Back in 2001/2002 I designed a website for independent downloadable eBooks. My wife an I had gone through the obstacle course of getting her book traditionally published and were frankly shocked to learn just how little an author receives in the process (5-8% in general.)

It was probably the first real surge for eBooks and I would take independant authors' short stories and convert them into PDF, Word and Microsoft Reader format. Microsoft Reader was appearing in the new PocketPC's and had a nice clena client for the PC. The other formats were to cover Palm and non-savvy PC users.

It was a great learning experience about eCommerce and web programming and I owned a couple Rocket eBooks which were a decent experience to read but kind of a pain to dock and sync:



Ultimately, I never broght the site live over issues with DRM and theorhetical liability for the unprotected content. It was too bad. Oh, hey, the Way-back machine still has the placeholder page! http://web.archive.org/web/20020605213724/...oad-a-book.com/

It was a good experience, but never great. You had to buy an expensive device and work to get content to it or else try reading things on a tiny low-res Palm/PocketPC screen which pretty much sucked for anything over 6 pages.

Apparently there is a push for another surge though. I've seen a eReader display in Borders, but it didn't seem much different than the old Rocket eReader.

But now Amazon.com has come out with it's Kindle eBook Reader:



It's $400 which seems like a lot but then it includes a built-in Sprint EVDO cellular modem to wirelessly synch with Amazon.com, Wikipedia and other sources to update over the air without even the need for a WiFi hotspot.

Unlike the eBook vendors from6 years ago, Amazon.com is actually giving a significant discount on the eBook titles. Generally $10-15 per title for the new ones that are only out in hardcover at considerably more than that.

I still don't know that a $400 tablet even with wireless and an innovative paper-like screen is going to catch fire, but it's definately getting closer.

Any of you enjoy digital books?

I read about those new readers a week ago, they look pretty sweet but I doubt I'll get one. For once the price tag is pretty high and I already read all my books on my pda. (Using .pdf and reflow)

I have my whole library as .pdf and it surely beats taking the books into a meeting.

No interest. I have tried a couple of times to read ebooks and end up getting annoyed. I don't know about this new gizmo, but I hate having to find/remember where I was unlike a book where I can either bend the corner of the page or use a bookmark. And there's just something more cozy about actually reading a book versus looking at a computer screen.

While I would never bend the corner of a page to use as a bookmark, the new readers have bookmark capabilities and can retain several for each book.

I still don't like the current price level of ebook readers. For me, the $400 level would be a good palmtop or laptop which can do so much more than 'just read books'. It just isn't cost effective to spent $400 for a reader to me.

I've used ebooks in the past and, although they were handy and saved a lot of space, I found myself missing the tactile sensation of fondling a book or magazine. Uh...I meant leafing through a book or magazine.

The only thing that turns me off for the Kindle is the books are DRM'd.

Not very practical for reading in the bath are they ?

It's not something I will be rushing out to buy, I'm not a huge fan of shopping but I enjoy browsing books. Plus I like the feel and the smell of books.

It's battery operated so it won't kill you if you drop it in the water.

Mind you, a book doesn't fair too well from taking a dive either. You don't appear to be the only one wanting a waterproof one though: http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1OIZ8NXR3183A

Yeah but dropping an $8 paperback or a $25 hardcover in the h2o isnt the same as dropping a $400 reader.

So don't read in the bathtub. Dry your ass off and go curl up in a comfy chair or sofa.

I see digital media players taking this on, not just standalone devices. Somewhere Apple, Creative or Microsoft will say "Dammit, we can just make the screen bigger and use a flick motion of a touch screen to turn the page, a circle motion to book mark, and use tools to highlight passages for easier viewing later".

Now that last part would help with college students. Highlight something on the go, sync with iTunes and have it show up in the viewer then to be able to connect to the internet with relevant search data. Or just search from the player since the iPhone and the Touch have browsers on them.

Yeah, THAT will be the future in about 1-3 years. I remember when portable video was only used in $500 standalone Mobile Media Center devices. Now just about every $100-ish player has a color screen with some sorta video capabilities.

