11:10 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

We added the following three new handy features to MobileRead:

1. Explicitly search for attachments. Link

2. Track new posts and threads in real-time. Link

3. Invite your friends and family and receive referral credit for it. Link

As always, some features may not be available to guests. But why be a guest - registration is quick and painless and you immediately receive all the benefits.

Comments and suggestions are always welcomed.

11:05 AM by CommanderROR in E-Book General | News

Dear Mobilereaders,

just a few days ago we all saw the news about the Polymer Vision Readius, the rollable ePaper solution we have been hearing about for a while now.

It appears that the device is almost ready for prime time and we have been able to get a representative from PV to join our forums and answer your questions about the Readius and other upcoming Polymer Vision devices.

So now let's go, here is your chance to learn about - and perhaps even influence - the progress of a brand-new line of eReading solutions!

10:53 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

MobileRead just got a little bigger. We're super excited that we have four new members in our team: Patricia, Neko, Dale and Nate.

Have you been reading our e-book download section? Then you must know Patricia. Since she first joined MobileRead in May 2007, Patricia has been hand-converting and uploading the staggering number of nearly 600 e-books of works from the public domain. From Ludwig Wittgenstein to Karl Marx - among her uploads you'll find some of the most influential literature books ever written.

Nekokami, or neko as she is also known in our community, joined MobileRead in October last year. Neko has been participating in a great number of discussions, lending her wit and wisdom to both novice and seasoned e-book fans. She is also proud owner of an iRex iLiad and an eBookwise 1150 reader.

MobileRead fans will applaud DaleDe for his hard efforts in improving and expanding our Wiki. Dale, who joined us in August 2007, is also a regular contributor to our e-book discussions. And like Neko, he is proud owner of an eBookwise 1150 device.

Nate, or Nate the Great as many of you know him better, was among the first who ordered the Amazon Kindle on the day it was announced (no wait, it was even a couple of hours before that, that is when we revealed the Kindle product pages). Today Nate is the Kindle expert in our team. He joined MobileRead in April 2007 and has since then contributed to numerous discussions and provided us with latest news on e-books.

Please join me in welcoming these great additions to our team!

06:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

David of the fantastic TeleRead blog sat down and compared various E Ink-based alternatives to the Kindle Reader. It really comes down to three choices: the iRex iLiad (its screen "dwarfs the six-inch E Ink displays of rivals"), the Bookeen Cybook (support for "popular formats", including Mobipocket-DRM), and the Sony Reader ("cheapest of the pack", "clear-cut winner" in looks).

To be fair, there are a few more devices available, but those are harder to get and usually localized for a specific geographic region. For a good overview, check out the matrix in our Wiki.

David's full review can be found in this Publishers Weekly article.

06:58 PM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Why they are doing it:

The Amazon kindle provides convenience, but at the cost of freedom. When you purchase a kindle, you must agree to use the Digital Restriction Management (DRM) system. Since all of the Kindle ebooks you purchase from Amazon are in their proprietary DRM format, you are also promising to not share them with friends. And, because you promise to not circumvent the DRM, there is no way to move them to another device or a computer. You are locked into the Kindle and you are locked into Amazon. If you try to move them to a new ebook reader or a computer, Amazon can end your service and remove access to the books you have already purchased.

It seems that Amazon only cares to oppose DRM when they can profit from it, such as when they advertise their MP3's as "Play Anywhere, DRM-Free Downloads." The same is not true for Kindle ebooks. Perhaps if they were honest they would advertise their ebooks as "Play Only Here, DRM-Laden Kindle Ebooks."

Many people will accept the restrictions that come with the Kindle, but, they should know that their decision won't only effect just themselves. If enough people accept the DRM on ebooks, there will be no incentive in the future for Amazon, or anybody else to offer non-DRM ebooks. We are threatened by the market establishing a new cultural precedence in which books become bound to our devices, unable to be shared, and unable to be moved over to a new device or competing system. We must reject DRM on ebooks and we must reject the Kindle. Please help us in letting people know that the Kindle it is nothing more than a swindle.

from:
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/1097

So what do they want you to do?

Amazon.com, perhaps the largest internet retailer, has a system of "tagging" products on its US site. You can look at a product and add a tag that describes it. As products get tagged over and over again with a particular tag, that tag surfaces to the top of the list, and displays in larger text in some views. There is also a page for pictures and discussions of the tag.

Amazon makes it very easy to tag pages if you have javascript enabled.

* Go to a product page.
* Press "tt".
* Enter the tags: kindle swindle, defectivebydesign, drm

from:
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/node/1096

I don't know about you, but when I read this I laughed my butt off.

04:04 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Hasn't it bothered you to be stuck with Amazon when making e-book purchases for your Kindle reader? Well, our famed reverse-engineer friend igorsk wrote his own application ("Mobipocket PID calculator for Amazon Kindle") to generate a valid Mobipocket PID from your Kindle's serial number. You use this PID to make your Mobipocket purchases; afterwards, you use another tiny application ("The Kindleizer") to convert the purchased Mobipocket e-books into a format that the Kindle would accept.

No question, this development will delight all Kindle customers but perhaps provide no small amount of frustration to the good folks over at Amazon.

You can download the tools (written in Python) over here: link removed on Amazon's request

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

Psst, guys, cat's out of the bag, today Dymocks officially launched the first e-book reader in Australia -- and it's the iRex iLiad! Without doubt, its 8.1-inch 1024 x 768 screen is the best money can buy today. And speaking about money, diligent MobileReaders discovered that you can still save a few bucks if you order through iRex's international webstore instead of buying it directly from Dymocks.

Thanks to eagle-eyed Sianon and Stephen Dole.

Related: Dymocks announces their new ebook reader

01:32 AM by Stephen Cole in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

[Stephen is founder of e-book retailer eBooks.com. The eb20 Reader he's introducing could become quite the killer application -- I'm curious if you agree. --Alex]

At Wallcraft's suggestion, here's some information about our new-ish online ebook reader. I say new-ish, because it's been out for nearly a year, but has received a fair amount of attention in the past few weeks because of partnerships we've announced with Dymocks Booksellers in Australia and Cambridge University Press. Both companies chose eb20 as their platform for providing online access to their customers.

Because of the commercial nature of this post, I'll keep my comments to a minimum, but I would be glad to hear your thoughts on the reader, and especially any criticism or suggestions.

You can see the reader in action here. To access the ebook, you'll need to register, which is free.

The idea behind eb20 Reader is that anyone who buys a book from eBooks.com or Dymocks also acquires perpetual online access to the work via eb20. Almost all of the 400 publishers who provide ebooks to Ebooks Corp have signed on to the eb20 program.

One of the virtues of eb20 Reader is that it's really just a web page, and there's nothing for the user to install. This is particularly good for people who are new to ebooks, who often get beaten to a pulp by the complexities involved in DRM reader software. But also, many of our customers have said they rather like the sense of security that we're minding their books for them. If their device is lost or dies, they can always log in and start reading where they left off; or download another copy.

The two biggest deficiencies at present are a) there's no zoom function (which we're working on now) and b) no read-aloud function, which is a whole big thing. Not scheduled yet.

Best wishes,

Stephen Cole
Managing Director
Ebooks Corporation Limited