TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘e-ink’ Category

By David Rothman

Moderator: Bookeen’s latest Cybook Gen3 can hold 1,000 books—probably more than any other e-book reader’s internal memory. Price is still US$350-$450. Slightly edited news release follows. - D.R.

…The Cybook New Edition offers three major improvements:

1. More internal memory: The Cybook internal memory reaches 512MB now. 480MB is available for storage which corresponds to an average 1,000 books storage capacity. It is the largest internal memory size for an e-book reader available on the market.

2. New firmware: The device has been preloaded with the brand new firmware recently released by Bookeen. Offers more stability, a longer battery lifetime and a more reactive button interface (faster and buffered key detection). This new firmware is also available for all our customers and can be downloaded and installed. Please see more information ahead.

3. Revised housing: The navigation button offers a pleasant and soft hand feeling with a good tactile feedback which enhances definitely the digital reading experience.

This new edition remains at the same price in its standard and Deluxe versions. Please note that the Cybook Gen3 new edition is currently in stock and the average delay between order and shipment is 12 business days.

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By David Rothman

The Rolls (US$699) and the BMW (US$599) of E Ink machines both come from iRex Technologies—one of my favorite e-book hardware companies because it isn’t pulling any stunts to lock people into proprietary formats.

No, the iLiad 2nd Edition and the less expensive iLiad Book Edition aren’t as easy for novices to buy and download books with as the wireless Kindle is. But within E Inkdom, nothing for sale today beats those eight-inch screens.

Friendly suggestions for iRex—and Borders UK

With the above in mind, I hope iRex will pay attention to an item in The Bookseller, headlined BA: iLiad ‘not iPod moment for books.’ That tough-love-ish pronouncement is coming from none other than the chair of Borders, U.K.—iRex’s partners in Great Britain. And I see merit in his words, which can’t just be shrugged off as coming from someone with a vested interest in paper books. That said, Borders UK may be part of the problem. Why isn’t Borders UK, currently not even bothering to promote the iLiad on its home page—a rather bizarre omission? Should it really be waiting for the launch of borders.co.uk? Meanwhile—from The Bookseller:

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By David Rothman

An “ultra-moldable’ E Ink display is used in this Delphi watch fob.

Now imagine the possibilities for, say, mobile cellphones that can double as e-book readers.

“Normally used for devices such as the Amazon Kindle or basic displays on flash drives,” says Electronista, “the new cells are as much as 40 percent thinner and can be cut into either unusual 2D shapes or bent into regular forms, such as curves. They also survive harsher temperatures, the designer says, allowing the extremely power-efficient designs to stand more exposure outside.”

Related: E Ink press release.

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By David Rothman

“Speaking of libraries,” Philip Gulley writes in a mostly lighthearted essay in Indianapolis Monthly on Kindles vs. traditional books, “what will become of them if the Kindle succeeds? Copyright laws, written by lobbyists and passed through a Congress beholden to big money, will prevent libraries from downloading books and sharing them for free with patrons, which will effectively make literature and information inaccessible to the poor. Books will become like healthcare in this country, available to some and not others. Congress might eventually remedy this, but it will take 50 years, and in the meantime three generations of poor children won’t know the pleasure of curling up with a good book, expanding their minds, and broadening their opportunities.”

The TeleRead take: Well, Philip, you’re off on the details, but I like the spirit of the above, which, alas, considering the copyright lobby’s influence in D.C., turns out to be less of a joke than you thought. TeleRead, anyone? And new business and access models for libraries, with fair compensation to creators?

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By David Rothman

The positives of Ezra Klein’s CJR article and related video: He’s a new Kindle user and hails the machine as “credible. As a product of Amazon, it’s intertwined with the world’s largest online bookstore, legitimized by the one company that can lay some claim to having already changed the way we use, or at least acquire, books. The real question, though, is what took so long?”

In general, the Klein article is upbeat on E and notes the possibilities of  adjustable font sizes, outbound links, interactivity and updated books (albeit, I’d assume, not the 1984ish variety). At the same time his CJR piece correctly recognizes that the Kindle and the like are not perfect replacements for paper books, given the screen-contrast problems of E Ink, among the other flaws.

The negatives—blindness to the eBabel and DRM issues: Um, Ezra, I mostly liked your piece, but as an e-book newbie, you unwittingly left out a few details. Unless we want the whole bleepin’ e-book world to revolve around Jeff Bezos, we deserve nonproprietary e-book standards in areas ranging from the basic format to guidelines for shared annotations and interbook linking.

