E-Books

I use my EE almost exclusively to read books.

With the numerous e-book formats available at sites such as Barnes & Noble, Books-On-Board, etc it is very confusing knowing what you can and cannot download, either from the net or via USB, to the Edge.

You have Adobe E-Pub, Secure Adobe Digital Editions, eReader, mobipocket, and undoubtedly others which I have not included. I have a number of Barnes & Noble books which I have purchased, to read using Nook for PC software. I would also like to be able to read them on my Edge.

enTourage has given you so much to choose from that some confusion can result

Basically ebooks can be divided into two categories at the moment: those that the eDGe displays on the eInk side and those that the eDGe displays on the LCD side.

eInks Side
The eDGe displays Adobe Digital Editions books on the eInk side. These come in PDF and EPUB format. You can get these from any source that advertises its books as requiring or being compatible with "Digital Editions" or "Adobe Reader", and include the enTourage eBook Store, the Sony Reader Store, Kobo Books, Borders, and many smaller third party sites like EBook Mall, EBook store, Fictionwise, EReadable, Books-on-Board, etc.

Note that the third party sites often offer multiple formats. Be sure to buy the "Adobe"/"Adobe Reader"/"Digital Editions" format.

If you have the choice of EPUB/PDF, EPUB will generally read and zoom better on the eDGe (it's more like HTML as used on web pages), while PDFs are more like scanned book pages (i.e., more faithful representation of the printed page, but may be awkward to read zoomed, and may or may not PDF reflow well for better reading).

The enTourage store is directly accessible from your eDGe via the Library - Store; you can browse, purchase and download your books directly.

For all the others, you need a PC or a Mac. When you purchase an eBook, the store will give you a download page or send you an email with a link to an ACSM file. For these, download and open this small file. It will launch Adobe Digital Editions and the app will download the actual book to your PC. Once it's been downloaded, go into My Documents - My Digital Editions to find the PDF/EPUB. Copy this file to your eDGe in whatever way is convenient: email, SD card, USB memory key, USB cable (put the file in the "Downloads" folder, for example), etc. Then on your eDGe, use Library - Storage to find the file, press-and-hold it and "Add To Library", after which you can delete the file. enTourage has the following articles with more and slightly different approaches here and here.

One exception is the Sony Reader store. This store requires you to download their (free) reader app to your PC to both purchase and download ebooks. However, once you've purchased and downloaded it, you can do the same with the PDF/EPUB as for others, the only difference being that your Sony ebooks will be in the My Documents - My Books - Reader Library folder.

Also, thanks to a tip from Cheyenne, we now know that you can also open Barnes & Noble eBooks on the eInk side (they're actually Adobe books, but with a modified authentication system). When you open a B&N ebook, you may be prompted for a user name and password. Enter the first and last name on the credit card used to purchase the book for the user name, and your credit card number for the password. An easy way to get B&N ebooks on your eDGe is to install the B&N Reader app (see below under "LCD Side") and sync your purchases, then open the Library, go to "Storage" (the drop down in the top left corner), then "Internal Storage", "Nook", and "Content". Tap and hold the book and specify "Open in Reader" and provide the user name and password (as just described).

Be sure to use the same email and password on all Adobe book stores (should be the same as your enTourage email and password). If you buy books from different places with different emails, you may have problems opening them on your eDGe, and I'm not aware of a method of consolidating Adobe books purchased under different emails. If a book opens in Adobe Digital Editions on your PC (provided you installed and registered the app with your enTourage email and password), then it should open on your eDGe.

On a side note, be sure to shop around for Adobe books. In my experience over the past few months, enTourage often had the best price for the book I was looking for, for example. The price will often be different in each store, and while one store may generally be cheaper than the rest, it's not always the case, and pricing in general can be fluid. Since they all use Adobe Digital Editions, the power is in your hand to find the best deal.

LCD Side
Many other eBook providers use proprietary formats, or quasi-open formats that the eDGe doesn't natively support. These include MobiPocket (.mobi), Kindle, etc.

Many of these have become readable on the LCD side via standard Android apps. Because the eDGe is built on Android, and because Android is grabbing sizeable market share, pretty well every eReader format out there will become useable on the eDGe (at least on the LCD side), making the eDGe a universal eBook reader.

These third party apps currently include Kindle for Android (see this thread), B&N Reader for Android (or here; also see this thread) (see the eInk section about how to open B&N books on the eInk side), Blio Reader (available soon for Android, see this thread), etc.

For these, the Android app will include methods for acquiring your content that you bought via the corresponding website. The Kindle app is a good example - it will sync your Kindle content as easily as it does on a Kindle or Kindle for PC.

