07:29 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Whether it's the new Kindle Paperwhite, Sony's just unveiled PRS-T3 Reader, or Kobo's upcoming Aura - let's face it, it's not exactly easy to pick the right device to satisfy our e-reading cravings. So props to the guys from Engadget for this in-depth review of the Kobo Aura. Their verdict? Great hardware, great software, albeit pricey ($150).

Funny enough, at one point the reviewer states that the Aura is "easily the nicest mainstream standalone e-reader we've seen", while a little further down he remarks that this device is "decidedly not mainstream" due to its heavy price tag. Confused?

All told, the Aura's hardware isn't perfect, but this is easily the nicest mainstream standalone e-reader we've seen, though the $150 price tag may be a lot for all but the most devoted bookworms to stomach.

The Kobo Aura is the best flagship e-reader on the market. There are, however, some caveats here. First, it's still a hard sell if you're locked into Amazon, as the Paperwhite's recent tweaks have made it all the more compelling a proposition. Second, the $150 price tag makes the device decidedly not mainstream. Kobo just can't compete with Amazon's subsidized reader prices, particularly not with the Kindle's Special Offers ad model, which shaves even more off the price. If you're already locked into Amazon, it's best to wait it out. If you're a Kobo devotee or someone who has yet to pull the trigger on an e-reader (and don't mind paying for quality), do yourself a favor and take a serious look at the Aura.

Related: Kobo forum

06:51 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Psst. Have you heard? With all the recent coverage of the new Paperwhite, it's easy to miss that Amazon just released a new firmware for their first-gen Paperwhite. Among the general improvements and enhancements, one nice new feature to have is the option to select a different dictionary while looking up a word. Also, when a looked up word has different meanings, you can now navigate through the various definitions from within the dictionary definition window. Finally, found search terms are highlighted now (something we think is so intrinsic that it should have been included with the very first firmware release).

Did you already upgrade and want to share your experience? Or are you still holding off for a while to see what other users have to say? Then come and join us in the on going firmware discussion.

06:23 AM by Dulin's Books in E-Book General | News

Send books to the display from an app on the device and change pages with the volume control.

So if you want to catch up with a marathon session of "Fifty Shades of Grey" without caning your phone's battery or knackering your eyes, the PocketBook could be worth a look. Made by e-book-builder PocketBook, the case talks to an app on the phone, where you store your e-books. You take an e-book stored on your phone and zap it to the e-ink screen, turning pages with the volume key.

Link: CNet

06:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Heads up, fellow calibre fans: The latest version of calibre has just been released which includes better support for MTP devices. MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is a bit different from the normal USB Mass Storage protocol in that it doesn't show the native filesystem to the computer; rather, in order to preserve compatibility across different filesystems, it uses a file hierarchy simulated by the MTP driver. With calibre 1.2, you can now ignore any folders within that hierarchy.

New Features

• Conversion: Add support for the CSS3 rem font size unit
• MTP devices, such as Android tablets/phones: Allow ignoring any folder on the device, not just top level folders. For newly connected devices, also scan /Android/data/com.amazon.kindle for books by default (newer versions of the Kindle app place downloaded files there)
• Speed up sorting when the book list is showing a restricted set of books, such as when the results of a search are displayed or a virtual library is used
• Edit metadata dialog: Add an undo option for the Trim cover button

Bug Fixes

• Amazon metadata download: Update to handle website changes at amazon.com
• PDF Output: Workaround a bug in the library calibre uses to render HTML to PDF that caused text in some documents that used small-caps fonts to not render correctly
• Kobo driver: When a sideloaded kepub is added from a Kobo device to the calibre library, it is added as an epub, but the file copied is corrupt
• Fix changing the user interface language in the welcome wizard causing some parts of the interface to remain in the old language until calibre is restarted
• Fix regression in 1.0 that broke setting author names with the | character in them
• Content server: When running from inside the main calibre program, do not restrict the books shown based on the current virtual library in the main program. If you wish to restrict the books shown in the content server, use Preferences->Sharing over the net
• Output dates in the local timezone instead of UTC when generating CSV catalogs
• Library maintenance: When doing a check library instead of dumping the database to SQL and restoring it, run a VACUUM. This works around various bugs in the dump and restore capabilities of apsw
• Edit metadata dialog: Fix adding an image to an empty comments block not working
• Conversion: Fix font declarations with invalid font-family values causing conversion to abort when subsetting is enabled
• MOBI Output: Fix conversion of some super/sub scripts failing if they are the first or last element in a paragraph
• New database backend: Various improvements to make the backend more robust against databases with invalid/corrupt data in them

New and improved news sources

• Countryfile

As usual, if you need help or if you have any suggestions, don't be shy and join the discussions in the calibre forums.

