02:44 PM by K. Molen in E-Book General | General Discussions

With the launch of Amazon India I find myself wondering about the morality of circumventing geographical restrictions only to save money. With ebooks there's no shipping costs involved, so it'd be an easy thing to do and I wouldn't notice the difference in the end product. I'm personally perfectly fine with circumventing geographical restrictions to get access to an ebook that's not for sale in my location, but I'm not sure how I feel about doing it to get a better price.

On the one hand, it's still buying the book from a legal seller and the only thing that's making it a gray area is where I'm physically located. On the other hand, I'm denying authors some of their profits.

To illustrate what I'm talking about, the Kindle ebook for Margaret Atwood's latest, Maddaddam, is $17.49 on Amazon.com and $9.98 on Amazon.in, so if I were to buy this via Amazon India I'd effectively deny Atwood approximately 50% of her royalties on that sale. I say approximately 50% because the list price show an even bigger difference, and I think authors probably earn their royalties on that price.

In addition to the authors, I'm obviously also denying publishers some profit and possibly Amazon as well, although I'm less sure about the latter.

So yeah... thoughts?

[image: Pen Waggener via Flickr]

09:53 AM by BadBilly in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Sony Canada is now selling a bundle of refurbished T1 (with one year warranty) and unlit cover for $59.99. I got this bundle at Christmas for $79.99 and have had no trouble with the Reader. This reader features MP3 playback and a bunch more bilingual dictionaries than the T2 and T3. No Facebook or Evernote integration, though.

PRS-T1 Link

Edit: Free shipping in Canada too!

09:42 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Cyprus-based Prestigio is gunning for the Russian e-reader market with the release of a new entry-level reader called Prestigio MultiReader 3664. There is absolutely nothing outstanding about this device, other than that it's relatively inexpensive. It's heading to retail and will be available for about 2700 Russian rubles (~US $80). Availability in various European countries will follow.

The specs:

• Name: PER3664BC
• Display: 6-inch E Ink screen, 600 x 800 pixels, 16 gray levels
• CPU: 480MHz Allwinner E200
• OS: Linux
• Supported file formats: PDF, FB2, HTML, PDB, EPUB, DOC, TXT, MOBI, RTF
• Connectivity: USB 2.0
• Touch: none
• RAM: 4 GB, expandable with microSD card
• Sensors: G-Sensor in 4 ways
• Battery: 1400 mAh
• Dimensions: 174x120.6x8 mm
• Weight: 162 g

Link product page: MultiReader 3664

[via it-world.ru]

08:49 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | General Discussions

As the saying goes, the only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself. That said, according to a survey conducted by Heathrow Airport, seven out of ten people going on vacation would rather schlep paper books than opt for a slim e-reader.

Heathrow Airport Retail Director Muriel Zingraff-Shariff said: "There’s no doubt that the popularity of eBooks has boomed in recent years, but when it comes to relaxing on holiday it seems you just can’t beat a good book. People want a break from technology whilst they’re abroad, so it’s understandable that people would rather swap their Blackberry for Malorie Blackman."

Which makes sense of course since the retail director of an airport would much rather have you buy paper books from the local WHSmith bookstore than buy them online, let's say via Amazon Whispernet.

The survey also found that people worry about e-readers not coping well with sun, sea, and sand, which is true, I suppose, especially if you run out of ziplock bags.

Related: Taking e-books to the beach - share your tips, E-Reader on the beach

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Here it is again, our weekly roundup! Enjoy!

E-Book General - News

• Sony's PRS-T3, more leaked specs, to debut at IFA on September 4
• Gembird to launch EnerGenie ePP2, a 9.7-inch E Ink reader with a twist
• Sony PRS-T3 gets its first hands-on (video)
• The 2013 Hugo Awards, John Scalzi nabs best novel
• Kindle Paperwhite sold out! Let's place bets (poll)
• Kobo: "Beat Amazon." Not so in Japan.
• RIP Frederik Pohl
• Microsoft to buy Nokia's Devices and Services in $7.2B deal
• Kindle MatchBook: Get the Kindle version of a previously-bought paper book cheap/free
• Doctorow on the e-book rip-off for libraries
• Android 4.4 to be called KitKat
• All-New Kindle Paperwhite V2 (accidentally) unveiled. So what's all new?
• Next-gen Kindle Paperwhite previewed by Time mag
• Google seeks patent to add "triggered sounds" to e-books
• Google aims to sync reading and listening locations between e-books and audiobooks
• The secret behind the new Paperwhite: E Ink Carta
• Sony PRS-T3 officially announced
• Should children tip their hats to a digital Dr. Seuss?
• Oyster: unlimited e-books for $9.95 a month, now live with invite (iOS)
• PocketBook unveils E Ink cover for Samsung Galaxy S4
• calibre V1.2 is out, with better support for MTP and minor bug fixes
• Paperwhite firmware upgrade arrives, spruced up dictionary lookups
• Engadget reviews Kobo Aura, verdict: it's the nicest mainstream e-reader. Not.
• E-Book pirate: We are the same as Amazon, only the price is different
• R.I.P. (Ann) A.C. Crispin