Lastly, there are also third party eBook reader apps available, like Aldiko, Laputa, FBReader, aReader, etc. These support various formats, like EPUB and Palm (I guess mobipocket), and usually only "free" ebooks (those without DRM protection). Also, the eDGe comes with the PDF-to-Go application which can read PDFs on the LCD side (long press a book in your Library and "Open on LCD"), but again generally only unprotected PDFs.

Public Library Books
Read Post #4 here for tips on downloading Public Library books directly to your eDGe. Note that the "Overdrive" app should be available via your Public Library's website. enTourage has the following article on this subject: https://www.entourageedge.com/suppor...barticleid=241.

Video Workshop

enTourage recently held a free online workshop webinar on the subject of downloading and using ebooks. You can view it here.



Other members can add to/correct the above

Thanks Boris. That is really useful info.

I think this should be a sticky! Kudos, Boris :-)

Thanks Boris, your response is just what I have come to expect of your postings.

I discovered yesterday, by accident, that the ereader side of the edge can now read Barnes and Noble books. I had installed the Nook app and uninstalled, since I usually don't read on the LCD side. I found the Nook folder was still in my internal storage and clicked on one of the epub books. A window popped open on the reader and prompted me for a password rather than saying this book was registered to another user. It took me a few tries, but, I finally realized my password is my real name (the name my B&N account uses for purchasing) and my credit card number (the one I used to purchase the books, on file at B&N) this number is the password for all, even the free books. The reader seems to have stored this info, all of the B&N books open now, no password prompt. That was one of biggest aggravations with B&N in the past, knowing that if I bought a book it was only mine if I used their device to read it. The B&N books open on the Adobe Digital Editions on the PC too. Nice!

Edit, not all open on the PC yet, but an update to Adobe Reader Software is in the works, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalp...noble_faq.html
Not quite so important as reading on the edge, but a definite plus in the ebook world.

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

I discovered yesterday, by accident, that the ereader side of the edge can now read Barnes and Noble books.

That's huge. Thanks for the tip!

Note: New ADE since 9.1 (RMDSK) added new feature for password protection for provider to add more password on documents. that is what i read from ADOBE. The first 9.1 is on ONYX BOOX 60.

@cheyennedonna,

I've edited my original response to include instructions for opening B&N books on the eInk side. Please review and ensure I've restated your instructions correctly Nice work on working out the method!

Originally Posted by borisb

@cheyennedonna,

I've edited my original response to include instructions for opening B&N books on the eInk side. Please review and ensure I've restated your instructions correctly Nice work on working out the method!

Yep, you got it. Thanks, I was really excited for that find. Even though I own a Nook my edge is almost always with me; unless I plan to have leisure time (what is leisure time anyway, I seem to have run out of that this semester).

Just purchased a book from ebooks.com and it's not getting along with the EE.
It's in Adobe Digital Editions format with all the DRM paranoia in place. Before downloading the actual PDF, I am required to download an ACSM file to notify the server about the device I am dl'ing to. Next, I open the ACSM file from the Library, an action prompt pops out warning me about the content being protected and if I want to dl the PDF. I click "yes". On the notification bar across the top it displays a message saying "dowmloading content".
Sadly, at some point it dies out with this ugly message:

E_ADEPT_ACSM_NO_FULFILLMENT_TOKEN

Since I cannot buy from EE's bookstore (disavantages of being European), I am probably doomed to read all the public domain classics.
Quite annoying

Oh, and to make my life even more miserable, there's no ADOBE DE for Linux, therefore I cannot apply this recipe (unless Adobe E on Win 7 running inside Virtualbox can actually see the eDGe connected to the host system).

Originally Posted by nzimas

Just purchased a book from ebooks.com and it's not getting along with the EE.
It's in Adobe Digital Editions format with all the DRM paranoia in place. Before downloading the actual PDF, I am required to download an ACSM file to notify the server about the device I am dl'ing to. Next, I open the ACSM file from the Library, an action prompt pops out warning me about the content being protected and if I want to dl the PDF. I click "yes". On the notification bar across the top it displays a message saying "dowmloading content".
Sadly, at some point it dies out with this ugly message:

E_ADEPT_ACSM_NO_FULFILLMENT_TOKEN

Since I cannot buy from EE's bookstore (disavantages of being European), I am probably doomed to read all the public domain classics.
Quite annoying

When you download from sites that send an ACSM file open it first on your computer with Adobe, then transfer the book to your edge. You will find the PDF or Epub file in your documents, usually in a folder titled My Digital Editions.

nzimas, you can read the following post for more info on getting books from other stores and how to transfer them to your eDGe: http://www.entourageedge.com/forums/...p?1115-E-Books.

I downloaded several books from Amazon but cannot locate them on my pocket EE. Any thoughts?