Latest News

I just posted a review of the Archos 5 tablet over on my blog. Here are the highlights:
Quote: I’ve been wanting to add an Android device to my collection for some time now, but I had to wait until I had the funds to spare. The Archos 5 was released last fall in the US and Europe. It’s your usual MID with a 4.8” screen, 8GB flash, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot. It also has excellent media abilities (Archos has been making media players for quite a few years now.)
...
My Recommendation

I would not go out of my way to get an Android tablet as an ebook reader. TBH, I would avoid them entirely. It is not nearly as stable or nor as feature rich as either Linux or Windows Mobile. Also, it doesn’t offer as many apps as either Linux or Windows Mobile. Android isn’t ready yet; it’s still in its infancy. And frankly, it was meant to run phones, not tablets. There’s a reason why the only authorized devices are phones; that’s what it’s designed for. continued here

http://1crosstech.com is showing a cool looking combination of a 6″ e-ink e-reader on one side, with a 3.2″ HVGA Android LCD on the other side, and also with a touch panel keyboard input and a whole bunch more hardware features.



Released at: ARMdevices.net

Read an E-Book Week has begun for 2010, and this year promises to outdo all previous years by an order of magnitude. Rita Toews has been working her butt off, interviewing for periodicals and blogs, contacting and drawing in new participants and promoters and twittering until her fingers are hoarse!

As the list of partners and promoters of e-books has grown, the number of participating authors and publishers has increased enormously. On Smashwords, over 3,000 authors will participate in the promotional event. Blio, QBook, Diesel E-Books and Sylvan Dell Publishing have joined most recently. The event has been mentioned as far away as Poland and England and as close to home as the Huffington Post. And the exposure to e-books being created by the soon-to-be-released iPad is drawing even more interested parties in.

This is your chance as well, to get out there and promote e-books to those who may not have tried them, or wonder what the hoopla is all about. If you have a reading device, show it off. If someone has questions about how and where to buy, elucidate them. If someone is looking for new reads, tell them about some of the independents you’ve discovered, or the classics you’ve rediscovered, through e-books. And, of course, find some new authors and reads of your own!

For more information about REBW10 and what you can do, visit www.ebookweek.com.

Here it is again, our weekly roundup! Enjoy!

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Video of Sagem Wireless capacitive touchscreen 6" e-reader
• Freescale CPU with E Ink controller
• Pocketbook 302 first impressions - hands on video
• CeBIT Video: Hanvon WISEreader N618
• CeBIT Video: Asus DR-900
• CeBIT Video: Hanvon 8″ touchscreen e-reader prototype
• CeBIT Video: Gigabyte EB10 Android e-ink e-reader
• Reading on Android
• CeBIT Video: Interview with PocketBook about the new 601, 302/602 and 603

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• March 2010 Mobile Read Book Club Vote

Interview with Oleg Naumenko, General Manager of PocketBook about the new PocketBook 601 (cheap Freescale based), about 302/602 (resistive touch) and 603 (wacom touch) e-readers.



Released at: ARMdevices.net

I have the good fortune to be able to share with you not 1, but 2 articles on Android reading apps. One was written by Carly of GearDiary, and I wrote the other (as part of my review of the Archos 5). You should read them both. Carly and I came to different conclusions on some of the apps.

eBook Reading Options for Android (Gear Diary)

Reading on an Android Tablet, pt 1 (Nate's Ebook News)

Gigabyte is secretly showing a prototype of Android running on their first e-ink e-reader project. They are trying to adapt Android for e-ink e-readers, to allow users to install whatever RSS feed reader, news aggregator, any source for ebooks, web browsers and more adapted reading on paper-like screens with WiFi or 3G connectivity and perhaps even touch screens. I’d like a browser plugin that lets me bookmark articles in one click to read later on the e-reader thus using such synchronization software within Android that generates the reading queue based on web contents reformatted perfectly to read on such screen like reading on paper.

via ArmDevices.net

http://armdevices.net/2010/03/02/han...der-prototype/



Hanvon is working on a 8″ and 9″ e-reader prototypes to be released once the software and the screen are stable and mass produced.

