performance and memory usage still pales compared to alternative PDF viewers like Foxit Reader. Along comes Shark007, who created a bloat-free version of the software by stripping it down to what's essential for reading most PDF documents.

The English "Lite" version can be downloaded from either of the following two locations:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Adobe_Reader_Lite_d5915.html
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...e/1215097676/1

Other languages are available, too, but currently only @ Rapidshare (which may expire at any time):

German: http://rapidshare.com/files/127654423/ar9lite_deu.exe
French: http://rapidshare.com/files/127656245/ar9lite_fra.exe
Japanese: http://rapidshare.com/files/127657969/ar9lite_jpn.exe

[via gHacks]

03:51 PM by TadW in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Yet another great newspaper for your Amazon Kindle... the Houston Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, can now be subscribed and downloaded wirelessly each day through Whispernet.

Link: Houston Chronicle (Kindle Edition)

06:03 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

What to do if you are not satisfied with any of the current e-book readers? Well, easy enough, build your own device! Seriously, meet Bismar, an Australian modder with a knack for shaping acrylic, who decided to turn his 9-inch 7-inch Asus Eee netbook into an e-book reader, called Tabeee MK-1. Hit the jump for the must-see photo gallery illustrating the process.

Project Tabeee Mk-1

Oh, did I mention it's going to have a touch-screen?

[via Engadget]