Tablet PC sales haven't exactly boomed over the years, but guess what? 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist has tablet PC at the top of the query list within "Popular Computer Goods."

Could a Tablet PC boom be around the bend, with e-books piggybacking? Don't count on Tablet PCs taking off, but it'll be nice if it happens. Lower prices could help. Will we see some super-low-priced linux tablets (no need for upper casing of "tablets")?

As for the "Popular electronics" category, ipod came first, with pda a mere ninth, just one place ahead of electric scooter. That is not good news.
posted by David Rothman at 10:34 AM | permanent link

If you value online privacy, check out Software firms want copyright law rewrite, on CNET News.
posted by David Rothman at 10:26 AM | permanent link

A Canadian study says kids with home computers read better, but that kids relying on library machines are below the norm. While I haven't digested the study in full, I have one instant theory. Could the study really be reflecting socioeconomic differences? Just how many well-off kids do you know who rely exclusively on library computers? (Impact of Computer Use on Reading Achievement of 15-year-olds from the Canadian Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, via LISNews.)
posted by David Rothman at 10:09 AM | permanent link

Does Internet use reduce library use? Researchers will be following up on a five-year-old study, which found that libraries and the Net complemented each other, that there was no reduction. My hunch is that libraries will do just fine in Internet era if they can adapt--via such services as IM-savvy reference desks. (Does Internet Use Pose a Threat to Libraries (Yet)?, from the University of Buffalo, via LISNews.)
posted by David Rothman at 9:30 AM | permanent link

Are e-books fit for the bathroom? Well, just buy a gizmo cheap enough for you not to fret too much about water damage, or a tumble and a cracked screen. Here's a hardware review with a twist, from Stephen Gambuti, author of a novel called Center Moon. Owner of a $2,000 Tablet PC, Steve recommends a cheaper machine for the john.

For Christmas, my wife surprised me with an e-book reading device from eBookWise. The eBookWise site was selling Center Moon, my own novel, and wouldn't it be nice for us to be able to see own story on a reader from the same company?

Never did she realize that my little eBookwise-1150 would change the way I read books--in a place that the e-book world normally doesn't talk about.

I fired up my laptop and went to eBookWise.com expecting a huge ordeal to download upload an e-book into my new eBookwise-1150. But I could register my device and choose my first book in minutes through either my USB port or my phone jack. And I had twenty dollars worth of credit. Twenty bucks might get me a paperback and a half at Barnes and Noble.

Quick transfer

After I downloaded my own novel, I went for the one I really wanted to read, Red Planet. Great story by the way. There are so many great authors and titles to choose from that it takes me longer to decide on an e-book than it does to actually transfer it to my device.

I couldn’t wait to try out the 1150. The hours I had until it was time to recharge seemed endless--about 15, actually. I was used to reading on my Tablet PC, which only provided me with three hours maximum reading time. I tapped my screen with the tip of my fingernail even though this device provides a stylus, and whammo--Red Planet appeared. I adjusted the backlight so it was just the way I liked it. I could also have made the fonts bigger, but the pre-setting suited my eyes.

Like any major factor that decides the perfect reading situation, I headed straight for the toilet. It was time for the ultimate testing ground. Like Sinatra in New York, if it could make here, it could make it anywhere.

While the bathroom isn't the most talked-about location for reviewing e-book devices, it is actually one of my greatest gauges since I have small children and a busy schedule. Most of my reading is done there or in bed. We have all heard numerous stories about how great e-books are in bed with the backlight and all. I usually prefer paperbacks and smaller hardcovers when visiting the head due to the fact that my Tablet PC is a bit awkward especially around all that water--the sink, the tub and the rest. So that means Tablet PC is great in bed but bad in bathroom.

The "left off" factor

Another area of importance is that I like opening a book and beginning right where I left off. By the time I turn on my Tablet PC, punch in my password, bring up the screen, select a book and get to the bookmark, my visit to the head is usually finished and reading material is no longer required. The beauty of the eBookWise reading device is that I can press the "on" button and in a tenth of a second a wonderful screen is displayed at the exact page I left off.

