ReadWriteWeb has a report on Jolicloud, a cloud-based spinoff of Ubuntu with a user interface based on Chromium (the development version of the Google Chrome browser) and HTML5. This zippy little Linux OS is mainly meant for running on Intel-based netbooks and tablets, but today dropped an update that will make it usable on computers as much as ten years old. While this may not be directly related to e-books, anything that makes older hardware more usable means it could be more easily used for educational purposes by the needy—purposes such as reading e-books. I’ve been playing with Jolicloud...

I previously mentioned the OpenPandora Linux-powered gaming tablet back in April. As an entirely open Linux-powered device with a 4.3” 800x480 screen, it might have the same potential for e-book reading as any other small hand-held, and perhaps even better. Well, the $350 device is now shipping in dribs and drabs, as they become available to those who pre-ordered—but a number of the units have been set aside for immediate sale at the higher price of $500 for those who absolutely can’t wait, guaranteed to ship within 7 days. (As Engadget points out, this can’t make people who...

Following up to my post about Augen devices last night, I just called the Kmart in Branson and spoke to them, and what they had in stock was the e-book reader, and one remaining unit of an Augen netbook different from the one Engadget found. Engadget’s find was an Android “smartbook” with a 400 MHz processor and 128 megabytes of RAM, but Branson has one clearanced unit of what appears to be this model listed for $75 (currently out of stock) on Geeks.com, or $67.99 + $9.99 shipping at NewEgg (apparently in stock), a Windows CE “smartbook” with...

While it was tempting to grace this post with a picture of blue-skinned aliens, I’m actually talking about a quite different Pandora than the one depicted in James Cameron’s Avatar (though the humans in that movie did use electronic tablets for data display, complete with a very nice user interface for syncing where the image was simply slid off of the desktop and onto a tablet a la Minority Report). After residing in Development Hell for some time, it appears the Pandora open-source Linux-powered hand-held game console is nearly ready to ship. The device will have a 4.3”...

From the email notification: FBReader 0.12.6 is released. This release contains 1 important fix against 0.12.5.*. Some ePub files (in particular, a large set of files from http://fictionwise.com) are compressed with some errors. These errors are not significant (in fact, several CRC sums are missing), and other readers (like Adobe Digital Editions) shows these files well. Starting from this version FBReader shows such files without any problems too. I'd like to say thanks to Coran Fisher who found this problem. An updated version is available from the official FBReader site (http://www.fbreader.org/) as usual....

Changes: The ePub format support has been improved: better CSS support has been implemented; the images in an <svg> tag are now visible; a bug in the unzip code has been fixed. Integration with network e-libraries was improved: authorization has been implemented for FeedBooks and Shucang sites. Full localizations for Dutch, Hungarian, and Spanish have been added. More info here....

I realize I have been a little silent over the last couple of days. I have been spending them with my parents, my brothers, my sisters-in-law, and my toddler-aged nieces and nephews in a delayed Christmas celebration. Yesterday and today was spent in much playing of Rock Band 2. Also, today when we opened our presents, I was astonished—indeed, downright poleaxed—to discover the rest of my family had gotten together to buy me a brand new MSi A5000 laptop running Windows 7. I immediately installed FBReader and put all my Baen titles on it. Unlike my old Toshiba...

FBReader 0.12 improved the presentation of the library and worked better with sites such as Feedbooks and Smashwords. Now comes word of FBReader 0.12.1, aimed at Linux and Windows users. In the developer’s words: Integration with LitRes.ru has been improved. A link for signing up has been added. A browsing by authors and by genres has been added. Scrolling preferences have been simplified. Tap scrolling has been fixed. Lithuanian localization has been added (thanks to Stanislovas Zacharovas). Open file dialog behaviour has been fixed in...

FBReader has been updated to 0.12.0 for Linux/Windows computers. Here are the changes: New presentation of library. Better integration with network libraries: FeedBooks, LitRes, Shucang and SmashWords. This version allows to browse catalogs, to search and download the books. For LitRes (Russian e-library) it is also possible to purchase books. Added Chinese localization (by Shucang). Image scaling has been implemented. Better encoding/language detection. Arabic and Indonesian patterns are back. Mobipocket, eReader and chm support have been improved....

 Announcement from FBReader--slightly edited: New release 0.11.2 is available for linux computers. Sources and debian packages (for both i386 and amd64 platforms) are available here. This release: Fixes a crash on amd64 platform. Uses new protocol for a communication with a popular Russian e-book site. Includes new features like authorization. Book-buying without a browser will be available in the near future. Fixes some small user interface bugs. Editor's note: Notice the browserless book-buying? In the future will FBReader be as easily to...

Nokia officially announced its fifth Internet Tablet today, the N900. The color, 267ppi screen and 3G wireless capabilities make this device an even better fit as a companion Kindle e-reader than the iPhone....

Worried about Apple banning legitimate third-party apps from the iPhone and iPod Touch in the future---despite denials of evil intent? Hey, there’s always Android. And lo and behold, in the wake of talk about $100-$200 Android tablets, comes word of little slate-style machines intended to outdo the iPod. Maybe Archos prototypes, out of China? Or just fun concept machines? Don’t look for these babies at BestBuy next week. The screens would be bigger than the 3.5 inch iPhone and Touch displays---somewhere between 4.3 and 5 inches. Hey, I can imagine FBReader on that. The CPU might be the...