e-Book News
NB: If your browser does not display any images on any of our pages please click Refresh/Renew
It is a truth too rarely acknowledged, that a commuter in possession of a sophisticated electronic device, must be in want of a good book.
Hypertext bloggist Steve Johnson, paraphrasing Jane Austen
LATEST NEWS
June 2008
NEW DEVICES
1. The Astak Mentor EB-300
This new entrant to the e Ink e-reader stakes is due out progressively in no less than three initial models. The largest is a big brother indeed, featuring a huge 9.7-inch screen with 170 dpi resolution. A standard 6-inch and smaller 5-inch versions will also be available.
Bob Barry, Astak's director of global business development, told this column he hopes to release the 5in model in July, the 6in in September and the 9.7in in late October, at prices of under US$249, US$299 and US$450. Details including publisher links and formats are still being finalised, so the release schedule is still provisional at this stage. Popular US e-bookstore FictionWise has been mentioned elsewhere as one likely content provider.
The device will aim for a broad market, with language support for English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, & Korean. There are encouraging hints that the devices will support more rather than fewer formats. What really surprises though is different operating systems for the different models, the 5 inch one running Linux 2.6 with QT environment, the medium 6in model bearing Win CE 5.0, and the 9.7 whopper Win CE with a splash screen on boot-up.
This newest e- reader offers a 4 grayscale touch screen (finger or stylus), and there's 32 MB of SD Ram in the 5in model and 64MB in the other two, all expandable up to 4 GB with an SD card. At least one model will come with both Wifi and Bluetooth. All three models kick from a Samsung 400MHz processor and have a Lithium-ion 3.7V rechargeable battery, but the 9.7in claims only 5,000 page views per charge compared with 8,000 for the smaller models. That's still a lot of pages! Universal file types supported are plain text, PDF, RTF & HTML, and if you're buying DRM'd e-books the software you'll be using may yet be any or all of eReader, Mobipocket and Adobe Digital Editions. BMP, JPG, GIF & PNG images may also be viewed, and MP3 sound files played.
The price range for the three models will position the 6in version near to the Sony Reader, while the lower priced 5in model will attract both 'admirers of small" and the budget conscious. The whopper 9.7in model will be dearer than the Kindle and the Bebook, but may be worth it to big screen devotees. All up the Astak Mentor is an attractive new e-reader, yet close enough to its prospective rivals to make a choice difficult.
http://www.astak.com/5Ebook_Reader.html
2. The Beebook
From Holland and the "Endless Ideas" company comes yet another new e Ink e-reader, the Bebook (as in, aye, it be a book zur?). It's cheaper than its overpriced Dutch-based rival the iRex iLiad, but was initially still expensive at the equivalent of just over US$500. That's changed now, with the sellers offering it at US$399 with free delivery worldwide included, plus a quality leather case thrown in to boot. Built-in menu language support for English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Ukraine, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Bulgarian, Estonian and Polish may add to the allure.
The price reduction undoubtedly reflects that fact that if "Endless Ideas" want market share they better grab it before the Kindle and Sony Reader go international. Moreover with competition such as the Astak Mentor about to debut, the e Ink e-reader field may become crowded with desirable offerings in short order.
So what about the Bebook? Basic features seem fairly standard. There's a six-inch e Ink display (supports .doc, .txt, .pdf, .htm & .rtf files), a generous 512MB of internal memory, an SD card expansion slot, image display, USB port and MP3 playback.
Some critics have claimed the Bebook is a rebadged HanLin V3 e-reader, but we don't know the truth of that. Anyhow the Bebook is light enough at just 220g (7.76 ounces) including battery, the latter a 3.7V Lithium-Ion running at 950mAh.
There are however important lacks compared with many of its rivals - no Wifi for example. No additional software or programs can be installed in the Bebook either, and there's no touch screen too. Bebook say that a touch screen will come, but not in this model. Other features are still in the pipeline - support for Mobipocket DRM e-books, and maybe RSS news feeds support and Wifi in October. Meanwhile you're not getting any of those now. So the incentive to buy what is otherwise an appealing device at this price, especially with the extras thrown in, has to be weighed carefully against what's on offer elsewhere. But that's competition folks, hopefully stirring all on to brighter and better.
http://mybebook.com/
3. IRiver P10 PMP
iRiver, a Korean company that often pleases, have produced a new portable media player that doubles as an e-reader. The iRiver P10 has been long awaited, and was finally released last month sporting a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 LCD touch screen, coupled with a whopping 33GB of built-in memory. That latter feature is a giveaway that video & other memory-hungry multimedia are in focus here. Naturally such a device needs grunt, and a 600MHz processor provides that, running a no frills version of Windows CE 5.0. Even so, don't expect great battery life.