With my Tablet PC, I would have this awkward feeling as I held this ten-inch screen in a single hand. I have found that one hand should always be available when using the facilities. However, you need two hands to hold the Tablet PC. Unless you don’t mind dropping a $2,000 computer on a hard tile floor. That said, the eBookWise reading device rested comfortably in the palm of my hand as it weighed the same as a mass market paperback.

Another plus is the that unlike other reading devices, this one cost less than a hundred dollars and I feel I can afford to risk the water damage and hard tiles.

Leaving the john, I headed downstairs to my office and made all my paperbacks look very nice and alphabetically ordered. They are now what I refer to as "decorations." I honestly can’t wait to use the bathroom again. I may even stay in there for an extra ten minutes.

Both ways

Now, the only way I will enjoy a good story during that special time of the day is with the eBookWise reading device in the palm of my hand. No longer will I fall subject to losing my page or balancing my Tablet PC between my knee and one hand. With the e-book reader I can have it both ways.

The Fictionwise company, parent of eBookwise, offers a fantastic selection of e-books along with fantastic pricing. I think the high prices of Gemstar’s books were also a deterrent for me in the past. Ebookwise also has an e-book librarian that lets you use different formats for your device, which is one step closer to reading just about anything digital. You can also shop anywhere that sells e-books in the Rocket Book format. It is not a Fictionwise exclusive.

* * *

Editor's note: You can’t read DRMed formats except those intended for the eBookWise machine. Forget about encrypted Adobe and Microsoft Reader books. Still, it's great to see eBookwise doing what it can within the limits of available options. Four more thoughts:

--Don't forget about Steve Breen's beta software, which lets you bold or enlarge type for greater viewability. I myself think the 1150-screen is adequate but could stand help. Steve's program does the trick.

-- If a $100 machine still isn't cheap enough, consider a used PDA or eBookMan.

--Whatever you buy, find out beforehand about damage from moisture. Very possibly, bathroom use might void the manufacturer's warranty.

--If you're buying a PDA or Tablet PC, here's one idea on the water-damage front. - David Rothman
posted by David Rothman at 3:32 AM | permanent link

From Tom Peters, coordinator of Unabridged, an audio e-book service for the blind:

Today libraries serving blind, visually impaired, and physically handicapped readers in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Oregon, as well as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), part of the Library of Congress, announce a new service, Unabridged, that provides digital audio books for print-impaired readers. A full press release is available.
posted by David Rothman at 1:45 PM | permanent link

Remember Air Force 2's most gung-ho laptop user? Yes--Al Gore. The Clinton-Gore administration, abetted by the Republicans on the Hill, carved up the public domain. But former Vice President Gore deserves much praise for his earlier words in favor of digitizing the Library of Congress, even if Washington's deeds fell far shortage of his rhetoric.

In attacking Gore's vision of little children in Tennesse being able to read from the Library's collection, however, Geoffrey Nunberg's article in the L.A. Times coudn't even get right the date of a Gore quote on that topic. Was this a mere misprint or one more example of the ignorance of the Luddite professor at Stanford? In Touched by the Turn of a Page, Nunberg apparently wrote: "As Al Gore described the vision in 1984, 'I want a schoolchild in Carthage, Tenn., to come to school and be able to plug into the Library of Congress.'" Trouble is, Gore actually was speaking a decade later, a difference highly meaningful to those of us who were pushing an e-library vision before 1994.

Googling Gore

My Google search uncovered the Gore quote as picked up directly or indirectly from a New Yorker article by Ken Auletta, but revealed that the article appeared on Jan. 17, 1994. Furthermore, Nunberg left out some important words from a Digital Divide perspective. As reproduced in the New Yorker, the full quote read with dots in place: "I want a schoolchild in Carthage, Tennessee, to come to school and be able to plug into the Library of Congress and work at home at his own pace...regardless of that child's income." Isn't it interesting how Nunberg left out the words "regardless of that child's income"? That's hardly a major journalistic sin, but if nothing else is a splendid example of the knowledge elite's fixation on itself rather than the needs of society at large. But back to the date. Is a retraction on the way from the L.A. Times? Or, better still, will the Times let me respond in detail to Nunberg's anti-e-book technophobia? No wonder old farts like Nunberg feel uncomfortable about too much knowledge spreading among the masses. Horror of horrors, uppity bloggers can find errors in the writings of Stanford professors.

