12:21 PM by eReaderSurvey in Miscellaneous | Introduce Yourself

EDITORS NOTE: Here's a chance to help out some university students and possibly have an impact on the future of e-reading devices. So, those of you with the time and inclination, please have a look.

-- NatCh

A group of students at the University of Michigan are looking at the usability heuristics of electronic portable reading devices (aka eReaders). We are currently conducting a survey and are offering you a chance to win a free, silver iPod Shuffle (http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/specs.html).

We are looking for participants who either do or don't have experience using eReader devices. The goal of this survey is to gather information regarding your daily reading habits and reading preferences. On analyzing the results, we hope to develop guidelines to design eReaders of the future.

Survey link: http://s-vx5e0-36247.sgizmo.com

Please pass our survey link to others who may have experience with eReaders, an interest in e-books or enjoy reading in general. Our survey will be available until Tuesday, March 11, 2008.

Thank you for your time and we appreciate your feedback.

04:58 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Nobody can question Cory Doctorow's expertise when it comes to writing award-winning Sci-Fi novels and advocating liberalized copyright laws. Whether he is also a good predictor of what the future holds for e-reader devices remains to be seen. From his latest Locus column, "Put Not Your Faith In Ebook Readers":

Frankly, book reading just isn't important enough to qualify for priority treatment in that marketplace. E-book readers to date have been either badly made, expensive, out-of-stock or some combination of all three. No one's making dedicated e-book readers in such quantity that the price drops to the cost of a paperback — the cost at which the average occasional reader may be tempted to take a flutter on one. Certainly, these things aren't being made in such quantity that they're being folded in as freebies with the Sunday paper or given away at the turnstiles at a ballgame to the majority of people who are non-book-readers.

I'm skeptical about selling ebooks as a business model (see my earlier column "You DO like reading off a screen" for more about this), but if I had to bet on a future for e-books, I would take long odds against a hardware reader catching on in any meaningful way.

Don't weep bitter tears just yet. There will always be someone of the chorus sounding the death knell for e-book devices; at the end of the day, though, extrodinary claims require extrodinary evidence. So far, e-book devices like the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle are experiencing a growth spurt. And I like to believe that this is just the beginning -- at least until someone convinces me of the contrary.

[via Boing Boing]

06:44 PM by NatCh in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader application teaches your cellphone to read aloud.

Here's a dandy product from knfb Reading Technology, Inc. that uses OCR and 'read aloud' software to allow camera-equipped cell phones to read text aloud to their users. This isn't really a new application, per se (though it's certainly new to me), but a new version of an existing one.

It has an impressive list of accessibility features, among them, reading PDF files on the phone is of particular interest. If I'm inferring correctly, it actually replaces the normal operating applications of the phone, but keeps the standard functions like phone calling intact.

Here are some of the things it can do:

• Reads most printed documents, from letters and memos to pages in a book
• Reads address labels and package information and instructions
• Easily recognizes U.S. currency
• Displays each sentence visually and highlights each word as it is read
• Stores thousands of pages using easily obtainable flash memory
• Transfers text files to and from computers or Braille note takers
• Adjusts reading speed to suit user’s preference.

The system evidently requires an unlocked GSM phone, and a carrier that will support it. As far as hardware requirements, here's that list:

• Operating system - Symbian S60, 3rd Ed, FP1
• Supported phone models - Nokia N82 (a bit thin here at the moment)
• Supported languages - US English or UK English
• On phone free flash storage - 50 Mb required
• Flash card storage - up to 500 images per GB
• Memory - 40 Mb free RAM required
• Camera - 5 megapixel, autofocus with xenon flash required

Some of the nifty things about it can do are: it apparently has specific reading modes for books, articles, labels, bills and memos; it includes text navigation by sentence, word, character; it has a user self-training feature for taking pictures; allows import/export TXT files; saves documents and image files either automatically, or manually; and it saves settings to and loads them from memory a card.

You can find out all the nitty gritty on it at knbf Reading Technology's website. The hat tip on this one goes to coolest-gadgets.com.

01:24 PM by kilofox in E-Book General | News

Article from the NY Times

Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books.

