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

04:25 AM by TadW in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

This Monday's edition of The Evening Standard (London) had a review of the Amazon Kindle (Is this the last great summer for paperbacks? - Kindle, an electronic reader that stores up to 200 books, is a hit in the US and could revolutionise the way we read). Overall, a very positive article.

Here is an interesting bit of information (although revealing nothing new really ):

For now, in any case, at the moment, the Kindle is only available in America. There have been reports that Amazon. co.uk plans to launch a version of it here in the autumn (perhaps using wi-fi, rather than a phone system?) but when I asked a spokesman for the company about this, he refused to comment, monotonously repeating we dont talk about future plans.

But it seems the Kindle has now begun to acquire some of the momentum that iPods picked up over other MP3 players; just as iPods changed the way we listen, so the Kindle may, by next summer, say, be impacting on the way many of us read.

I guess we'll have to sit and wait to see what autumn is going to bring us.

08:33 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Hot on the heels of yesterday's release of Adobe Reader 9 comes the news that Adobe's PDF format has turned into an international ISO standard. Vnunet reports:

"By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardisation we are reinforcing our commitment to openness," said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe.

ISO secretary-general Alan Bryden added: "As an ISO standard we can ensure that this useful and widely popular format is easily available to all interested stakeholders.

So what does this mean for us? For one, ISO is now in control of updating and developing the future specs of the PDF format. These specs will be open to all, so no more Adobe homebrew solutions. Perhaps we can also expect improved PDF support in upcoming e-book readers or firmware updates, now that everyone can build on the open specs.

You can access the open document specification under the ISO 32000-1 standard.

08:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Alright, a statement we've already heard before with no meaningful results, so take it with a grain of salt. Or a whole salt lick, actually. This time around, there is this guy from Seeking Alpha (a well-respected financial blog network), Prashanth Cherukuri, who makes no secret of being short in Amazon stock (i.e. betting on a decline to get a lot of money out of it), and who believes that everything we've heard so far about the Kindle's success is nothing but a fairy tale.

It is very obvious that Amazon's Kindle is a huge flop. In six months of traveling, I am yet to see a single person on any bus, train or plane with a Kindle in their hands. Contrast that with the iPod or iPhone or even the Sansa, where people can actually be seen using them everywhere.

Kindle isn't going to take off. Yes, there will always be technophiles and other early adopters that get one because it's new or somehow cool. But regardless of whether the Kindle succeeds or fizzles, the buzz-induced sales ramp will look about the same at this early a stage.

Find the full article over here.

Related: Amazon Kindle projections overrated?

02:29 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Folks, it's official (well kind of): A Sony Reader with wireless capabilities is in the works! Our friends at Gizmodo have the scoop:

Stan Glasgow [COO of Sony Electronics], at dinner tonight with a few journalists, told us that Sony plans to network 90% of all of their products, thousands of models, by 2010. ... Speaking of connectivity, Glaslow also mentioned that a Sony Reader E-book with wireless connectivity was being developed.

Not only is Sony continuing their plans to revolutionize the world of e-books (we haven't heard much else from Sony of late, have we?), but, better even, they probably understood that wireless delivery of content is what has made the Amazon Kindle undoubtedly so successful.

You opinion? Do we want a wireless Sony Reader?

05:39 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Don't place your bets just yet, but according to various beta reports, the new Adobe Reader 9, released only an hour ago for Windows and Mac computers, is claimed to load two to three times faster than previous Reader incarnations. Since it's free, why don't you give it a try?

Official reasons to upgrade:

• Improved launch speeds
• PDF Portfolios
• Native Adobe Flash® support
• Acrobat.com (beta)
• Improved CAD and geospatial functionality
• PDF Standards Pane
• Security enhancements
• Accessibility enhancements
• Adobe Reader 9 MUI

Link: Adobe Reader 9.0 Download

[via Adobe Blogs]

12:46 PM by TadW in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Great news for all LA Times fans... the LA Times is now available for the Kindle.

The Kindle Edition of Los Angeles Times contains articles found in the print edition, but will not include some images and tables. Also, some features such as the crossword puzzle, box scores and classifieds are not currently available. For your convenience, issues are automatically delivered wirelessly to your Kindle so you can read them each morning.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...plog_item_link

12:44 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Filthy pirates, watch out, new measures to tackle the growing menace of textbook piracy are on their way. It's not a secret that lawyers are constantly scouring the Net for illegally offered content. In fact, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Association of American Publishers has recently hired a law firm to go specifically against P2P sites and document-sharing sites like Scribd where infringing textbook material could be found.

"In any given two-week period we found from 60,000 files all the way up to 250,000 files," said Edward McCoyd, director of digital policy for the publishing association. Mr. McCoyd, who leads the Online Piracy Working Group, said the group has been performing periodic scans for piracy since 2001, and that it has seen a gradual increase in the number of titles available.

Remember the music industry? It doesn't take a genius to work out that this legal strategy will not stop piracy. If anything, it only creates an adversarial relationship between the industry and its audience. So what to do? Albert N. Greco, a professor at Fordham University's Graduate School of Business, came up with this ingenious idea:

He [Greco] said that if the problem worsens, publishers may have to take other steps to prevent piracy, such as releasing a new version of most textbooks every semester. The versions could include slight modifications that could be changed easily—such as altering the numbers in math problems.

So let's churn out new editions of textbooks every year with superficial changes, preventing debt-ridden students, a) from being able to purchase used, older editions, and b) from reselling the newly bought, overpriced book to the next semester student. I am sure this sensitive suggestion will eliminate book piracy forever. Just like expiring e-textbooks.

[via P2P Blog]