Actually this article is called "How to un-cripple your international Kindle" but the title is misleading. It is a very nice summary of how to use any Kindle's wireless connections to get content that Amazon does not offer. I even learned a thing or two about Calibre. I never really know how the news functions of Calibre worked, but now I'm going to try them out. Here is what Charlie Sorrel says: Calibre’s best trick, though, is its Fetch News feature. This works just like podcasting, only it’s for text (and pictures). Choose from a built-in list...

This is just so incredible I can't do it justice. It's a combination of ludditeism, religious zeal and misinformation. Go to the Red Room and read author Alan Kaufman's tirade against ebooks and technology in general. I can't even figure out what to quote. Each paragraph is more incredible than the next. Amazing! Thanks to Danny Bloom for the link....

Just what percentage of B&N stores will offer the Nook for immediate purchase, not just demos? A PaidContent piece talked about the unit being available for on-the-spot buys at only certain stories. But now B&N has come forward with a clarification saying that it expects that “nook eBook readers” will be “in stock in the majority” of “stores by the peak holiday season.” Furthermore, B&N “plans to have nook devices in stock in all of its stores by early next year.” Great news! The full statement from B&N spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating follows. ...

MobileRead has a great Wiki with a huge matrix of e-ink ereaders and an incredible amount of detail You can find it here. They also have one for LCD devices here. A number of devices are missing, however. Since it's a Wiki why not go over and help complete the matrix....

This is a great idea, as there is no question that many companies issue bogus takedown notices to force websites to remove content that is fully protected by the "fair use" exemptions in the Copyright Act. This is a blow to free speech every time it happens. But, even if the notices are bogus, who can afford to take a chance of being sued or having their ISP drop them? Big money wins again. Here's what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say: "Free speech in the 21st century often depends on incorporating video clips and other content from...

Aptara will be sponsering this conference on Wednesday, November 19, at 11 AM EDT. Sarah Rotman Epps, ebook market analyst for Forrester, and Michael Smith, Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum will be the speakers. Topics will include: ebook readers, market movers, trend and forecasts; the battle over bells and whistles, which will stand the test of time; making sense of ebook formats; the current standards landscape; and the future of epub. Registration details are here....

That's what B&N said in an investor presentation yesterday, according to Publishers Weekly. Evidently B&N doesn't expect a high margin on the device, but thinks this will be offset by selling accessories and warranties. In addition B&N said that margins on ebooks are higher than pbooks because of the lower overhead inherent in ebooks. Nooks will start shipping on November 30 and they are working to see that stocks will meet their expected high demand....

Editor's Note: The Digital Publishing Group is a New York City Meetup group that has put on some very interesting meets. I'm a member but, strangely enough, something unexpected has come up on each and every meet that has kept me from going. Odd. Nevertheless, the group is expanding and I received this email from Susan Danziger today. Paul Biba I'm excited to announce the next stage in the evolution of the Digital Publishing Group. As you know, since we launched our group six months ago, it’s grown to 300 members from all over the publishing...

Editor's Note: Herewith a moving piece by contributor Alex Sanchez. He describes a place for e-books, and a national e-book library, which I never would have thought of.  Paul Biba Editors note #2: The TeleRead plan would include access to a well-stocked ational digital library system for all ages, including the elderly and certainly not excluding the terminally ill. It's great to see similar thoughts from Alex; also look at Isabelle Fetherston's essay on e-books as the new large print. Meanwhile, even without such a system, countless public domain books exist for access at no charge, and without...

Google CEO Eric Schmidt made those predictions, according to a Read/Write Web piece. Six-minute video here, longer one here. I wonder what the rise of Chinese on the Net could mean for e-books. As for the Google OS netbook, it’s to include “HTML5 local caching for offline use.” Including with e-books? If you’d rather read about Android and that OS’s impact on e-books, check out a Kindle Review post and an earlier TeleRead item. Related: Different perspectives on netbook sales from SlashGear (upbeat) and China Daily (not so upbeat). Latter is the source of the photo. Technorati Tags: Eric Schmidt...

The Que e-reader from Plastic Logic---not just Barnes and Noble’s own Nook---will go on sale at B&N for those who want a large shatter-proof E Ink-based screen. See Plastic Logic news release, Wired News, CNet and Google roundup. Best guess is that the price could be at least $400, or far more than the $259 Nook. As reported by Wired: “The Que proReader will handle eBooks in the PDF, ePub, eReader, and eReader DRM formats; magazines and newspapers in the GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TXT formats; and documents in the Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint formats.” Plastic...

According to The Japan Times, Professor Kaichiro Morikawa and the Meiji University will open the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, which will house the 140,000-plus items of the late manga critic and subculture enthusiast's private collection. Yoshihiro Yonezawa was among the first manga critics in Japan, and he helped to legitimize the medium with his writings in the '80s. Up until his death in 2006, he was a voracious collector, known to fill entire houses with books and manga, then abandon the space as storage and migrate to another house to repeat the process. This earned him a...