For those wanting an all-purpose media device on the run though, this does have appeal. The P10 also includes software for reading PDF and Word files (Excel too if you're so inclined), and moreover the music capability (WMA, MP3, and WAV) allows you to listen while you read. The two models feature the same general specs and a 1.3-inch hard disk drive, but the Standard (priced around US$310) lacks the digital TV tuner featured in the Pro at 398,000 won (c.US$381). The device weighs just 205g. iRiver's P10 is only available in Korea at this stage.
http://www.misticriver.net/
New Versions
1. Cybook Gen 3, from Bookeen
As well as original e-readers, there are a pack of new "next-gen" versions of existing models prowling around out there. The Cybook 600 Gen 3 is one such, the next-gen aspect being that it's the first Cybook model with e Ink.
This new Cybook will display e-books in Mobipocket format; plus HTML, plain text and DRM-free PDF files, as well as three image formats (JPG, GIF & PNG.). It also has an MP3 player thrown in. Useful additional software is available too, so if you want to for example load free books you've obtained in plain text (e.g. from Project Gutenberg), you can convert them into a much better look in Mobipocket format if you install Mobipocket Creator software, which is available free from the Mobipocket website.*
So what about the Cybook device? Paperback-book sized, it weighs only a teensy 174 g (just over 6oz). There's a strong resemblance to the Sony Reader, except that some critics don't like the size & location of the Cybook controls, saying that better design could make those easier to use. Fair comment, but otherwise it appears to be a quality effort. A nice feature is the ability to change page layout and font in addition to text size - there are seven fonts included, and you can add even more if you're that picky. Inbuilt memory is a handsome 512MB, and an SD memory card slot allows you to up that substantially.
As for the running, a Samsung ARM920T 200MHz processor may sound underpowered, but the genius of e Ink is it needs much less power than other displays, so why overdo it? You'd only drain the Lithium-Polymer 1000mAh battery, which here allegedly manages an impressive 8,000 pages before requiring recharge. The OS is Linux, and so far the Cybook Gen 3 is available worldwide with secondary resellers in Europe, the USA and Canada. Price - US$379, UK £269.
http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx2. iRex iLiad Book Edition ER-0100
We've already updated news on the iRex iLiad, remarking last month that "it's over twice as expensive as the Kindle, making it a non-starter for most." That disconcerting thought must have already been occupying the mind of its makers, for they've now released a cheaper, third or "Book Edition" (ER-0100), without WiFi but with no less than 50 classic books included. This has a large, 8.1-inch touch screen and 64MB Ram plus a solid 128MB free Flash memory built-in, expandable (MMC, CF) to 8GB. The new silver casing will wow some, and the battery is better too. But the price, though dropped 150 euros to €499 is still way too high by comparison with its rivals. In $US you can buy it online for $599 PLUS what may be substantial shipping costs. In Australia you can order an iLiad online for A$899. Quality, but at a heck of a price.
http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/iliad* On the subject of Mobipocket, great news is that their Mobi Desktop 6.2 software can import the new EPUB format files (the latest version of the Open eBook OeB standard), and auto-convert them to Mobi format. Mobipocket is also planning to release e-reading software for the Apple iPhone by the end of 2008.
Kindle news
Amazon.com has dropped the price of its Kindle e-reader, down 10% from US$399 to US$359. Meanwhile an analyst from the esteemed international bankers Citigroup has estimated that Amazon will sell 2.2 million Kindles by 2010. Which seems wildly improbable to this analyst -but then we didn't lose $45 billion in financial transactions recently, so what would we know? On the other hand, if Amazon & its peers would listen to our humble marketing suggestions (viz. a $49 or even $0 device tied to a book purchase plan) perhaps such a sales bonanza might yet happen.
The e Inks - a Comparative Chart
Mobileread's wiki has a chart comparing eight brands of e Ink e-readers (there are even more than that now, and some brands have several models). The chart includes an image of each device, and features compared (there are more than twenty-five) include screen display size and resolution, refresh time**, type and life of battery, device weight, operating system, boot-up time, CPU, software, memory capability, expansion slots available, formats supported and price.
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix** note that with e Ink, display is static unless content changes.
*
Digitising the Freebies
The RosettaBooks name represents a web presence well known as a pioneering e-bookseller. Now a similarly-named company, Rosetta Solutions, is pioneering another innovation for the book trade. Large publishers traditionally send out "galley proofs" to reviewers and retailers, i.e. pre-publication copies of important titles. Over time that's a lot of free print books. So with a trial involving four major publishers, 500 new books and a dedicated website, Rosetta Solutions are introducing the concept of digital galleys.