Yet another example of Nunberg's ignorance--or bias: Our scholar wrote: "And for sustained reading, digital texts can't provide the sense of place we have when we read a paper book, unconsciously measuring our progress by the diminishing distance between our thumb and forefinger. Reading Proust in a browser window is like touring Normandy through a bombsight."

What malarkey. Can Prof. Nunberg spell P-D-A? Or, gasp, does he know of machines designed for reading e-books? Just last month, while reading Flaubert during my visit with my wife's parent in small-town North Carolina, I could easily keep track of my progress through the line at the bottom of each screen of Madame Bovary as displayed by Mobipocket. The farther I read in the book, the longer the line extended toward the right edge of the screen. Besides, a snob like Nunberg should be happy to know that both Mobipocket and my loaner Cybook come from France. As for standardization of page numbers or equivalent references, OpenReader will address that issue very nicely, thank you.

A stupid "either or": Why does Nunberg act as if we must choose between e-books and physical libraries? Both have their place. Libraries offer story-telling hours and the like; e-books provide instant access to the classics and other books and increase the chances of great books being preserved not just on bookshelves but also in plebes' minds. Talk about Nunberg's beloved serendity! Some e-book boosters would say, "Down with all physical libraries," but by far they are in a minority. From the start, TeleRead has talked about evolution rather than revolution. It's not as if all books will be instantly digitized or that story-telling hours should ever vanish.

And more from the Department of Serendipity: With a TeleRead-style approach in place, the Tennessee child just might discover Flaubert on his own rather than being at the mercy of local libraries and schools, or parents' reading habits, or suffering from the lack of the latter. Gaps abound even in good school systems. I went though both high school and college without anyone assigning me The Great Gatsby, often hailed as the Great American novel of the 20th century.

Reminder of the obvious: I commit my share of atrocities. But then, because I working in an electronic medium, I can easily correct them. Yet another argument for e-books? A TeleRead-style approach could better disseminate corrections and updates--via hyperlinks, the very stuff that Nunberg either deliberately or unwittingly ignored in suggesting that e-books threatened serendipity.
posted by David Rothman at 3:51 AM | permanent link

BusinessWeek has an upbeat article on videoblogging and also mentions OurMedia, a site that will offer videos and other grassroots-created content.
posted by David Rothman at 10:04 AM | permanent link

Mobdex, a way to read Gutenberg classics on mobile phones, has a new twist--the ability to RSS to you a few new pages each day. Meanwhile, Richard McManus has pointed us to the WINKsite, which offers Creative Commons Library books in a format for memory-crimped mobiles. Other content will be added.
posted by David Rothman at 1:47 AM | permanent link

In an L.A. Times rant headlined Touched by the Turn of a Page, Stanford academic Geoffrey Nunberg trots out the old cliches against e-books.

Yawn. Here this man contributes to a blog full of references to books; and via hyperlinked citations, readers can discover otherwise forgotten works from the past. And yet Nunberg is acting as if people can't find out about books serendipitously except in old-fashioned ways. "If the book isn't on any library shelves," he says of a favorite, "it's not certain that anyone will stumble on it again." Isn't it just possible that politicians are more of a threat to old books than digital librarians are?

Why do newspaper editors print Nunberg-style cant? Is it stupidity, nostalgia, mindless awe of titles like "Professor," or employers' huge investments in printing presses? Yes, the e-book biz is a mess in many respects, but efforts are underway to improve it. Time for academia and journalism not to take Luds so seriously?

Nunberg as a friend of book publishing (sarcasm alert): "The people who have been lost to novel reading aren't the devotees of great literature," our hero says in a Fresh Air commentary. "They're the people who used to read a couple of romances or thrillers a year and have now switched to reading political screeds or magazines, or have simply decided to spend more time at the gym."

