TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘iPod Touch’ Category

By David Rothman

Remember the battle between Apple and Podcaster—which let you download podcasts via wireless connections while skipping iTunes?

Apple didn’t just ban Podcaster from the App Store for the iPhone and Touch and otherwise thwart its developers. Now Apple is apparently preempting Podcaster with an iPhone firmware 2.2 update. Among the goodies in the update is the ability to download podcasts via 3G or WiFi. So, while I haven’t tried the new firmware, I’ll ask the inevitable question. Doesn’t this make Podcaster deader than ever?

Of course I welcome the new built-in capabilities, which I hope will reach my iPod Touch. Nice move, Apple. But at the same time I wonder if Apple someday will take steps to make third-party e-book apps redundant. Or otherwise war against them. With Android around, perhaps not. But Apple still deserves watching, given what’s at stake here.

Meanwhile here’s a list of 2.2 improvements as reported by Venture Beat:

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By David Rothman

I just went to BooksOnBoard with my iPod Touch and confirmed that direct downloads for iPhone and Touch owners seemed to working already.

The "seemed" is just because I haven’t tested this. But BooksOnBoard instantly recognized my Touch browser. Via a link it offered some easy instructions for downloading within the store’s shopping cart. Just use the nonDRMed ePub format.

Feedback wanted

Congratulations to all three companies on this alternative to the consumer-hostile DRM approach. Of course I’d appreciate feedback from BooksOnBoard customers who do buy Samhain romance books. Is this going smoothly for you?

I’d also welcome information from BooksOnBoard—on backup at the customer end and on the ability to use the same books on other ePub-capable devices. And can you and/or Lexcycle try to solve Jane’s iPhone-Stanza problem?

Needless to say, I hope that DRMless Stanza-type services will soon be extended to mainstream fiction and nonfiction, SF and other categories.

Hello, HarperStudio?

So  I strongly encourage publishers to cooperate with BooksOnBoard, All Romance eBooks and other companies working with Stanza’s developers and other companies—on DRMfree direct downloads for the iPhone and other devices.

Come on, HarperStudio. Dare to be different. Your parent company’s competitors at Samhain—yes, Harper’s Avon unit publishes romances—already are. Nothing against HarperStudio, moreover. I like your experimentation with different business models. Now do the same with the related issue of DRM. Otherwise you’ll be far, far less credible as innovators.

DRMless downloads vs. the gold-plated SUV approach

Thought: Could HarperCollins and certain other publishers be slow to ditch DRM just because, as some e-book fans say, the the companies have a big investment in the technology? I suspect that’s part of the reason for Harper not experimenting immediately with a Stanza-type DRMless  approach. But it’s still no excuse.

I’m reminded of Detroit trying to push SUVs and slowly heading toward bankruptcy or a whole series of Chrysler-style bailouts. But wait! I doubt that Washington will see publishing conglomerates as serious candidates for infusions of tax money.

Meanwhile DRM is like a brake on digital progress. Too bad. The end of the p-edition of PC Magazine is yet another reminder of the need for book publishers to move full speed ahead. It’s essential to do paper books when revenue from them dwarfs E. But don’t let nonsensical "protection" slow down e-books.

By David Rothman

What if your iPod or Touch screen could display the same view as on your PC or Mac?

Including even programs such as Mobipocket that will work on a PC but not the Apple gizmos?

I can’t promise that the free Mocha VNC Lite app for the iPhone and iPod will allow such miracles. But maybe some kind soul can at least try—and share the results with us.

Lite does not just provide the desktop view, it also offers at least right mouse-button support.

Thwarted by clash with Vista

So why haven’t I tested Mocha VNC Lite on my HP machine?

Because, alas, VNC Lite needs a VNC server on the desktop, and the free versions of the required software don’t get along well with Vista. Could this be my punishment for the Faustian deal I made when I bought a Vista-OS desktop?

VNC server info

For the desktop end of the WiFi link, compatible software comes with the Mac’s OS X Software and free versions apparently exist for Windows and Linux.

By the way, a 3G connection will also work. So if my hunch is correct, you just might be able to access your desktop e-library from anywhere with your iPhone.