The Net Galley website will make forthcoming titles available in advance of publication to authorised reviewers, to download free. The reviewer can easily select any titles of potential interest for review, the publisher saves money, the environment benefits and the whole operation is more efficient than the present set-up. Some reviewers may not like it though, as they will be unable to line their home bookshelves with impressive freebies. They may even have to buy an e-reader of some sort if they don't want to read the galleys on a PC or laptop. Which, hmm, could boost e-reader sales considerably.
*
Science Fiction ooh ooh ooh, Double Feature
Another golden oldie of the e-book trade are Baen Books, a company that early on had the guts (and good sense) to make many unencrypted titles available for sale rather than submit tamely to the paranoid DRM-obsession that so divided and diminished the early e-book world. Off-world, this successful independent Science Fiction publisher is leading the way in another dimension, namely on board the International Space Station.
Baen discovered that when the astronauts on the ISS are not just looking down with voyeuristic intention at that funny and oh so vulnerable blue ball named Planet Earth, or keeping an eye out for tall, cross-dressing aliens, they're not only big SF readers (well, you wouldn't be up there if you weren't interested in space, right?) but also fans of Baen's own titles. So in a smart publicity move Baen have made their entire, unencrypted 600 e-book "Webscriptions" SF collection available free to those international spacefarers whizzing around above us. (For us lesser, earthbound mortals it's available for a price at: www.webscriptions.net).
NB: Jim Baen, who was an enthusiastic promoter of space fiction, died in 2006. However his publishing ventures and SF magazine (Jim Baen's Universe) live on. The 2008 (second annual) Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest for short speculative fiction was won by David Walton of Pennsylvania, with a short story entitled "Letting Go". David's winner's award was presented at the International Space Development Conference in Washington D.C. on Saturday May 31st, 2008.
*
Green titles for your paperless books
A new Web e-bookseller EcoBrain.com is cashing in on the environmental benefits of digital books. And good luck to them, we're happy to give them a free plug here considering the serious trouble our fragile planet is in.EcoBrain's "thousands of" titles span subjects including Environmental Science, sustainable living, renewable energy, green building, climate change, Nature, health, organic gardening, how-to guides, children's titles and the proverbial "much more". They also do gift certificates if you'd like to avail someone of a choice of this eco-bounty.
*
New Website a real trial
Worried about what your ancestors may have got up to? If any of them hailed from olde England then a new Net archive may turn out to be your own private docu-drama. Recently posted to the Web are 110,000 pages of transcripts from London's famous Old Bailey Court. They cover all criminal trials there between 1674 and 1913, and are available thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire and the Open University. If you don't like what you find, don't blame us! Here in Australia, though, it's positively fashionable these days to find a (preferably distant) convict ancestor. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org
May 2008
free Star Wars e-Book
It's enough to make a wookie roar. Thanks to publisher Del Rey, Betrayal, the first title in the "Legacy of the Force" series is available free for a brief period, until midnight May 13 (USA time) only. Download in either DRM-free PDF, audio file, Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader versions. You'll have to hurry though.
DEVICE REPORTS
1. Kindle may genuinely be sparking
Amazon's Kindle e-reading device is finally back in stock in the USA. To the frustration of many, a lack of inventory forced long waiting periods from shortly after the Kindle's first appearance. The price remains the same at US$399 for two-day delivery, making bunnies of those who paid exorbitant amounts on eBay in the interim.
Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos also reported adding 25,000 more items to those already available for Kindle users, for a grand total of over115,000 titles to read. However he still declined to release any actual sales figures for the e-reader, an issue that has up till now encouraged scepticism about the real level of demand for the device.
However one report says that Taiwan-based company PVI is now shipping around 36,000- 48,000 EPD (electronic paper display) modules to Amazon per month for the Kindle. There's no guarantee that has been occurring consistently since the product release last November 21 (in fact it's most unlikely), but that would put a maximum upper limit on the number of Kindles out there at about a quarter of a million. Halve that and subtract a bit for a more realistic figure, and there could be over 100,000 already sold. If so, that's above what many imagined in the first half-year (this column included), and a very creditable figure.
Jeff Bezos talks up the Kindle at:
http://www.i4u.com/article16784.html
2. Or is it a Sony?
Meanwhile, what of the sales of Kindle's rival the Sony Reader (about which Sony Corp. are being equally coy)? We do have some intelligence on this more visually appealing device (which is $100 less expensive too). Our info suggests that the Sony is in fact a slower mover than the Kindle, what with the latter's twin drawcards of the Amazon name plus wireless, PC-free downloads. Nevertheless, sales of the Sony are now notching up to respectable levels too, apparently. In that case, both outfits would seem to have little to lose by coming clean on their sales statistics. In fact knowing that they're in substantial company might encourage more prospective buyers to commit to purchase.
