I won’t replicate the article here (here’s Google Translate for an entertaining English translation) but one thing I will share:

Is there a reason not to buy it?

In my opinion, I don’t think it’s a perfect solution, today. But you need to think of the iPad (and the iPhone OS in general) as an organism that is continually developing and improving and therefore is becoming more interesting every day.

WhenI bought my iPad, it didn’t take long for me to get up to speed with it. If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch you’ll be instantly familiar with its interface and special functions.

I wanted to add some quick thoughts and feedback after having an iPad in Italy for more than a month. Note that the iPad has been released in Italy only on May 28th.

• I’m still not comfortable using it on public transportation.

As a woman using public transportation every day in a city where safety is not a guarantee (a woman was raped a few hundred yards from my house), I’m hesitant to pull out the iPad on the metro unless I’m pretty much alone. Sometimes when I’m reading out in public I disguise it behind one of those free newspapers. I suspect this will ease after the iPad comes out in Italy (May 28th), and I can get a case that will make it less conspicuous.

• It’s the most interactive gadget I’ve owned, including my computer.

When I say interactive, I mean it morphs into what I need depending on where I am and especially who I’m with. It manages to involve the other person in a way no other gadget I’ve owned has done, which in part is due to the screen size, but also to the variety of features and applications available. I have yet to find a person whom I can’t excite by showing some fun things or how I’m productive using it.

• The speakers

I was expecting to have to use the device exclusively with headphones like I do with my iPod, but the speakers are pretty powerful. I watched a movie at home on it – we don’t have a television. I also listened to music in the office. It’s not a stereo system, but sharing music and giving a quick listen with friends becomes much more enjoyable.

• The screen

Yes, it gets filled with fingerprints easily, but I carry a microfiber cloth with me (to protect the screen in my purse) and in a few swipes, it’s clean once again. Summer is just now getting into full swing, so I’m curious to see how it will be at the beach. I often read with my iPod Touch at the beach by shading it. I don’t expect it to work in full sun, which is a negative, just like I don’t expect to read a paper book in the dark (whereas I can read on the iPad in the dark).

Some side effects

• I stopped pulling out my Moleskine for quick notes.

A lot of times I wrote in my Moleskine for ideas and designs, and then transferred a more organized or final version into a presentation or email. I find that I’m using the iPad more and more an enhanced note-taking device.

• I’m reading fewer books.

Since the introduction of the iPad, things have gotten worse for the ebook market. Prices have gone up, availability has been reduced across the popular ebook sites and many apps available on the iphone are still not available on the iPad which means those books I bought can’t be read on the iPad. Most iPhone apps can be enlarged for use on the iPad but text is one of the things that suffers the most. The only two apps ready for the iPad in this moment are iBooks and the Kindle app. Stanza, a popular app used to read ebooks and is owned by amazon is still only available for the iPhone. Update: Stanza was released for the iPad on June 3.

• I play more games in dead times.

I’ve never considered myself a gamer but with the iPad I am definitely gaming more – I play a quick game of air hockey with a colleague or 10-pin bowling by myself when I just want to let off steam. This point is a direct consequence of the above point. In the past when I might have opened up the latest book I was reading, now I might play a quick game.

• I make more playlists on the go.

One of the things I didn’t like was the On-the-Go function that small screen, and searching for a particular artist or song took forever. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Now the iPod function is almost exactly like the iTunes experience – I can do a quick search in my library to find an artist, keyword or song title, and make an instant playlist. I can edit playlists very easily with just a few taps.

• The iPod Touch screen seems really, really small.

After using the iPad for a few weeks, I sometimes go back to my iPod Touch to read some books with apps that aren’t available for the iPad yet, and it feels very small, something I never noticed before.

I can’t link directly to the conversation, but I’d like to pull out some important questions you should consider before buying a Kindle, Sony or any other dedicated ereader device.

• Where am I, the buyer, located?

If you’re in the United States or Canada, you have many options other than the Kindle for an ebook reader, and more ebook stores from which to buy them. But if you’re outside of these two countries, or even outside the UK or Australia, your options are much more limited.

Many ebook stores have geographical restrictions on which books you can buy and require a US/Canadian/UK credit card to purchase books, so first check if there any restrictions tied to the available payment methods. [Read When I Have Time article: Where to Find and Buy Ebooks]

• Is the iPod Touch is the best ebook reading device?

It’s no secret that I love using the iPod Touch to read ebooks – I find it the most flexible regarding formats I can read, and I love the fact that I can do more with it like watch movies, listen to podcasts and use the thousands of applications the Apple store offers. I personally have no problems with the size of the screen or the fact it is back-lit instead of “eye friendly” E Ink.