And speaking of Mobi…

As for Mobipocket running on iPhone or Touch itself, does anyone have an update?

Is an iPhone/Touch version of Mobipocket for the iPhone still due by the end of the year, as was suggested at the IDPF conference last spring? Mobi has wonderful features. But its delayed appearance on the iPhone reminds us of one more negative of DRMed proprietary formats. The Stanza iPhone app can read Mobi, imperfectly, but not the “protected” variety.

Related: Gizmodo’s  20 essential iPhone Apps, through which I discovered VNC Lite.

By Chris Meadows

It is being reported in a number of places (notably Ars Technica and Engadget) that a recent Apple patent covers a dockable, tablet-like device for multi-touch computing. As Ars says, the patent has actually been around, in slightly different form, since 2005, so it is probably still too soon for speculation. (In fact, Ars is rather cynical about it—their headline states that the patent “offers hope, inevitable disappointment.)

Nonetheless, if Apple ever does come out with a tablet, a “neo-Newton” as Ars calls it, it could be good news for a lot of e-readers who prefer the responsiveness and bright colors of LCD and the responsiveness of the iPhone/iPod Touch software, but would like a bigger screen on which to read.

By David Rothman

I’ve  talked up the iPhone/Touch as an e-book platform.

So now, in the interest of balance, I’ll point you to a Silicon Alley Insider post with a not-so-upbeat headline.

Apple slashes iPhone production, says chip analyst (AAPL), Insider reports.

Many complexities exist here—such as the difference between production and demand. But an excerpt is hardly encouraging:

Apple has cut its calendar Q4 iPhone production plans significantly more than originally estimated, according to a report by Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Craig Berger. Instead of a 10% sequential production drop in Q4, Berger’s “recent checks” suggest Apple’s iPhone production could fall “more than 40%” from its Q3 levels. Berger thinks a similar cut was made for Q1, but notes that there’s still plenty of time to change that.

Yes, the iPhone will remain a major e-book platform. It’s just that if demand falls during the current global recession, the e-book potential might not be quite as big as we were hoping.

Could hurt other e-book platforms as well

Keep in mind that we’re talking short-term, and that the recession could hurt other e-book platforms, too.

Furthermore, some recession-battered users may actually see the iPhone as a thrifty investment because of its new  up-front price—lower than earlier—and multi-use capabilities.

Update, 10:41 a.m., Nov. 4: Fortune is skeptical about Berger’s accuracy as an iPhone analyst.

Related: Techmeme roundup on the production cutback.

By David Rothman

“Amazingly,” says Wowio, the partly ad-supported e-book service, “1 in 7 recent users on Wowio are on an iPhone or iPod Touch—about equal to Mac, Linux & all other non-Windows users combined.”

So now Wowio is experimenting with an interface optimized for the  iPhone and Touch-optimized interface. It also says it’s tweaking its business model.

Read more details from Wowio’s Gary Manacsa. Help him out with feedback under his TeleRead comment. To make the results more accurate, I’ll share my opinion only after some others have done so. Why not speak up on both the interface and the current biz model?

The screenshot is of the iPhone version of the Wowio interface.

Thought: Didn’t I tell you that the iPhone/Touch would be big in e-books? Wowio’s observations jibe well with those from other companies such as Fictionwise/eReader. When will publishers and the media stop being so fixated on the Kindle, especially now that Google has made peace with many book people and is pushing Android phones. FBReader has just released an update for real Android phones, not just emulators.

Reminder for iPhoners and Touchers: Also try using the iPhone version in the portrait mode.

By Chris Meadows

Ars Technica has an interesting review of a forthcoming iPhone e-book app called Classics.

Not yet available on the App Store, the gimmick of Classics is that it attempts to replicate the page-turning experience of a “real book” as closely as is possible on the iPhone’s screen. For $2.99, it will launch with a library of 12 public-domain titles, such as Alice in Wonderland or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with the possibility of adding more with later updates.

Without actually trying the app out, I cannot agree or disagree with the specific points Ars makes in its review. Nonetheless, I have to wonder if a nifty page-turning animation will really be sufficient to make readers pay even $2.99 for public-domain books that can be downloaded for eReader or Stanza from Manybooks or Feedbooks for free.