Canadians, meanwhile, welcomed news last month that the device is finally available for them also. The Sony Reader (or Reader Digital Book as they're officially calling it, to little avail) was released at the end of April in Sony stores in Canada (except Quebec), and at www.sonystyle.ca . Price - as in the USA, $299. UK fans, not to mention Australians and the rest of the world are still waiting however. Word is the Brits will get it next…
3. An Orange for the Iliad
A third, quality e Ink e-reader we've previously discussed is the Iliad from iRex technologies, an offshoot of the well-known Philips brand. While an excellent device, prospects for the Iliad's success have seemed crippled so far by the price factor. Specifically, at US$800 it's over twice as expensive as the Kindle, making it a non-starter for most.
Undeterred, the Orange people (Hutchinson Telecommunications) have begun a trial in France using the Iliad in a similar way to the Kindle. The Iliad already has Wi-Fi , but Orange have apparently added their own 3G connectivity via a USB port, to enable automatic downloads of subscribed newspapers and magazines. This could well prove a hit with affluent but time-poor professionals, who will be able to read the latest news and views and browse their favourite journals without any fuss. If Orange can influence the device price downwards then perhaps the Iliad could become more of a goer in a broader market.
…and speaking of e Ink e-readers, the e Ink manufacturer (e Ink, of course) has issued a joint product announcement with Seiko Epson. The partners are releasing a new display controller that will speed up the user interface for e Ink gadgets by allowing up to 16 tasks to be performed in parallel. Pen input devices (for notes and drawings) will benefit in particular, but most functions should improve. What's more, higher gray-scale levels and even simple animations will become possible at the output end. Production quantities of the new widget will be available in August.
Harpies and Sharpies?
HarperCollins are in the news again, and this month their US arm is under attack by furious British publishers who, egad, are more or less accusing them of being (commercial) bounders. It seems that when HC sell titles to the UK they insist on retaining global digital sales rights. Obviously, if the e-book market grows to be substantial then UK publishers will haemorrhage for books they've actually paid for, spending good money promoting in their assigned market while HC reaps some of their rewards.
Of course it's a tempting proposition for HarperCollins to cream off market in this way when online sales cost so little, but cricket it ain't. What's more Simon & Schuster USA are doing the same thing. However other US publishers are stepping back from emulating them, aware that this is a two-edged sword that could hurt mightily if the blade is forced back against them. Expect some shrieks and groans before this one is resolved, but we're predicting the errant twosome will resile eventually.
Onwards and Upwards
Planning to build your own interplanetary spacecraft from information available via the Web? You could be in luck. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in partnership with a Macmillan company, MPS Technologies, is planning to launch (sorry!) 130 high-flying titles as e-books, from mid-June onwards. Scotty says be warned though, they're a wee bit technical. www.mpstechnologies.com.
Sweet or Bad Apple?
We all know what naughty Steve Jobs said about reading, for shame. But did he really mean it? Now a rumour from a possibly credible source (worm in the apple?) is suggesting that the Mac Attack was motivated neither by crassness nor sour grapes, but was covering for the covert development of - yeup, an Apple e-reader. In other words the long-rumoured real iBook (by whatever name), as opposed to the old iBooks and Mac Books that are just your ho-hum portable computers. The project is claimed to include multi-touch as on the iPhone, to run the Mac "OS X" Leopard operating system, and to feature a 5.2 inch, 800 x 480 pixel touch screen.
An objection to the credibility of this report is that it's too early for a colour e Ink device to be available. So, such a reader would have to feature a lesser form of display, or remain monochrome. Would Apple settle for second-best? As for a black and white screen, pundits claim that won't wash with an iTunes generation that would want comics, graphic novels and colourful multi-media e-titles as well as plain ol' text. Unless Steve has some technical secrets up his sleeve? Stay tuned…
Darwin e-volves
Cambridge University (that's the original Cambridge in the UK, folks) has uploaded no less than 20,000 items relating to famed nineteenth-century scientist Charles Darwin, free to the Web. They include the first draft of his The Origin of Species. Be warned though, it was substantially revised later, but f you're familiar with the published work the draft is useful to trace the development of his ideas. There's lots of homelier, more personal stuff too for fans and detractors alike to peruse. And a photograph of the first chimpanzee Darwin taught to speak in BBC English -naah, just kidding about the last one. See, you are awake after all.
http://www.darwin-online.org.uk
April 2008
Tor Blimey
Sci-fi website Tor.com is for a limited time offering free weekly e-books in that genre, downloadable in HTML, PDF, or MobiPocket formats. You'll need to register with them to take up the offer, which comes with an email newsletter. There are free, attractive sci-fi wallpapers available too, for those who'd like to jazz up a dreary PC.
http://www.tor.com/
All for One or One for All?
