07:45 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Here are the highlights from the past seven days of MobileRead:

E-books - News

• Why do many e-books cost more than paperback?
• E Ink strengthens partnership in Central Europe
• Fujitsu Super Frontech Vision EP takes e-paper to new dimensions

E-books - Elsewhere on the Net

• 5% storewide discount at Fictionwise this weekend

E-books - Content

• How to create your own e-books for Digital Edition

E-books - Reading Software

• PC Pro rates TomeRaider as 5 stars out of 6

E-book Devices - Future E-Book Devices

• [Bookeen] Official answer for battery and some general information

Mobile Devices - Handhelds and Smartphones

• Apple iPhone doesn't disappoint

05:47 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Formats | ePub

Looking to create your own e-books that are compatible with Adobe Digital Editions? TeleRead points us to this invaluable resource which covers all the basics required to convert content to the .epub format. Once Digital Editions is picking up steam, I am sure we will come back to this tutorial and learn more about the ins and outs of .epub e-books.

Feel free to join this ongoing discussion on .epub.

05:17 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Pop quiz: What will you get when you take a bunch of engineers from Fujitsu Frontech Ltd. and mingle them together with a bunch from Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd? No, we are not talking about family planning here, but about the Super Frontech Vision EP, a gigantic multi-panel display boasting latest color electronic paper technology and wireless connectivity. The catch (why must there always be one?): You might just as well buy a car for the price of one of those puppies. From the press release:

This product is slim and compact display which integrates multiple color electronic papers. There are six models from 12-inch to 48-inch depending on number of [e-paper] panels integrated. Color electronic paper keeps a still image without power once drawn on the panel. Power is required only to redraw the image.

Should 48-inch (available at an affordable US$45,000) not be enough to decorate your bedroom wall, Fujitsu is also accepting custom orders for displays up to 120-inch. Just be prepared to sell your house, car, dump your significant other, and work twice the hours.

[via Tech-On]

03:43 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

It's not much, but hey, it's free! Palm Addicts is reporting that only this weekend, you can save 5% on any e-book you purchase from Fictionwise.

To use the discount, enter JUNEFIVE in the 'Coupon or Gift Code' box on your cart page. The discount can only be used once.

Fictionwise sells e-books in multiple formats, including Mobipocket, Palm Reader, Microsoft Reader, and Adobe PDF.

07:02 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Until now we've always associated Taiwan-based panel maker PVI as the sole manufacturer of E Ink-based displays. This is going to change, however, as E Ink has just reaffirmed their partnership with EPTSolutions, a company from Slovenia which claims to be specialized in developing customized electronic paper display solutions. Unlike PVI, who covers mainly high-resolution displays for e-readers, EPTSolutions focuses on the development and marketing of segmented displays (as used in electronic shelf labels, watches, smart cards, and USB sticks) and Ink-In-Motion products (flashing product ads displays based on E Ink).

"As E Ink's display technology continues to expand into new and existing applications, creating a network of value-added partners accelerates the market's adoption of electronic paper," said Ryosuke Kuwada, E Ink, VP of Sales and Marketing. "EPTS has the technical skills, marketing capability and sales network in Europe that will give companies significant benefits when designing with this revolutionary technology."

05:35 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

We're not going to waste time writing about the highly anticipated Apple iPhone. We're just going to say that it's probably the smoothest handset money can buy. Some high-profile and trusted gadget reviewers had a chance to play with Apple's latest toy, and here is a summary of what they think along with links to the full articles:

Walter Moosberg:
Expectations for the iPhone have been so high that it can't possibly meet them all. It isn't for the average person who just wants a cheap, small phone for calling and texting. But, despite its network limitations, the iPhone is a whole new experience and a pleasure to use.

Testing Out the iPhone
Video

David Pogue:
But even in version 1.0, the iPhone is still the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles.

In other words, maybe all the iPhone hype isn't hype at all. As the ball player Dizzy Dean once said, "It ain't bragging if you done it."

Testing The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype
The iPhone Challenge: Keep It Quiet (video)

Steven Levy:
Certainly all those people lining up to buy iPhones will find their investment worthwhile, if only for the delight they get from dazzling their friends. They will surely appreciate the iPhone's features and the way they are intertwined to present a unified experience. But in the future -- when the iPhone has more applications and offers more performance, with a lower price -- buyers will find even more value. So smart consumers may well wait for that day. But meanwhile they can only look with envy as the person sitting next to them to them on the subway, or standing ahead of them in the Whole Foods line, is enjoying the phone that finally fulfills the promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing.

At Last, the iPhone.

06:30 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

The August 2007 issue of PC Pro Magazine has rated TomeRaider reading/reference software as a 5 out of a possible 6 stars. Not everyone is familiar with this great software for Windows, Windows Mobile or Palm OS, but there is a great deal of material available for free, including Wikipedia, the IMDB (Internet Movie Database), and much much more, both at the TomeRaider sight and at MemoWare.

TomeRaider is uniquely suited to large reference materials, and is very fast and efficient. With the popularity and larger sizes of memory cards, it become even more useful than ever. You can give it a test run with a trial version at the main TomeRaider site.

Via the TomeRaider Yadabyte Info Blog. No really... I didn't make that up. That's really what it's called!

03:21 AM by Michael in More E-Book Readers | Bookeen

Hello everyone,

There have been some questions around the battery and some speculations weither it was replaceable or not.

The battery is buit-in and replaceable. You have to unscrew one screw and open a small compartment which contains the Li-Polymer battery cell. This cell is connected to the device through a 2 wires connector.
You just need to unplug the connector to distach the battery from the device in order to replace it.

In first step, we will not propose spare battery for sale but we will certainly do it in the future.

Concerning the formats, Bookeen's philosophy is

1. to support as much formats as possible (both encrypted and unencrypted) in a native way (no conversion)
2. to keep the device simple.

The Cybook will support one encrypted format and other open formats.

Concerning the navigation button, we have tried to keep a very simple and intuitive interface with an accessible control (on the front and not on the side as with the last Cybook). Our main concern is speed, our average speed is clearly above other devices and we try our best to make the interface even more reactive (Vizplex helps a lot).

Concerning images, we have implemented a very good dithering algorithm which renders an astonishing image quality.

When connected to a host machine through a standard mini-USB cable, the Cybook is seen as an external mass storage device. You just need to drag and drop your files in the device memory and you can start reading.

Mor info are to come concerning especially the format support, the release date and final price.

Best regards to all of you,

Michael Dahan
Bookeen