TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for May, 2006

By Branko Collin

For the second time this year Irex Technologies have postponed the direct-to-consumer sales of their E Ink based Iliad e-book tablet. Initially the Eindhoven, The Netherlands based company of former Philips engineers promised that their e-reader would be for sale through their webshop in April this year. This launch date was then postponed to May due to a glitch in the webshop. Now, the consumer launch is postponed to September 2006 … or so Irex Technologies says:

(more…)

By David Rothman

Swedish police confiscated the computers of ThePirateBay.org–well known among the more adventurous BitTorrent users. But what caught Quinn Anya Carey’s eye in the Slashdot item, based on a Slyck post, was a reference to a Pirate Party in Sweden. Will we see something similar in the States, given the massive hatred that the RIAA and the like are stirring up against copyright in any form? (more…)

By David Rothman

Kelley Allen of Random House and Elizabeth Mackey of Motricity/ereader.com have won seats on the board of the International Digital Publishing Forum. Hearty congratulations to the winners, of course.

Alas, however, reformer Mark Carey, who wants the IDPF to spin off e-book standards and focus on other activities instead such as marketing efforts, lost the just-completed election involving two of seven seats. So did existing board member George Kerscher (photo), an advocate for the disabled and himself blind. He had been IDPF’s chair. Mark and George were allies, and each urged supporters to vote for both–to advance the cause of friendly e-book standards for the blind and other print-impaired people.

I’d love to see IDPF surprise us and let standards development happen under the umbrella of a mainstream standards group such as OASIS. Hello, Kelley and Elizabeth? Any chance of your advocating that? Unfortunately, IDPF isn’t in the standards mainstream right now. The current IDPF standards effort is in effect run by Adobe and ETI, both of which will be looking out for their interests rather than those of the publishers–and perhaps not Motricity’s interests, either. Meanwhile consumers can expect lots and lots of DRM gotchas or other lock-ins in the end. (more…)

By Robert Nagle

How big should an e-book file be?

I asked myself this question after trying to troubleshoot a problem reading a Plucker file. The Plucker desktop lets you spider URL’s to a certain depth, so that means you could potentially deal with humungous files if you’re not careful. (Plucker Desktop actually offers lots of options for controlling file size).

But what is a manageable file size? How big can an ebook be without taxing the constraints of the device or software or user experience? This question is complicated because ebooks are viewed on two different kinds of platforms: miniature devices and desktop/laptop based devices. (more…)

By David Rothman

Details from DigiTimes. Summary of further info from the Yano Research Institute in Japan:

The shipment value will reach 10.58 billion yen (US$94.7 million) in fiscal year 2006, representing an on-year growth of 174%… The market will further grow to 19.96 billion yen in fiscal year 2008 and 57.24 billion yen in 2010, as the ASP (average selling price) will be boosted by the migration to color and larger-sized displays…

Veteran e-bookers can easily read the future. The current E Ink technology used in devices such as the Sony Reader and the iLiad is just the start. No, the real issue isn’t this technology or similar ones, but whether society will be prepared to use it well. Can librarians adjust to the new medium, for example, and what will be the business models in use?

By David Rothman

$100 textbooks may sell for $39 or so, thanks to ads inserted in them through OSoft’s dotReader program.

But what will the ads look like, under a partnership with Freeload Press? Here’s a mock-up, and you can check out the dotReader screenshot area for more information and a larger picture.

Students will see the ads when they go from chapter to chapter, but within the chapters they’ll be able to turn them off to focus better on their studies. (more…)

By David Rothman

Note: We’d like to hear from people actually reading e-books on cellphones.

Nope, I doubt that many people see mobile phones as ideal for e-books.

They’re viewed essentially as compromise devices to avoid carrying too many gizmos around.

Even so, along with others, I’ve been saying for some time that e-book-sellers do need to pay attention to the blending of PDAs and phones. It’s still-further along in countries such as Japan, as the photo helps illustrate.

And now here’s more info–from an IDPF conference on mobile reading–a PW story: (more…)

By David Rothman

…then read Bob Russell’s handy list of solutions in MobileRead. Of course, there’s sometimes a catch, as Bob notes–the DRM. Tough luck if your want to read a PDFed best-seller with a DRM Doberman inside. Then you’re most likely stuck with a proprietary reader from Adobe if another format isn’t around. Can’t win, eh?

Insightful ob from Bob: He notes that PDFs “are primarily suited for representing a page as if it was an electronic version of a printed page. This characteristic is fine, and often even beneficial, when you intend to print the document or view it on a large display. But it is generally hard to view on a handheld screen.” You can bet that the OpenReader format will avoid this major flaw.

And speaking of the dark side of the e-book status quo: Check out complaints about e-book prices and the Tower of eBabel.

By David Rothman

BookFob stores obnoxiously DRMed books on a USB memory stick that you can attach to a keychain.

