11:24 PM by Kakyou in E-Book General | News

As thanks to his blog readers, Neil Gaiman and his publisher have made American Gods available online for the next month.

You can view the book (no downloads) here

http://browseinside.harpercollins.co...lAccess_022208

Read his blog here for more details.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

11:34 AM by recycledelectron in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Please forgive the formatting of this post. I'm trying to explain something, but I'm not sure I'm very good at that.

BACKGROUND: I've been using my Sony PRS-505 for months now. (The Sony PRS-505 is an e-Ink based eBook reader & MP3 player that weighs under 1 pound, and has a battery life measured in days.) I love the ability to read books on the go, but regretting that everything has to be on a MSPD card or SD card. Those cards can cost $5 / GB, so they are too expensive to store a few terabytes (TB.)

NEW TECH GADGET: Yet another company (this time they are called HyperDrive) has released another battery-powered hard disk with a screen (this one is called the ColorSpace) that allows you to copy all the pics from a digital camera's memory card to it's internal hard disk. The logic is that you can store as many pics as you want, and not buy dozens of memory cards. OK, this is the 18th company to release one. (yawn)

GOOD NEWS: The HyperDrive ColorSpace will let you copy files back from the internal Hard Disk to the memory card. THIS IS THE FIRST COMPANY TO MAKE A CARD READER / BATTERY POWERED HARD DISK THAT CAN COPY BOTH WAYS. Previously discussed models often only had 1 button. They only copied from the card to the HDD.

With the ability to copy both ways, you can store massive amounts of information (books, pics, MP3, etc.) on your hard disk, and copy what you want to read over to your eBook reader.

This device even does data recovery from damaged cards & undeletes files.

TECH SPECS:
* No size limit on the SD, MSPD, or CF cards (all are tested to 16GB.)
* 4TB size limit on the 2.5" SATA 9.5mm HDD (available with 250GB installed.)
* Rechargeable via USB or another DC connector.
* Single 18650 Li-Ion rechargeable battery (user-replaceable.)
* Transfer <= 120GB per charge.
* ABS plastic case is slightly larger than a 2.5" hard disk.
* $149 + S/H for the bare machine, w/o HDD.

REFERENCES:
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/5431#comments
http://www.digitalreviews.net/review...he-go-rev.html
http://www.hyperdrive.com/
http://www.hyperdrive.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=27

SUMMARY:
I can buy the following and have a 1/2 TB library in less than 2 lbs:
* HyperDrive ColorSpace ($149)
* 500GB 2.5" SATA 9.5mm HDD ($169)
* Sony PRS-505 ($299)
* Solar USB Charger ($99)
* 2GB SD Cards ($9 each)
* 8GB MSPD Cards ($79 each)
* Padded Case

Andy Out!

11:08 AM by JSWolf in E-Book General | News

Found on engadget by m42, here is a sexy eBook reader with a nice touch screen.

It's likely that the Kindle's popularity is going to spawn a whole slew of e-books vying for the eyes of readers. A concept from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic at Monash University could very well stoke the fires of competition if his Livre ever makes it to store shelves. The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device's analog counterpart. Amazon's designers would be wise to, uh... take a page from Nedzad's book for the Kindle 2.

More photos and information can be found here.

07:03 AM by Patricia in E-Book General | News

A rather shallow article on the death of the paper book and the rise of e-reading.

A new generation of e-books is emerging that will challenge the real-book. Amazon launched its Kindle e-book device in November and sales have been strong. It may be expensive at $399 and there are as yet no plans to roll it out beyond the United States, but bibliophiles should be very afraid.

Link: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3359899.ece

(photo attribution)

03:36 PM by wallcraft in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

The 2007 Engadget Awards includes three E-Ink readers in the Handheld of the Year category. At the moment, the Kindle is running second to the Nokia 810.

The Kindle is also in the Gadget of the Year category, where it isn't doing so well (iPhone by a landslide).

Votes will be tallied until Saturday, March 1st.

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

My goodness, is it Sunday again? Well, for those of you who've missed the highs and lows of MobileRead over the past seven days, this is your one-way ticket to catch up:

E-Books - News

• Rumor: Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle Coming to the UK soon

E-Books - Elsewhere on the Net

• Nice blog article about MR uploads
• "Steal This Book" Available for free Download

E-Book Devices - iRex iLiad

• ArsTechnica reviews the iRex iLiad

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• Sony eBook Library cuts prices and adds titles

Mobile Devices - Portable AV

• Minidock adds a nice display to your portable device

Miscellaneous - Lounge

• Finally an e-ink device designed for the bathroom. The Paper Scale!

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• 4,000 e-book uploads? Yup, 4,000 uploads!
• MobileRead Logo and Tagline contests winners!

10:52 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

A big round of applause to renderstudio, who won our grand prize, the Amazon Kindle, for his adorable Wheelie-bot logo. The logo will appear on MobileRead after undergoing a small revision. As well, congratulations to Lexicon, whose Read more, carry less won the first prize, $50 in cash, for the catchiest tagline.

In addition, we have picked the runners-up for both contests in no particular order:

• aapezzuto, for his logo submission
• Barry_Tikkanen, for his logo submission
• nekokami, for her A Library in your Hand tagline
• aapezzuto (again!), for his Because libraries are heavy tagline

Every runner-up will receive a MobileRead t-shirt with the new logo.

We will be in touch with all of the above to arrange your prizes and (Paypal) addresses.

Thanks to all those who entered and voted.

10:10 AM by Madam Broshkina in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Finally an e-ink device designed for the bathroom. The Paper Scale!

http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php...9/paper-scale/

This was bound to happen but Duck Image Studio is the first (that we know of) to apply paper electronic technology to a scale. The ultra thin flexible scale combines a pressure sensing sheet that relays information to an e-paper display. It’s waterproof, easy to clean, and can be rolled up for storage.

In this particular example the technology is kept small in the form of a traditional scale but imagine a large bath mat or even floor tiles. Of course I’m not sure I’d want to know how much I weighed every time I stepped into the bathroom. This thing will only further solidify Americans are overweight and dammit I’m not ready to deal with my weight issues. Now excuse me while I eat my morning cinnamon bun.