05:46 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Congratulations to the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) and Executive Director Nick Bogaty on the completion of the new .ePub standard. It includes both the previously accepted OCF 1.0 zip-based container standard, as well as the newly approved e-book structure.

Already, we know that Sony and Adobe and others have jumped on board, so this is a significant achievement for the e-book world. It aims to become the flowable e-book text equivalent of the wildly successful Adobe Reader format for fixed page format books. The road is far from determined, however, as the IDPF is sure to face challenges from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon (MobiPocket).

What a great way for Nick to finish off his tenure at the IDPF. As Bill McCoy has previously shared, Nick Bogaty will be moving into a new position with Adobe. Our best wishes and sincere thanks go out to Nick for his great work.

For those who are interested in the details, here are a couple of excerpts from the IDPF announcement letter to its members:

"I am very pleased to announce that the IDPF membership has elected to elevate the status of the Open Publication Structure (OPS 2.0) to a Recommended Specification, an official IDPF industry standard. The specification can be found at:

http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops/index.htm

Supporting documentation, implementation and tools on the entire .epub standard (comprised of OCF 1.0 and OPS 2.0) can be found at:

http://www.idpf.org/forums"

"There are a number of companies and organizations who have already implemented .epub into their products and workflows. I encourage all IDPF members to continue to promote .epub as the standard file format for digital reflowable publications; doing so will significantly grow our industry."

If the standard becomes popular, then with the addition of a standard interoperable DRM (not a small task), could we finally see hope for true cross platform and cross publisher e-book compatibility for customers? I don't know, but it sure appears that we are a lot closer than we were a year ago!

01:10 PM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

New MobileReader pgt has made quite a splash with his first post, bringing to our attention a new model of Sony Reader that ABT Electronics is listing as "New Item- Not Available For Pre-Ordering"

Specs on it appear to be very similar to the current model, except that they seem to have increased the on-board memory, now boasting 160 books versus the current model's 80.

Other changes include a pretty drastic re-arrangement of the controls, as you can see from the picture. Oh, and it's silver.

Please join the on-going discussion here.

12:47 PM by kilohertz53 in Miscellaneous | Lounge

When I look at the state of ebooks and ebook reader hardware today, I am reminded of the good old days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people with an interest in technology bought Apple IIs, TRS-80s, Timex-Sinclairs, Commodore 64s, and various other, mutually incompatible computer systems. To get the most out of these systems, many of us joined up with local fellow enthusiasts in computer user groups devoted to each system. The closest thing we all had to the internet then were local bulletin boards and Compuserve accessed over a 300-baud dial-up modem, so it was easier to meet up in person once a month to demonstrate new hardware and software, exchange tricks and tips, and generally help each other troubleshoot any computer problems. It was the golden age of the computer hobbyist. Then hardware and operating systems got standardized and computers became ubiquitous and fairly easy to use. Having a home computer was no longer special, and most user groups faded away. It was fun while it lasted.

MobileRead is like a world-wide, 24/7 virtual user group for people with a keen interest in reading digital books on various mutually incompatible e-reading devices. We spend a lot of time speculating about the future of e-reading and helping one another out with systems, software, and conversion tools. It's a nice online community. When ebooks become standard and universal, and the market for e-reading devices is dominated by one or two big players, e-reading will lose its hobby status and most of the MobileRead forums will become obsolete. When ebooks are truly mass market, will it still be fun?

08:28 AM by ricdiogo in More E-Book Readers | Bookeen

Shipping date: "Though there is a small delay at the factory, we still expect to ship the Cybook at the end of September", Bookeen says.

IDPF .epub standard: "We have projects in the pipeline but it is too early to talk about them. The .epub format should facilitate digital content creation from publishers and help the whole industry", Bookeen says.

Formats: "We as always intend to support as many formats as possible and will release firmware upgrades for formats we are not able to provide in the first release", Bookeen says.

Via TeleRead.

