Pocket PC eBooks Watch - eBook and beyond  
 http://cebooks.blogspot.com 

Happy New Year!
hopefully this is the year that customers have enough power to reject the DRM5 ebooks buy not buying them.

posted by Jerry permanent link

IMHO: Top 5 most memorable ebooks happening in 2001:
1. Cancellation of DRM5 for original Pocket PC users, so leaving most users tobecome Get Lost Pocket PC generation.
2. Pocket PC eBooks Watch's unique visitors becoming 500+ / day
3. Free Acrobat Reader by Adobe for Pocket PC
4. Lots of free quality ebooks in the internet
5. The facts that DRM5 will not stop printed books' illegal scanning in alt.binaries.e-book

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/30/2001

TimeOut!
Understanding Simmish
The real and cool universal language that people can instantly will understand (inspired by Looks Who Talking). Simmish is a language that is quite rare in the way that male responses and female responses are completely different, yet understandable to each other. Each Sim can mutually understand one another, even if they never use the same words (except when saying goodbye, or greeting someone).
For the fans of The Sims this will halp you more in understanding the game.
+ If you have the House Party extension look at the music/station/disco directory, lots of great MP3, Barry White's kind of songs with Simmish.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/28/2001

Soup of the Day
Amy Reiley's Pocket Gourmet
Dining out has never been easier, now that neohand has once again teamed with noted wine and food writer Amy Reiley. Together, they created Amy Reiley's Pocket Vineyard which took both the wine and handheld software worlds by storm.
Now, the latest collaboration between Amy Reiley and neohand is designed to enhance your dining out experience. Amy Reiley's Pocket Gourmet for Pocket PC handhelds is featuring:
Menu Assistant
Have you ever looked at an item on a menu and not known what an ingredient is or how it's prepared? With over 2,300 definitions and descriptions of common and not-so-common dining terms, the Menu Assistant will keep you informed, without having to ask some snooty waiter.
Restaurant Notes
For years you've been keeping restaurant information in your Palm handheld's address book and it's been adequate, but with the Restaurant Notes section, you can use a specially-designed address book that offers you the ability to record your experiences at restaurants.
Original information comes from PocketPCThoughts.com

posted by Jerry permanent link

Pulp eFictions
Dime Novels:
Works sold, often on a subscription basis, written rather rapidly, often featuring Western heroes and the like.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Digital Economic Trend Watch
U.S. CD prices slashed
U.S. shoppers may think they have seen enough bargains this holiday season, but CDs at $9.99 may soon be a standard offer at music stores as retailers slash prices in bid to battle the scourge of online music piracy.
So for studios, artists and retailers alike, 2001 is closing out as a year of few sweet notes as the industry is also being hit by a lack of blockbuster pop music releases.
IMHO: Considering DRM5 eBooks in which you can't pass 'em to your friends or even your kids, the price should be slashed logically to a one time charge like going to the movies.

posted by Jerry permanent link

DRM5 Nightmare
This Could Happen to You too!
The other night I downloaded a new book from Amazon. When I opened the reader, I got the message: "You are not authorized to open this book on this reader" or something to that effect. When I tried to open other books in my library, I got the same message, followed by a notice that the reader was not activated! The next thing I did was to click on the link in the reader for activation. I signed in with my passport account, clicked on the activation button and was told that the software had downloaded and installed. However, when I opened the Reader, I discovered that it still was not activated! I went back and read every FAQ I could find and all the support documentation..........trying everything, but to no avail.I originally downloaded the reader in April and read books on it through October. Now, all of a sudden, it has lost its activation and worst yet, I am not able to reactivate it!
Fortunately, I have more than one computer and was able to download a new reader, have it install correctly and activate on a computer I have running Windows ME. I eventually got the new book downloaded again and installed in my properly activated Reader and ultimately transfered all my other e-books. A lot of hassle to go through to read a book!
However,I would like to use the reader on the computer it was originally installed on. I have not reformatted, installed a new harddrive or re-partioned. I run Windows 98SE on a Pentium III 500. I am not behind a firewall, nor on a server. I have a local computer and use a dialup connection, through our local phone company and Internet Provider. This is the same dialup account I used when I first installed the reader on this computer and that I used to install it successfully on the other computer. I use Internet Explorer 5.50.4807.2300IS, Cipher Strength: 128 bit Update versions: SP2; Q306121,Q312461. Microsoft Reader Version: 2.0. I have SSL 3.0 checked under Internet Options/ Advanced/Security.
I have even tried uninstalling and reinstalling the thing, but it still will not carryout the "full activation" routine as it did when I installed it on my other computer. When I installed it on the Windows ME computer, at the end of the installation, there was a checkmark for "Complete Activation". Upon clicking on "Finish", the activation software was downloaded and installed and the activation completed. None of this occurred when I tried to reinstall on the original computer. It seems to believe that the activation is complete.
I have made a number of changes to hardware and added and removed some software in the past couple of months on the Windows 98 machine. I
also recently did a dump of all IE offline content,including cleaning out my "cookie jar" of cookies for sites that I have not visited in over two year. I suspect somewhere during one of these procedures something got deleted or a registry key is still in place that is confusing it. Any suggestions you have on how to correct this, short of Fdisking this machine will be appreciated.
If possible, please send any responses to sandy@mnic.net
thanks to Sandy Oppegard for the email!

