What if a Kindle rival could display videos and do Facebook and Twitter while also offering a touch screen, text to speech, an SD memory slot and Internet capabilities? Those are among the features of the Creative Zii MediaBook---and get this: the company has just displayed a working model. Breaking the news, complete with the apparently Photoshopped image to the left, was EpiZENter.net, which also reports use of the Zii-System-on-a-Chip technology Ten publishers are said to be in talks with Creative, whose new baby can display newspapers and magazines, as well as textbooks and, of course, educational multimedia. Significantly...

In a press release approving the British government's initiatives on copyright reform, the Library set forth the principles it sees necessary for any reform. This is a good exercise for looking at reforming our own copyright laws. The Library's principles are: 1. Many contracts undermine the public interest exceptions in copyright law agreed by Parliament to foster education, learning and creativity. Addressing this issue is crucial so that existing and new exceptions are not over-ridden by contract law. 2. Libraries must be able to make preservation of copies of the material they acquire, including web harvesting of the...

I received the following email from Michael Volz. I'm on a Mac and the add-on won't install in the Mac version of Firefox so I can't report how it works. If anyone tries it, let us know. It's available here Hello Paul, I'm contacting you, because I'd like to inform you about a new free Firefox addon called "EPUBReader" with which you can read ePub files directly in Firefox. EPUBReader is developed by me. I thought you could be interested in this information and if you publish an article where this fits in, it would be great if you could...

That’s the latest scuttlebutt. If the widely reported rumors are true; at least they’d jibe with Steve Jobs’ sttement that people don’t read. Some say the rumors could also show that Apple believes the book biz is broken, which, of course, it is. Or maybe the rumors are just an Apple disinformation campaign. No matter what, a tablet for video could still be great for book reading. What’s more, books could still be part of Apple’s long-term vision. It could let Amazon and Google and others duke it out first. Then it could swoop in with its own major efforts. Image:...

A number of sites are reporting that the previously announced Asus dual screen reader will be released in March, 2010. According to Tech Digest the unit will come in two different sizes - 6" and 9" e-ink screens. They also say it will have Wi-Fi, 3G and WiMax, among other things. Mobile Computer is saying that it should come in at a price similar to the Kindle DX Time will tell....

Received the following email: This is Austin Allen, formerly of The Abbeville Manual of Style. I wanted to write you as a new editor for Big Think, a site that conducts video interviews with top experts in various fields. We interviewed Sherman Alexie this week and he shared his (strong) opinions on print vs. electronic books. I thought this might be something you would be interested in for TeleRead. And I was interested, so here is the embedded video: ...

I got an email from them about their site and, I must admit, it was the first time I'd heard of it. So I went over there and tried it out. I'm currently reading Imperium, by Robert Harris, on my Kindle and so I tried it out on that. It found the book available on 14 different sites ranging in price from $8.87 to $16.99. It will search in Epub, eReader, eBookwise, PDF, Kindle, HTML, Mobipocket, Palm, audio, Microsoft and Sony format, and you can exclude any of these formats from the search if you wish. As you can...

Mark runs the blog eBooks Just Published and he posted a request that I'm republishing because it's for a good cause: DAISY is an XML-based e-book format created by the DAISY international consortium of libraries for people with print disabilities. DAISY implementations have focused on two main types: audio ebooks (digital talking books) and text ebooks. DAISY text ebooks are similar in many ways to the ePub format. DAISY uses the DTBook XML document type which provides a rich set of tags for marking up various elements of a book, making it easy to navigate and accurately convert to spoken audio...

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums is a new book published today by the Library. It is based on an Australian manual and revised to conform to American practice. It addresses the basics of copyright law and the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, the major exemptions used by cultural heritage institutions, and stresses the importance of “risk assessment” when conducting any digitization project. Case studies on digitizing oral histories and student work are also included. Available for purchase at https://www.createspace.com/3405063, and for free download here and here. The full press release is...

According to Digitimes, the board of directors of Wistron has officially approved the acquisition of Polymer Vision. Wistron is continuing to focus on the development of Polymer's rollable display. The article says they intend to take it to mass production, although they may not continue to use the Polymer Vision brand. Thanks to Jim Lester for the link....

A Halloween giveaway. Here's the press release I just received: Ebook lovers will be getting a special treat this Halloween. On October 31, Gryphonwood Press, along withAustralian-based Blade Red Press, will be giving away their entire catalog of electronic books for free. The giveaway includes popular speculative fiction titles in a variety of sub-genres, as well as thrillers and an anthology of short fiction. "There is something here for every reader," says Blade Red's Alan Baxter. Books will be available through ebook distributor Smashwords in multiple electronic formats, including Kindle-compatible. Thriller author David Wood sees this as an opportunity for authors...

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