Related: Cybook Gen3 e-reader in September 2007 for $350

04:44 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Which one should I buy?

It's a typical question these days for owners of e-book reader. Where should I buy my next book? A simple question, but difficult to answer, so I'm not going to provide the answer. I'm simply going to share my last decision process.

First the situation... I wanted to buy Jerome Bettis' new book The Bus. I prefer to read on my Sony Reader, but I also like the read on my Palm Treo which has a backlight and is always with me. Paper is my last choice for reading, but has the advantage that I can simply pass on the book when I'm done. This is a book that I want to read, but don't want to keep, and do want to share when I've finished.

So, you say, if you prefer to read it on the Sony Reader, then just buy it at Sony's Connect e-book store. Well, first of all it didn't appear there as quickly as some other places, so that kind of ruled it out as it was sort of a time sensitive thing for me. I was in the mood and didn't want to wait to read it. But even if I did want to wait, I don't have any other people on my Sony Connect account, so the book would be worthless after I finished reading it.

Price was similar whether delivered from Amazon (I'm a Prime member), or Connect, or eReader. I didn't check on a MS Reader or MobiPocket or Adobe Reader version because I haven't recently read with any of them and don't currently have the software on my smart phone for them. I've been meaning to try MobiPocket again now that I have more memory available, but I haven't gotten around to it.

I tried Barnes And Noble's web site (because there is a local store by where I work). Same price. So even though I prefer electronic, I know quite a few people that would enjoy reading the book, so I decided to read it in paper form and pass it around. The good old fashioned way. Well, I walked into Barnes and Noble at lunch the other day and found that the in-store price was about $7 more. Forget that!

Amazon was the next logical choice, but here I got selfish. I just didn't want to wait for delivery, and I wanted to read it on my Treo rather than in paper. So I found a compromise... eReader. I didn't care too much about DRM because I don't care if I can't keep the book permanently for myself. I just wanted to pass it on. I knew I had at least one friend that I could give it to when I was done, even if I had to enter my credit card number on his device to enable it. Unpleasant process, but now I could both read it and share it at least once. Plus I could read on my Treo and get it right away.

Problem solved. But what a nightmare for the average first time prospective e-book purchaser! I think that they will just accept whatever way they discover first.

But what if the next book I want to buy is not a throw away item? What happens 10 years from now to my collection of Sony Connect books and eReader books, and MobiPocket books? They probably get thrown out like the hundreds of cassettes that I got rid of today. It makes you sick to think of the waste.

So for reading, I've come to the conclusion that DRM basically rules out e-books if you want to stay legal. That's pretty sad. And I hate to say it because it's sort of like the deep, dark ugly secret stink about e-books. I want e-book sellers to succeed wildly. I hate to tell the ugly secret out loud. But it's real and it affect you the reader, and we need to acknowledge it.

Doesn't matter, you say? Well, I'm one of the biggest e-book fanatics around, and I'm forced by DRM to buy paper unless it's a book I'm willing to basically "read and trash" in the e-sense of the phrase. I'd say that's like the elephant in the living room of a dysfunctional household that nobody wants to talk about or confront. But if you're a MobileRead reader, you undoubtedly already know that, and yet you love e-books anyway. Good for you!

Still, it's no wonder I'm learning to love the classics again!

04:09 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Let's face it. We all have a suspicious eye toward content subscriptions. Whether it is for music downloads, cable tv, audio books or online content, there seems to be two common themes: 1) It's too pricey and inconvenient, and 2) It's like rental money - you end up with exactly nothing if you cancel your subscription.

But wait a minute. What if I offered you a subscription to almost every book ever written in the world, past or present? What if you could have it as an e-book in a popular format, or for online viewing if you prefer? And suppose you could get all that for about $30 per year? Now it's getting pretty interesting, isn't it? Even with DRM, it's still pretty interesting.

