06:34 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

I just received an e-mail from the New York Times inviting me to try the new Times Reader software. Of course I didn't waste any time and went ahead to install it. Rather than talking too much I made a few screenshots for you. Some things worth mentioning:

• Times Reader runs on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is built into the new Vista operating system
• Windows XP users need to install Dot Net 3.0 Fundamentals first (which happens automatically when you run the Times Reader installer)
• Link to register and download the Times Reader: http://www.nytimes.com/mem/reader_regi.html (not sure if you need to be invited first)
• Direct download link which works only apparently if you're logged in: http://reader.nytimes.com/timesreade...rFullSetup.exe
• Times Reader FAQ's: http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter/...mesreader.html

I know many of you are not exactly in love with Microsoft; but before you pass judgement on the Times Reader, try it out for yourself. I found it surprisingly fun to use and pleasant to read from.

06:03 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Because we all are just dying for E Ink to hurry up and deliver us a full-fledged colored e-paper displays, we can't help but mention this patent the company has been recently awarded. Patent US 7075502 was originally filed in 1999 and describes "a full color, reflective display having superior saturation and brightness" which is achieved "with a novel display element comprising multichromatic elements."

One embodiment of the display employs three sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprising a capsule including three species of particles which differ visually. Another embodiment of the display employs color filters combined with an encapsulated electrophoretic display to provide different visual states. In still another embodiment, the display employs display elements capable of more than three visual states. In yet another embodiment, the visual display states are selected from specific colors, for example, the primary colors red, green and blue, or their complements, and white and/or black. The display element presents a visual display in response to the application of an electrical signal to at least one of the capsules.

Unlike today's displays from E Ink, which are all based on bichromatic electrophoretic elements capable of displaying various shades of gray, the invention described here could deliver us full-color with the same sweet attributes: flexible, bistable, high brightness and high contrast ratios.

Related: E Ink goes color with new advanced electronic paper

04:08 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Foxit Reader is the Adobe Acrobat Reader for weight-watchers. Don't be fooled by it's small download size (1.5mb) - the latest version 2.0 is compatible with PDF Standard 1.6 and includes new features such as multi-language UI, dynamic downloading of add-ons, form filler, better look and feel and more.

Best of all: Foxit Reader and many of its add-ons come for free. There are also some optional advanced add-ons which are not free but still worth a look - Pro Pack allows you to save annotations and save a PDF document as a text file; Foxit Converter converts a non-PDF file into PDF; and Foxit Editor can modify the content of an existing PDF file.

Download from here.

[via Download Squad]

03:26 AM by Stuart Young in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

For those of you waiting for the Sony Reader PRS-500 it might not be all doom and gloom. An article over at Cnet reports information given to reporters, by Stan Glasgow. The head honcho and President of Sony Electronics saying:

The U.S. division of the Japanese electronics giant next month plans to start shipping a personal-communication device called Mylo and an electronic book called the Sony Reader, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said during a San Francisco interview with a few reporters Tuesday. The two devices are part of an effort by Sony to test the waters on new device categories.

The full piece can be found here. Sony have said the Reader will be with us by the holidays, so fingers crossed.

04:54 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

They have been censored, banned and burned - literary classics now removed from school curriculae across various continents. Google, whose unofficial motto is "don't be evil", has decided to help people through their Google Book Search project to learn about and explore these banned books.

You can start by browsing 42 titles – among them such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

[via Slashdot]

04:28 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

I received a note from Nick Hampshire of Afaics Research today about Amazon's rumored plan to launch their own e-book reader. From the note:

It would appear that the Kindle is being made for Amazon by Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd. of Taiwan (one of the largest manufacturers of barebones PCs), and judging by the specs we can expect this to be priced at a level that will probably undercut Sony’s new EBR-500 reader set for launch in the US at the end of this year.

The submission also outlined a proposed Kindle Store within Amazon that would allow Kindle owners to buy and download e-books. This is obviously aimed at being a direct competitor to the SonyCONNECT store.

Not surprisingly Amazon are silent upon the subject of the Kindle, but the arrival of an Amazon branded e- reader and associated store will inject a lot more competition into the marketplace, something that should be welcomed by readers and publishers alike.

I put off writing about this because I wasn't ready in my heart to accept it, but did you notice that Nick mentioned "end of this year" as the new launch date for the Sony Reader?

Totally unrelated: Some evil doers have defaced the Website of Afaics' sister Website Digital Publishing News.

03:03 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Here is a tantalizing piece of news from David of TeleRead, reporting that the first alpha release of the much-hyped dotReader is scheduled for October 2006. Initially only Windows users will have the pleasure to try out the new open-source reader, while users of other platforms - including Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Linux and Mac - will have to wait till later this year or early next.

It's very interesting to see how the reader performs as it will the first of its kind to use the OpenReader format, one of the two e-book formats currently striving for becoming the new standard.

iLiad users can cheer up since there is a possiblity that dotReader will become available on their platform as well. David:

While dotReader hasn't been tested yet on the iLiad, Mark and his crack tech guy, Gary Varnell, have gotten their hands on one and are all set to cooperate with iRex if/when the signal is given from Holland. Within a few months, iLiad owners could finally enjoy relief from PDF's slowness.

But so far there are no guarantees this will happen. If you want to see iRex Technologies adopt the dotReader as the iLiad's preferred open source document application, contact iRex directly with your request.

12:01 PM by Stuart Young in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

I just found these guys web site. They make covers/protectors for the iLiad, eFlybook, Sony Reader.

M-edge produces high quality cases for a wide range of portal media and MP3 products. Our entire team is dedicated to manufacturing unbeatable quality products with creative design flair. We guarantee 100% customer satisfaction or we’ll fully refund your purchase including shipping! Make the decision to choose the best in portable media and MP3 protection…M-edge!

You can access their site here. It's nice to see third party accessories starting to appear.

* Update: this will teach me to use the Mobileread search function, eChaz had already started a thread about this here.