Publisher HarperCollins, a News Corporation company, is to form a new trial venture challenging many of the traditional practices of the publishing industry. Innovations mooted include profit-sharing instead of cash advances to authors, and - more controversially - ending the return of unsold copies from booksellers.
Of interest here is that each title published will be in simultaneous e-book, audio and hardcover editions. A radical possibility under consideration is that if the purchaser opts for the (more expensive) hardback edition, he or she will receive both audio and e-book versions as a free bonus. That presupposes that such a possibility would be attractive to a customer. While they're looking at new ideas, perhaps free audio with the e-book, or vice-versa, might be more appealing?
A digital dance in the electronic UK
It's e-books a go go in Britain these days, what with the news flooding in from those sceptred and increasingly digitised isles. Bloomsbury, the publisher of the mega-selling Harry Potter series, has announced it is preparing electronic versions of all its back catalogue in conjunction with Microsoft. Yes, e-Ron, e-Hermione and eeks Lord Voldemort should be available at last. Fitting really, seeing the latter's Tom Riddler was well and truly integrated into the book. Indeed some of the e(nhanced)-books ideas present in the series may represent genuine future possibilities for muggles rather than off-limits magic. The Bloomsbury step will at a minimum allow print-on-demand and Net searching within a text, but that's just for starters.
Penguin meantime is already way ahead, with 5,000 e-titles currently available and as many more intended by the end of this year. Pan Macmillan is reported gathering steam in its own digital push, while Random House Group (UK) hopes to have some thousands of e-books available by the end of 2008. In the British retail market, Waterstone's is planning to launch an e-book range in July, while Borders UK, from a new website launched this month, hopes to be selling digital titles by the end of 2008.
Feverish action by UK publishers to tie up e-book rights with their authors has also recently been reported. And all this before the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle are even released in Britain - both are expected in the second half of this year. Publishers are clearly hoping that the economically-buoyed Brits will overtake their trans-Atlantic cousins in digital enthusiasm, a possibility that will be keenly watched worldwide.
Squawk!
Speaking of Penguin, Penguin USA will be innovating next month with the release of enhanced classic e-books, beginning with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Such out-of-copyright e-titles are available free elsewhere of course, but the Penguin versions will include lots of extras such as the rules of social etiquette at the time, a filmography, period dancing and illustrations, and even recipes. A further nine enhanced classics will follow, with a UK release later. Disappointingly though, the price will be the same as the print edition, although those are only US$8.
Penguin is clearly out to create a buzz, and it will be interesting to see what sales they can generate in an e-book zone that was previously almost profit-free. We can wonder, too, what the scary extras in the planned Frankenstein will be. Meanwhile Penguin UK last month began offering online first chapters of all its new fiction titles, to be known as Penguin Tasters.
Read any Good Maps Lately?
A frequent complaint about e-books is that they've failed to adequately explore the potential for new or richer forms of the book inherent in their more flexible format. But there are plenty of attempts being made to give that the lie. One such by UK spy novelist Charles Cumming is "The 21 Steps," based on an updated version of John Buchan's pre-WWI thriller "The 39 Steps". Many people have at least seen that novel as a film, but Cummings' own work uses Google Maps as its base, with added text and pointer bubbles to click.
The quest for authenticity in the story is enriched by sight of all the actual locales, and the work is part of a We Tell Stories project from Penguin UK, seeking to appeal to the online generation who the naughty man from Apple claims don't read books anymore. Other stories in the Penguin project, also based on classic novels, will use blog entries, text messages, and possibly photosets, online calendars and other unorthodox media to tell their stories. Whatever will they think of next? Lots more, hopefully, for out of all this outré swirl may yet emerge some genuine new directions for digital literature
.
OverDrive Goes into ---- well, Overdrive
OverDrive has for some years been one of the largest wholesalers of digital books on the Web. Now the company is evolving in two radical new directions.
First up there's a direct retail sales pitch to consumers, via a collaboration with giant, US-based bookstore chain Borders, who are keen to boost their flagging bottom line. Next month (May) OverDrive will offer e-books and audiobooks to online customers at Borders.com and also in "digital centres" in Borders' "bricks and mortar" bookshops.
Secondly, OverDrive is biting the bullet and offering DRM-free MP3 audiobooks to its Borders customers. The spoken titles are from many publishers, such as majors Random House Audio, Blackstone Audiobooks, Hachette Book Group and Books in Motion, with "thousands" of titles reportedly available. Penguin and Simon & Schuster are two other giant publishers reported as independently leaping on the DRM-free audiobooks bandwagon.