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/27/2001

Hard Shell to Believe
Beyond Stone and Steel
A Memorial to the September 11 2001 Victims by Brian W. Vaszily
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 has left us each trying to fill a uniquely unfamiliar void in our soul with something that will make us whole again. Somehow we need to feel the experience in a way that following the news coverage just doesn't do for us. 50% of publisher and author proceeds going to September 11 charities. To order the ebook click here

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/26/2001

Blogger is back. If you missed it before, Blogger was offline most of today due to a security breach (i.e., hackers/crackers, whatever you like to call them). We believe all data was recovered, and you can now log in with your normal username and password.

posted by Jerry permanent link

MJ Rose's
2001 Was a Tough Read for E-Books
It's been a difficult year for e-publishing, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering it's been a difficult year for businesses in general, and particularly those having to do with the Internet.
As 2001 comes to a close, Wired News asked 201 authors, publishers, retailers and other industry analysts to describe the high points and low points of the year, and to present a wish list for 2002.
Since it was a bad year, we'll start with the bad news.
What were some of the disappointments or overrated issues in 2001?
David Eide, editor of Oasis 2001: "That there wasn't a bigger migration of talent from print to e-publishing. Obviously, this is connected to the very low sales of e-books and lack of capital. It proved to me that e-publishing is going to be digging in hardscrabble for awhile."
What was the best news of the last 12 months?
Michael S. Hart, director of Project Guttenberg: "The number of e-books available for free download on the Net will pass 20,000. The number of Net users will start heading towards 1 billion."
The long Q&A available by visiting the article

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/25/2001

Not for Pocket PC yet
Microsoft Reader Text-to-Speech Package 1.0
Microsoft Reader 2.0 for Windows-based PCs and laptops boasts several new additions in accessibility that are bringing eBooks to more communities and providing a richer on-screen reading experience with additional TTS and Verbosity functionality. To enable Microsoft Reader to take advantage of existing speech technologies, you must install the new Microsoft Reader Text-to-Speech (TTS) Package 1.0.
Actually this is an ideal solution for mobile computing

posted by Jerry permanent link

PeanutPress Promo Code: SANTA
----------
Punch in this week's Promo Code SANTA to receive a SPECIAL 15% DISCOUNT off each book that you purchase. Offer good through December 31st on all books priced more than $3.00. Cannot be used in conjunction with other special offers. Note that promo codes are now entered on the cart page.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/24/2001

"...If God had so willed, He would have made you A single People, but (His Plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive As in a race in all virtues..." (5:48)
"To each is a goal To which God turns him; Then strive together (as in a race) Towards all that is good. Wheresoever ye are, God will bring you Together. For God Hath the power over all things." (2:148)

We wish you a Merry Christmas, may God bless us with Peace to the world.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/23/2001

Polling #27 Result:
Why is the market for e-books has simply not developed as we hoped?
(of 452 respondents)
18% Eletronic readers are too expensive
10% Readers are not ready
28% Too many ebook formats
12% DRM5
25% Limited reading materials
7% others

posted by Jerry permanent link

12"er
The Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation was officially established in 01996 to develop the Clock/Library Projects as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. It has been nearly 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age and the emergence of modern civilization. Progress during that time was often measured on a "faster/cheaper" scale. The Long Now Foundation seeks to promote "slower/better" thinking and to focus our collective creativity on the next 10,000 years.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Garage Key
Slashdot: The World Of Russian Science Fiction Online
"There is a vast heritage of science fiction in Russian that is as large and diverse as SF in English. This Russian site has several complete science fiction novels in English. If you go to their home page you will feel the language barrier. Most of these are out of print in the English speaking world, but many were translated and published in the seventies, and can be found through AddAll.Com. I have found one Russian Science Fiction club that tries to help the English speaking world understand Russian SF, and also gives their view on Heinlein and Philip K. Dick. Only Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky appear on the Classics of Science Fiction list.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Sounds like a medicine
Folium ebooks
"Folium eBooks is a Romanian enterprise and we want to make available - in Microsoft Reader format for now - titles in English, French and Romanian."
FYI. Some of the ebooks are available as free ebooks in other sites

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/22/2001

The Best Christmas Present you can probably give:
Execubook
"Need to stay abreast of leading professional thought but don't have the time?
Now you and your organization can eRead the best of business and other professional literature in minutes on any handheld device or laptop!
Subscribe to Execubooks - eSummaries that deliver wisdom, wherever you have a moment!"
Look at the sample section, and the price of this excellent service is:
$117 per year, where you will get:
* twelve months of Execubooks
* Access our downloadable online library of archives anytime
* Read an additional new Execubook delivered to you every week

posted by Jerry permanent link

The eBooks for Christmas
ESSPC's new ebooks: Xmas Specials
* A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens That miserly man, Ebenezer Scrooge, so cheap he won't even paint out the name of his dead partner, Marley, from the company sign, though he has been dead these many years. The old penny-pincher is about to come face to face with the reality of the world.
* A Child's Christmas In Wales by Dylan thomas There is the story of one day in the life of a young boy growing up in wales. This is probably my favorite secular Christmas story. It is filled with fun and joy and just a bit of the mystery that a boy feels at Christmas.
* The Chimes and The Hollly Tree by Charles Dickens "The Chimes" celebrates New Year's Eve rather than Christmas, reminding the reader that there is always something for which to be grateful. In "The Holly Tree," the narrator is an old man who tells his Christmas story, which is that he came close to forsaking his bride. The tragedy was prevented by a providential snowstorm which confined him to an inn and delayed his departure.
* The Gift Of The Magi by O. Henry The Gift Of The Magi is one of O. Henry's classic stories. It tells of young love at Christmas time. A young couple just beginning their wedded life and of very limited means want more than anything to give each other a gift that will reflect and celebrate their devotion, one to the other. The gifts they select, and at the cost to each of them, all result in one of the most endearing, heartwarming, and humorous of conclusions.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Audio books sold as Net downloads
Audible offers readings of 22,000 books, newspapers, magazines and other content in a digital format that can be played on a computer or several brands of digital music players.
And it's not just dusty books in the public domain but bestsellers and other popular titles, thanks to deals with publishers and a strong but mostly unintrusive scheme to prevent unauthorized distribution.
Purchases are made through Audible's Web site. After payment, the file can either be streamed on the computer through RealAudio or Windows Media Player or downloaded for later PC listening or transfer to a portable device, such as an MP3 player or handheld.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Avantgo Challenger
Movies to go coming to Mazingo
Mazingo has announced a deal with Tunein Entertainment Company which will allow users to download and view full-length movies, TV shows, music videos, newscasts and other multimedia content on their Pocket PC devices via either dial-up, broadband, or wireless connections. The deal involves Mazingo's DRM (Digital Rights Management) video solution for Pocket PC's allowing Tunein Entertainment to make their Pocket PC Films collection available while keeping the content secure. Expect this service to be part of Mazingo's Premium Services expected to launch soon for around $15 per month. Mazingo currently offers an AvantGo type alternative for Pocket PC users to synchronize web content for off-line browsing which has been rapidly developed over the past six months, going through no less than three major revisions in that time.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/21/2001

