05:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Caution: Writing down book prices might infringe intellectual property and get you thrown out of bookstores. No kidding, as it happened at the Harvard Coop bookstore.

Jarret A. Zafran '09 said he was asked to leave the Coop after writing down the prices of six books required for a junior Social Studies tutorial he hopes to take.

"I'm a junior and every semester I do the same thing. I go and look up the author and the cost and order the ones that are cheaper online and then go back to the Coop to get the rest," Zafran said.

"I'm not a rival bookstore, I'm a student with an I.D.," he added.

Coop President Jerry P. Murphy '73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes."

Read the full story at The Harvard Crimson.

[via Techdirt via BoingBoing]

02:37 AM by grimo1re in E-Book General | News

Borders has signed an agreement with Sony that expands their existing relationship for the sale of the Reader Digital Book, and includes a new, co-branded version of Sony's online store for e-book downloads.

Under the agreement, Borders will expand the sale of the Reader to over 500 of its stores nationwide beginning in October. Currently, the Reader is sold in approximately 270 Borders stores. Furthermore, Borders will launch a co-branded online store with support from Sony that will offer more than 20,000 digital downloads of e-books. Eventually, the co-branded e-book store will be offered as part of Borders' upcoming e-commerce site, Borders.com.

Full press release: Link

Related: Borders online bookstore beta

07:15 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Any discussion about e-book reading devices brings preconceptions about context, especially when discussing dedicated e-ink devices versus smart phones and PDAs. Everyone uses their devices differently, and therefore considers feature trade offs from a slightly unique perspective. As a result, it seems to be relevant to briefly describe how I use my Treo 700p PalmOS smart phone.

It is particularly relevant to me at this time because I just received my insurance-covered replacement device, and so I needed to take inventory of what's on the phone in order to load the new device from scratch. (Not absolutely necessary because I have a backup on my SD card, but due to OS version differences and the desire to get a "clean" and reliable device, I prefer to reload everything.)

So here's what's on my "souped up" e-book reader and phone:

eBooks

* eReader - My favorite way to read e-books on a PalmOS smart phone. But that's a personal thing. Other people have their own favorites. I like the dictionary, the little clock icon, and the relatively non-intrusive DRM.
* myBible/DailyReader - This is from Laridian, and has the nice One Year Bible reading plan which integrates an OT/NT/Ps/Pr reading each day for pleasant variety.

Some of you may be surprised that I don't have an RSS feed reader (I use Bloglines via the browser), or Plucker/iSilo/MobiPocket/RepliGo/etc. Oddly enough, I used them less and less, especially with multiple computers making the clipping and syncing less useful. So why install them? But I do highly recommend them for their purposes and may return to them at any time, for example if I begin to use Sunrise again, which is an awesome program for collecting web and RSS news on the handheld.

Audio/Video

* CorePlayer - The "new" pay version of TCPMP, which I use mostly as a video player. It's very good, but it does soft reset my device much of the time on exiting. Hasn't quite lived up to the hype yet, and the license validation is a bit intimidating. But I used the wonderful free TCPMP so happily, that I felt I wanted to support those folks by buying the new program.
* TCPMP - I keep this on my device because it's just as good, and with two programs, I can keep my separate place in a video or playlist. Not so easy if you don't have two programs yet.
* Kinoma Player - I have the deluxe version upgrade. I use it for streaming video mostly.
* Pocket Tunes Deluxe - I love this program!!! I borrow audio books for free from my local library and this program supports the DRM. It does streaming audio. It has a wonderful MP3 player interface. I don't know why anyone would have a Treo without it.

PIM/PDA stuff

* DateBk5 - A wonderful upgrade of the built in calendar program. I suppose DateBk6 might be better, but I really didn't have any need to upgrade, so I prefer to stay with what's comfortable. I don't like to use too many non-generic features anyway, because I never know when I'll be changing platforms.
* Date Wheel - From Creative Algorithms. At first I thought it was useless. Then I started to use it. It's fantastic, if for nothing else than counting down the days/weeks/months to a big event. Also good for calculating days or weekdays between dates.
* eWallet - Great password vault. Has Palm and Windows Mobile versions, and a great integrated desktop version.
* Day Notez - This is the "right hand page" of the old Franklin Planner. I can journal what I do or what I accomplish during the day on it.
* Pennovate Notes - A great note taking program that lets you write or draw with the sylus on the screen. It works surprisingly well despite marginal precision of the touchscreen, and the tiny size of the screen. If I am stuck without paper and need to jot down a note, this will do nicely in a pinch. The technology is still not as nice as "real paper", but it's very convenient and always with me.
* Call Rec - Lets you record voice notes or dictation. Also can record phone calls, which is something that I don't think you can do with Win Mobile phones. The mic on my Treo is so good that it also works better than one of those micro cassette recorders that I used before, and you can even use it to record a meeting.

Extras

* Google Maps - Free download from Google, and gives nice mapping and step by step driving instructions (which have a map page for each step). No GPS, but I find that GPS is usually not needed anyway.
* Directory Assistant - I use this mostly for phone book lookups. I suppose I could just do that in the web, but the interface is faster and easier.

Core File Utilities

* BackupBuddyVFS - A great program that does automated backups to my SD card at 4am every morning. This program has saved me more than once. Similar to Sprite backup for Win Mobile.
* FileZ - The free file explorer that's a high quality must-have utility
* RescoExplorer - Slightly fancier product than FileZ. I like to use both.
* Card Reader - Lets me mount my SD card in the Treo via a USB cable as an external USB drive. In other words, the Treo becomes the SD card reader.