02:05 PM by holymadness in E-Book General | News

A few months ago I signed up for alerts about the launch of Oyster, a Netflix-like reading service. It gives you access to an unlimited number of books for a monthly fee. Today I got an email announcing that the service is live for those with an invitation (those without can join the queue to receive one). You can access it at https://www.oysterbooks.com and there is some information about the launch at http://blog.oysterbooks.com/. It's an iPhone-only reading app for now, which is a bit of a curious choice.

Here's an overview of the service from GigaOm, which includes some interesting details: http://gigaom.com/2013/09/05/oyster-netflix-for-ebooks/

• The service launches with 100,000 in-copyright ebooks (i.e., not free public domain stuff)
• Publishers participating — making at least a few titles available, not their whole catalogs by any means — include HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Workman, Algonquin, Melville House, Rodale, Open Road, RosettaBooks, F+W Media and self-publishing distributor Smashwords.
• Oyster wouldn’t get into details about how it’s compensating publishers and authors, and wouldn’t state whether newer, more well-known titles are getting better royalties than older ones.
• With Oyster, after you add a book to your reading list, you can access it offline. You only need an internet connection to download new titles.
• An iPad app is coming this fall
• Oyster currently has no “concrete plans” to launch on platforms beyond iOS.

I've taken some screenshots of the website for those without invitations. I haven't yet had time to look at the app.

EDIT: Seems like the app is only available in the US iTunes store for now. A tweet from the developers reads, "No announced plans for expansion outside the US yet but it's definitely something we want to do."

08:38 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Android Devices

Still looking for a decent e-book reader app for your Android device? Moon+ Reader Pro is a hot candidate to make all your reading wishes come true. Beside supporting a wide range of e-book formats, including ePub, Mobi, PDF, CHM, CBR, and FB2, the latest version adds full support for PDF annotation.

Changelog for version 2.1:

• New full PDF annotations support, includes free text, ink, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, highlight, note, etc. Create and modify annotations with size, color, thickness, comment, etc.
• PDF thumbnail function update, faster and smoother
• Update "Tilt to turn page" with sensitive control and more
• Update highlight render for epub/fb2/txt/mobi
• Update book import procedure, faster and more stable

As usual, the app is available via the Google Play store

Related: Moon+ Reader Pro Idiot Guide please

03:07 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Gather 'round, people, perk up your ears, for tales of Dr. Seuss. Born Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man is perhaps the world's most-loved creator of rhyming children's books, known for such masterpieces as "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." And he's going digital. Random House announced (PDF) Wednesday that 41 of Dr. Seuss stories will come out as e-books, starting on September 24.

Each of the forthcoming Random House Children’s Books ebooks will preserve Dr. Seuss’s original layouts and the beloved illustrations from their print editions. They also will be published simultaneously as Read & Listen editions that feature brand-new audio recordings of the full text.

“Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises have been publishing partners for decades. I am so pleased to announce the start of an exciting new chapter in our long and thriving relationship, as we embark on expanding the Dr. Seuss reading experience together with ebooks,” says Marcus [President & Publisher, Random House Children’s Books]. “We are delighted that today’s parents, their children, and educators can now add Dr. Seuss’s classics to their digital bookshelves, joining the cherished hardcovers that we have all grown up with.”

I'm usually more tech-obsessed than traditionalist; yet, in this regard, I find it difficult to see how Dr. Seuss e-books will offer any advantage over their board book counterparts. Board books are practically indestructible. They come in convenient child size, and they can be bend, dragged, washed, sucked and thrown without much damage. Basically, they are the first books a child is really allowed to possess and explore in a concrete sense. You think that'd work with an e-book reader? Unless your e-reader comes equipped with a serious rugged case that protects it from being chewed or dropped or thrown, I'd worry. I'd probably worry so much about my device being wrecked that unwillingly I'd take all the fun away from my kid to explore Dr. Seuss stories.

But you're obviously free to disagree vehemently.

05:00 PM by hwlester in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

I got an email today for a deal that if you subscribe to select magazines from B&N, they will give you a year of back issues. The selection of magazines is:

• Cooking Light
• Cosmopolitan
• Crochet Today!
• Essence
• Food Network Magazine
• Glamour
• Good Housekeeping
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Kids
• O: The Oprah Magazine
• Popular Mechanics
• Reader's Digest
• Real Simple
• Runner's World
• SELF
• Southern Living Magazine
• The Family Handyman
• Yoga Journal

The link is here although you may have to have gotten the email to redeem the offer. Terms & Conditions are here.

Edited to note that the offer has been extended to 2:59 a.m. ET September 13, 2013.