The moves further advance the cause of e-books free of DRM (digital rights management) control, a liberalising proposition that was long anathema to many distributors and retail companies. More recently, though, it has been recognised that the irksome restrictions of DRM, coupled with the confusions of a maze of proprietary formats, have, when compared unfavourably with the simple arrangements in place for buying printed books, likely been a major factor in holding back the growth of the e-book medium by deterring potential customers.
http://audiobooks.borders.com
Comment:
Many companies have progressively loosened their DRM restrictions, and so far the sky has not fallen with more flexible DRM or without it altogether. Indications are that most people would prefer to pay for rather than steal their books, but are keen that the price of the digital version is recognisably just (i.e. significantly cheaper than the physical variety).
If it can definitely be shown that - a few scammers aside - the proposition holds up in the marketplace, then perhaps DRM will eventually go the way of the Dodo. One exception is likely to be academic textbooks, where horrendous prices plus student lack of funds might make the lure of illegal downloads irresistible. That aside, those wishing to promote general reading via the digital alternative may well find that the easiest way of presenting e-books could turn out to be the best way as well, satisfying authors, publishers and consumers alike.
The key question for the publishing industry in the years ahead is less likely to be whether anyone is stealing any of their books but whether enough people are reading books anymore to keep the industry viable. The imaginative promotion of reading rather than fear-drenched DRM obsession may turn out to be the key to whether publishing can survive and prosper.
March 2008
Ready for the Readius?
A year ago (March 2007) we brought you a brief item about an e-Ink e-reader being developed by Polymer Vision, a Philips company, in conjunction with Telecom Italia. Predicted then to be available around the end of 2007, the special point of interest was that the gadget features a unique rollable (i.e. flexible and extendible) display screen. Now named the Readius, this device is stirring excitement but running late. A mid-2008 date is currently anticipated for first release in Italy, with a schedule for wider availability as yet unannounced.
The Readius will run the Windows CE OS on a 400MHz ARM processor, and dabbles in many functions. For example you can also use it as a 3G + phone (HSDPA standard). Meanwhile its high-speed Net interface, including standard POP3 and IMAP email, claims full portal status and seems to suggest favourable comparison with the Kindle. So we're looking here at magazines, newspapers and RSS feeds as well as books. Audio output accommodates audio e-books, music and podcasts too. There's no word yet on commercial partners to enable downloading books direct from the Web rather than via a PC, but they'd be crazy not to given the inherent potential. So all up this is a communication, media and entertainment centre as well as a unique e-reader.
It's still an e-reader for those content with a readable surface only half the size of a paperback though (which seems to be a lot of folks in these miniaturised days, particularly the cool young with their enviable 20/20 vision). That apart, the specs are reasonably encouraging. Thanks to a Micro SD High Capacity slot in addition to the inbuilt 256MB of storage, you can potentially access GB rather than MB of books. Which may come in handy in future if they're memory-hogging multi-media affairs rather than simple text. Page refresh is also quick as a flash, unlike the beautiful but chug-a-lug Sony Reader, which seems to want to replicate physical page-turning duration times two.
The Readius also features an 8-button "Simple Touch" interface that is alleged to be pleasingly user-friendly, and there's USB 2.0 connectivity and Bluetooth 2.0, too, for those so inclined. Battery life is estimated at 30 hours, for simply reading anyway. At 115gms (4oz) the Readius is a truly lightweight affair, and the 5-inch/ 12.5cm (diagonal) display screen rated QVGA (= 320x240 pixels) doubles the 2.5-inch displays found in so many current devices. That's thanks to its "rollability" of course, as the device is no larger than a typical mobile/cell phone when closed. Different strokes? Yes the display orientation is variable too.
As an e Ink device the Readius will still only be greyscale, but with the progress in that area colour in a later model may be expected. However Polymer Vision themselves say that colour may be as much as five years away (although if it takes them that long someone else will likely beat them to it, I fear). The price? Lips are sealed, but think expensive mobile phone range and you'll be on the right track.
http://www.polymervision.com/
See Me, Feel Me, Read Me, Hear Me
Amazon.com has agreed to buy Audible .com, the largest Internet distributor of what are variously known as audiobooks or audio e-books. The going price was a tidy $US300 million, and the deal confirms that the world's Internet book giant is serious about the digital e-market for reading. Presumably a tie-in with the Kindle is in the works too.
Meanwhile the Kindle itself is reported as out of stock, with "demand… still outstripping supply." So would-be buyers will have to wait their turn. But what does that mean, really? It's all very well saying you can't keep up with demand, but how many are they making? Until Amazon gets less coy and releases some hard sales figures the degree of success of the Kindle will remain a deep mystery…
Who'll buy my e-book?