Sites like i-Tunes and Amazon that already have music and video downloads are poised to make a ton of money if more mainstream devices support eBooks. The system is already there, it's just a little more work. Shit, Apple could do this in 3 seconds with a firmware update and another button.

I have changed my mind on this. I actually saw a demo of one at Borders and I like it. Will I buy one? Probably not, but I do now think it's a cool gadget, and if someone bought me one for Christmas - *ahem* - I would be a happy little bastard.

That's been possible (without the gestures) for years now on PDAs and SmartPhones. The problem is that the tiny screen sucks ass for reading a book, which is why they need to push a larger format, higher resolution, high contrast, paper-like display screen. But those have also been around for a while now. What the Kindle brings is cellular wireless connectivity so that you don't have to dock and synch the beast to your home computer.

I think the ingredients are all there, now it's just a matter of getting the price-point down to about $100.

Well there's the touch screen zoom function. And I'm sure they'd have a thing where the screen would format the display of text for small, medium, and large point. Myabe split a page into 3's so the text is big enough to display. I'm just saying this is how video ended up: it was on costly higher end machines that ended up being absorbed by the small PMP industry.

Point being that few people will want to purchase a separate $100 piece of digital equipment and spend $3 on a book.

Now here I can tell you've never read a novella, let alone a book, on a 3" screen.

I still have my Cassiopeia firts-gen PocketPC and it's screen dwarfs just about anything in the PIM market today, but it was too big to carry around and still far to small to read literature for any great length of time.

That's why the new devices are about half-way between a paperback page and a hardcover page. That way you can up the font size and still get more than 2-3 words per line. There are ergonomic issues to be dealt with and the tiny screen of an iPod, SmartPhone, PDA just doesn't measure up.

The extra benefit of size is that you can fit a cellular modem and memory into it (though the memory size is less of an issue these days) so that you can carry 100 books with you as well as synch up with your favorite newspapers/blogs/magazines/e-zines without every having to plug a tethering cable into your PC.

People seem perfectly willing to purchase an iPod/iTouch/Zune in addition to they phone/pda because there are costs to having everything in one shell. I'd rather have two masters of their element than something that's a Jack of all trades, but a master of none.

Oh we'll I guess I should read the description. THEY pay for the EVDO service to your reader. Yeah I guess it justifies the $400 price tag, seeing as how most standalone aircards are around $200ish.

Meh I think it'll be great in the coming years when they develop paper thin displays like in "Red Planet". Maybe when I'm an old fart it'll become standard to just have a display for school and all the work will be done on it. Books will be wirelessly downloaded to it, notes written in the margins.

Like in the old days with the portable chalkboard.

But devices like that Kindle that are starting to use near infinite contrast ratio for their displays are a huge step forward.

Price drop on the kindle. Nothing crazy, basically enough to piss you off if you have bought one in the last 3 months or so.

I believe this can work. I currently enjoy reading comic books on my pc just as much as I do having them in my hand. It's not like people are out to read books in public all the time. So I see this as working but those digital readers are still too expensive for book reading. They need to get them down to the price of an Ipod atleast because reading isn't as popular as listening to music. But for comic reading it would be good.

I've decided to get one.


There's various reason why, but since I have, like, 3 pages of books in my wishlist at amazon I kinda want to save on bookshelf space. I wish they offered a sort of "digital + real copy" deal like movies have started doing. Alwell, if I want it enough I guess I can rebuy it in real life. My deciding move came form seeing a Sony ebook reader in real life. The display was clear and navigation was easy. The Kindle looks even easier to use. I just, well, robbed a bookstore of around 700 digital titles, so I won't have an issue of building my ebook library.

The mere fact that if I want a book I can simply download it wirelessly for free is awesome.

This is so not for me. Maybe it's because I write, I don't know, but the majority of my books are marked up in pencil. Be it notes, the structure of a sentence or research, I have to be able to write on my books if I feel so inclined.