Happy Birthday Pocket PC eBooks Watch
One Year Ago: The First Posting of Pocket PC eBooks Watch
Check out the December 2000 achieves to see what I posted on the first day of Pocket PC eBooks Watch (mission statement, top 5 ebooks site-dotlit.com was the number one, Special paste method in MS Word to create ebook from web materials, other ebooks format that can be read with Pocket PC, and many more). I never thought this site is going to be this busy, and thanks to Ojster, my partner in passion of ebooks, Pocket PC Magazine, Jason Dunn for mentioning this site often in his gigantic Pocket PC Thoughts, Ken Mattern who become my mentor from the beginning of this site, Chris Coulter who sent me links in the early periods, and all the readers without whom, I will loose the energy of updating this site.
And to my friend Jeremy Wagstaff who inctroduced me to this addicted blogger.com, this is a great technology thanks pal!

posted by Jerry permanent link

The Future of Non Electronic Books
The San Francisco Center for the Book
SFCB provides a public space and supportive environment for anyone interested in exploring the arts of the book and the visible word.
We encourage collaborative projects and offer educational programs and exhibitions that promote understanding of all aspects of the book arts.
SCFB chose 17 book works for display in the Center Gallery from all student entries.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Bubbles
One Year Ago: E-Book Industry Set To Explode
Spurred on by the success of Stephen King's e-book experiment and low distribution costs, the digital book industry in the United States is set for an explosion over the next few years, according to a report issued Tuesday by research firm IDC.
The report, "Electronic Publishing Forecast and Analysis, 2000- 2004: Digital Books and Print on Demand," predicts that the U.S. market for digital books, including digital downloads and print-on-demand books, will grow from US$9 million this year to $414 million in 2004.
"Book publishing is the next big media industry to go digital," said Malcolm Maclachlan, senior analyst for IDC's eMedia program. "Numerous major industry players already embrace electronic publishing."
Maclachlan noted that many book publishers are signing alliances with technology providers and "well-known authors are throwing their weight behind promotions offering their works in digital form."
The development of new hybrid and multifunctional devices for reading e-books will be key to the growth of the industry, the firm said.
In addition, as more and more publishers realize that digital books can save distribution costs, new e-book offerings will be presented.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/20/2001

Grace Under Preassure
Wordbeams Closes its Doors on December 31
"While many of you have heard that Wordbeams will be closing its website on December 31, others either don't know, or have only heard rumors. I'd like to set the record straight.
It's true--the Wordbeams website will close after 12-31, due to medical necessity. This is, in fact, the ONLY reason that I would even consider closing Wordbeams, the company I gave birth to at the end of 1999 and nurtured into a publishing house that has earned the respect of the industry and my authors, and enjoys a fine, untarnished reputation for excellence and professionalism that helped catapult it to the upper echelon of the independent e-publishers. (Hey, I'm closing down, so I have the right to toot my own horn just a bit! LOL)"

posted by Jerry permanent link

Best way to buy a Magazine
Pocket PC eMagazine
Pocket PC Magazine have teamed up with both Handango and PocketGear to offer single issues of the MS Reader version of the magazine for $4.95 each. You can get the January '02 issue now, with reviews of the Toshiba e570 and the HP Jornada 560.
I think the price is still too high

posted by Jerry permanent link

Homeland Defense continues
Russian Programmer Stands by Boss in DMCA Case
The Russian software programmer who escaped prosecution as the first person charged under a controversial new U.S. copyright law said on Wednesday he stands by his employer, who still faces trial.
``I am extremely disappointed with any implication that I am, in any way, cooperating with the (U.S.) government,'' Dmitry Sklyarov said in a news conference. ``I am a man of integrity and as such am doing nothing more than telling the truth, not for or against anyone.''
The United States freed Sklyarov last Thursday as part of a ''diversion agreement'' under which he admitted facts, but no wrong-doing, and agreed to testify at trial if the prosecution decides to call him, according to Joseph Burton, attorney for Moscow-based ElcomSoft Co. Ltd.

posted by Jerry permanent link

See-through
Adobe Not Giving Up On E-Book Market and make it easy on DRM creation
Though it has watched a succession of major e-publishing operations go out of business, Adobe , the firm offering Adobe Acrobat and other e-publishing software, remains convinced that e-publishing and e-books will eventually grow into a significant market.
Adobe offers such tools as Framemaker, Pagemaker and InDesign for creating e-content, and Adobe Content Server, which packages content with DRM and makes it available for sale. Adobe also offers two prominent e-readers: the popular Acrobat Reader (for laptops and desktop computers) and the Adobe Acrobat e-book reader, which runs on laptop and desktops as well as Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds. Adobe has also just released a version of Acrobat Reader for Pocket PCs that will allow the viewing of PDF documents in their original form on handhelds. And at some point, Alexander expects Adobe to release a "unified reader" that will combine Acrobat and the Adobe e-book reader, although he declined to give a timetable.
"You have to balance the risk of not using DRM with the work involved in using it by consumers," Alexander said, discussing the need to protect content without alienating consumers. "There's probably more pirating of print books than e-books. We have to keep from creating roadblocks to e-books with the DRM." He added, "You can make DRM work by hiding it, making it transparent."
Today's DRM software allows publishers to decide among a variety of levels of content protection, he explained: "We see across the range of publishing that many publishers are loosening the reins on their content; they are turning off some of the guards. Publishers have to decide what's an acceptable level of shrinkage in the digital world."