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By David Rothman

“Three months after acknowledging multiple vulnerabilities in its popular Reader software and then patching the program, Adobe Systems Inc. yesterday finally provided some details about the bugs.” -  Adobe breaks silence on February’s PDF bugs: Flaws’ severity may have prompted silence, researcher speculates, in Computerworld.

The TeleRead take:  Go here for downloads to address Reader and Acrobat 7 and 8 problems if you haven’t already.

Question: Do you think open source readers are better or worse from a security perspective than the usual commercial products are? And might Adobe’s security problems be one reason why the IDPF should encourage the creation and development of open-source ePUB readers—whose tires can be kicked from the start, to at least reduce the possibility of surprises later on? I want to see both open source and commercial models (in this case, Adobe’s ePUB-compatible Digital Editions) thrive.

Update, 2:03 p.m.: John Dowell at Adobe offered a helpful, unofficial response to the CW article.

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By David Rothman

Could reading newspapers online be harder on the environment than enjoying them the old-fashioned way—on paper?

Perhaps in some respects, if you rely on a desktop computer rather than a little PDA or a dedicated E Ink reader such as a Kindle, Sony or iLiad.

“Reading online on a desktop computer for 10 minutes produces the same load on the environment as reading an e-book for half an hour, and reading online for 30 minutes has the same overall effect as reading a print newspaper.”

So says Would you like that book in paper or plastic?—an article in Environmental Science & Technology—in summing up some recent research.

E-book angle

Now, what are the implications for people (1) reading the newspaper online longer than half an hour on a desktop or (2) reading an entire book? Check out ES&T.

Oh, the variables to consider, and I don’t just mean disposal of old computers or whether you use an LCD or cathode ray tube monitor! Remember, many people like to leave their desktops on constantly to download podcasts or for other reasons, such as avoidance of boot-up delays. If so, that would reduce the extra eco-strain from actual reading—since the equipment would have been humming away regardless. Then again, some might say: “Does your desktop really need to be on all the time?” Power saving tips, welcomed! Your thoughts on power management and the rest, in an e-book context?

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By David Rothman

Yes, the actual book—the paper and cardboard—accounts for just part of what you pay at the store.

But new hikes in paper and fuel costs may make e-books more competitive with P than before. And of course we know which approach is greener.

Related: P-books as global warmers: Another argument for E. Paper books are a speck of paper consumption, but e-book readers can also display newspapers, far more villainous as polluters in P format.

And speaking of the p-to-e transition: Reluctantly, a daily stops its presses, living online, the New York Times’ write-up on the Capital Times in Madison,Wisconsin. Also see Wikipedia item.

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By David Rothman

Below is news release, edited. Also see earlier post on the Book Edition.

Borders UK will sell iRex Technologies’ iLiad Book Edition  in seven of its stores for  £399, starting Saturday 10th May. Borders will be the first high street retailer in the UK to showcase the product, which has already had a high-profile launch in Holland, and the first bookseller in the UK to sell an e-book device.

“Here at Borders we are firmly committed to delivering the best range, the best browsing environment and best customer experience in the marketplace”, said Neil Fitton, Head of Marketing for Borders UK. “With this agreement to offer the iLiad Book Edition to Borders customers, we are adding an exciting new device that gives those who are passionate about reading another way to indulge that passion. We are delighted to be associated with iRex Technologies, the inventors of electronic paper technology, in introducing this great new product.”

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By David Rothman

Love the iLiad’s eight-inch screen but don’t want to pay some €650?

The silver “Book Edition,” on sale Friday, might be the answer.

It omits WiFi but comes loaded with 50 free English-language classics—in Mobi format?—and sells for €499. Among the titles are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice and Dracula.

U.S. price question

Yes, I have questions. What does the €499 mean for U.S. consumers in practical terms?

The current iLiad goes for US$699. Will the Book Edition’s price be in the lower 500s? I’ve emailed iRex Technologies.

Helping out novices

I also wonder about iRex’s documentation, based on my experiences with the older model. In iRex’s place I’d offer a simple, colorful illustrated guide, going beyond a “QuickStart” card, and distribute it on paper.

Many novices want to focus on the information, as opposed to accustoming themselves to e-reading right off the bat. Especially I’d play up how to buy books, download Mobipocket Desktop (screenshot) and synch the main PC to the iLiad.

Remember—the wireless Kindle lets you download e-books in a blink; no need to synch or use a memory card. That’s what iRex must compete against. Gang, how do you feel? Remember, iRex wants nontechies to be among the Book Edition’s buyers. What works for you, as an e-connoisseur, might not work for many bibliophiles.

