05:18 PM by delphidb96 in Archive | OpenInkpot

Right now, Ondrej, as part of Google Summer of Code (GSoC), has been hard at work porting Open Inkpot (a distro of Linux 2.6.x) to the Cybook Gen3. Clearly, work needs to be done to understand how the SD card and the USB port interface to the S3C2410 ARM CPU, but here's a photo of the OI kernel happily running. Note that the Cybook is now showing it's true colors!

Derek

09:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The Polymer Vision team has been so kind to offer us some one-on-one time later this week to answer questions from our community about the Readius device.

On the off-chance that you've spent the last few months living under a rock, the Readius is a foldable e-reader and mobile phone, expected to launch commercially later this year. For more base information and ongoing discussions, be sure to check out our Readius forum.

So let's cut right past the rumors and speculation and get some straight answers. This is your big chance to hear what you want to know, right from the source. To participate, please post your questions about the Readius in this thread and we will route the best of them to the Readius folks.

Deadline is July 9th, 11:59PM EDT (this coming Wednesday).

06:08 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Oh goodie, the big day is finally approaching. Karl McGoldrick, CEO of Polymer Vision, has announced the upcoming release of the Readius device, which has been setting our geeky hearts aflutter for some time now.

Our exclusive rollable display technology is the core around which we build our plans, and in the Autumn of this year we will launch Readius, the first pocket eReader. Readius offers the advantages of eReaders as known today - but now all neatly wrapped into a pocket sized device.

Readius is very much a data centered mobile product, designed around eBooks, eNews, RSS feeds, and receiving email messages. It is optimised for mobility by allowing instant access to hundreds of books from your pocket, while the integrated 3.5G data connection ensures high speed downloads of pre-ordered content and instant news updates on the go.

The first countries to get the Readius are England, Italy and Germany, according to the NYTimes. US Americans will have to wait until early 2009 before they can lay their hands on it. But don't expect the Readius to be a bargain (emphasis mine):

Thomas van der Zijden, vice president for marketing and sales, said the Readius would be more expensive than the Kindle, which now is selling for $359.

Specification:

• Dimensions (closed): 115 x 57 x 21 mm
• Dimensions (open): 115 x 160 x 21 mm
• Weight: 115g
• Display: 5-inch, 320 x 240, 16 grey levels, rollable organic thin film transistor backplane with electrophoretic front plane
• Interface: 5 touch (capacitive) buttons with optical feedback, tactile buttons for options, back and power
• CPU: ARM11 - 400MHz
• Memory: 128MB Ram, 256MB internal storage, High Capacity Micro SD external
• OS: MS Win CE
• Connectivity: GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band, UMTS/HSDPA Dual band, USB, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, DVB-H (optional)
• Power consumption: up to 30 hours active reading

So we got no information about supported e-book formats. But I found something about Content World, which seems to be a platform where users can fetch pre-formatted content for their Readius device:

Content chosen via Content World can either be free (for example RSS feeds, free e-books) or paid content (newspapers, e-books). After selection, the content can be transferred to Readius in 2 ways:

• download to the PC and subsequent USB side loading from PC to Readius®.
• over-the-air transfer of the content directly to Readius at defined future moments (for example once per day, or every hour). No PC connection is required for these regular over-the-air updates

So who is going to be the first to send us some juicy unboxing photos of the Readius ?

PS: To celebrate the upcoming launch, we've now opened our dedicated Readius forum!

06:08 PM by grimo1re in E-Book General | News

French mobile operator SFR is launching a e-book device. The e-Book SFR is apparently about as big as a paperback, weighs 175g and offers 10 to 15 hours of use, Telecompaper reports. Users can download content via SFR's 3G network or via Bluetooth. Several French newspapers will be available and the operator is also working with 7 publishers. SFR will test the service and device with 100 customers for three months. SFR has already said it will use DRM to protect the content. The company may launch the device commercially later this year, pending trial results.

Press release (French) here

(Perhaps a French speaking MR reader can dig up a picture of this device?)

06:08 PM by grimo1re in E-Book General | News

Nick Hornby has written a guest post on The Penguin Blog. Nick Hornby doesn't think e-books will take off.

His first point is one that's often heard: "Book readers like books (...) For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there." Right. I still think this isn't (entirely) true. While there are definitely some books I want in paper format, there are plenty of books I am more than happy to read only in digital format. Similar to the fact that I used to get a lot of books from the library and some books I really wanted to own and bought for myself. Obviously, I don't agree with Hornby on this one.

Here's another one I really don't agree with: "Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology." Need I even address this?

I also noticed this point: "But – and this is the most depressing reason – the truth is that people don’t like reading books much anyway (...)". I suppose that's true, and I agree with Hornby here: it is depressing indeed.

Anyway, have a read here, as he's got a few more arguments too.

06:59 AM by Hadrien in E-Book General | News

Feedbooks updated its RSS feature:

• Files are generated much faster
• Added support for ePub & Mobipocket
• New API endpoint for developers to create applications (such as iNewsStand on the iLiad)

The sweet part is probably for Kindle owners, or people using Mobipocket files on a wireless device. You can directly update your feeds/newspapers from your device. Create your own newspaper with your daily reading, click on the update link inside the file and you get your own newspaper every morning !
Detailed instructions for the Kindle are available on this thread.

If you'd like to test this feature, you can try the output for the Mobileread RSS feed.

Links:

• Main page: http://www.feedbooks.com/news
• Create a feed: http://www.feedbooks.com/feed
• Create a newspaper: http://www.feedbooks.com/newspaper/create

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

In case you've missed any MobileRead news from this week, here is our usual roundup:

E-Books - News and Commentary

• In Copyright? - Copyright Renewal Database launched
• Netronix has discontinued the EB-100, EB-200, EB-300!
• How publishers aim to tackle textbook piracy
• Adobe Reader V9.0 for Windows and Mac released
• Sony Reader to go unwired!
• The Kindle's success - all bluff?
• Adobe PDF 1.7 now an ISO standard

E-Books - Deals, Freebies, and Resources

• World eBook fair starts today

E-Books - Reading Software

• Mobipocket Reader for Java Phones - Alpha version released

E-Books - Recommendations and Reviews

• Chasing the Light - Steve Jordan's newest e-book is out!

E-Book Devices - Amazon Kindle

• Los Angeles Times Kindle Edition now available!
• Amazon UK tight-mouthed about possible Kindle launch

12:06 PM by DaleDe in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

The Third Annual World eBook Fair Starts July 4th. "Own Your Own Library" is the theme of this year's World eBook Fair.

Starting July 4th you will be able to do just that in an unprecedented opportunity to download books in the widest variety ever available.

All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:

eBooks in over 100 Different Languages!
eBooks designed for cell phones!
eBooks designed for Adobe readers!
eBooks designed for plain text readers!
eBooks out loud in theatrical performances!
eBooks that your computer can read aloud to you!
eBooks that can be easily quoted in school papers!
160,000 eBooks in brand new commercial editions!!!
Music, movies, etc. are also included. . . .

~100,000+ from Project Gutenberg
~500,000+ from The World Public Library
~450,000 from The Internet Archive
~160,000 from eBooks About Everything
----------
~1,210,000+ Grand Total as of July 1, 2008

http://www.worldebookfair.org/

Enjoy,
Dale