TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Happy Fourth of July—to everyone, everywhere, especially Project Gutenberg volunteers

By David Rothman

Beyond the usual reasons, this is a special day for Project Gutenberg, whose founder, Michael Hart, posted the Declaration of Independence to the Internet on or about July 4. At any rate, that’s when he created his Net account at the University of Illinois.

As for the Fourth of July, happy holiday whether or not you’re a U.S. citizen! At least 40 percent of TeleRead visitors, we’re pleased to say, are from outside the States.

Related: World eBook Fair begins.

Photo: Of Michael Hart and Greg Newby, Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation CEO.

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Kindle DX-style machine reportedly to arrive in Germany

By Paul Biba

Received the following email from Johannes Haupt:

According to german Newspaper "Wirtschaftswoche", german division of Vodafone will release a Kindle DX like eBook Reader in this autumn. Nothing known about the device itself yet except that it comes with a "Din A4 black/white display" (which sounds like 9.7" e-ink) and - of course - an integrated UMTS/HSDPA module.

Vodafone Germany is currenty thinking about letting publisher do the distribution…maybe the eReader will come in bundles with newspaper subscriptions.

You can find the original German article here and a Google translation here. Apparently Vodafone Germany will distribute the device, and there could be deals with magazine and newspaper publishers.

Editor’s note: I wonder what format(s) the German machine will read. Remember, it isn’t a Kindle, just a Kindle-like machine. ePub capabilities? I’d sure hope so! – D.R.

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CrunchPad: Potential e-book reader, too—not just a webpad

By David Rothman

Hey, Mike, congrats on the latest publicity that your CrunchPad is drawing. So what do you think of throwing in e-book reading software, with the books stored on a memory card? Probably wouldn’t add that much to the cost of the CrunchPad.

This isn’t the first time we’ve made such suggestion, and others are also thinking in those terms (though I think the Pad should include ePub, not just the PDF just mentioned). What say, Mike? You may have mentioned E before for the pad. Care to come up with some specifics if you haven’t already? And maybe even work out deals with retailers selling ePub books? Why not offer the Crunchpad with pointers to free sample books from publishers, not just public domain works alone?

Details: Image is of Prototype B and may not be the latest. Price goal still appears to be $300 or under.

Back to the future: In many ways the CrunchPad overlaps with my original TeleRead vision. I was more text-oriented. But even eons ago I was hoping for a multimedia approach.

Extra related: Firefox headed toward fancy e-book capabilities?

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Firefox headed toward fancy e-book capabilities?

By David Rothman

Firefox 3.5, as shown by the CC-licensed image posted to Flickr by Cellfrozen, is commanding its share of attention.

Now let’s look ahead. What if a browser like Firefox, on machines ranging from desktops to mobile phones, could also serve as a powerful e-book reader, complete with interactivity capabilities?

That day hasn’t come yet, but we can find a little encouragement in a Firefox 3.5 feature—“a new CSS rule,” as described by CNET, “that makes Web typography more attractive.

“@font-face is a CSS rule that allows Web designers to reference fonts not installed on end-user machines. Just as you would have a pointer to a server-based stylesheet or JavaScript file in your Web page code, you can now make reference to a hosted typeface.” Hmm. Special possibilities for Google’s books-in-the-cloud initiatives?

Good sign

Me, I’d have favored powerful ePub capabilities over the fonts-related ones, but this is definitely a good sign. Newspapers such as the New York Times can make good use of the added visual variety.

Additional detail: “Mozilla’s John Daggett explains: Within a stylesheet, each @font-face rule defines a family name to be used, the font resource to be loaded, and the style characteristics of a given face such as whether it’s bold or italic. Firefox 3.5 only downloads the fonts as needed, so a stylesheet can list a whole set of fonts of which only a select few will actually be used.”

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Kirtas scanning initiative - invest in a book

By Paul Biba

Picked this up from the Librarian’s News Wire. It certainly is a very clever idea. Anything that helps get books digitized is great. However they have an extremely confusing website which doesn’t work very well with Firefox. More work needed.

Invest in Knowledge is a new, innovative—patent pending—initiative introduced by Kirtas in conjunction with the company’s Digitize on Demand program and retail Web site, www.kirtasbooks.com. The program allows anyone to subsidize the digitization of the world’s knowledge one book at a time.

Anyone who purchases a book to be digitized, through the Invest in Knowledge initiative, from Kirtasbooks.com will receive a reprint of that book, as well as 5% of all future sales of that book through that web site. Consumers can invest in as many books as they would like.

“This is such a tremendous opportunity for the average consumer to help support and fund the digitization of some amazing collections of books,” noted Tom DeMay, vice president, business development. “So not only are consumers doing the right thing, but if they want to ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ We can give you a great answer. Several titles or one popular book could provide a nice return on investment over time, creating a true lifelong investment in knowledge.”

