10:45 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

The Half Sigma blog has compared some e-book prices with the Amazon paperback prices. (Via TeleRead.) Not surprisingly, and despite the inconveniences of DRM, most of the e-book prices were higher.

Half Sigma concludes that e-books are a rip-off. But maybe there's something else going on here.

At a common sense level, here are the most commonly expressed reasons for this discrepancy:

1. Publishers want e-books to fail

The thinking here is that publishers want to hold on to the current publishing model, rather than leap into a dangerous revolution that would cause much change and a shift in market power. Most of the popular press seems to claim that publishers are afraid that if they release material in electronic form, it will be widely pirated, causing them to lose all content control and therefore most revenue from the book. However, that seems like a rather naive explanation, because books can already be easily pirated from paper form by book scanning, and there is more than one DRM scheme that seems to be serving well in terms of protecting content.

Continue reading entry »

04:09 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Calao USB-9260 is a full Linux computer on a USB key. The device is supposed to be ready "soon" and "will come pre-installed with the open-source U-Boot bootloader and Linux 2.6-series kernels. GNU toolchains also appear to be available from the company."

Specs:

• A very tiny 3.3 x 1.4 inches (85 x 36 mm)
• ARM926EJ-S core clocked at 190MHz
• 64MB of SDRAM and 256MB of NAND flash
• The central USB 2.0 device port, a 10/100 Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 host ports

The computer is targeted at advanced GPS applications, but one can't help but think about future more powerful versions that allow you to keep your main computing and storage device on your keychain. All you would need in addition is a terminal. Foleo anyone?

From LinuxDevices.

02:25 PM by kovidgoyal in E-Book Software | Calibre

Calibre v0.3.55 now has a Microsoft LIT to LRF converter, named, you guessed it, lit2lrf. It's a thin wrapper around html2lrf which takes care of unpacking LIT files for you.

Note that it will only work on non-DRMed files. Linux users will have to manually install ConvertLit.

Since I don't have any LIT files at the moment, I'd appreciate some testing.

Enjoy.

11:22 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Minor and speculative, we know, but according to various news sources, a villainous hacker who goes by the name Gabriel has found his way into a computer at Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury and managed to steal a digital copy of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Wait, did we hear digital copy? Obviously, this story must be a hoax, because, really, as we all know, Mrs Rowling vehemently refuses to port Harry into the digital paper world.

In any case, you can currently pre-order the next and last Potter with guaranteed date delivery and at 50% off its retail price.

[via Dear Author]

Related: Harry Potter 6 e-book already being pirated!

09:32 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

A Cambridge guy working for Microsoft Research had the incredible idea to implement Microsoft's Surface Table technology into a standard Dell notebook.

Steve's solution is remarkably simple yet effective. With an off-the-shelf laptop, he retrofitted some infrared sensors on the back and together with the magic of software, you have multi-touch! Check out the following video clip (excerpt from MSR Cambridge video) to see his demonstration. It has all the dragging and pinching demos you'd expect to see in every multi-touch display, so don'dt expect to be blown away.

Caution: Your notebook might get jealous and crash itself on purpose.

[via Gizmodo]

05:48 AM by grimo1re in E-Book General | News

From today's morning edition of the Nikkei Business Daily (subscription required):

Mobile Phones Driving Market Growth For Electronic Books

TOKYO (Nikkei)--The size of the domestic market for electronic books grew to 18 billion yen in fiscal 2006, double the previous year's tally, according to research conducted by IT-related publisher Impress R&D.

The expansion was led by a rapid surge in the distribution of electronic comics for mobile phones. Electronic books on mobile phones are convenient for whiling away some spare time, such as when traveling, and hence are attracting a growing number of users, particularly young people.

The value of electronic books for mobile phones distributed in fiscal 2006 jumped to 11 billion yen, 2.4 times the level posted the prior year. Sales of electronic books for personal computers rose 50% to 7 billion yen.

01:15 PM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Special thanks to sic for noticing this one and pointing it out to us!

Adobe announced today that Digital Editions is getting support from publishers and ... wait for it ... the Sony Reader!

I don't have much to say on it off hand, so I'll let them speak for themselves.

Leading publishers, online retailers and channel partners have announced their support for Adobe Digital Editions today (see separate quote sheet ). By using a new export feature built into Adobe InDesign® CS3, publishers can easily create new Adobe Digital Editions-ready content, helping to significantly reduce cost and conversion time. In addition, with versions for mobile platforms and reading devices also planned, Sony has committed to embed Adobe Digital Editions technology into its portable reader product line. [Emphasis Added]

“Adobe Digital Editions will revolutionize how publishers deliver eBooks and other digital content and how consumers experience it,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president, Corporate Development at Adobe. “The combination of Adobe Digital Editions, InDesign CS3 and a new generation of hardware from innovators like Sony shows that digital publishing is front and center for content owners -- and millions of readers who are looking forward to innovations in the delivery of their favorite works.”

“We’re excited to work with Adobe to pioneer new applications for eBooks and other digital documents,” said Ron Hawkins, vice president of portable reader systems marketing at Sony Electronics, Inc. “This collaboration will give us the opportunity to expand our offerings to a larger audience and new markets, allowing individual consumers, businesses, and other customers to take advantage of the portability and ease of use of Sony’s Reader products with a wider spectrum of content.” [Emphasis Added]

Follow the link for the full story, but the rest is mostly just going on about how wonderful DE is, in other words, the same stuff that was in the other press release.

05:05 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Straight from the press release:

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the release of Adobe(R) Digital Editions 1.0, a new software application built from the ground up for acquiring, managing and reading eBooks, digital newspapers, and other digital publications. Available as a free download for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) and Macintosh systems, Adobe Digital Editions software transforms the digital reading experience and offers new creative possibilities for publishers.

The public beta of Adobe Digital Editions generated more than 300,000 downloads in less than six months and user feedback influenced the feature set. Adobe Digital Editions now enables users to annotate content through bookmarks, highlights and text notes. The library view offers advanced organization with multiple bookshelves. A slick new user interface enhances zooming and the overall reading experience, while support for the new IDPF Open Publication Standard (OPS) for XHTML-based re-flowable eBooks, guarantees a seamless viewing experience.

Windows and Mac users can go right ahead and grab the final version of Adobe Digital Editions from here. A linux version and localized versions are expected to be available in H2 2007.

Related: Adobe Digital Editions pre-release 1.0 screenshots