11:51 PM by Nate the great in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

UPDATE:The Amazon Kindle has been out for over a year. Now is a good time to update this beginner's guide to content.

1. First things first: Kindle Edition e-books are only slightly different from DRM'ed Mobipocket e-books. If not for the DRM, the Kindle would be just another Mobipocket e-reader. You need to know this, otherwise you might be puzzled by the following.

2. Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 will recognize the Kindle as a reading device, and synchronize your e-books and RSS feeds correctly. This is important because Mobipocket disabled this feature in next version of the Desktop software (6.1), where the Kindle is no longer recognized as a reader device but only as a USB drive. You can download Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 here. A note of caution: If you already have a later version of Mobipocket Desktop, you will need to uninstall it first. Be careful though. If you are using the current installation to support your existing DRM'ed Mobipocket e-books, you will need to re-download them after you reinstall the older Mobipocket software. If you can't download your e-books again for whatever reason, you perhaps shouldn't uninstall the existing software.

   EDIT: You can also use calibre to support your Kindle. Calibre runs natively on XP, OSX, and Linux. It is better than MobiDesktop in every way. You can download it here.

3. There are over 34k newsfeeds available through Mobipocket Desktop. The process is simple to set up; you select the feeds, and set them to be downloaded onto your device. Downloading the feeds to your Kindle is automatic. Click here for a partial list of feeds that have full articles attached.

   EDIT: Calibre can also download newsfeeds, as well as an entire day's content of a news website like the NY Times.

4. Because the Kindle and Mobipocket e-book formats are basically identical, it is possible to buy an e-book in Mobipocket and (with some work) load it onto your Kindle. However, I currently know of only two retailers where you can officially do this (if you want to know why, click here). These are Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard. It may also work at your local library, if it offers Mobipocket e-books.

   There are several steps required. The first is to tell the retailer the PID of your Kindle. If you have Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 installed, you can find the Kindle's PID under the reading devices menu. Next, you need to download igorsk's hack (<<direct download link removed>>, and a python interpreter. For more information, click here. If you have trouble, ask for help here.

5. One neat feature of the Kindle is its ability to download e-books from the Internet directly onto your device. Feedbooks has an e-book guide full of links to free e-books. Personally I think it's one of the best sites on the Internet. You can download the guide here and learn more here. Munsey's is another site with excellent quality content. They also have a mobile version of their site here.

   EDIT: At the beginning of February, Amazon added around 7k free public domain ebooks to the Kindle store.The ebooks you will find through the links I provided above are much better quality.
   

6. This last part is about my preferred e-book format, Microsoft .LIT (Microsoft Reader). I prefer this format because it lets me protect my e-book investment. While I certainly won't explain how to strip DRM, I will say that to convert your purchased .LIT e-books, you need to download and install two components: ConvertLIT and Mobipocket Creator. When you run ConvertLIT, it will explode the .LIT file into its single parts. After this you need to click on the OPF file; Mobipocket Creator should open automatically. Then all you have to do is click on "make the book". The output will be a nearly perfect conversion.

P.S. There are a few things I left out, like the Kindle Easter Eggs. But I think I included enough to get a beginner off to a good start!

06:17 PM by SpiderMatt in E-Book General | News

The New York Times just put up this article on ebooks and the future of reading. It's much more optimistic about the future of reading and has some figures people might be interested in.

The object we are accustomed to calling a book is undergoing a profound modification as it is stripped of its physical shell. Kindle’s long-term success is still unknown, but Amazon should be credited with imaginatively redefining its original product line, replacing the book business with the reading business.

Overall, it's a pretty good article.

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

If you've been absent and are keen to find out what MobileRead was up to this week, check out the links below:

E-Books - News

• Philips Readius...now with...cellphone?

E-Books - Elsewhere on the Net

• Feedbooks: New Mobile Edition
• Jeffrey Thomas's "Deadstock" - free e-book download

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• Sony Reader Valentines Special ... with a little something extra? (and is D&B back?)

E-Book Devices - Bookeen Cybook Gen3

• Bookeen Cybook Gen 3 Shipping Update

Mobile Devices - Handhelds and Smartphones

• PDF viewing solutions for mobile devices
• RUMOR: New Iphone out this Summer?

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• MobileRead Logo Contest: Let's vote!
• MobileRead Tagline Contest: Let's vote!

