12:34 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

We know that the New York Times' widely read technology columnist David Pogue has had some bad experience with e-book piracy, but was it unavoidable? No, says TidBITS publisher Adam Engst, citing heartening sales numbers of his Take Control series of e-books (which were "reasonably priced" and free of DRM technologies). Mr. Engst concludes:

I normally appreciate what Pogue has to say in his print and email columns due to the way his technology sensibilities have been honed by years of being a Mac user. But in this situation, and I say this with all respect due to a fellow author with whom I've written a book, I disagree with him pretty much completely. ... I've proved over four years that ebook piracy is not a fact of Internet nature, and I'd argue that it's something that all authors could both control and profit from. The trick, as always, is to watch how the recording industry behaves and do the opposite. Bring on the iTunes Store for ebooks, Apple, and make the Kindle better, Amazon!

Read his full response to Mr. Pogue, it's highly recommended!

Thanks to lee1234 for the tip!

05:44 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's not a secret that earlier this year, troubled Borders hired a pair of Wall Street investment banks to explore "strategic alternatives," including a sale of the company. Luckily (for them), a sale has been avoided so far. Instead, the bookstore chain announced today that it would sell its 30 superstores in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand to the area's leading book retailer.

Upon closing of the transaction, Borders Group will receive proceeds of approximately $95 million (AUD) or approximately $90 million (USD based on current exchange rates). Additional deferred payments of up to $15 million (AUD) or approximately $14 million (USD based on current exchange rates) will be paid to Borders Group on or about March 31, 2009 if certain performance targets are achieved.

And what should they do with an additional financing of around $90 million, besides reducing their debt?

The Motley Fool has the answer (on the off-chance it didn't immediately pop to your mind):

Borders isn't going away, but times have changed in the bookselling industry... Online discounters like Amazon.com and Overstock.com are now chiseling away at the big-box bookstores' market share. Superstore chains will also eventually worry about e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader, since digital delivery has little need for an old-school intermediary.

Instead of paying down its debt, Borders should earmark those funds to dream up a Kindle killer while Amazon's reader is still vulnerable in the crib. Absent that, bookselling superstores will only continue to fade in relevance. If Borders doesn't evolve, losing a foothold in Oz will be the least of its worries.

04:42 AM by Argel in E-Book General | News

According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, Amazon's UK operation has contradicted previous rumours of a Kindle launch in the UK this year.

A spokesman for Amazon's UK division said today that the company had no plans to introduce the Kindle in this country, or anywhere outside the US.

The Guardian

04:08 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

While this doesn't mark the first time that we've caught wind of Penguin's recent efforts in e-books, it certainly is balm for my battered soul to hear the CEO speak out so positively about them:

I got the Sony Reader, and then I got the Kindle as well, and I never thought I would like it, but I do. Now on the Kindle I download manuscripts so I don't have to lug them. I took a 1,250-page manuscript the other day when I flew out of New York, and I stuck it on my Kindle. It was like, thank God I don't have to carry this [paper] thing and then feel guilty because I'm tearing up the pages because I don't want anyone to find it because it's not edited yet, and I don't want to carry it all the way back (laughter). So this is the answer to my prayers.

I think we have interesting times ahead of us on the e-book. We don't know yet what the price point on the e-book should be. On the one hand, we have people who say it's nothing but magnetic dots and dashes, it should be this [low] price. And I feel that it's a tremendous convenience to offer this format and that once you get into it it's the same reading experience and enjoyment for your money as if you had to carry this big hardcover around, so we're charging full price for it.

Alas, he doesn't agree with my personal feeling that e-books should sell at a considerable discount to p-books. Oh well.

Check out the Houston Chronicle for the full interview with Penguin Group's CEO David Shanks.

Related: Penguin USA to release back-list titles as e-books, Penguin to publish new titles simultaneously as e-books

03:23 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Reuters comes with the story this morning that HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman is resigning, and according to Rupert Murdoch, in order to "seek new challenges at this point in her career." Gawker, who came out with the initially scoop, speculates whether Mrs Friedman was actually fired.