Asus is showing this 9″ e-reader that uses SiPix and comes with a pretty cool capacitative touch screen for navigation, text input and more. It will come in WiFi and GSM versions.

ARMDevices.net

http://armdevices.net/2010/03/02/han...sereader-n618/



Wifi, stylus touch screen input, 6″ e-reader by http://hanvon.com they may be releasing this with China Mobile with a cellular modem option instead of WiFi for the Chinese market. It comes with a very basic user interface and uses wireless modem or WiFi to access specific e-book stores to download the e-books. The stylus pen can be used for the interfaces as well as for writing annotations, inputting text and more.

Help up choose a book as the March 2010 eBook for the Mobile Read Book Club. The poll will be open for 7 days. We will start the discussion thread for this book on March 21st. Select from the following books.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers? by Mary Roach
"Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death.

The Omnivore's Delimma by Michael Pollan
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes about how our food is grown -- what it is, in fact, that we are eating. The book is really three in one: The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both as big business and on a relatively small farm; and the third, what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal -- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
It is a really fascinating book about a woman whose cells became the first 'immortal line' in medical research and 50 years after her death, are still being used and have led to many medical discoveries. Her family did not find out this was even going on until years after her death. It's a very interesting story.

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman.
An award-winning psychologist exposes the truth behind life's little oddities and absurdities in this quirky and practical guide to life.
For over twenty years, psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life. In Quirkology, he navigates the backwaters of human behavior, discovering the tell-tale signs that give away a liar, the secret science behind speed-dating and personal ads, and what a person's sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of their mind-- all along paying tribute to others who have carried out similarly weird and wonderful work. Wiseman's research has involved secretly observing people as they go about their daily business, conducting unusual experiments in art exhibitions and music concerts, and even staging fake séances in allegedly haunted buildings. With thousands of research subjects from all over the world, including enamored couples, unwitting pedestrians, and guileless dinner guests, Wiseman presents a fun, clever, and unexpected picture of the human mind.

American Notes by Charles Dickens
It's a short travelogue of Dickens' travels through America in the year 1842, and contains some wonderful descriptions of a world that no longer exists, and, in addition, is extremely funny in parts, such as Dickens' description of the then-prevalent habit of chewing tobacco and spitting.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Consistently lauded for its lively, readable prose, this revised and updated edition of A People's History of the United States turns traditional textbook history on its head. Howard Zinn infuses the often-submerged voices of blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers of all nationalities into this thorough narrative that spans American history from Christopher Columbus's arrival to an afterword on the Clinton presidency...

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
"First published in 1946, History of Western Philosophy went on to become the best-selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy. Providing a sophisticated overview of the ideas that have perplexed people from time immemorial, Russell's History of Western Philosophy offered a cogent précis of its subject. Of course this cannot be the only reason it ended up the best selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. Russell's book was 'long on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly scepticism', as the New York Times noted, and it is this, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its scholarship, that has made Russell's History of Western Philosophy one of the most important philosophical works of all time."

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
This book examines what would happen to the planet if human beings disappeared. It looks at a wide variety of specific questions ranging from why and when bridges would fall down to what would happen to cockroaches. I just checked and it's available for both Kindle ($9.99) and SONY ($10.50).

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

The Stranger Beside Me by Anne Rule
Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

The Greek Myths by Robert Graves
The title says it all.

I just posted part one of my review over on my blog. I even shot a short video (my first). I've covered the PB302 before (here and here). Here are the highlights:
Quote: Reading software
It’s using Adobe Reader Mobile and FBReader. It appears to have full feature support for FBReader, and the only Adobe RM feature it lacks is annotation by drawing. I found it very usable. Screen refresh is slightly faster than the Nook. Since we know the Nook has one of the latest generation Marvell chips, I’d say that the PB302 comes out ahead in this comparison. I’m quite happy with it as a reader.