posted by Jerry permanent link

From the desk of MJ Rose
E-Books Live On After Mighty Fall
In the last few months, several e-book-only imprints have closed up shop.
First, AtRandom (Random House), then iPublish (AOL Time Warner) and last week MightyWords (BN.com-majority shareholder) bit the dust.
But that doesn't mean e-books are a lost cause. In fact, e-book reading and sales are stronger than ever.
In the past year, 1,600 titles were downloaded more than 3.1 million times at the Etext Library at the University of Virginia. That's 8,715 free e-books per day.
Meanwhile, independent publishers and retailers such as Fictionwise.com, Booklocker.com, Hardshell Word Factory and Palm Digital Corp reported sales increases in 2001 from between 100 and 400 percent over 2000.
Many hope that the industry will work more closely in the coming year to develop one universal format that can be used on all devices.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Dear Friends, I just came back from looooong holidays! Try to tell you before I go, but Bloggers was down at that time.
Happy Idl' Fitri for ones who celebrate it.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/14/2001

Academically Reading
Academic Libraries Take An E-Look at E-Books
With funding from an Educate and Automate grant from the Illinois State Library, Spoon River College and Eureka College in Illinois participated in an electronic book project involving the college libraries and two English classes... "proposed to work together to test and to integrate the Franklin ebookman, a PDA-like device, and the RCA REB 1100 into the libraries and English college classrooms."
PCA REB 1100 PDA? very very very academics. Why don't they also used Pocket PC and Palm, so the students can play download the ebooks with it in the library, so the result will be more realistic not academic :-)

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/13/2001

TimeOut!
20 Year Usenet Archive Now Available via Google Group
"Google has fully integrated the past 20 years of Usenet archives into Google Groups, which now offers access to more than 700 million messages dating back to 1981. We believe this to be the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and a fascinating first-hand historical account.
We are compiling some especially memorable articles and threads in the timeline below. For example, read Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of what became the World Wide Web or Linus Torvalds' first post about his "pet project". If you come across other noteworthy posts while searching the archive, please forward them to us at usenet-timeline@google.com. Please note that while your own first post was undoubtedly of great personal historical value, we will only be able to include submissions of interest to a wide range of users."
Try to search your name, and see the first posting that you had posted to newsgroup

posted by Jerry permanent link

Homeland (read DMCA) Defenseless
Gov't Will Free Sklyarov In Exchange For Testimony
Federal government attorneys today announced that they would drop a criminal copyright infringement case against Russian software programmer Dmitry Sklyarov in exchange for Sklyarov's testimony in the case against his employer - Russian software firm Elcomsoft.
Sklyarov had faced the threat of a 25-year prison term had he been found guilty of violating the copyright protection language of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Keker said that Sklyarov's story in the case has never changed, and added that Sklyarov still believes that neither he nor his company committed a crime by creating and marketing the Advanced eBook Processor.
Shari Steele, the executive director of San Francisco-based civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), echoed Keker's comments, praising Sklyarov's exoneration, but blasting the government for clinging to its prosecution of Elcomsoft.
Steele said she was "dismayed" that the government was attempting to extract testimony from Sklyarov, "instead of admitting that they made a terrible mistake by charging him in the first place."
The DMCA establishes civil and criminal penalties for people charged with violating copyrights online. Under the DMCA, people who provide information about how to violate copyrights and those who design tools to crack copyrights can be held just as liable as those who actually misappropriate copyrighted material.

posted by Jerry permanent link

To the Almighty
MightyWords starts its final chapter
Digital publisher MightyWords has announced that it will close shop Jan. 12, according to its Web site. As a result, the company will lay off 23 employees. MightyWords was a division of Fatbrain before Barnes&Noble.com acquired a majority stake in the company. Santa Clara, Calif.-based MightyWords said its digital titles will be for sale on its site and through its distribution partners, which include Fatbrain and Barnes&Noble.com, until January.
The move comes weeks after AOL Time Warner announced intentions to shut its electronic book-publishing division iPublish.com, citing poor sales. In November, Bertelsmann's Random House Trade Group also closed its e-book unit, AtRandom.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Hohoho
FREE “Ho-Ho-Holiday” eBooks From BookZone!
'Tis that time of year again… the time for mistletoe and holly! And to help make your Holiday Season an even happier, jollier time, the BookZone eBook Technologies Department has packaged some FREE Holiday eBook downloads - with a seasonal twist - from Some Short Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens to One Little Menorah by Zalmas Velvel.
These free choices of eBooks, along with additional selections, can be accessed from the BookZone homepage at www.bookzone.com. "Just wrapping up the year with these fun titles has been a real treat for us here at BookZone," says Roxann Caraway, BookZone's eBook technologies director. "These free downloads are a classic example of the beauty - and the simplicity - of eBooks," she adds.

posted by Jerry permanent link

HandWare
Handmark Acquires MemoWare
The leading provider of online content for PDAs has been acquired by software developer Handmark, Inc. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed. Under the arrangement MemoWare will operate as an autonomous business unit within Handmark. MemoWare founder Dr. Craig Froehle becomes President of the MemoWare division reporting to Handmark CEO August Grasis III.
Grasis announced that “not much will change, only over the next few months the user experience will just get better. MemoWare has a well-deserved reputation based on providing content that supports many application and device platforms. It is important that users continue to see MemoWare as a trusted source for all kinds of online content.”
When asked why Handmark had decided to acquire MemoWare Grasis responded “MemoWare has been an essential service in support of our MobileDB product line with more than 800 online data lists in the MobileDB format. It would be very difficult to reproduce the online resource that is MemoWare, so for us the acquisition helps to guarantee that this service will continue and grow in visibility and in the depth of content. It is also a huge plus to add an industry luminary of Craig’s stature to the Handmark team.”
Thanks to Byron Collins from PDA-eBook@yahoogroups.com ofr the information

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/12/2001

Sweatin to the Oldies:
Awe Struck: Oldie but Goodie Sale!
"ALL of our titles released in 1999 will be discounted to just $3.00 per download through December 2001! ALL of the titles released in 2000 will be discounted to $3.25 through December 2001 as well! What deals for holiday shopping! Pik-a-Paks make great holiday gifts, too. Affordable books and great reading; what else could you possibly need?"

