10:54 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Yeah, right.

Summary:
Fox recently released two titles on Blu-ray DVDs. These title utilize the latest DRM measures. This would be all well and good, except Fox forgot to check to see if the manufacturers have updated the player's firmware to give the player the ability to cope with the the new DRM. Most had not. It's not that the customers hadn't updated yet, the manufacturers were not yet done writing the firmware! Some players were still on the original 1.0 firmware.

Just remember: DRM is your friend.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...e-devices.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...ible-dvds.html

I don't know about you, but the fact they expect the customer to regularly upgrade the firmware really pisses me off.

02:45 AM by grimo1re in E-Book General | News

Do-it-yourself publisher Lulu.com has introduced an ebook optimisation service. With the new service, users can optimise their digital works for the Apple iPhone and the Sony Reader. Lulu's eBook Optimization reformats existing PDF files for viewing on an iPhone or Sony Reader for USD 25 per project. Lulu is an online service allows users to publish and sell their works in print-on-demand or digital format, with over 31 million registered users, 300,000 recently published titles and more than 4,000 new titles added each week, the company says. (Press release here)

09:47 AM by sein in More E-Book Readers | Bookeen

This seems to be the latest official release about the Cybook Gen3 (as on 7 Oct, 2007): its price, release deadline, formats, new design, etc

http://www.teleread.org/blog/

It says:

"From the Bookeen blog:

We have recently released the 0.98 version of the firmware. As announced previously, in this version we do support PDF format with some features as fit width, fit page, fit height and rotate 0°, 90°, 180°,270°.

The software will be ready on time and, as already said, the supported formats will be for this first release: Mobipocket (encrypted and unencrypted), HTML, PalmDoc, Txt and PDF. RTF and other formats supports will come on further firmware releases. The firmware update will, of course, be possible for every Cybook Gen3 possessor. The Cybook final design has been slightly modified, the surface treatment is not glossy anymore but keeps its soft touch. The navigation button has also been modified to be easier to press on.

Concerning our release date, the Cybook Gen3 will be definitely available before end of October. We will send very soon an official release date via our newsletter (subscribe here) and this blog. At this occasion we will also announce the opening of Cybook Gen3 pre-sales on our website.

Concerning the price we confirm a $350 for US territory and 350 Euros for Europe."

Sounds really interesting. Hope it goes on sale soon.

11:49 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's probably too short to be called an interview; nevertheless, it's quite revealing. BtoBonline asked E Ink CEO and president Russell J. Wilcox about the future of e-paper. His estimates:

• By 2008, more than 10 companies will sell e-readers (all monochrome and 6-inch);
• In 2008, we'll see e-readers with 8-inch and 10-inch screens;
• By 2009, we'll see e-readers with 11-inch and 12-inch screens;
• By end-2008, and more in 2009, around half a dozen manufacturers are likely to introduce products with flexible displays;
• By mid-2009, E Ink will strike with "really good" color capabilities.

Enough, I am still wiping the drool off my keyboard.

Full article: link

[via nxtbook]

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Been away? Fear not! Here is your chance to check out what appeared on our frontpage this week:

E-books - News

• Toshiba and Manganovel Take Manga Global in a New Way
• British Library books go digital

E-book Devices - Which one should I buy?

• Reader Question: How do you read technical books (.pdf/.chm/.html)?

E-book Devices - iRex iLiad

• iLiad Battery Upgrade - updated information

E-book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• Sony Reader PRS-505 - Press Release
• Sony Reader PRS-505 - Specifications
• Sony Reader PRS-505 - MobileRead's Conference Call with Sony

E-book Devices - Amazon Kindle

• Amazon Kindle: More signs that it will be released soon

Mobile Devices - Handhelds and Smartphones

• Keep track with ListPro 5
• New Sharp ALP (PalmOS compatible) device coming

01:14 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Michael Brown at Palm Addicts is reporting that "Emblaze Mobile, Sharp, and ACCESS ... are developing a device which will 'revolutionize mobile communication'. Emblaze claims they've been working on the device design for the past five years, and that Sharp will provide the hardware and ACCESS the software."

With the software coming from ACCESS (the former PalmSource), and hardware from Sharp (past maker of the Zaurus line of devices with nice keyboards and screens).

Michael also points out that this has a lot of potential in the near future because the ALP operating system is done, Sharp has proven its hardware abilities, and Emblaze has both the experience of producing a multimedia feature phone for youngsters (the Emblaze Touch 7) and the 5 years of work on this design.

The road seems tougher for Palm every day, but brighter for PalmOS users and developers at the same time.

Note: The associated picture is not the new device. It's a previous Zaurus non-phone model.

09:38 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

We have been expecting the Amazon Kindle e-ink e-book reader around Oct 15. Nobody seems to know if it will look like the pictures we have seen previously (ugly), but it's highly anticipated because of the Amazon name and their ownership of MobiPocket, with the associated huge catalog of book titles. The rumors indicate that wireless book purchasing may be in the mix, as well as an onboard keyboard.

Even more confirmations have appeared in the form of Kindle books for sale at Amazon. Engadget is reporting that there are Kindle Edition titles showing up. The example they give is set to a hefty price of about $54, but I'm sure that mass paperback titles will be more reasonable. At least after launch.

One cannot help but feel that the new devices are a sign of e-book market progress, especially when considering those from major companies like Sony and Amazon and Panasonic. We might find that we have had the whole chicken and the egg thing wrong after all - maybe the first step is not the DRM and format solution. Maybe what's going to really drive the market expansion is the popular devices as they become affordable.

Thanks to our members anotherchance and Studio717 for the tip.

04:22 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Which one should I buy?

E-books have come a long way. And e-book adopters often voraciously consume technical books. You know the sort of title I mean - "Maxternactive Parsing Systems for Dummies" or "Contravantous Sprinicking for Profit" or even trivial stuff like "RISC Processor Optimization for Linux Job Queing Algorithms".

We get involved in learning a new technology, and want to carry that book around everywhere. Plus, free .pdf and .html books on software development and topics like Linux are available all over. But without the right e-book device, it can be near impossible to read those e-books. In desperation, we end up buying paper versions. Or we are even read tiny fonts after converting the document to the Sony Reader with one of the nifty conversion programs available at MobileRead.

Some of the wiser among us with a few extra dollars knew from the beginning that only a bigger e-ink screen would do and got an iLiad. Or we read on a smaller device and live with the trade-off, happily focusing mostly on novels, which are reasonably pleasant to read on most any device, even down to tiny smart phone screens.

So here are the questions for you technical book readers:
* What kind of device do you read the technical e-books on?
* What original formats do you use, and how do you prepare/convert them?
* Are you happy with your solution? What would be better?
* Does your solution require perfect eyesight?
* Have you given up and decided to read the paper versions for now?

Let us know your failures and successes, but if you have a plan that works, be sure to share!