We're hearing a wild rumor that Jane Friedman was just fired from her perch atop News Corp.'s HarperCollins. If true, this would sure lend a hefty dose of irony to the publishing executive's quote in the Observer today, gleaned from an industry party on the Twentieth Century Fox lot Saturday: “I love being CEO of HarperCollins!”

The Observer quotes a source confirming Friedman's departure... The Observer's source claims that Friedman left of her own accord, and has been planning to exit for some time. How weird, then, that she made her "I love being CEO" proclamation Saturday. Apparently it was some sort of joke.

10:44 PM by Nate the great in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Author's note: I've gotten the feeling lately that most people here think Eink screens are the wave of the future, and LCDs have little to offer. Okay, not all y'all think this, but it's the dominant meme of this forum, and it's certainly the impression we give to newcomers.

The 360LX was one of Hewlett-Packard's first Handheld PCs (HPC). (There are earlier models, but I don't recommend them for reasons of software incompatibility.) It was released in 1997. It has a 60Mhz CPU, 8MB RAM, CF card slot, PC card slot, keyboard, touchscreen, and runs WinCE 2.0.

The screen is the main reason I decided to buy one. When HP started developing HPCs, they decided to ignore the standard set by Microsoft and use a 6" HVGA widescreen with a resolution of 640 by 240. This was a brilliant decision; it's hard for me to describe exactly how much more useful this screen is when compared to a regular PDA.

The first nice feature is the backlight because it can be turned off. I've tried the 360LX under may lighting conditions (from bright sunlight to a darkened room), and it has worked in all lighting conditions. Plus, there are keyboard buttons for the back light and contrast. I don't have to be able to read the screen in order to adjust it.

The next great feature is the battery. The 360LX runs on 2 AA batteries. It also has a backup battery, and supports hot swapping the AAs. I think I've gotten about 7 hours use from a pair of rechargeables. The battery situation is also something of a weakpoint; you have to make sure they don't die on you.

I'm not going to discuss the many other things you could do with the 360LX; I'm going to leave that to a masochist. The program load time is too long and the RAM is too small to start and run multiple programs. Also, the screen is grayscale, and some programs won't be able to cope. But it's fine if all you run is Mobipocket, and simply leave it open.

Reading Experience
I only tested Mobipocket because It's what I use regularly. I used this one; the later versions don't work. I found it to be quite usable.The screen refresh speed is adequate. Unfortunately, this won't become my main reader because there is a bug in this version of the Mobipocket Reader. Screen rotation does not work, so I can't hold it vertically and read. Plus, dictionary lookup is very slow.

Pro:
runs on 2 AA batteries
supports Mobipocket
keyboard
big screen (compared to a PDA)
pocketable
back light can be turned on & off

Con:
slow program loading
slow dictionary lookup
Mobipocket Reader doesn't support screen rotation
weighs just over a pound
menu is in Portuguese

Cost: $65*
$55 HP 360LX
$10 1GB CF card
*(I don't include the cost of the batteries or card reader because I already had them.)

My recommendation:
It's a pretty decent reader for the price. I found it on Ebay from a seller I highly recommend (usedhandhelds). He has quite a few left.

02:00 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

We added a couple of new features to our e-book section:

1. Track the latest e-book uploads via RSS feed: http://feeds.mobileread.com/mr/ebooks

2. Download the always up-to-date e-book list in html or text

3. Batch-edit the genres of your uploaded e-books: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebo...?do=editprefix

The third feature is useful if you've already added a couple of books before we introduced genres and want to update them now in a more convenient and nerve-saving way.

Enjoy!

11:59 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Well, now we know. Not even fires and explosions can keep the folks at TeleRead down. It looks to me like they're back and good as new.

If you are a long time TeleRead follower, then hurry on back for all the freshest news. And if you haven't checked them out yet, well, what are you waiting for?