Believe it or not, that sort of scenario is not entirely impossible. The idea is not new, but was brought up yesterday by the if:book (the Future of the Book blog) while pondering various new developments at Amzon and Google. Of course, Google is in the process of digitizing the world's library, and wants to charge for access to books with publishers' permission, and with a portion of revenues going to the publisher.

There is a similar model for the use of Christian music by churches and performers, where the CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) takes it even further and asks member churches who want to use copyrighted material to record what songs are used for their worship services and report them so that royalties may be properly distributed. The bigger the church, the higher the fee.

The numbers seem to show it's not going to work... If only 10% of the people in the U.S. subscribe to this service, they would be getting a great product, but they would have to pay nearly $2,000 a piece to match current publishing revenues from books! (Based on Book Industry TRENDS projection of over $40 billion in U.S. net revenues for all books by 2010 and the U.S. population of adults age 20 or over in 2007 calculated from numbers given in Wikipedia coming out to 218,544,291.)

But we don't know is what portion of book revenues are coming from businesses and other commercial activities outside of typical consumer spending on books to read. I find it very hard to believe that annual consumer book spending is anywhere near $2,000 per adult. I don't have the numbers to work out what's really happening, but I do think that on the consumer book spending side, if you offer a subscription with acceptable technologies, more people will subscribe. Corporate subscriptions could be based on company revenues. Can it be a revenue positive change for the industry? I don't know. Can all publishers be convinced to participate in such a model? I don't know that either. It's a complex question.

There are surely some bright minds at Google doing the calculations right now with real estimates. And you can bet that they know exactly how it should play out, with all kinds of mixed partial participation scenarios. You might think publishers of popular books might not participate, but if you reward popularity you can incent them to join in. The bigger issue is probably control - publishers will not be exactly excited to hand over control of their market to a third party, whether it be Google or another world library organization.

What do you think about some of the obvious questions?
* Can such a universal library ever be truly created?
* Should government be involved? How or why not?
* Would you like to see such a subscription plan work?
* Will the general public ever be interested enough to subscribe?
* How much would you pay annually for access to all books?
* Would you prefer a flat fee or a "per use" fee?
* Do you think the revenues can support such a system?
* Or is it more important to you to own and control the content you buy?

The world's changing, and as book technology advances we will certainly see opportunities for entirely new paradigms to be sustained in the marketplace for books/e-books. No matter how it shakes out, I hope that it's an improvement for the average Joe who likes to read, and I really hope that books remain more easily available than ever to all readers.

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

Feast your eyes on some of the discussions from this week at MobileRead...

E-books - News

• Famous CC-licensed novel taken down by SFWA
• IFA 2007: PVI demonstrates flexible E Ink (video)
• How many books do you read?

E-books - Book Recommendations

• Fantasy series "The Dance of Gods" goes Creative Commons

E-book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• WSJ's Lee Gomes upbeat about e-books

E-book Devices - Amazon Kindle

• NYT: Amazon Kindle launch this October!

Mobile Devices - Handhelds and Smartphones

• Palm CEO Nixes Foleo ... For Now.

Miscellaneous - Lounge

• At what speed do you read?

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• MobileRead E-Book Uploads Reaches 1,000 Entries

09:06 AM by Hadrien in E-Book General | Reading Recommendations

From Mayer Alan Brenner's website:

From 1987 through 1992, DAW Books published my four-book fantasy series, The Dance of Gods. Sales were not spectacular and fell off with each successive volume, and the books went out of print. Along the way, though, they acquired a small group of fairly intense fans, not all of whom were either related to me or were close personal friends. Frankly, although DAW did their best, the books were a challenge to describe and market, since they didn't fit with the style of fantasy that was well-established at the time. Times and styles change, though, and may have now caught up to where The Dance of Gods has been resting. At least, that's my hope. This site presents an experiment that will let you, fortuitous reader, help decide whether these books really have an audience ... and if so, what happens next.

Available for you E Ink readers on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_author/242