I don't just write in the margins, I write all over, in color.

If they can do color, Im in .

So does anyone have the Kindle? Care to make a mini review of any ebook readers you currently own?

I think the rumored "Kindle 2.0" is just around the corner -- with the big Oprah push that's involving an additional $50 off the price, it makes me wonder if they're trying to clear out as much stock as possible before the new one is announced.

So does anyone have the new Kindle 2? I know $350 is a huge chunk of change to spend.

But I so want one.

I'm currently lugging "The Wolf of Wall Street". It's a 400 page hardcover book. I want that pencil thin display that can hold it and the 400 page second book. And more books.

I'm only asking for amazon gift cards this year for it.

Buy me two so I can have enough memory for the complete Wheel of Time series.

They have 2GB on onboard memory. Is the series THAT long?

Kindle DX. 9.7" screen aimed at newspapers and magazine subscroptions:

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wi...rd_i=B00154JDAI

For $130 dollars more than the Kindle you get:

- 3.7" more screen
- widescreen option.
- native PDF support
- 3.3 GB of storage (3500 books vs 1500 books)

It was hinted today they're in the works with the textbook industry to get books on it. All I can say is

ABOUT FECKING TIME!

DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING AGGRAVATING IT IS TO CARRY A FUCKTON OF TEXTBOOKS AND REPORTS!?

The first person to make a color dual screen e-book reader that folds as thin as a netbook will be the richest person ever.

I saw a local news blurb yesterday that Case Western will be trying these out with some students.

Agreed on the color e-book. I think we're about maybe a year or so off on color e-ink, once that happens, the gates on ebook readers will be fully open.

I remember listening to a podcast and hearing though that a lot of the e-readers uses different file formats and has lots of DRM on it, anyone know the truth on that?

have they made on to read comics yet?

amazon has their own DRM scheme between file transfers between the store and their kindles. But they have stated if a company wants to make a device to compete with their kindle, they would be more than happy to allow accesss to the store. Sony also have their own separate scheme for their bookstore. And of course they have their own different file formats for DRM.

But they do support txt files and picutres. The note is that they have to be converted before put on the device.



comics no, but I guess you could convert manga to be read since it's usually in black and white.

Kindle has dropped their prices. Twice.

It's is now $260 for the CDMA version and $280 for the GSM (with AT&T HSDPA and GPRS/EDGE).


Think I should shoot for the GSM model, or save my money and buy more books and get the CDMA model? I don't think I'll be spending any time overseas or in areas where I'd NEED to download a ton more books (and hey, I know those shady places for ebooks).

Hmm....I might just get the CDMA version anyway.

Barnes and Noble Ebook reader "Nook"

http://gizmodo.com/5386176/8-reasons-you-c...o-nook/gallery/
http://gizmodo.com/5386140/barnes--noble-n...p-its-real-nice
http://gizmodo.com/5386017/barnes--noble-c...biased-but-fair


Short info:
$260
6" eink display, second capacitive touchscreen for navigation/text input/menus.
AT&T wireless
wifi
android os
2 week lending to other nooks
free wifi inside B&N
1 free ebook reading inside B&N
SD card slot
2GB built in memory


Wow, left field. Since there's an actual physical one on display I might go check it out. As long as it can do txt files and some jpegs I might look at it instead.

EDIT:

File format support:
EPUB
ereader
pdf
jpeg
gif
png
bmp
mp3

Dude, make a new thread. It's that good.

Also, being able to D/L a book at Barnes and Noble for free, to read while you're sitting there? So fucking rock.

Amazon has:

- dropped CDMA based (sprint network) 6" Kindle.
- lowered the price of the GSM version of their Kindle to $260.

To compete with the nook. Ladies and gents, the race to the $200 ebook reader begins now. Hard to believe the Kindle 1.0 released at $400.

B&N nook review

http://gizmodo.com/5420216/barnes--noble-n...retty-damn-good?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/barnes-...le-nook-review/