Built-In Functionality

* PIM functions (Addr/ToDo/Memo/Calendar)
* Alarm Clock (World Clock) - Wakes me up every morning)
* Blazer web browser - Barely adequate, but I use it a lot when not home
* Documents To Go - Brings MS Office compatibility
* VersaMail - Great email program that reaches my ISP and Gmail accts
* Camera/VideoCam - It's wonderful to have this available all the time, e.g. birthday events or house hunting or whatever.
* Calculator - I use this all the time, both in basic and advanced modes, and the weight/size/etc conversions are wonderful also. This is an amazing program that I would hate to do without.

Oddly enough, while the list looks long, I think it's pretty clear that I've pruned it down to what are "the basics" for me. In previous years, I have had a tendency to want everything on the device. There are so many great programs, and they all have their place or are fun. But I don't like to think about the device much anymore. I just want to use it and be as trouble free as possible. If I can't even remember I have a program on the Treo (something that happens often if I don't use the program much), I might as well not load it up.

So, when you see my needs, you begin to understand my mobile device preferences (as I think we would see for other people also when looking at their preferences in light of their uses.) I do eBook reading, play or stream audio/video and audiobooks and podcasts, use it as a personal information manager with note taking and calculator, etc. And I expect some basic level of file and backup utilities to make life easy. That means that pretty much any solid mobile OS will work for me if the programs are mature and solid. In particular, I look forward to the new PalmOS on Linux, the new Access ALP, and the MID devices. They will eventually be exactly what I'm looking for.

The Sony Reader fits into the mix because it is great for reading at home or on trips, and the screen is far superior. But I can carry books around on my Treo for ever present back lit reading in eReader (some books bought and some are Public Domain formatted myself). I just wish I could read the same e-book on both and keep them in sync easily so I could just pick either up and continue reading.

And, btw, I even use it as a phone every now and then.

Is my Treo usage fairly typical? How do you use your smart phone? Does anyone read on both a smart phone (or PDA) and a dedicated e-book reading device?

02:30 PM by jasonkchapman in E-Book General | News

I don't know if this belongs in the News section or not. If not, please feel free to move it.

This article from Adweek (Will E-Books Get Lost in Translation?) demonstrates just how far out in left field the industry is when it comes to e-books.

Clearly, the HarperCollins iPhone experiment has nothing to do with e-books. It's all about using the iPhone as another marketing tool. They don't care about the actual reading experience. They're just hoping to sell more p-books.

Read the whole thing and pay close attention to the comments from publishing company representatives. They just don't get it. Why does it seem like authors and readers live in one universe, and publishers in another?

10:59 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book Formats | ePub

Fans of Feedbooks will be happy to learn that the new ePub standard will soon be supported in addition to PDF A4, Sony Reader, iLiad and custom PDF.

Teleblog is reporting the following tidbit... "'Feedbooks will have on-the-fly .epub files this month,' reports Hadrien. 'We’ll enable this feature on books first and then on RSS feeds too. In the future, we’ll work on improving the overall look of these .epub files and would also like to add a ‘custom .epub’ feature on the website, where anyone will be able to easily customize the CSS and layout of the book.'

From the Feedbooks site, "Feedbooks is a project in development in Paris, France. Our main focus is to create a complete experience for e-ink readers and other portable reading devices... Made with e-paper devices in mind (Sony PRS-500 & iRex iLiad), Feedbooks is a complete experience for mobile reading. Anyone can easily publish content, and customize the formatting."

04:28 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

The Borders online bookstore beta is available now.

Good news for e-book fans, you might think, as Borders stocks the Sony Reader in its stores. Well, maybe not. There's no sign of the Sony Reader, and when you search for "ebooks", you get the following sad message... "Did you mean books?"

Oh well.

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

Previously at MobileRead:

E-books - News

• Imagine an e-book subscription that includes every book in the world
• ePub becomes the official IDPF standard!
• TBS to debut cell phone web site for e-books
• How Mobipocket DRM can drive away customers
• Why Adobe may be good for the new ePub standard e-book format

E-books - Content

• How to read e-books on (almost) any phone

E-book Devices - Which one should I buy?

• Tricky Question of the Day: I want a book... where should I buy it?

E-book Devices - iRex iLiad

• French daily Les Echos for iLiad and STAReBook users
• Hot off the press: iRex iLiad V2 available

E-book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• From an Unlikely Source: A First Peek at the New Sony Reader Model?

E-book Devices - Bookeen Cybook Gen3

• Cybook Gen3 expected to ship this month, despite production delays

E-book Devices - Amazon Kindle

• Amazon Kindle likely launch date: October 15!
• Kindle Launch at Frankfurt Book Fair?

E-book Devices - Future E-Book Devices

• ETI (makers of the EB1100) may indeed be working on an E Ink device!

Miscellaneous - Lounge

• E-Books, Still a Niche Hobby?

08:16 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book Formats | Workshop

Did you know that you can read e-books on almost any phone, even if it isn't an expensive smart phone with a relatively big scren? Check out the scoop at WAP Review, where we learn why it's actually not bad reading on a tiny phone screen.

"I found that I could read just as fast and with as much enjoyment on the smaller screen as with the PDA or even a printed book. Sounds impossible, but I think having a limited amount of text of the screen helps me focus."

There are examples of software to read on mainstream smart phones, but the key discovery is a piece of software called TequilaCat Book Reader that is a Windows application which easily creates Java Midlets for your phone.

"By itself, Tequilacat can only create Java books from plain text files, but the latest version (2.2.8) uses plugins to support other formats. A plugin can be any command line utility that converts a file to plain text from another format. The Tequilacat website has links to plugins handling HTML, PDF, Aportis DOC, RTF, TCR and Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. The Shell's file browse will only show files that can be converted using the filters you have installed.

All that's left is to copy the Midlet to your phone using Bluetooth, a data cable or by uploading it to a mobile file sharing site like Mobango and then downloading it to your phone."

Check out the entire article at WAP Review.