posted by Jerry permanent link

Inhale-exhale
Smell like the Book
David Nelson (Impressions Book and Journal Services, Inc.): The recent thread about what's gone wrong with the eBook concept and perceptions of what a book is, or might be, has been entertaining. It seems clear to me that comments like the "look and smell" of a printed book are about qualities of books that enhance a reading experience. There are many other things that could be mentioned about the "quality" aspects of both print and non-print books. Microsoft certainly thought that preserving some of the well developed attributes of printed books was important to build on, and the very attractive presentation of Microsoft Reader is IMO the only (non-PDF) eBook presentation that approaches any acceptable degree of typographic quality.
So, in response to the question of why eBooks are faltering, I would suggest that:
~Presentation mostly sucks, at least if you appreciate good typography and design.
~It's not so easy, or inexpensive, to create (good looking) eBooks after all. Many otherwise smart people allowed themselves to be led to believe that "converting" content from print to eBook formats would be easy -- and that the results would be instantly acceptable. While efficient workflows are possible (and recommended), it still takes effort, expertise, and money to plan, create, and distribute a good looking eBook. Just ask netLibrary.
So... "books" are great, and sometimes even smell good. Some of them look great on the shelf in my house. Some old "books" are very old and have to be unrolled to be read. "Book" is a very old word, and it seems that trying to apply such an old word to new things can cause consternation. Borrowing from a recent article titled "What is a Book?" by Bill Kasdorf, "We need to wait and see what 'book' will come to mean in the years ahead, and in the meantime focus our attention and energies on making the most of the rich and rapidly changing information technology environment we're fortunate to find ourselves in."
This quality commentary is taken with permission from David Nelson from ebook-community groups. I really recommend you to join this great ebook mail list.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Awe Struck!
Who Wants eBooks?
Kathryn D.Struck of Awe-Struck E-Books lists some of her thoughts on this subject:
* students who are tired of carrying around 40 lbs of books on their backs everyday in backpacks. i'm talking upper elementary here--all the way up to college students.
* law and medicial students, who could conceivably carry a partial (or whole) law library with them--or a medical library--in that backpack and other books/articles loaded up on the Palm or other handheld.
* people who love to read but who don't want to keep a copy of every book they read. who want disposable, affordable reading for airports, airplanes, trains, buses, and cars. and waiting rooms; and then there's the board meetings and boring seminars...people who want to read but shouldn't be reading at that point--closet readers!
* people who have the same desires as above--only they are dealing with technical manuals and other required reading by the boss/company and really don't want them on their shelves. just on the harddrive, thank-you.
* people who are 'hooked' on a certain genre--SF say--and love to read every SF book they can get their hands on but who don't have the library space to keep all the paperback books they would normally buy--if it weren't for ebooks. and besides, some of the SF they buy isn't worth keeping and reading again.
* elderly and site impaired--the size of the print is expandable and most of the time it's backlit.
* kids--who love all gizmos big and small and anything that resembles a Gameboy is cool. they even love to read on the computer.
* vacationers--who want several books to read at the beach but can't pack them all in the bag. or carry the bag once they are packed...
* housewives who are supposed to be watching that fantastic soccer game that little billy or janey is playing. or me, who goes to my son's orchestra concerts (he plays a great trumpet) and reads submissions on the Palm in the dark auditorium. i hear the lovely music; there's not much to look at anyway (except my darling son), and i don't bother anyone. and i get something done.
"do i love the smell of a book? sure? but often i just don't have the luxury to set back and enjoy that. but i do love to read even more. and need to read even more than i need to smell a book. oh yes, ebooks are here to stay."

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/11/2001

December 2001 top ten eBook sites:
1. PeanutPress.Com, the ebook store for PDA, no DRM5 and large selections
2. BlackMask, ebook flood in several formats. Best of all it is a free site, CD format of the entire site also available.
3. FictionWise, known for its award winning short stories, perfect for PDA, look for its under a buck section.
4. ESSPC eBook, very selective great place to start your ebook collection.
5. Mobipocket, ebook, elearning, talking dictionary and news dispatch
6. Pocket Manager, the name says it, eBooks for managing people.
7. Renaissance E Books, Offering variety of genres, which include pulps, cults, and trash.
8. Previewport for Pocket PC, surprisingly good selection with reasonable price
9. Memoware, free documents from volunteers
10. eBookMall, Most ebooks are form independent publishers.

posted by Jerry permanent link

New Adobe Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC 1.0
Choose the installer that corresponds to the chip used by your Pocket PC device.
To determine which chip your device uses, click Start > Settings > System > About.
Original Pocket PC
ARM - 4.3 MB
MIPS - 4.9 MB
SH3 - 3.9 MB
Pocket PC 2002
ARM - 4.9 MB
Installation notes
If you are installing on Microsoft® Windows NT® or Windows® 2000, you will need administrative privileges*.
1. Place your Pocket PC device in its cradle and run ActiveSync®.
2. Choose the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® for Pocket PC software you want to download.
3. Double click the downloaded file to begin the installation process. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
4. Begin transferring Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files to your Pocket PC device by placing them in your Mobile Device folder.
After you install the software, Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC will automatically perform the conversion process of untagged Adobe PDF files when they are transferred to your Pocket PC device.
Thanks to Saputra for the information via id-pocketpc@yahoogroups.com

posted by Jerry permanent link

eWicked
Erotica hot as ever by MJ Rose:
Here's one more publishing house that thinks sex will sell e-books. Bethany Burke and Frances LaGatta, co-founders of Wicked Velvet, are betting their serialized erotic romances to be the ones to catch fire.
Readers will pay a monthly fee and have access to all fiction in the members area.
"We want our writers to be able to explore some of the non-politically correct topics, which romance novels seemed to have featured in the '70s and '80s and are now lacking, i.e., soft-core BDSM and spanking, harem/slave fantasy, abduction fantasy, etc.," Burke said.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/10/2001

Ideal Presents of eBook...
Fictionwise Gift Certificates & Gift Packs
Certificate system to make it easy for you to give the gift of eBooks for the holidays! Plus, we've launched Gift Packs! You can now give either a cash gift or you can choose from seventeen different "gift packs" we've created that will deposit eBooks into the recipient's bookshelf automatically!

