TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

By Tony Bandy

Editor’s note: this compilation of Tony’s posts will be updated on a monthly basis. PB

Airborne: Flightglobal Archives for your eReader!

Historical Military Documents! (Library Guides Series: History)

G-Men, the OSS and My iPad!

Lunar Conspiracies and This Old BBS: Ancient Files Equals Good Reading!

Murder, Mayhem and the Space Rocket: Pulp Adventures to Go!

College Archive Resources! (Library Guides Series: Searching)

Shelved! Google Books–My Library (Library Guides Series: Technical)

Looking for a title? (Library Guides Series: Searching)

(more…)

By Paul Biba

Pocket-lint ran into Phil Wood, Cool-er’s marketing director, and he says that the reader will be back. Wood blamed Cool-er’s putative demise on the British banking system and the fact that “there was a large US retailer that reneged on the second large order”.

Cool-er will now be funded by Elonex and will present 5 new ereaders with the “Elonex Cool-er” brand. They will be marrying firmware from both companies and the new range will contain a full color e-ink unit.

More details in the article.

By Paul Biba

According to Pocket-lint, Qualcomm has confirmed to them that a Mirasol color device, “probably an ebook reader”, will be coming in the first quarter of 2011. The device will be announced at CES in January.

I’ll be at CES covering it for you and I’ll keep my eyes open.

By Paul Biba

A news release today says that, beginning this fall, Best Buy will carry the Kindle. The WiFi unit will be $139.99 and the 3G will be $189.99.

In addition to the Kindle, Best Buy will also be selling the Nook and the Sony Reader Touch, Pocket and Daily Editions.

By Gary Price Founder and Senior Editor of Resource Shelf

Two brief notes.

Back in July we posted about several libraries in the U.S. and Canada that are lending e-book readers to users.

We would be happy to hear about other libraries offering or planning to provide similar services.

Here are two more Canadian libraries offering e-book readers to users.

First, in Montreal, the McGill University Library is lending Sony “Touch” e-book readers.

Second, at the North Vancouver Public Library they’ve stared to lend Kobo readers to library users. It’s a pilot project that began in the past week and is schedule to last until December, 2010. Of course, as the web site says, if the pilot goes well the program will continue, “indefinitely.”

From the NVPL Web Site:

We aim to always have the top fiction and non-fiction best-sellers as listed in the the Globe and Mail. We also have a selection of titles available for young adult readers. These titles will be updated regularly. Further to these are 100 classics like ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Tale of Two Cities’ that come preloaded on each device at the time of purchase.

See Also: Our Post From July 14, 2010 that includes a mention of the West Vancouver Public Library who was beginning to lend Kindles. The WVPL also said they were the first library in the country to offer this service.

Via Resource Shelf

By Paul Biba

From the press release:

Kobo, a global eReading service, today announced the Kobo Desktop Application, a free, downloadable application now available from www.kobobooks.com that enables users to read, build a digital library, and shop for eBooks directly from their computer or laptop. The new application also allows Kobo customers with 3rd party eReaders, such as the Sony Reader, to easily connect to Kobo to download or purchase content.

The new Kobo Desktop Application offers a personalized, secure and central destination where users can manage their entire Kobo reading experience. Through the Desktop Application customers can instantly access their library and download their purchases directly to their computer and read offline without an Internet connection. Additionally, the Kobo Desktop Application enables users to shop for eBooks through the integrated Kobo eBook Store and download content to their desktop to easily build and manage their library

.

You can find the application here. It supports both Windows and Mac.

By Rich Adin

Within the last 60 days there has been a bevy of announcements of new ereading devices. Amazon announced what is popularly called the Kindle 3 and Sony has announced 3 new models — the 350, 650, and 950. How far behind other makers will be is hard to tell, but the upcoming holiday season should be a good one for device buyers.

So the question is this: Is this the time to take the plunge and buy a dedicated ereading device if you don’t already own one? The companion question, of course, is if you own one that is more than a year or two old, is now the time to “upgrade”?

I’ve made it clear any number of times that I am not a fan of Amazon. But that doesn’t mean the Kindle isn’t a good device — it is. For me, the Kindle continues to suffer from the same design flaws as always – (1) it reminds me of my laptop with its physical keyboard and (2) it doesn’t accept DRMed (digital rights managed) ePub files that let me shop at, for example, Barnes & Noble unless I strip the DRM from the B&N file and convert the DRM-stripped file to a format the Kindle likes. But if you shop for books exclusively at Amazon (a practice I think has bad ramifications for all consumers), the Kindle is a good device, especially the new K3 with the enhanced eInk screen called Pearl.