A study from Fairfield Research Inc. released in the influential US magazine Publishers Weekly (18 Feb.08) found that 17% of book buyers had already purchased an e-book, while 27% were ambivalent on the subject of wanting to and 55% of the 2,924 respondents said that no thanks, they would only buy a printed book. Well that's progress of a sort. From tiny acorns…
Simon says - Go Audio
The 2007 financial report of major US publisher Simon & Schuster highlighted a dramatic rise in the sale of audio e-books, with the company reporting that sales of audio digital downloads had doubled. S&S has also digitised 14,000 standard (i.e. text) e-book titles, and is about to sign with a distribution partner for the latter.
Ecotasty
Want a highly portable eco-friendly e-reader with more? The Mobile Power Station is a solar-powered media player that handily includes USB connectivity for charging other devices as well. It boasts a sizeable 3.5" TFT LCD colour display, and a massive 2GB of internal memory, plus an SD slot if you want to double that. You can either read e-books or listen to them as audio files, or read and listen to music simultaneously).
Extras include a voice recorder with built in microphone and a LED torch feature. Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are the go here, powered from 2 solar panels - have light, never need to plug in! The device will also play MP3, WMA, AMR, WAV, ADPCM, and PCM music files, not to forget AVI format Video, plus display JPEG, BMP and animated GIF images. And you can play games on it too. The Mobile Power Station hails from the land of the Han, and is marketed by Chinavasion (a Chinese-owned company located in Shenzhen province, next door to Hong Kong).
OK, maybe not the best e-reader around, but surely a lovely super-portable gadget overall. It costs around US$125, which sounds like value to me. It's my birthday this month folks, so now you know what to send me for a present. Ah, if only...
http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/solar-powered-mp4-player-2gb-mobile-power-station/
Jolly good show, chaps!
Random House and Hachette, the two largest publishers in Britain, are to offer e-book versions of many titles from the northern autumn of 2008. The development will follow the imminent release in the UK of the Sony Reader, although books should be available for a variety of devices. No word yet on the Kindle there, though Amazon are hardly likely to fail to respond.
Kids lead the way
Students in Port Jervis, New York State (USA) elementary schools are now creating their own multi-media e-books, featuring original stories embellished with audio and video clips. The digital books will also be shared with other schools via the Web. This development is thanks to enthusiastic technology teacher Scott Reichert plus a grant from the New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education. Which kind of begs the question - if elementary (primary) school students can make multi-media e-books, how come adults so rarely do?
Going to London to see the - e-books?
At the London Book Fair (April 14 -16 2008) there'll also be a London eBook Show several times a day at stand S725 (Hall 2). It'll be hosted by Peter Kent, best-selling author of the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet. Peter also works for Sydney based DNAML Pty, who develop electronic-publishing software. Demonstrations of how to create multimedia e-books will be a standout feature among a wide range of topics presented.
http://show.ebook.com/
February 2008
was a quiet month for e-news, so please proceed to March above.
January 2008
The iRiver note-capable colour e-reader (prototype only)
Palmed Off Properly
In an update to the below, eReader.com was sold this month (January) to the largest independent e-bookstore Fictionwise. From its earliest days as Peanut Press the popular store/format morphed through a confusing series of Palm identities, all the while gaining in readership and clout. Since 2001 "Palm e-books" has been variously associated with Palm Inc, Palm Digital Media Group, PalmSource, and PalmGear (which became Motricity). Motricity in turn rebranded the e-book operation from Palm Digital Media to eReader.com, in a clear bid to universalise its appeal.
As you'll note from our Software page, eReader the software can be obtained either free or in a purchasable eReader Pro de luxe variety. Following the sale to Fictionwise, the price of eReader Pro has now been halved to $US4.95, which includes a basic dictionary. Fictionwise reportedly intends to continue ereader.com as an independent entity, while expanding the eReader e-book format to function on even more mobile devices than at present.
Kindle advantage sparks competition
eReader.com is the large Web e-bookstore owned by Motricity, who used to be called something like Palm. Anyhow the Mo' folk have apparently been spurred to action by the most attractive feature of Amazon's Kindle device. That would be the ability to buy & directly download books from the Net without first saving them to a PC. So Mo's new eReader Pro for Windows Mobile technology will do the same, for free, for Windows Mobile handheld devices or Smartphones. Mo'st encouraging.
Tattle
Major textbook publisher Pearson is reported to have gained a contract to supply 45 percent of California school districts with history e-textbooks. The books are no mere print facsimiles either. Indeed they offer the opportunity to galvanise students with interactive audio features, animation, tutorials, games and videos (let's hope there are also some traditional words in there).