posted by Jerry permanent link

True or False:
Dianetic is number one best seller ebook?
In a press release Dianetic claimed to be the top seller of Palm Digital (Peanut Press) ebook store, but when I checked at Palm Media store the top 5 are: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Recovery Denning; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey; Riding the Bullet King; K-PAX Brewer; Digital Fortress Brown.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Holiday Gift Certificates
-------------------------
Christmas is upon us and time is running out! Palm Digital Media's electronic gift certificates provide a convenient way to bestow instant reading pleasure to those special people in your life. Give the gift of Palm eBooks this season.
https://secure.peanutpress.com/gc/requirements.cgi

posted by Jerry permanent link

In search of Other Reasons
Nerd Gerl's (from eBook-Community@yahoogroups.com) comment on the Polling #27: Why is the market for e-books has simply not developed as we hoped?
I know you want web voting - but my reasoning is not listed - which is this: Every time I search for "e-book" on the net, for example, - all I find are books that contain material ALREADY found on Gutenberg, or, "How To Sell..." this and that!
Where is the original material?? I've been on the net for 6 years now and have quickly tired of these "How To Make Tons of Money" manuals or "Alice in Wonderland" 3MB downloads.
At this point, dare I say that this redundancy gives E-books a bad name and could be the reason for the lack of the desired interest?

posted by Jerry permanent link

UnCool
The E-Book Market: Hot Or Just Lukewarm?
You may have heard how rich you can get from e-books, but the numbers say 'no'
Ipsos-NPD, Inc. reported that e-book sales represented a tiny 0.1% of the $5.2 billion in adult book sales in the United States during the first 6 months of 2001. That's less than half a million e-books out of a total of 548 million books sold during the first half of this year. As recently as December 2000, IDC (Framingham, MA), an industry analysis and market data firm, estimated that e-Book sales would total $9 million in 2000 and grow 160% per year to $414 million through 2004. What happened?
And IDC now estimates that e-book device sales worldwide will total just 153,000 for 2001 and 1.7 million for 2004 ­ incredibly low numbers considering there are 6,189.5 million people in the world now -- 273.1 million of them in the United States.
The high cost of dedicated e-book readers is a big hurdle for the market, especially when most e-books can be read on desktop or laptop computers. IDC Analyst Susan Kevorkian says that Microsoft and Adobe e-book readers are the "biggest inhibitors of the dedicated e-book device market right now." Both companies offer free e-book reader software downloads that can be installed on PCs, laptops, and, in the case of Microsoft Reader, handheld devices (Pocket PC 2002 only).
Baker of Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc. points out that, "People also aren't willing to pay much for an e-book. In spite of the lack of ongoing production costs [for e-books], publishers stand to sell more books if they go with print on demand."
Link comes from eBookAd.com

posted by Jerry permanent link

Expo
BookTech, February 11-13, 2002, Hilton New York
More than 3,500 book and electronic publishing professionals are expected to attend this February. Conference tracks include: Strategists and Managers, Small and Independent Publishers, Technology Focus: eBooks and ePublishing, Technologies and Workflow Solutions.

posted by Jerry permanent link

eBookology
Dianetics, A Book That Has Helped Millions Deal With Stress and Grief, Now an eBook Bestseller
Voted one of the top five non-fiction books of the 20th century in a Random House Modern Library Readers Poll -- pioneering in its breakthrough techniques for handling stress, anxiety and grief -- Dianetics has appeared on more than 420 bestseller lists in the United States alone. The printed edition, now in its 51st consecutive year of publication, is available in 53 languages and has sold nearly 19 million copies.
Less than a week after its release as an eBook with Palm Digital, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, L. Ron Hubbard's #1 self-help bestseller, rocketed to the top of Palm Digital's bestseller list.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/09/2001

Cheaper Better Smaller
Mobipocket Reader
Franklin plans to sell publishers on the advantages of the MobiPocket Reader to increase its number of available titles. To them I can only say, "Good luck, but don't get your hopes up." With fifteen or more eBook formats to choose from, publishers have pretty well cast their lots with Microsoft Reader and Adobe Reader. As for reading on PDAs, the Palm Reader is already available cross-platform and enjoys incredible name recognition. Between Palm Reader and the MSReader format they already support, publishers have PDAs covered without adding new software to their overhead.
Franklin plans to introduce some new reading devices that are cheaper and smaller than the eBookman, selling for around $50.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Overlydue
Auto Librarian.net
MC2 Systems' Auto Librarian.net is a new full-featured, two-tiered Internet library automation package that allows users unlimited access, from any computer, to data entry, circulation, reports, notices and database searching. Overdue, fines and reserve notices are sent via e-mail or printed out. eMaterials can be browsed via Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader and Microsoft eReader, checked out and downloaded onto a patron's computer for a specified length of time.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/08/2001

Devil's Advocate
Civil rights: The great online copyright conundrum
Digital rights management (DRM) promises to keep mp3s, ebooks and other virtual media under wraps, but can make for a bad experience for the consumer. Striking the right balance is a feat few content owners have pulled off, though.
An extreme example relates to Microsoft's DRM software, designed to protect audio files. In October of this year, a hacker using the name 'Beale Screamer' published a tool on the internet that allowed anyone to crack the Microsoft's safeguards.
...Ultimately, DRM will give more power to the consumer, according to Lally. He pointed to the legal publisher, Cavendish. It uses DRM to allow more cost-conscious customers -- such as students -- to buy select digital chapters instead of the expensive complete books. Consumers can even pay a reduced fee just to view the file on screen.
'I think [DRM is] at a primitive stage because people are primarly testing it and I don't think it's anything beyond that,' said Rubus' Lally.

posted by Jerry permanent link

;-)
"Quit your job and make a living on the net? It's not just hype. Real people are actually doing it." (With eBooks)
Entrepreneur Jim Daniels started his online business with just $300. Six months later he was earning enough to quit his day job and his "web income" is now well into six figures a year. Jim's bizweb2000 site shows others how to spin serious profits from the web, right from the comfort of their own homes.
"By the time I'd found my way around the Internet, I had 40 pages of great tips, a kind of road map to starting your own business online." That became the basis for Daniels' first publication, "Internet E-mail! Beyond the Basics!", now converted into a hot-selling ebook.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/07/2001