The good thing about the iPod Touch is that it has the potential to evolve – new applications can come out tomorrow that will help you adapt to the changing ebook world, its formats, and new bookstores! [Read When I Have Time article: iPhone applications to read ebooks]

• So which ebook reading device should I buy?

Prices of these devices are easily in the $2-300+ range, and since most formats are specific to the device, it’s a big decision if you’re interested in keeping a digital library. I recommend to anyone thinking about buying a Kindle or any other dedicated ebook reader to find a friend with one and beg them to let you borrow the device for about 3 days (a week is better) and plan some reading time so you really get a feel for it.

Take a really good look at the device’s ebook store before buying – see if the books you are really interested in are available. If you read my article, you’ll see that books you buy on the Kindle will NOT be able to transfer to another reader device later (like the Sony, for example) so it’s a commitment. Play first! [Read When I Have Time article: Advantages and Disadvantages of ebooks]

• My device gives me access to all the classics like Tolstoy and Jane Austen, isn’t that cool?

I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but almost every ebook reader will give you access to the classics for free – the Project Gutenberg has them in a ton of formats as well as most device manufacturers will encode them for free, since they start out in plain text. I notice that most people don’t read them in the end.

• Isn’t there software that will convert from one format to another to get stuff onto e-readers (I have heard good things about a program called Stanza??)

You can convert any non-DRM file into other formats but if the ebook file is protected (with DRM, Digital Rights Management) as most Kindle/Sony/etc files are, you would need to “crack” them which is illegal and therefore not a good option for everyone, especially if you’re not tech savvy. Of course, some people crack ebook files anyway, but there’s no guarantee that a method for cracking ebooks that works today will work tomorrow.

Also, like you saw, Stanza is a software to read ebooks, not an ebook format. I think there is a lot of confusion between the two. There is no standard ebook format, therefore choosing a device means also choosing which formats you will be able to read.

• Can’t you  put stuff onto Kindles that you don’t buy from Amazon?

For the Kindle, other than the Kindle format which is encrypted with their DRM, you can only put non-DRM Mobipocket files, unencrypted PDF and a few other formats like Microsoft Word which can be encoded into the Amazon Kindle format. Amazon does not support EPUB nor any other special ebook format that might offered by other ebook stores that sell mainstream books.

This has a lot of good info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle Read closely in that many sites compatible with Kindle formats listed will say “unecrypted” or “free” books which means they are public domain books or small pubs/self-published books and not bestsellers.

• Can’t I make a big effort to buy books that don’t have the DRM slapped onto it? I think this can done particularly with the smaller publishers that I buy from?

It depends on what types of books you like to read, but I haven’t seen any “bestsellers” or mainstream books sold without DRM, ever. Small publishers, as you noted, may offer some books without DRM, but if anyone wants mainstream books (think NYT bestsellers, etc.) they will always have DRM.

The best rule to understand is: public domain books can be encoded into ANY format since they start as plain text, so there will be a lot of sites that offer only these books in Kindle/Sony/etc formats but that doesn’t mean they are really a viable solution for buying books you’re interested in.

Most formats : eReader, Sony, Kindle, etc, will give you a way to encrypt into their format, but the source material cannot be encrypted. So you can encrypt a document you create yourself, an email, a self-published ebook into other formats, but you won’t be able to take a Kindle formatted book and encrypt it into a Sony format.

Do you have any more questions before buying an ebook reader?

Photo by houseofsims / CC BY 2.0

Thanks to one of the many Meet the Media Guru events organized in Milan, Cory Doctorow was in Milan and I was lucky to get an interview one-on-one with him. Here’s part 2 of my interview with Cory Doctorow, where he talks about ebooks, DRM and universal formats.

SARA: I know that you said that ‘ebooks are poor substitutes for print, which makes them great enticement for print (copies) – if you like the e version, go buy the book’ but what about someone like me, for example, I don’t go buy print books anymore, I only buy ebooks. What can someone like me do? Do you see a world where print no longer exists, where’s the new revenue model?

CORY DOCTOROW: Well, I don’t really see a world where print can no longer exist. I mean, there is a minority of people who do this (buy all electronic) but I don’t see it growing very quickly. The Kindle sold no one knows how many units, but at $350 a pop, and I don’t see them getting cheaper either because there’s just not a lot of mass appeal. Book reading is not a mass activity. No one’s going to expect them to sell as many Kindles as they sold Nintendo DS, for example.

I’m not that really worried about it. But if it emerges, we’ll have to think of something different. There’s this risk of waiting for the future, waiting for this crisis to occur before you act, doing nothing because you think this crisis might occur later, and then everything passes you by.

If print dies, we’re going to need a business model no matter what. And it’s not going to be based on preventing people from copying your work if they want to, because it’s not technically possible to really be able to do that. So I’m not exactly worried about it. It’s like ‘What are we going to do when the meteor hits?’ There’s a non-zero chance that the meteor’s going to hit and it would be pretty disastrous if it did.