(Thanks to Rochelle for spotting Nunberg's anti-e-book rant.)
posted by David Rothman at 1:40 PM | permanent link

Did the Times in the UK really need a year to discover the Librie and the Sigma? I'd hope not, but the article, dated January 1, 2005, sure reads that way. A computer error, perhaps? The original news came out in the first quarter of 2004. But good luck if you're looking for updates.

There is no mention of the format issues, incidentally--for example, Sony's laudable willingness to open up the Librie to books in ASCII, HTML and so on via its own converter for the BBeB format, after the development of translators by members of the independent Librie mailing list. Nor does the article discuss what's out there in BBeB.

Now, if Sony can move on to to an official U.S. version of the Librie with Mobipocket (the best of the most common proprietary systems) and then offer OpenReader, the ultimate solution to the eBabel issue, I'll be delighted.

(Times article found via Pocket PC eBooks Watch.)
posted by David Rothman at 9:12 AM | permanent link

This idea has no direct connction with e-books, but it's too interesting to pass by. Remember, I'm speaking for myself, not other TeleRead supporters.

Instead of doing Vietnam II and staying years and years in a land like Iraq where we're hated, why not withdraw--but with a twist suggested by two readers of William Raspberry's column in the Washington Post?

The twist: Send at least some of our Iraq-based troops and resources to help tsunami victims, many of whom, by the way, live in Muslim countries. Let's see more scenes like the one in the Navy photo above, showing U.S. helicopters laden with relief supplies, not bombs. Terrorists might respond by attacking the aid-givers-which would backfire mightily. This time the locals would be with us. We're not just talking about quick drops of food, but rather about recovery from a disaster that killed more than 144,000 people and set back some local economies by years.

Perhaps once we achieved good results, Washington would show more eagerness over the long term to help people in even non-oil-producing countries. Gasp, our politicians might even get serious about ideas such as an Electronic Peace Corps. Ironically, by promoting political and economic stability, bleeding-heart-style activities might be better at assuring a steady oil flow than traditional military action focused around that objective. Improved telecom and well-stocked national digital libraries, building national pride and full of practical information, could be among the endeavors that an EPC promoted. Perhaps if a full-strength EPC and similar efforts by other First World nations had existed, people in tsunami-hit countries could have benefitted from excellent warning systems. As some of my fellow bleeding hearts have suggested, the global digital divide can be dangerous to your health if you live by the seashore in a developing country.

Related: Tsunami news aggregator from Andy Carvin.
posted by David Rothman at 5:23 AM | permanent link

"The EFF and others should be encouraging responsible DRM development not just slamming it. How about a code of conduct for responsible DRM coding?" - Did I accidentally successfully predict 2005's ideological split among the digerati?, in Blog.org.

The TeleRead take: I'm hardly the biggest fan of DRM, but the idea is very much worth considering. Here's to sensible compromise! Whatever happens, one element of a DRM-related code should be the freedom from DRM for publishers not wanting it. Many small publishers find that DRM actually can reduce sales. DRM inconveniences many readers and makes it harder for them to share their enthusiasms and thus in effect promote authors and books.
posted by David Rothman at 5:06 AM | permanent link

"...the Internet’s interactivity suggests an alternative economy in which the long-standing imbalance between publisher, audience, and advertiser could be corrected. A system of Internet-based marketing, which I’ll call Publisher-Driven Advertising, or PDA, may be soon possible. In this system, publishers would pick and choose from a vast supply of advertisers." - A New Idea for Publishing, by John Battelle in the MIT Technology Review.

The TeleRead take: Yes, what about the possibilty of publishers deciding to pander to and go after a certain kind of advertiser? Still, I suspect that within a nanosecond after reading the MIT Tech Review item, certain e-book publishers, not just the articles-type variety, will be considering the idea. In all fairness, traditional newspapers and magazines do their own share of pandering.
posted by David Rothman at 4:53 AM | permanent link

Has anyone tried Image to PDF(PDF E-Book Maker), and if so, what are your impressions? Needless to say, the existence of this software is one more argument against DRM overkill. If a book is popular, then pirates will just scan it in from a paper edition. (Found via eBookAd.)