E-Book General - General Discussions

• First White House "Copyright Czar", now chief of anti-piracy group
• The e-reader "Androidified"... would you get one?
• Tablet versus lighted E Ink e-reader
• Why store your ebook collection on your ereader?

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources (No Self-Promotion)

• Push to Kindle app on sale for $0.99 (Android)
• 65% off Baen's October 2013 Bundle
• Refurbished Sony Reader PRS-T2 w/ $25 Gift Card for $60
• Barnes & Noble magazine deal - Subscribe and get a year of back issues

E-Book Readers - Amazon Kindle

• New Paperwhite!

E-Book Readers - Android Devices

• Moon+ Reader Pro 2.1 released, adds PDF annotation support (Android)

E-Book Readers - Barnes & Noble NOOK

• Nook tablet prices drop again in UK, HD down to £79

04:23 PM by AnemicOak in E-Book General | News

Sad to hear that author A.C. Crispin passed away from cancer earlier today.

RIP Ann Crispin, Who Fought for the Writers

You owe A.C. Crispin a huge debt, whether you know it or not. As an author, she helped carve a space for women writing science fiction. She helped prove media tie-in novels could be great books in their own right. And she fought for writers to get treated fairly, with the indispensible site Writer Beware.

Sadly, Crispin died of cancer earlier today.

EDIT: A nice write up at Tor.com
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/ac-crispin-obit

11:24 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The whole story seems a tad far-fetched, but a bunch of e-book pirates has made it their mission to compete against Amazon. Torboox is a pirate site which would have stayed in a darkened, cool underground cavern had it not been for an interview with the operator of said site that resulted in a lawsuit against two major German newspapers. A classic Streisand Effect. Anyhow, TorrentFreak, too, had an interview with these guys and was told that their ultimate goal was to bring down Amazon's quasi-monopoly as an e-book seller.

“If you look at it, they are very similar. Amazon is nothing but a hoster for the authors. No wonder they can offer 70% provision,” he [Spiegelbest, the operator of the pirate site] says.

“Amazon does nothing to ‘produce’ books. Thus they are very similar to Torboox. Both of us – legal and illegal – are book hosters, not traditional book publishers. The ebook market is shared between two book hosters.”

The pirate claims that piracy "controls" around 50 percent of the whole e-book market with Amazon owning the majority of the rest. He goes on explaining how Amazon's size is bad for authors and publishers, and that the only way out was a flat-rate on e-books that, conveniently, the pirate site is planning to offer.

“In the end the publishers have to talk to us. They have to find a way to make us legal. It is their job not ours. A flatrate will be 10 euros a month – no limit. Licensing will again be the job of the publishers. If a publisher isn’t wise enough to participate – no problem,” Spiegelbest says. [...]

We have the concept. The publishers have the content. Together we can indeed battle Amazon. And Amazon is not monopolizing films, games or music – why ebooks? For me the biggest problem is this: Will the publishers understand before they vanish? That’s 50-50, no more,” he concludes.

Related: E-book customer sharing with anti-piracy group BREIN faces political backlash, Rapidshare loses court battle against German booksellers

10:12 AM by faithbw in E-Book General | General Discussions

I just purchased the new Nexus 7 and the high pixel density makes text very crisp and clear. I actually find the text clearer and easier to read on the Nexus as opposed to the Sony PRS-350 that I previously owned.

However, I wonder how tablets with high pixel density stack up against some of the newer lighted e-reader like the Aura HD and the new Paperwhite. Which one is better for reading in bed in the dark. Which provides an overall better reading experience?