“This is the first mass digitization program that will make unique collections available to the public in a way that increases access, achieves preservation, and benefits at the same time the library, its patrons and the general consumer,” said Kirtas Founder and CEO Lotfi Belkhir. “And it does so without compromising quality or the ownership rights of the libraries to their digitized content.” To learn more about Invest in Knowledge, invest in a book or set up an account, visit www.kirtasbooks.com.

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British Library to help set digitization standards

By Paul Biba

This is from their press release, and thanks to Gary Price for the heads up.

Mass digitisation has become one of the most prominent issues in the library world over the last 5 years, with a number of experienced libraries in Europe already scanning millions of pages each year. To help establish some standardisation over the course of the project, the British Library’s team will lead work on a set of ‘Decision Support Tools’ in an effort to focus on practical implementation support, providing guidance on digitisation workflow, the capturing of material and the organisation of metadata based on the real world experiences of project partners. These measures, announced at the first IMPACT conference in April will help ensure new material can be digitised successfully and feed into existing workflows.

Aly Conteh, e Strategy & Information Systems, Programme Manager, British Library said: “It is absolutely vital institutions like the British Library, the National Library of the Netherlands and technical experts like the University of Salford work together, sharing our experiences and resolving the challenges we face in digitising historic texts. To ensure that ;we deliver the digital resources that are sustainable and meet the expectations of the 21st century researcher.”

Interesting facts from the release: the Library is over 250 years old and exceeds 150 million separate items.

Image CC licensed, stevecadman

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Faber Finds goes into ebooks

By Paul Biba

This is from the Guardian’s book blog, which has some of the best coverage of any of the papers I look at.

A year ago, Faber launched a print on demand imprint, Faber Finds, which was intended to make forgotten classics available to a modern readership. Kicking off with 100 titles, by authors from children’s writer Nina Bawden to literary critic FR Leavis – suggestions were gathered from literary figures including PD James, David Mitchell and Julian Barnes – Faber’s ambitions were grand: “If you’re going to do something like this, it has to be at the heart of the literary and bibliophile world,” said chief executive Stephen Page at the time.

Twelve months on, Faber says it’s working well. The list is now 450 titles strong, with rights secured to publish 550 more by the end of 2009. …

Page says that “developing the list over the coming years is going to be a central part of Faber’s identity and business”, and that the move into ebooks is only the first of its planned innovations.

I must admit that I didn’t know about this company, but looking through their site is fascinating. I’m going to spend some time poking around.

Image CC licensed, share.triangle.com

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NPR talks with Travis Alber of BookGlutton: ‘Chat while reading: The future of books?’

By David Rothman

I’ve been pestering the IDPF to do shared annotations or at least pick up others’ standards in this area.

And if there can be instant chat, then so much the better.

Well, even if the standards group isn’t paying sufficient attention to the importance of interactivity, others are starting to—notably, National Public Radio.

NPR’s Laura Sydell interviewed Travis Alber of BookGlutton. An excerpt from the text version:

Reading a book evokes solitary images of lying in bed late at night or sitting beneath a beach umbrella lost in a fantasy. But BookGllutton,, a Web site that permits readers to chat about books as they read, may be transforming a lone activity into a communal one.

The site was born out of co-founder Travis Alber’s desire to talk about books with friends who had moved away. Her solution? A Web site that allows multiple users to write in the margins of an online book.

[Read rest of post]

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Broken iPhone screens now repairable at stores

By David Rothman

The iPhone is a dandy e-reader for many—well, unless the screen breaks.

But now at least the repairs can be done on the spot at stores. Price for out-of-warranty work will be $199.

Image: Shattered iPhone Screen, by respres. CC-licensed.

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Bridgestone speeds up e-paper display, prepares to ship units and also release e-reader dev kit

By David Rothman

A big new screen from Bridgestone will be shipping soon, with developers’ kits to be available, too.

On top of that, the company has sped up the A4-sized display.

The faster rewrite speed is .8 seconds, ten times faster than before, although it’s a long way from LCDs and will annoy some readers.

Pen input will be possible, and color is eventually coming.

Cost? Apparently still unknown.

Stay tuned for more news later this month, or next.

More details at Tech On, Engadget and MobileRead.

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Google Book Search: Formal Justice investigation—but also happy news: Better in-book search capabilities

By David Rothman

The bad news for Google Book Search: The Department of Justice has formalized the investigation of the GBS Settlement affecting orphan works and some others.

The good news: “New ways to search within a book.” “Previously, it was difficult to get a feel for where results were located in a book. You could count the page numbers and make a guess, but that’s hardly efficient. Now there is a strong visual display of result locations, and often clusters will form around particular chapters or passages. This will help you navigate more easily between pages which contain your search term.”

Usual reminder/disclosure: I’m a very small Google shareholder for retirement investment purposes, although you wouldn’t know that from some of the posts I’ve written about Google.

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Below the fold; check for previous entries

By Paul Biba

Today was a heavy posting day, so if you are here for the first time today be sure to hit the "previous entries" button at the bottom of the page for at least 5 more new posts that were pushed down.

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