Related: Bowerbird, a poet and independent programmer, says on the Book People list that this spring he'll release "a program that will enable people to quickly and easily convert a set of scans and their OCR output into a full-fledged e-book with 'real' text."

Update, 4:12 p.m. EST, Jan. 4: Karen Lofstrom, Distributed Proofreaders volunteer, wrote in to say: "Bowerbird has been boasting about his [e-book] work in the DP forums for over a year, and has yet to produce anything useful. DPers consider him a troll."
posted by David Rothman at 2:55 AM | permanent link

In the wake of the TeleBlog's positive review of the Cybook last month, interest seems to be building in the tablet e-book reader with the ten-inch screen. Over at MobileRead, Morpheus was curious about various details ranging from price to PDF, and here are replies from Bookeen. I earlier quoted Bookeen on the dust issue, but if you're interested in the Cybook, it wouldn't hurt to read more. Bookeen, by the way, plans to start a community forum, and I've suggested a mailing list and perhaps RSS feeds as well.

As the user of a long-term loaner, I remain interested in hearing from people about the pros and cons of the machine. One thing I'm hoping for is an improvement in browsing capability--the Windows CE Internet Explorer brower couldn't display do justice to the MyYahoo page; it dropped the column where I had news headlines and RSS links. With a better, more up-to-date browser, life would be simpler in terms of downloading books. In that same vein, I'd love to see Bookeen sell a memory/Ethernet card--yes, two in one if that's available from a good vendor. OK. I'm going to pass these thoughts on to Bookeen and see what might be possible. I'll pass on the replies in an addendum to this post.

Back to format matters. Another reader curious about the Cybook tells me he wants to be able to download a digital edition of the New York Times. Alas, it's in a cumbersome proprietary format. No wonder the Times can't seem to attract many subscribers for it. This is the sort of stuff that OpenReader, a project in which I'm involved and which Bookeen has endorsed, will address.

Update, 4:48 a.m. EST: Here's a partial reply from Michael Dahan at Bookeen, with more presumably to come: "With Mobipocket WebCompanion, you can extract automatically articles from numerous news Website (Herald Tribune, yahoo.fr, Lemonde.fr). It works a bit as AvantGo. You won’t benefit from the layout of the real magazine because it's not the printing version edition like the one you can find with Newsstand, but it’s quiet interesting. These enews documents (PRC files) are unencrypted which mean they can be read either on Mobipocket or on uBook (in 2 columns)."

More from Michael, just read at 7 a.m.: "Our Browser is IE4 (not Pocket Internet Explorer), it will be difficult to have something more than that on our current Cybook version. On the multi-function card, you are not the only one to ask us this feature. We are looking for such a card (wi-fi + memory) for which we can have the driver. For information also, we offer for each Cybook an adapter CF/PCMCIA + 64Mbytes or 128MBytes (depends on the stock) CF Card containing a small bundle of free ebooks in boo format."
posted by David Rothman at 2:12 AM | permanent link

Project Gutenberg hasn't really made itself part of librarydom to the extent it could, but at least the the catalog is now available in MARC format. LISNews, aimed at librarians, has noted the development. This is definitely A Good Thing.

Related: Google Library Project: FAQs by Librarians in LISNews, pointing to Google's Library Project: Questions, Questions, Questions in Information Today. Not that librarians are the only ones talking about Google.

"Empire strikes back" Department: Digitizing Books: Google it, but better still, turn the page, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial spotted by LISNews. No, e-books today cannot be a full replacement for p-books, just a fraction of which have been digitized. But the editorial vastly underestimates the future potential and falls for the nostalgia trap. What about the kids who are growing up in front of screens?
posted by David Rothman at 2:02 AM | permanent link

Yes, you can now read DRMed Adobe ebooks on your Pocket PC, as reported in Acrobat 7 and my continuing Pocket PC DRM battle, in the Cool or What? blog. Also see a post on an Adobe forum available to registered members (do not downlaod the beta mentioned there). I'm happy for Adobe/PPC users but dismayed about all the complexity involved. This is one more illustration of why so many nongeeks hate ebooks.

posted by David Rothman at 2:13 AM | permanent link