No one's a bigger defender of the idea of e-book standards than the TeleBlog is. I'm not entirely happy with the IDPF's present .epub standards, which don't assure reliable interbook linking, for example. Even so, at least they're a start and enjoy the endorsement of some major companies in technology and publishing. But just because .epub's enemies can be wrong---it's just a plain lie to say the specs support PDF simply because Adobe Digital Editions does---should we automatically accept what the format's defenders say? Going beyond the anti-.epub lies What if the current .epub isn't sufficiently useful without proprietary extensions from Adobe?...

What if a blogger were executive director of Harry Potter's U.K. publisher? Hypothesize no more. Richard Charkin, CEO of Macmillan and a blogger with an interest in e-books and related matters, is moving over to Bloomsbury, according to Publishers Weekly. Here's the news directly from The Source. So, Richard, do you think you can educate J.K. Rowling? Or, behind the scenes, has Amazon money already done so? No deal announced. But we can all dream. Good Thing---even if his focus is more ed/ref than trade Yep, folks, this is the same guy who "borrowed" a Google computer at a trade show to make...

Just who should follow up on the $399 deal under which you buy an OLPC laptop for a child in a developing country, not just yourself? "The ideal customer, I think, will be someone who views the lack of local support as a challenge and a learning opportunity. It's been a long time since there was a commercial computing platform that didn't have a surfeit of support options," says Peter Glaskowsky. Still on the fence Anyone have thoughts to add---especially in an e-book context? Needless to say, I'll be most interested in the plans of TeleBlog regulars. Who's going ahead with this? We've...

Kids have just started using Sony Readers at the Bi-Cultural Day School, a 50-year-old Jewish institution in Stamford, Connecticut, as part of a new Sony program. Is this the first actual K-12 use of E Ink, beyond evaluation units? Through the Sonys, the students will be reading classics such as Huck Finn. Perhaps the devices will appeal to gadget-loving boys---a nice plus, considering the resistance of many young U.S. males to literature. E-books, as we know, can be catnip for kids, teachers and innovation-minded people in the publishing industry. And some people say E Ink machines are easier on the eyes,...

The Cybook Gen3's launch has been delayed slightly from late this month to early October---but Bookeen has added PDF to the list of formats the E Ink machine will start out with. Other formats will be "encrypted Mobipocket ebooks and display HTML, Text, PalmDoc and finally PDF files." In full, here's the company's announcement: "The launch of Bookeen's awaited Cybook Gen3 ebook reading device has been delayed until October 2007. We have already delivered several engineering samples and are making slight adjustments in the final steps of mass production. "As a benefit, the PDF format will be supported on the Cybook Gen3 directly with...

Check out a Wall Street Journal story (via Peter Brantley). Excerpt: "The novels with the most online readers also tend to sell well in the bookstores. Starts Publishing Corp., a small Tokyo publisher, was one of the first to take advantage of the mobile-novel genre when a Chaco fan called up and begged the company to turn her favorite story into a book. It sold 440,000 copies. Starts and a few other firms have turned more than two dozen of the most heavily accessed stories on Maho i-Land into printed books selling for about $9 each." Related: Keitai Novels to Print Books:...

E-reading may benefit if a report in AppleInsider is accurate. Apple, creator of the Newton of yore, will supposedly take another stab at PDA-like machines---this time using multitouch technology. Oh, for the above to be true. Give me a straight PDA as an option, please, not a cellphone, not just an entertainment device. And be sure it can handle the .epub standard, not merely PDF and HTML. Here's to nonproprietary standards, reflowability and more e-book-related features than browser-style software can provide right now! Below is the lowdown from Insider on the reborn Newton, believed to be set for release in the first half...

Want your iLiad to start up where you left off in a book? A new wrinkle in software release 2.11 will help out. Improved Mobi support of HTML, better PDF viewing and Spanish language support are among the other 2.11 features listed in the official new iLiad blog, written by Community Manager Karel Blyoos. "You can now easily navigate through PDF documents using hyper links via the forward and back button," he says....

"Adobe Reader may be subject to a security hole that creates a means for hackers to take over vulnerable Windows boxes simply by opening a maliciously constructed PDF document." - The Register. Also see Google News roundup. The TeleRead take: Another case for the .epub standard? If you wanted to change readers for security purposes, you wouldn't be SOL if you used a standard format.....

Baen will sell DRMless Subterranean books under a Web subscription model. When will the big houses catch up with Baen? For details, see Publishers Weekly and MediaBistro. Related: DRM advocates getting nervous about consumer backlash and Amazon's MP3 store brings more DRM-free music at lower prices than iTunes Store---from Ars Technica. Also see Google, eMusic target book lovers with new features, from Ars....

Could books, E included, be good for your mental health---at least if presented in the right context? A Boston psychiatrist has just won a MacArthur genius grant for using parallels from the Iliad and the Odyssey to help returned veterans cope with combat-created traumas. No, I'm not saying that shrinks should take over the teaching of English, but this is another example of how Literature can help cope with Life, especially if it's presented in a way relevant to readers. Consider Romeo and Juliet. (Ford Madox Brown balcony scene reproduced here). Taught properly, could it help in neighbors riven by racial and...

The Washington Post's mobile edition apparently isn't carrying a link to the Sunday book section seen at Washingtonpost.com. Or is it just well hidden? Unlike the New York Times, the Post even lacks a search box for those of us reading it on cellphones or PDAs. So I can't just type "books" and get around the lack of a book-section link, a flaw that the mobile Times also shares. At least the search trick works with the Times. Annoying cuts at ends of stories The mobile Post's AWOL book section, or at least its well-hidden one, isn't the only hassle. The paper is now...