An extra advantage of Pearson's new digital texts is that teachers can tweak the offerings to different classes and individual needs (there's even a Spanish language option), or include links to further material. This is the kind of enhanced educational e-text long talked about but seldom seen.
With all those extras, Pearson is daring to charge prices comparable to the physical version. And with such profit potential, lots of expansion is in the works. Next up for Pearson are mathematics texts for Texas schools. It's not clear yet if they'll be offering a primer for the White House…
ADE update to lessen DRM despondency
Adobe is to release an update to its Digital Editions software that will include a "fix" for a problem that has left some customers angry. About three-quarters of a million people have downloaded Adobe's Digital Editions to date since its release in June 2007, but not all of them are pleased with it.
At present computer crashes and other difficulties can cause e-book buyers to be locked out of their purchases permanently, with no means of restoring them short of buying another copy. Meanwhile many book buyers would like to be able to read their e-books on various platforms, but have been prevented up till now by restrictive DRM. For some that makes their "ownership" of PDF e-titles a hollow mockery. Companies involved have been treating book sales merely as heavily restricted "licensed software" they say, a retrograde tendency that by contrast makes buying a physical book a much more appealing and definitive experience.
And so to a fix. Well, sort of. Already out in beta, a finished version of Adobe Digital Editions 1.5 should be available early this year. A so-called "Named Activation" feature will permit users to back up purchased PDF content or move it to other devices - but only if the content publisher permits that in the digital rights management (DRM) attached to the purchase. If not, the reader will still have to approach the original bookseller to discuss the issue.
At present, Adobe's Digital Editions version 1.0 software uses an Internet connection to initially check on the valid ownership of books it is asked to read. Unfortunately situations can and do arise where the software refuses to acknowledge content the frustrated reader has already paid for. This happened because under the previous 'Easy Activation,' feature Adobe had locked book purchases to one copy on one computer, and if anything happened to that copy the hapless consumer had no redress.
Now, Named Activation will assign e-books to an "Adobe ID" password that stays with the purchaser rather than the PC used, so he or she can use back-up copies, other devices etc without being penalised. The new feature will be retrospective to some extent. That's provided book purchasers can "unlock" existing "disallowed" books (the new ADE software will recognise them if they're on the same Windows installation on the same PC as originally purchased, & then be able to lock them onto the new Adobe user ID).
Adobe still washes its hands of customers who lose their purchases entirely however, for example in a major computer meltdown. Here the company's position conflicts with the more generous attitude taken by some e-booksellers. The latter kindly folk reason that unlike the case with a physical book, when you buy an e-book you just pay for a stream of digital and virtual information. Therefore, given the hazardous and fraught nature of computers and related devices, the seller can afford to guarantee you that stream if misfortune should strike you.
Adobe critics charge that, by contrast, the company's position is unbalanced. They say it can be compared with that of financial institutions that use every conceivable blandishment to induce customers to switch from say physical banking to the virtual form, because it saves the institutions money, but who then turn around and disclaim responsibility for the additional security and access problems peculiar to the virtual environment. We can all hope that, in response, Adobe envisages further improvements beyond this welcome Digital Editions update.
New CUP presentation
Cambridge University Press recently announced it has launched its own e-book brand for academic libraries, viz. Cambridge eBook Collections. The Cambridge initiative will feature subject-based collections, sold on a user basis of unlimited, multiple concurrent, and perpetual access. The first release will include specialist collections of mathematics, physics, economics, language and linguistics (all 100 titles each) and business & management (60 titles); initially available to the Asia Pacific region only.
Cambridge University Press is the oldest surviving printer and publisher in the world, having been operating continuously since 1584. It was founded under a royal charter granted by King Henry VIII, and today is a leading academic publisher globally. The books are made available through a partnership with the Australia-based Ebooks Corporation
Joint Information
Britain's forward-minded Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has been involved with e-books from the early days, and has sponsored much valuable research in this area. Now they've leapt boldly ahead with a plan to provide UK higher-education students with free access to e-textbooks during a two-year trial study period.
JISC has struck a deal with MyiLibrary, a subsidiary of the Ingram Digital Group, for access to 26 textbooks in the business and management, engineering, and media studies subject areas. The trial will seek to clarify to what extent the students will use these digital resources and to what effect. If the findings are favourable the study may well presage a major advance into digital textbooks in the UK for higher-education students.
Nintending to read?
Do you or your kids own a Nintendo DS? They tell me the Moon Books Project has lots of free downloadable classic books (and movies) in English that read just fine on the device. Yep, it's all part of a big subversive adult plot to resuscitate reading. And we're proud to be a part of that movement...
*
archive 1 2 3 Next page Mickey Slabdabber Free books