General Impressions
The touchscreen is highly reflective (I’m told they’re working on it). Even so, I’m satisfied with the PB 302 as a reader. It meets my minimum requirements: sleep mode, adequate format support, & one handed operation. I’ve gone though most of its abilities and I can’t find any shortcomings.

Extra Features
With the 302, you have the option of installing your own apps. It comes with about a dozen apps installed: games, dictionary, clock, sketchpad, web browser, RSS feed reader. It was the browser and RSS reader that originally caught my eye. Both of them work rather well.

I wish it had an email client, though. Here is the video:

Teleread and Nate's Ebook News have posts about the new i.MX508, but there is a very complete article at LinuxDevices: Quote: Freescale Semiconductor announced an ARM Cortex-A8 system-on-chip aimed at e-readers, along with a Linux- and Android-compatible reference design. The i.MX508 integrates an 800MHz Cortex-A8 core with a display controller from E Ink, improving performance, screen resolution, and battery life, while halving cost compared to earlier i.MX-based e-reader designs, says the company. Quote: The i.MX508 applications processor is expected to cost less than $10 in quantities greater than 250K units, and begin sampling to select customers early in the third quarter, says Freescale. The first ARM processor with integrated E Ink controller to ship is the Marvell Armada 166E, which refreshs the E Ink screen of the Entourage Edge faster than the Kindle DX.

Read the FreeScale press release here:
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.z...068&highlight=

Check out my video at: http://armdevices.net/2010/02/27/cap...congress-2010/

This is the first 6″ e-reader with a capacitive touch screen, it enables it to be much more compact than the Kindle as text input can be done on the touch screen. Although this is an early prototype demonstrated by Sagem Wireless at Mobile World Congress. The feature of using a capacitive touch screen on the e-reader does not remove from the readability of the screen and allows for finger touch screen input through the interfaces. A capacitive stylus input may also be supported. This device will include 3G and WiFi wireless data modems.

It was the week that was. Here's what MobileRead's been talking about since last Sunday:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Archos 5 review
• I got my hands on the Astri dual screen reader

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• March 2010 Book Club Nominations

I'm at O'Reilly TOC right now, and last night I met with a rep from Astri. The full post (including a video) is over on my blog, but here are the highlights:
Quote: I spent some time with the Astri rep last night, and he had Astri’s new My Internet Device to show off. I have a number of photos and (at the end of this post) a new hands on video.
...
The reader software doesn’t have as many features as the Entourage Edge. Right now it just has the basic ebook reading functions. I’m told that the production version will have a more finished firmware and will be more capable. Even so, there are signs that Astri did think about how to coordinate the 2 screens. Ebooks only open on the epaper screen, but the TOC opens on the LCD screen. There is also a second TOC for images, video, and audio ckips in the ebook which also opens on the LCD screen.

I like the design. I was able to look at it and simply know how to navigate. This may not sound interesting to you, but it’s a sign that they really put some thought into the design. The touchscreen is fingertip friendly, and I’m pretty sure that one handed operation is possible.

I also like how you can have 6 ebooks open at once, and then used the jog dial to switch between them.

Help us select the next book that the Mobile Read book club will read for March 2010.

The nominations will run through Mar 02.
Voting (new poll thread) will run for 5 days starting Mar 02.

Book selection category for March per the "official" club opening thread is:

March 2010
Nonfiction


In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a pool at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations.


Official choices each with three nominations:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers? by Mary Roach
"Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death.

The Omnivore's Delimma by Michael Pollan
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes about how our food is grown -- what it is, in fact, that we are eating. The book is really three in one: The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both as big business and on a relatively small farm; and the third, what it is like to hunt and gather food for oneself. And each section culminates in a meal -- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and pork, foraged from the wild.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
It is a really fascinating book about a woman whose cells became the first 'immortal line' in medical research and 50 years after her death, are still being used and have led to many medical discoveries. Her family did not find out this was even going on until years after her death. It's a very interesting story.