Amazon’s new Kindle has several things going for it. First, the greatly improved Pearl screen. Second, the device has been made thinner and lighter and smaller, although the screen size (6 inches) remains the same. Third, is Amazon’s great customer service, the envy of the industry and something B&N and Sony should be emulating. Fourth, ease of use. And, finally, great new pricing — top-of-the-line (covers both WiFi and 3G forms of wireless) comes in at $189 and the WiFi-only version comes it at $139. (more…)

By Tony Bandy

For the aviation enthusiast and avid eBook reader, the fusion of these two resources together can be found at the Flightglobal Archives.   (more…)

By Paul Biba

John Cog has some new Kindle tips on his blog. They don’t seem to work with my Kindle 3, but might with 1 and 2. They are:

1. automatic page turning with slideshow mode

2. display the time

3. switch to a different song

4. find out how many hours you used your Kindle

Frank Sleightholme sent in the following, which he got from Paul Lemon:

I find the page turns very acceptable. I used to time my blinking when turning pages on the Bebook!! Another useful tip I have come across in recent days is to turn on the text to speech and hit the volume rocker until it goes silent and then the pages turn automatically (when the now silent voice reaches the end of the page). There are 3 speeds to the speech option so if you are a fast reader you have that option. Its great when you are eating say a sandwich in work, or you could have it in a ziplock bag and have a bath at the same time!! The possibilities are endless.

By Paul Biba

New Features

* Content server: Show custom column data in the book listing
* Add preference to automatically set a tag when adding books (Preferences->General)
* Add a tweak to create compound search terms. Show error message in tooltip when user inputs an invalid search query.
* Managing multiple libraries: Allow renaming/deleting libraries from the Choose library menu
* Searching on series index is now possible. See the User Manual for details.

Bug Fixes

* Fix regression in 0.7.16 that broke conversion of HTML files with preprocess turned on
* MOBI Output: When converting an input document that specifies an inline TOC in the but not in the , add it correctly. Fixes #6661 (Conversion to MOBI fails to create TOC)
* JetBook driver: Only use JetBook naming scheme for txt, pdf and fb2 files.
* Copy to library action now respects merge preferences
* Fix bug in email sending when using an SSL connection
* Kobo driver: Fix bug that prevented metadata caching from working correctly
* Fix regression in 0.7.16 that caused calibre to forget its preferences on each restart for new installs on linux
* News downloads: Cut off long downloaded from URLs

By Paul Biba

Charging your ereader is always a bit of a pain, and it does cost money. Perhaps this is a good alternative way to do it. I don’t have a hamster, so let us know how you make out with it.

By Paul Biba

The Bookseller is quoting Peter Zieleman, BeBook’s marketing director as using this phrase. He goes on to say:

“After extensive market research it became crystal clear that there’s a strong demand for an affordable reader with all the popular features. We combined just that: all the features users expect from an e-reader, at just a fraction of the cost!

“It is also possible to expand the internal memory on the BeBook Club just by using the SD card expansion slot. Besides all the technical features, the BeBook club has a distinguished and fashionable design.”

The price hasn’t been released, but the unit should be available in October. According to the Club’s web page it can do 12,000 page turns or over 25 hours of music playback on one battery charge. It will support ePub, with and without Adobe DRM, and PDF as well as other formats including non-DRM Mobipocket. More info on the unit at its web page here.

By Paul Biba

How Bookofjoe finds this stuff I don’t know. But, it shows you why I no longer read the 3 pound bricks that are being published. Give me an ereader over this any day!

By Paul Biba

I’ll be traipsing into New York tomorrow morning to visit Sony and talk to the VP of the Digital Reading Division for a briefing on the new Sony Readers. Don’t know whether it will be under embargo or not, but I’ll let you know after the meeting.

As I’ll be in the City (in 94 degree heat according to Weather Underground!) postings may be a bit thinner than usual.

By Paul Biba

A while back I covered the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S phones and said that they would make great ereaders.

Well, they are finally hitting the streets with all the carriers. According to the L. A. Times blog they have sold 1 million phones in the first 45 days of availability. My favorite of the phones, because it has a keyboard, is the Epic 4G which is being carried by Sprint. 4G (if it’s in your area) and a keyboard are an unbeatable combination.

The article also has a pointer to a great chart that compares the features and prices of all 4 Galaxy S phones: the Epic 4G, Fascinate, Vibrant and Captivate.

Update: just noticed that our sister blog, Gadgetell, has a review of the Epic 4G.

By Paul Biba

Everybody is getting into the act! BenQ is going to unleash a solar powered ereader, according to E-Reader-Info, next year. The solar power probably will only be used to extend battery life. There’s not a lot of info at present, but from the picture it looks as if it will be using an e-ink screen.