SARA: I don’t really think it’s a crisis actually, I think it’s an opportunity because, for example, me living in another country I have access to so many more types of genres that I wouldn’t have access to if they weren’t electronic. So I think your point is make it electronic, make it available to someone who’s in Australia, or someone in Iceland…

CORY DOCTOROW: But expatriates are different, and expatriates are a very small market. The total expatriate book market commercially is very small, but getting you free electronic copies of my books probably sells more copies even if you read it electronically because you go out and tell 15 friends about it who aren’t necessarily expatriates because we have these digital networks now. So they can walk down to their local bookshop in New York or Stanford or wherever and pick up a copy. I mean again I think it’s a net positive for now. You know the world in which like print completely bleeds over to the Kindle, I don’t know…we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.

SARA: Well you saw that this week has had some big improvements / changes on the ebook industry: The Kindle 2 was released and also they then released an app for the iPhone, and then yesterday Fictionwise was bought by Barnes & Noble. But we’re still in this format war. The difference between the mp3 war is that there was an mp3, a universal format.

What can individuals do or what can you do as an author to push toward some sort of universal format that can make it more appealing?

CORY DOCTOROW: Actually I think that the important thing isn’t a universal format, but the important thing is open formats, because books are open, right? I mean, you walk into a big, well-supplied bookstore and pick out from the smallest, most cheaply made book to the largest, most expensively made you will find an enormous diversity of printed material. Digitally representing that material faithfully is going to require more than one format. So, you open a web page in your browser, you probably open 25 different file formats and you don’t care if they are bitmaps, or pngs, bmps, jpgs, gifs or j32s or whatever because they are all open, right? And provided they are open, it’s not challenging for people to make devices or display technology to implement. These things if they are standardized, there’s been a records code that the standards body produced and you literally just paste it into your code base and away you go, you’ve got support.

And if you go to China, you actually see what this is going to look like because in China nobody cares if the formats are proprietary and if it’s technically against the law for them to include it. So people have video playback devices in China and it plays everything. If you buy an ebook reader in China, it plays everything. If you buy an mp3 player in China, it plays everything. And in fact most video players play all the ebooks and all the audio because, why not? It’s an extra 16 lines of code in a device that has gigabytes of memory.

So, how do we get to open standards is probably a better question and I think we need to focus on bringing these companies to account. So, I don’t think it’s good news that Kindle books are available on the iPhone, I think that’s pathological news. Why should we need a business arrangement so that you can play books that you bought and paid for on another device?

SARA: And it’s extremely US-centric.

CORY DOCTOROW: Right, I mean saying we can now read Kindle books on the iPhone should be as weird as saying that we can read Bantam books in easy chairs. Bantam shouldn’t have any say on what kind of chair you’re sitting on when you’re reading the book. Amazon shouldn’t have any say over which device you’re using when you’re reading the book. You’re buying the book, it should be yours.

SARA: Yes, it’s hard for those of us that want to [buy books]….there’s a lot of temptation because I have three different formats that I want to read and at any time and I think that it’s a big problem with the formatting.

CORY DOCTOROW: Right, and you point out something important which is that people who don’t want to pay, people who are pirates, don’t get bothered by the DRM, they go out and buy the cracked books or download the cracked books for free. It’s only people who are foolish enough to pay for them that get locked into these platforms.

SARA: Right and if you’re an avid reader it’s hard to resist that.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the interview tomorrow…

Photo by meetthemediaguru

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are eBooks?
• Why aren’t eBooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications

• eBook Formats
• How to Read an eBook: Devices and dedicated eBook readers
• Applications to read eBooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

Where to Find and Buy Ebooks

Intersted in finding popular, rare and current books? You have a lot of choice, and it’s growing every day. For more information on each of these formats, make sure you read How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications