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman.
An award-winning psychologist exposes the truth behind life's little oddities and absurdities in this quirky and practical guide to life.
For over twenty years, psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life. In Quirkology, he navigates the backwaters of human behavior, discovering the tell-tale signs that give away a liar, the secret science behind speed-dating and personal ads, and what a person's sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of their mind-- all along paying tribute to others who have carried out similarly weird and wonderful work. Wiseman's research has involved secretly observing people as they go about their daily business, conducting unusual experiments in art exhibitions and music concerts, and even staging fake séances in allegedly haunted buildings. With thousands of research subjects from all over the world, including enamored couples, unwitting pedestrians, and guileless dinner guests, Wiseman presents a fun, clever, and unexpected picture of the human mind.

American Notes by Charles Dickens
It's a short travelogue of Dickens' travels through America in the year 1842, and contains some wonderful descriptions of a world that no longer exists, and, in addition, is extremely funny in parts, such as Dickens' description of the then-prevalent habit of chewing tobacco and spitting.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Consistently lauded for its lively, readable prose, this revised and updated edition of A People's History of the United States turns traditional textbook history on its head. Howard Zinn infuses the often-submerged voices of blacks, women, American Indians, war resisters, and poor laborers of all nationalities into this thorough narrative that spans American history from Christopher Columbus's arrival to an afterword on the Clinton presidency...

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
(Is this available as an eBook?)
"First published in 1946, History of Western Philosophy went on to become the best-selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy. Providing a sophisticated overview of the ideas that have perplexed people from time immemorial, Russell's History of Western Philosophy offered a cogent précis of its subject. Of course this cannot be the only reason it ended up the best selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. Russell's book was 'long on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly scepticism', as the New York Times noted, and it is this, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its scholarship, that has made Russell's History of Western Philosophy one of the most important philosophical works of all time."

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
This book examines what would happen to the planet if human beings disappeared. It looks at a wide variety of specific questions ranging from why and when bridges would fall down to what would happen to cockroaches. I just checked and it's available for both Kindle ($9.99) and SONY ($10.50).

The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin

The Stranger Beside Me by Anne Rule
Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

The Greek Myths by Robert Graves
(any links to ebook versions of this? I couldn't find it on Amazon.)
The title says it all.

I just posted the first part of a review over on my blog. Here is an excerpt:
Quote: So I got an Archos 5 internet tablet last night, and I'm planning to review it as an ebook reader. I got the basic model, and it has a 4.8" screen, 8GB flash, Wifi, and a microSD card slot. It's easy to hold it in one hand in portrait mode; my thumb is positioned over the volume buttons (which act as page turn buttons).

Using the Archos 5 has refined my opinion of Android, and I'll post that elsewhere.
...
Impressions

I'm quite please with the hardware. The button placement is just about perfect for a one handed grip, and swiping the screen with my thumb is easy. But I'm not happy with the amount of trouble I had in trying to read ebooks. Someone somewhere screwed up. I don't know if its the app developers, Archos, or the Android OS itself. I would only get the Archos 5 if you are a masochist or you are content with eReader. I'm going to bring the Archos 5 with me to both conferences I'm attending in the next few weeks: O'Rielly TOC and Digital Book World.If you're going to be at one of the conferences and want to see it, just let me know.

P.S. If there is some software that you'd like me to try, please ask. I'd love to.

It was the week that was. Here's what MobileRead's been talking about since last Sunday:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Notion Ink Adam (the one with a PixelQi display) gets final specs, price and date
• My Nook review
• Another Amazon/Mirasol Rumor
• iRex DR800SG is now shipping...

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• Paris meetup with special guest NEXT WEEK ! (20 Februrary 2010)

Engadget is reporting that the iRex DR800SG is shipping from Best Buy in the US and the price is back to $399.

You remember this unit, the 8inch with 3G wireless included. Who knows what that does.

Who will be the first to order this one?

Via: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/17/i...%28Engadget%29

BOb