Northern Barks
Santa Dog
Santa's dog, Doran, is an original character from a children's story told only in a new format called electronic book or e-book. It is a growing trend for authors on the Internet. The author Marc Dufresne explains, "After evaluating all venues of publication, I found the best way to share this Christmas story is in the e-book format. It gives a chance for authors to reach an incredible large audience and offer their work directly to the public, which would otherwise be impossible without the backing of a big publication company."
The author believes the trend for quality e-books will only grow with time. According to IDC research, sales for e-books will grow to at least 400 million by 2004. "We've seen cocooning as a new way of life, and with recent events, I believe in the growth of e-books with people, who don't want to leave the comfort and safety of their home, and want a good read."
Thanks to Gill Taylor for the information!

posted by Jerry permanent link

Brain Candy
Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press, "Since my ebooks (mostly brain candy) are selling fairly well, I tend to think well of epublishing at the moment."
My first six ebooks earned $1378.60 in five months at Themestream, who then offered only 2¢ per page/chapter view. $1378.60 / 2¢= 68,930 unique page views. Dividing by chapters, that means that approximately 3400 people read some or all of my ebooks during those five months of Themestream eposure

posted by Jerry permanent link

Others....
Ongoing Discussion on Pocket PC eBook Polling "Polling #27: Why is the market for e-books has simply not developed as we hoped?"
at eBook-Community YahooGroups
> I know you want web voting - but my reasoning is not listed - which is this: Every time I search for "e-book" on the net, for example, - all I find are books that contain material ALREADY found on Gutenberg, or, "How To Sell..." this and that!

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/06/2001

TimeOut!
AmazonScan.com
AmazonScan.com is a program that scans different products on Amazon.com and records their sales ranking over time.
You can view: recently added, random, highest ranking, lowest ranking books and more in Amazon.

posted by Jerry permanent link

eBook Plus Noble = Story Plus Foundation
eBooks for Literacy: The Story of Story Plus
Today’s children are poorer readers than children of 90 years ago. That’s official. Why? One reason is because today’s children are faced with a wealth of easy entertainment options - television, video, electronic games - options which are more attractive than sitting down with the printed word.
NOW: StoryPlus, a new internet publishing company, has been launched to provide exactly the sort of stories that children will want to read: stories which will have them demanding more.
toryPlus has been launched with the support of organisations such as UNESCO and The National Center for Family Literacy, and from famous raconteurs such as Sir Peter Ustinov. The StoryPlus network will provide an ever-growing bank of well-written, intelligent, exciting stories for children from toddlers to teenagers.
All StoryPlus stories are available through the internet, many of them lavishly illustrated and, for the younger readers, some stories are available in animated form. All of the StoryPlus stories have been produced with a sole object in mind - to encourage children to read. Therefore the stories are those the children want.
http://www.storyplus.com for the StoryPlus site,
http://www.storyplusfoundation.org for the charitable foundation.

posted by Jerry permanent link

ettitute
The Cross-Cultural Business Pocketbook
This book is for anyone doing business outside his or her country, whether attending or organising a multinational conference, making a presentation to a group of managers from different countries, or being relocated abroad. Starting with a look at culture and its effects on working behaviour, the book then reviews ways of developing communication skills across the culture gap. Finally there is a section of specific material covering, amongst others, Europe, the Arab world and North America

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/05/2001

Audible Beatles
George Harrison: A Tribute
by Geoffrey Giuliano
The silence is deafening with the loss of George Harrison, the "Quiet Beatle," who lost his long bout with cancer last week at the age of 58. This tribute includes rare audio clips of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is a gripping, inspiring, and at times amusing portrait of one of popular music's highest-soaring talents - who will be sorely missed.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Technology Watch
Pocket Translation for Pocket PC
Automatic machine translation software use an advanced linguistic analysis to process source documents and automatically create draft quality translations.
PROMT-Online supports translation:
from English to French, Russian and Spanish;
from French to English, German and Russian;
from German to English, French and Russian;
from Russian to English, French and German.
This service can be very helpful in translating small texts on various subject matters, email messages or browsing international web sites.
More information available at PocketPCThoughts

posted by Jerry permanent link

Blast from the Past (a.k.a. Intro to the Internet Dream)
Self-Publishing Your Way to Internet Success
With today's advanced technology, it has never been any easier for anyone to self-publish their own ebook. What's more, you can create and market your own ebook (electronic book) for an unbelievably low price. Once you purchase an ebook compiler and create your ebook, you'll automatically have an entire stock of inventory on hand continuously. In addition, when you begin selling your ebook, you'll pocket nearly 100% of your profits for each sale.
As you probably know, the Internet is all about information and automation. Internet users want information and they want it right now. That's why ebooks are considered to be the "perfect" online product. They provide Internet users with the information they desire and can be instantly downloaded.
Anyway Keep your dream alive

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/04/2001

DRM5 Hit Targets
Electronic Publishing Suffers Hit
The demise of iPublish.com comes just one month after Random House closed its own e-book imprint, AtRandom.com. Like Time Warner, Random House decided the public wasn't ready for books on a screen.
Another e-book press, xLibris.com, also has struggled. Earlier this year, xLibris -- partially owned by Random House -- announced layoffs and began charging fees for publishing manuscripts after initially providing the service for free.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Polling #26 Result:
Why do you hate DRM5?
(of 112 respondents)
13% Complicated technology
29% I feel treated like a thief
22% now book is not an investment anymore
17% Can't inherit my ebooks to my kids
14% I don't want my info to be given to MS
5% Other

posted by Jerry permanent link

R I Publish.com
Time Warner Closes e-Books Division
In another blow for the fledgling electronic book market, Time Warner Books announced Tuesday it was shutting down its e-publishing division, iPublish.com.
The e-book company, which offered more than 400 titles, will be closed by the end of the year and 29 jobs will be cut. Time Warner will continue to publish electronic texts, but as companions to paper editions.
"Sadly, timing is everything in business, and sometimes being too early is as harmful as being too late," Laurence J. Kirshbaum, chairman of Time Warner Trade Publishing, said in a statement. "The market for e-books has simply not developed as we hoped."
Another DRM5 Cassuality