Praiseworthy commitment to many formats

On the positive, beyond that awesome screen, it’s great to see iRex offering the 50 preloaded books and aiming for a lower price.

Furthermore, I like iRex’s continuation of its commitment to a choice of formats. Now supported are “PDF, PRC (Mobipocket), HTML and TXT” and “support for additional E-book formats will become available over the coming months.”

Let’s hope that the IDPF’s ePUB standard will be added shortly, and that iRex will encourage its software partners to cut back on use of DRM, so people can own their books for real.

Titles available: iRex talks about 49,000 books in Mobiformat. The Kindle has 115,000 titles, though at least some of of these are newspapers and blogs, and the screen isn’t as large or readable in general as the iLiad’s is.

Links: Press release, specs

(Thanks to Wiebe de Jager at Ebookreaders.nl and MobileRead.)

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By Tamas Simon

The Web is the place for valuable but free texts—government, legal, technical and scientific information, for example.

But there’s a problem, literally a big one. The format is often PDF, with letter-sized pages in North America and similar A4 pages in Europe.

Unfortunately, e-book readers like the Sony, the Kindle and the iLiad can’t do full justice to PDFs in that size range. The root cause of the problem is that PDF is a final format, not suited for reflow. So you could well be out of luck if your reader has just a six-inch screen.

Making Mohammed go to the mountain

On the other hand it is very easy for the party who created a PDF document to use a different page size. So my idea here is simple and follows the old motto:

If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain.

Let’s lobby for Web sites to produce their articles in PDF format with a page size suitable for today’s e-reading devices.

At a time of global warming, every small little effort counts. If we can save a couple of trees this way, then not only did we provide convenience to people who already purchased these devices, but we are also doing something good for the environment and we will provide further incentives for e-reading.

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By David Rothman

Drat those evil techies—interfering with the get-a-horse-style forecasts of hardworking Luddites!

While academic librarians focus on the current prices of e-readers, let’s remember that PVI will be churning out 120,000 six-inch displays per month in the second half of ‘08, and meanwhile better tech is on the way. We ran a somewhat similar item earlier, but here’s an accidental jog from MobileRead with a link to a few extra details. Remember, displays are the highest-priced part of e-readers. Hello, American Libraries? Are academic librarians—at least those who’ve never even used a Kindle—the ultimate e-book authorities?

Other links of interest:

–”Waterstone’s is believed to have signed a deal to stock Sony’s e-book reader when it is introduced into the UK later this year,” reports the Bookseller. “It is understood that the retailer will be the exclusive vendor of the device in the UK.”

–OCLC introduces high-priced digital archiving service is the headline over Barbara Quint’s clueful article in Information Today. Maybe those costs are what the academic librarians should be ranting about. Quote from Barbara on annual fees: “Charges for the new service fall into 100-gigabyte chunks with each chunk priced at $750—one hundred and one gigabytes and the price jumps to $1,500.” Too bad that OCLC can’t contract this out privately and use the power of permanent links to help libraries build a true Web of enduring content. That would be better than just letting libraries entrust local content to Amazon or Google without librarians calling the shots. But libraries and coherent information strategies are too often like oil and water. Somehow they don’t always mix. The same—for the most part—with libraries and e-book standards. May that change! Libraries need to tell book-related vendors, “Go ePUB or else…”

–Guess who’s now writing a Publishers Weekly blog that democratically appears in the same location as the others. None other than Sara Nelson, the editor-in-chief. But, Sara, isn’t that risky, even if you’re linked in now to the power people at Reed Business Information? We know how ephemeral blogs can be. Care to restore the Web visibility of E-Book Report—my PW blog that mysteriously disappeared to the dismay of unsuspecting folks who were linking to EBR, in the Web sense? All those tens of thousands of words vanished in a flash, not the best move for PW’s credibility online or off. Reversing PW’s decision would a helpful precedent—and insurance for time when new owners take over PW and perhaps make a few personnel changes. Along with my blog archive, PW zapped those of the former publisher and the woman who hired me. Care to get PW back on the right track on these matters, Sara? Or were your bosses the real ones who ordered the massive link kill? Just who controls PW’s link-preservation policies? Whatever the case, PW, so savvy on many other matters, looked like Idiots Central when it so eagerly murdered the links. No need for a linkocide law, but disappointing just the same. I’m rooting for PW to survive, and I’m afraid, Sara, that Web-hostile linking policies won’t cut it. Smartening up about e-book standards would help, too, just as it would for libraries; does PW really want Amazon and the like to run the book business, Standard Oil fashion?

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