Granted, the stick handily contains an e-book-reader program and supposedly can work with any Windows PC. But what if you want to use another program? I’m not sure if BookFob allows that. And how about use on linux desktops, various PDAs and other devices without the right Bill-blessed OS? Look, we’re talking market balkanization, when instead people should be able to just buy a book and not worry about tie-ins with hardware of any kind–computer or BookFob. (more…)

By David Rothman

Bill Jansen notes that our poll on the ideal e-book device failed to mention cellphones. How many TeleBlog readers are using ‘em for reading e-books?

If you’re one of those readers, what phone do you own, how do you like it, and what wisdom do you have for others doing the same or contemplating it? Software in use? Were e-books a major factor in determining what phone you bought or rented? How do you cope with the small screen size? Also, where do you see technology headed for reading books on phones?

Please note that the TeleBlog comes in a WAP flavor. The screenshot, however, shows Mobipocket for a Sony Ericcson phone.

Related: QWERTY Phones are Cookin’, in Cloudy Thinking. If nothing else, a keyboard could be good for typing in phrases while searching e-books. Also see Buying a Treo 700p – what’s your plan? from MobileRead’s Bob Russell.

By David Rothman

Details from Rough Type. Speech here from BookExpo podblog. Updike covers other topics as well, and online books come up around 7 minutes 25 seconds into his talk.

You can also hear AAP prez Pat Scroeder on copyright and digitization and Google.

Where I’d agree with Updike: Yes, business models like “personal access to the creator” are no substitute for royalties. All kinds of models should be available, including traditional ones.

Related TeleBlog item: John Updike and the literati vs. the evil technorati at BookExpo: Rabbit, rant!

By David Rothman

“Lulu is one of the only major services that offers their basic print on demand services for free. Even the premium services are significantly cheaper with Lulu.” – Shoe’s post in LISNews. Lulu site here.

By David Rothman

Remember Quinn Anya Carey’s heartfelt complaint about the costs of new college textbooks?

Well, her old man, CEO Mark Carey at OSoft, will be able to help do something about the problem–thanks to a new deal wtih the aptly named Freeload Press. If the technology catches on, students could save billions over time. A $100 science textbook may cost a mere $39. Freeload and OSoft will cleverly address the issue of displaying the ads so they are worth advertisers’ money but don’t distract students from their studies.

Satisfying the usability gods–readers

I’ll run the textbook announcement in the read-on section of this post. Of course, keep in mind, as Quinn does, that the issue for e-books isn’t just cost but usability, whether ad-related or not. Quinn has been full of great suggestions in general for OSoft’s dotReader, and you yourself can help via a public forum–now discussing interface issues.

Screenshots are here, and other new info on dotReader is here. Already a large government education project plans to use the reader and related capabilities, and meanwhile OSoft is working on dotReader’s possible “integration into an E Ink device.”

OK, here’s the official announcement about college textbooks: (more…)

By David Rothman

“Caretaker PM’s Office Minister Suranand Vejjajiva…said the government is stepping up campaigns to encourage children to read more after a 2005 survey by the National Statistical Office found that Thai youngsters read no more than 5 books per year each or less than 2 pages a day. Mr. Suranand said setting up more libraries is part of the campaign. The government is trying to reduce costs of paper and promote the production and reading of e-books.” – National News Service.

Related: Somewhat overlapping thoughts from an article last year in Iran Daily: “Another point is that electronic books must be promoted nationwide. Further, the government must help create an international market for Persian books that are translated into foreign languages.”

By David Rothman

We’re again surveying readers to learn which machine would be best for their e-reading. Add your two cents’ worth in a flash. Then find out which much-hyped machine, at least as of 4:30 p.m. EST in the States, hasn’t received a single vote of the 58 cast so far. Nope, the loser isn’t the Pepper Pad (forthcoming version shown to the left).

By David Rothman

Here, from our friend Alex at MobileRead–some lowdown on Microsoft’s patented DRM, including the Dobermanish variety, perhaps the most common kind in use.

I’ve nothing against loyal, well-behaved Dobermans. But in Microsoft’s case, we’re talking about the rip-your-throat-out variety.

Disappointment of the day: DRM-related activation of e-books will apparently remain one of Microsoft’s five main options for publishers, if you extrapolate from Alex’s story. This kind of activation is to e-books what tobacco is to asthmatics; it jacks up tech support costs and kills sales despite hype to the contrary. In an era when even morons can scan and OCR paper best-sellers–the kind of book most profitable as fodder for bootleggers–DRM is hardly a panacea. If publishers must offer copy-”protection” or whatever you call it, they should at least be less Dobermanish about it.

Related: Yet another Microsoft Reader horror story and How DRM is standing between one e-book shopper and his dream machine and Why Pond fears e-books will succeed.

By David Rothman

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A few months ago we ran a poll on the best e-reading machine, at least as seen from afar. Has your opinion changed? If so, why? The hardware lineup seems more or less the same, except that the Pepper Pad is about to undergo a radical transformation, so vote on the latest info.