Aug

25

Reading Books on Your Blackberry - Ereader Apps

Filed Under Mobipocket, PDAs and Handhelds, eReader | 4 Comments

Blackberry owners who would like the capability to read ebooks on their Blackberry device have at least a couple of options. Whether you regard the Blackberry as your preferred ereader, or as a useful alternative to other ereaders in your ebook reading device arsenal, there are apps and online services available to you.

Mobipocket Reader and OTA Bookstore Access
Mobipocket.com offers its free Mobipocket Reader software for the Blackberry, as well as Over the Air (OTA) access to the Mobipocket bookstore via the Blackberry. Books can also be downloaded to the Blackberry user’s desktop PC (the Mobipocket Reader software for Windows Vixta and XP is also free).

The Mobipocket Reader allows the Blackberry user to select font styles and sizes, customize margins, select background colors, and make other custom choices for the ereading environment.  Through the Mobipocket bookstore, the Blackberry user has access to thousands of books, book samples, and reviews.

Continue reading on ebooks on the Blackberry . . .

Jul

28

Textbooks, e-Books, and Digital Devices

Filed Under Kindle, e-Book | Leave a Comment

Connecting the Dots takes a close look at issues of textbook affordability, textbook sales, and tools and devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the rumored-to-be-in-the-works Apple Tablet.

It’s not just about the tools and technologies to build and deliver a replacement for highly expensive paper books. It’s all about aligning incentives, but here’s the kicker: I don’t think the solution is going to come from government, advocacy groups, those buying the books, open source/open content initiatives like Wikibooks, or even the backpack police concerned about kids and college students schlepping huge and heavy materials around, but rather from a vendor or vendors who deliver a platform, provide tools, and a device that will capture the imagination of everyone concerned.

The article continues:

Think for a moment about the opportunity represented by a combination of a development platform with tools, a way to combine content that delivers most of it on a device but has connection to the internet and application functionality in “the cloud”. There could be tremendous upside potential in an ongoing stream of content updates, connections with other students . . . and the textbook would become a living, breathing and dynamic offering vs. something the college publishing industry manipulates in order to maintain revenues and gross margin.

Jul

25

Sony Reader Takes the Open Road

Filed Under News, Reader, e-Book, ePub, eReader | Leave a Comment

The Sony Reader is getting a lot of media buzz heading into the weekend, all resulting a Thursday announcement from Sony that its model PRS-505 Reader will be “the first eBook reading device to support the EPUB format, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications.”

Beginning in August, Sony continued, the PRS-505 “will be able to access and accept secure and non-secure ebooks in the EPUB format.” In addition the PRS-505 Reader “will support Adobe eBooks with digital rights management and have the capability to reflow standard text-based Portable Document Format (PDF) eBooks for improved flexibility and readability.”

Continue reading about the Sony PRS-505 Reader . . .