The trend will allow consumers who download audio books to freely transfer these digital files between devices like their computers, iPods and cellphones -- and conceivably share them with others. Dropping copying restrictions could also allow a variety of online retailers to start to sell audio book downloads.

With publishers like RH and Penguin releasing non-DRM audio books, one can only hope that publishers and authors might extend this to ebooks as well. I really think the tide is turning on DRM. However, I do think DRM is still good for any type of subscription/rental model.

12:14 PM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Which one should I buy?

Sony PRS505 meets the Amazon Kindle 1.X in a no holds barred knock-down, drag-out Domestic Disturbance!

We've had several good comparison pieces on the differences between these two devices, but this one brings a new facet into the question: husband/wife divide. It's a well written piece, with spirited discussion on all sides, and gets extra points for both style and its detailed look at the points that people who use the devices care about.

Will it finally settle the question as to which is better? Probably not, but it might help you decide which would be better for your needs, which is even better.

Some passages I particularly enjoyed:

On the Kindle:

One of the downsides of both the readers is that they are tied to the manufacturers’ stores (everyone wants to be like Apple’s iTunes). The difference here is that books on the Kindle cost less. When my wife and I compare prices for the same book, it is typically a couple dollars cheaper on my Kindle. I assume as competition increases, Sony will get their prices in line, although once you are locked into their platform all you can do is hope. Another cost saver is that Amazon will send you the first 20 or so pages of books in their store for free as a sample. The samples show up instantly and give me a chance to see if the book is going to be any good before I buy.

On the Reader:

Amazon shows the Kindle on its website as being as thick as a pencil. I don’t think so! And once you put it in its humongous case, forget about it. You may as well be carrying a 600 pg novel around with you! In contrast, the Sony IS as slim as a pencil and the sleek leather case adds about only 1/3 of an inch.

Of course neither writer is without their blind spots. For example, one bashes Sony for DRM and format locking, but he doesn't comment on the fact that Amazon sure seems to be doing exactly the same things. While the other phrases things more in terms of what she doesn't like the Kindle as much as the Sony, rather than why she likes the Sony more (a subtle distinction, but there you go).

In any case, the discussion does an nice job of highlighting several relative merits of the two machines, making it a good reference piece for those trying to choose between them.

The full piece can be found here.

Thanks to both Kingston and Stacy for pointing it out to us!

02:03 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Have you been meaning to grab a copy of one of Steve Jordan's e-books? Now's a great time to do it. All his books are on sale from March 2-8, 2008 for $1.50 at SteveJordanBooks. They are available in a number of DRM-free formats, and are a good read. He is known mostly for his thoughtful science fiction, and is also appreciated for his stance against DRM. He is an active member of the MobileRead forums, as well, so I hope you will consider supporting him by trying one of his titles.

And if you are already a Steve Jordan fan, be sure to check the bundle deals also.

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

Ok kids, time for the weekly roundup of what we've covered this week:

E-Books - News

• Free Neil Gaiman online ebook - American Gods
• London Guardian article on impact of ebooks on authors

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• TB storage for eBook readers...

E-Book Devices - Future E-Book Devices

• E-book concept combines leather and multi-touch

12:17 AM by Patricia in E-Book General | News

From the London Guardian, 28 Feb 2008: Kate Pullinger argues that in the shift from print to digital, writers are in danger of losing out big time. She is actually rather positive about the possibilities...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...t.digitalmedia

The opening section:
"Writers of the world arise! It's time to throw off the shackles of traditional publishing contracts and face a brand new digital future with a brand new set of priorities. Let's copy or, should I say, learn from our brothers and sisters in Hollywood: don't let the industry take our digital rights away! Give us our digital dues! In the shift from print to digital, writers are in danger of losing out big time.

Here in the UK, the book industry is suddenly waking up to the idea that there are many potential new platforms for content, aside from that much loved and reliable old technology, the book.

Ebook readers, such as the Kindle, which store hundreds of books at a time; ever more sophisticated phones that can handle and display content beautifully; computers we can't bear to be parted from that can morph from television portal to e-reader to web browser and back again; there will come a day when we will ask ourselves: why did I think filling up my tiny house with dusty old books was a good idea?"