By Paul Biba

Received an email from the author about this book. I haven’t had time to download it myself, but take a look. I’m a little bit skeptical because the writer is from Warsaw and his English isn’t the best. However, good or bad, the main point is that the iPhone is sparking new ebooks and perhaps a new ebook subculture. Here’s a quote from the email:

Nick Name’s “Password Incorrect” is a selection of short stories addressed especially for iPhone users. The book was designed to be downloaded for free to iPhone, which among its many other features seems to be also a great e-book reader. Opposite to devices specifically designed for e-book reading, which still look inattractive and suffer early stage problems, iPhone with it’s large color screen, smooth interface and milions of users around the world has the real power of rediscovering the pleasure of reading books - so that we could hear a louder “bye, bye” to paper.

Choose one of download options:
A. Open Stanza in your iPhone, go to “Online Catalog”, select “Free Books by Feedbooks”, and then search for the book by name or title.
B. You can download the book directly, by opening Safari in your iPhone and tapping a link below:
epub:// www.wydawnictwoindigo.pl/pi.epub
Stanza will automatically open itself and download the book.

By Paul Biba

According to the listing at the Apps Store here are the changes to version 1.3:
An option to display the Status bar in full-screen mode. Bookmarks. Adding and editing notes. Highlighting text. Sorting the on-line bookshelf by Title, Author, or Purchase Date. Type-ahead, exact match handling and other Reference book improvements. Performance enhancements in page flipping. More choices for downloading books including a direct connection to the the eReader Mobile Site. Fixed several pagination issues. Fixed handling of user passwords that contain special characters. Non-ASCII characters are now handled correctly in unlock information. Download buttons are no longer red. Images no longer looked-up in reference books. Several minor bug fixes.

By Ficbot

(See also: Ficbot’s early impressions on iPod Touch).

Now that I’ve had my iPod Touch for almost a week, and had a chance to enjoy reading on it, I am even more glad I made this purchase.

Ipod Touch

I knew I would be happy with the music aspect—this is my third iPod, so I was ready to go in that respect. But I have been delighted to find that reading on this device can be a real treat. The screen is a little smaller than I would prefer, but the ease of use is just on such a different league to any device I have ever had that it is unbelievable. And it is so handy to not have to carry around a separate device to read on. Below are my comments on the two programs I’ve been using. When you compare either to the laborious uploading process for non-PC eBookwise owners (uploading to a remote server on their website, synccing the reader, downloading the content onto the reader, clearing the files off the server and repeating as needed) the iPod takes things to a level of simple that may just make e-books accessible to
everyone. It’s about time! (more…)

By Chris Meadows

One idea that libraries have been experimenting with for a while is lending a collection of e-books under the same kind of restrictions as paper books—no more than one patron using a given “copy” at one time, each copy being “returned” after a set checkout period. (For a while, eReader was owned by a company that offered e-book lending collections to libraries.)

I have learned that both Fictionwise and my local public library now offer e-book lending collections—Fictionwise through its Libwise division, and my library through Overdrive. Today, I decided to take a look at both e-libraries and see what they had to offer.

Similarities and Differences

Both of the libraries offer works in the Secure Mobipocket e-book format. This lets them deliver the books to you with a set expiration date enforced by Digital Rights Management (DRM), so that you cannot read them after they have expired. The library is then free to lend the books out again to you or someone else, knowing that only one person can be reading the same “virtual copy” at a time.

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By Chris Meadows

Apple has announced they have “decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.” This includes all released (i.e. non-beta) versions of the iPhone development SDK.

This removes the harshest of the metaphorical gags from iPhone developers’ mouths: they will at last be free to discuss among themselves the process of developing for the iPhone, helping each other find solutions to development issues in ways they could not have before. Those publishers who have had books on hold waiting for the NDA’s cancellation can go ahead with them. However, the NDA on unreleased software (presumably including rejection letters) will remain in place.

The released-software NDA has, historically, been one of the most disliked aspects of developing for the iPhone. Undoubtedly many developers will be breathing a sigh of relief at its departure.