posted by Jerry permanent link

Evolution
The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
SEPB includes "Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources," a selective directory of related Web sites, and the "Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog," a frequently updated list of new publications and other resources that may be of interest to bibliography readers. The bibliography can be searched using Boolean operators.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Roses are Red
X-rated e-books
Speaking of the state of online narrative, Picturerotica.com hopes to introduce the medium to a whole new audience.
Although erotic e-books have been available since the introduction of the format, Picturerotica's productions are the first to offer a combination of words and pictures.
Referring to the growth of both the video business in the early 1980s and the growth of the Internet, Alex Southern, head of marketing for Picturerotica, points out that the adult business was instrumental to both.
While conceding that so far e-book sales have been disappointing in all genres, "we believe that the launch of our collection of illustrated erotic e-books will introduce the e-book medium to a whole new audience who will go on to investigate more mainstream e-book offerings," Southern said. Bright also points out that it would be costly to print a book with the fine resolution pictures that are so easy to place in a PDF file.
Each of Picturerotica's e-books is a self-contained novella of over 30,000 words, illustrated with a minimum of 150 full-color photographs. Southern says the novellas were written by female authors and feature strong female characters in the leading roles.

posted by Jerry permanent link

A Rose is A Rose
New Publishing House makes E-books Work Books.
(December 3rd - New York ) Novelists Douglas Clegg and M.J. Rose announce the formation of Pigeonhole Press (http://www.PigeonholePress.com) and its first series of titles: BuzzYour.com Interactive e-workbooks.
Each e-workbook walks the reader through the steps needed to Buzz Your Book, Buzz Your MP3, Buzz Your Zine and Buzz Your Online Auction.
As opposed to many ebooks, the Buzz workbooks are not print books translated into e-formats. Each component, from the writing to the graphics, was done knowing it would be read on computer screens.
This new line of unique e-books is aimed at professionals -- authors and musicians, who want to supplement what is being done for their careers -- as well as motivated do-it-yourselfers, including those running online auctions and zines.
Along with the launch of the first four Buzz books comes the free e-book, Discover Buzz, which gives readers a taste of each of the Buzz books, as well as a way to promote the line through viral marketing.
Not only is the workbook aspect unique in this category but so is the online brainstorming -- each e-book links to an open free forum for the readers of the books.
It seems the site is not working yet, and I don't know whether the ebooks will be compatible with Pocket PC or not

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/03/2001

No Santa for DRM5
This is an email from Overdrive to H. Doug Matsuoka responding to his article eGift of the Magi
> Neither Microsoft nor Adobe have the ability to provide a DRM model where a
> recipient receives the download. Only
> the consumer, paying for the eBook, can receive the protected download.
"Thanks for posting the link to my little essay, "eGift of the Magi." I've gotten some response from etailers who have gift certificate mechanisms, but this response from Content Reserve (which is the digital asset server for my ebooks) indicates that digital content cannot be given as gifts, not this Christmas, anyway.
So...there's still opportunity for entrepreneurial techies." HDM.

posted by Jerry permanent link

New Release Spotlight
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Recovery, by Troy Denning
The Second Stars Wars eBook
Though the Yuuzhan Vong were victorious in their savage conquest of the planet Duro, they failed to extract sensitive information from Leia Organa Solo, who now barely clings to life. Han Solo begins a race against time. The two Solos must reach Coruscant, the New Republic's strife-ridden capital, where traitors, appeasers, and assassins share the same goal as the fierce Yuuzhan Vong: kill all Jedi.
This title is only available as an eBook and compatible with your Pocket PC

posted by Jerry permanent link

BlackMask CD
Don't have time to download 5,000+ books? Well, in response to numerous requests, I might have an answer for you. What would you say to over 5,000 books in MS-Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Rocket, iSilo, Mobipocket, or "ZIP"ed format? That's right, nearly every text on this site. And further, what if I told you you could have all this, plus the webpages from this site, minus the ads, for a grand total of $14.95 (plus $3.00 shipping).

posted by Jerry permanent link

  12/01/2001

The Battle of the Books
No contest. Tolkien runs rings around Potter
Just when the menace of terrorism has darkened normal life and the guns of war have sounded, moviegoers on both sides of the Atlantic are turning out in huge numbers to see Harry Potter ride a broom across the silver screen and fight . . . evil.
The contest between good and evil, of course, has been a centerpiece of moral philosophy since at least Plato. In the "Republic," one of Socrates' interlocutors argues that "justice" is simply what benefits those in charge and that the happiest man will be the most perfectly evil one.
This is deep water, and it may be a lot to ask a writer of what are basically children's stories to delve into an age-old moral debate. But J.K. Rowling is writing in a tradition too, a literary one reaching back even further -- of heroic sagas and mythic battles between the forces of light and of darkness. That tradition received its greatest 20th-century expression in the work of her compatriot, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, whose three-volume masterwork, "The Lord of the Rings," is about to open in movie theaters, too.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Opinion: eBook Business
Your Good Name is up for Grabs
Don't look now, but your good name is up for grabs. The big on-line eBook "publishers" are playing the old publisher-in-search-of-authors game and in the process emptying the eBook designation of all worth. Columnist Tom Williams discusses one way to make money in eBooks.

posted by Jerry permanent link

On The 12th Day of Christmas
eGift of the Magi
Hey, you know what was really cool about LAST Christmas? I checked my email on Christmas day to find that all my friends and relatives (plus people I didn't even know) had sent me the perfect gifts: Ebooks! ...
Anyway, I loaded all those books into my Pocket PC, poured myself a brandy, fired up a cigar (a Fuente Hemingway, of course), and sat down for a good read...
Aloha and Mahalo to H. Doug Matsuoka

posted by Jerry permanent link

Time Out!
The Real WC 2002
World Cup 2002 schedule has been made. Start your own prediction.

posted by Jerry permanent link