05:46 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Jeffrey Thomas's novel Deadstock sounds like an excellent evening-filler for those who enjoy hard-SciFi action:

Punktown, crime-ridden metropolis on the colony world, Oasis, is home to the scum of countless alien races. Stalking its mean streets is Jeremy Stake, the private detective with chameleon-like abilities he does not want and cannot control. There's his wealthy client, Fukuda, whose company makes synthetic life forms as playthings for the rich. Then there's Fukuda's beautiful teenage daughter, whose priceless one-of-a-kind living doll has been stolen. And there is the doll itself, growing in size, intelligence, and resentment.

The destinies of all these individuals will converge, and collide, in Punktown.

True, "Punktown" sounds a bit cheesy; but that's part of the allure, is it not? You can download the book for free in PDF format, with Mobipocket format coming soon.

[via FantasyBookSpot]

10:18 PM by Nate the great in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Mike Elgan, over at ComputerWorld, has this theory that aPple might announce a new Iphone this summer. Here's why.

1. Sales are trending down.

The Financial Times reports that iPhone sales in the U.K. fell below expectations in the previous quarter. Apple reportedly sold 190,000 iPhones in the U.K. since its launch Nov. 9, which is less than the carrier's target of 200,000 and Gartner's estimate of 350,000 to 400,000. Overall, European sales are similarly below projections.

Apple reportedly lowered projected shipments of iPhones for the current quarter (from January through March) from 2 million iPhones to between 1 million and 1.2 million (based on information from Taiwanese iPhone component suppliers).

2. A prediction of 10 million sold by the end of 2008.

Here's the most interesting bit: Given all this data pointing to high inventory, lowered shipments and "disappointing" sales, why did Apple's Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer say Tuesday that Apple "felt confident" about reaching its goal of 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008?

I think he might be right.

11:48 AM by Nate the great in More E-Book Readers | Bookeen

One member received an email from Bookeen that stated:

Les expéditions recommencent dès demain jeudi 24 janvier.
Les articles manquants seront expédiés en mode postal standard avant la fin du mois.

Bookeen annnounced that the recent pause in shipping included any outstanding accessories from previously shipped orders. Shipping will start again tomorrow.

Thanks, Snuffi, for letting us know.

11:06 AM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Sony's got a new Valentine's Day deal, but could it contain a clue of something new to come?

Those of you who are on the Sony's eBook Store newsletter (still featuring "Connect" in its name and title ) will know that Sony has announced a new Valentine's Day special.

$299.99 gets you a PRS505 (once they're off back-order, anyway), a bundle of 14 Harlequin novels, and the usual stuff we know about, plus ...

Here's the something new: careful reading of the advert and product listing pages reveals that this deal includes a "stylish 'Cross Your Heart' protective cover from SkinIt."

A quick and dirty search of SkinIt's website reveals no trace of a cover for PRS505 nor Sony Reader. But it stands to reason that if they're making the things for Sony to bundle, they'll sell them on their own eventually, right?

As an extra added bonus for those who are still bummed about not being able to get in on last Valentine's Day's special edition Dooney & Bourke Reader: because I'm (sometimes) an observant sort, I noticed that there are links on the product listing page for special edition D&B covers for the 505 in Black and Brown, each with simulated crocodile texturing and a matching key-chain for a piddlin' $149.99. I don't know how long they've been there, but I haven't seen them mentioned here, so it probably hasn't been too long.

The shape of the key-chain reminds me of one of those old style soda can pulls (for those who remember when they came off), but hey, what I know about fashion wouldn't fill a thimble, so there you go.

To me, the most interesting bit in all this is the possibility, probability to my mind, that SkinIt will begin offering skins for the Reader. They have a very wide variety of designs in all sorts of genres from sports to colleges to comic book characters. Something for lots of people, if not quite everyone.

So, has anyone been holding out for the Harlequin bundle and now will run out and buy a Reader? How about the new D&B covers? Anyone on a rampage for one of those?

08:12 PM by Hadrien in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Feedbooks just launched a mobile edition at: http://feedbooks.mobi/

I'd love to get some feedback from Kindle users (screenshots ?) or PDA/Smartphone users.

Currently, the mobile edition will focus on public domain and creative commons books with both Mobipocket & epub available. You can access:

• Books
• Authors
• Types
• Recently added books
• Top downloaded books
• Recommendations
• Lists

We'll add support for the rest of our service later (user generated content, RSS).
Alternative URL: http://feedbooks.com/mobile