• Fictionwise.com – Secure Mobipocket, eReader, PDF formats. Multiformat books, which are usually non-DRM books. A list of supported formats and devices. Note: Fictionwise was bought by Barnes & Noble in March 2009.
  • eReader.com – eReader is actually powered by Fictionwise and is a separate site carrying only eReader /.pdb files.
• Barnes & Noble – they bought Fictionwise (above) but books are also available through bn.com – eReader/.pdb files.
• Books on Board.com – a mixture of EPUB, Mobipocket and eReader formats. Check Books on Board supported formats.
• Diesel ebooks – Adobe, Mobipocket, eReader, Microsoft formats.
• Mobipocket.com – Mobipocket format (owned by Amazon).
• Amazon.com Kindle Store (Kindle format only)
• eBook Store from Sony (Sony format) – Sony is also teaming up with Google to offer a half million of public domain books for the Sony Reader.
• www.ebooks.com – Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, Adobe Digital Editions (secure EPUB) formats – they have a handy Reader comparison table.
• eHarlequin eBooks (U.S.) and Mills & Boon (UK) – only romance, but someone to watch since they are often cutting-edge with free book offerings, embracing technology and experimenting in the “e” category.
• Penguin – eBooks (U.S.) and Penguin eBooks UK – in the UK they are supporting the secure EPUB format, while in the US eBooks are available in Microsoft Reader, Adobe secure PDF and secure eReader.
• WHSmith eBookShop (UK) – books in secure Adobe EPUB, secure Adobe PDF, secure Mobipocket, secure Microsoft Reader.
• Waterstones (UK) – for Sony Readers, utilizes secure Adobe Digital Editons (EPUB).
• Wizz-e.com is a site that focuses on electronic books for children.
• EPubBooks.com – a list of places to find EPUB format books.
• O’Reilly eBooks – the classic technology publisher embraces eBooks and offers DRM-free(!!) bundles of their books in three formats (EPUB, Kindle Mobipocket and PDF) so you’ll have some mobility amongst your devices.

Where to Find Free Ebooks

There are several places to find free books which can be downloaded in various formats and converted if necessary. Many of them will be “the classics” – books that are in public domain, but converted and released in different formats.

• Project Gutenberg mentioned above is a great site with more than 27,000 books available in the public domain. Classics from Austen, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, even the Kama Sutra!
• ManyBooks.net – 23,000+ books, and they’re all free! Multiple formats available for download.
• FeedBooks.com – more free books, compatible with most mobile devices and Kindle / Sony / iPhone, it supports the EPUB format.
• Google Book Search – use “Advanced Book Search” and select “Full view only” for some creative commons / public domain books.
• Free Kindle format books – a great list of free Kindle format books from Kindle 2, Kindle Books Reader 2.0 – Amazon Kindle 2 Review
• Kindle Formatting is offering a few free books during Read an Ebook Week.
• Suvudu – a new science fiction portal Suvudu from Random House which has monthly free books to download. You can sign up for their newsletter to get notified when new titles are available.
• Girlebook.com – “free ebooks by the gals” -  classics and titles by lesser-known female authors, all free.
• F+W Media offers some free ebooks to those that sign up for their newsletter.

Learning Resources

Still want to know more about eBooks? Here are some resources to continue your quest. Send me your questions as well via my Contact Page.

• TeleRead.org – a blog all about eBook news and eBook readers
• Three Open Source E-book Readers Worth a Look from OStatic
• A very useful E-book Reader matrix from MobileRead
• ePub Resources and Guides – O’Reilly Labs
• Dear Author.com – a blog mainly about romance books, but check their ebook technology category for some very informative posts including device comparisons and some hot eBook topics. After all, romance readers are one of the most powerful reading markets – we read a lot, we buy a lot, and we are pushing the eBook market to get their act together. Some posts to jump straight to: Dear Author’s 2nd Annual Buying Guide, Parts 1 and 2 – How to borrow eBooks from your local library using the Sony Reader, and 2008 eInk Readers
• How to Choose an Ebook Reader from Wired.com
• International Digital Publishing Forum – proponents of the EPUB format, statistics and news regarding the eBook market.
• MobileRead – information for reading digital content on your mobile/cellular phone, but lots of crossover with the format wars in general.
• Read an E-Book Week – March 8-14, 2009.
• Read Write Web ebooks category

What doubts or questions do you have regarding electronic books? Leave them in the comments, or send it to me via Ask the Geek.

Image from gi

The second part in the series A Guide to Ebooks series for Read an Ebook Week.

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are ebooks?
• Why aren’t ebooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications

• Ebook Formats
• How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers
• Upcoming Ebook Reader Devices
  
• Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

Ebook Formats

As mentioned in part 1 of the Guide to Ebooks, since there is no universal ebook format and 25 formats to date (Apr 2009), there are many ebook formats that compete with each other. Some are formats created specifically for ebooks and others like text and HTML are formats that can be adapted to on-screen reading.

Note that when considering each of these formats there are at least two versions of each format: a “secure” version that has some kind of DRM (Digital Rights Management) attached to it and a non-DRM version, i.e., Adobe Secure/DRM PDF, secure EPUB, etc.

Note: As of now, almost all commercially-released books are released in secure versions of ebook formats with DRM or security attached. When reading further about readers and devices that support non-DRM file formats, remember that most of this non-DRM content is either documents/ebooks you create yourself or with non-DRM versions available online (like Shakespeare), etc., and not most commercial books. Hopefully this will change.

There are also many software that will convert files into different file formats for reading on dedicated readers from Sony/Amazon, etc., but often they assume you are starting with or require the use of a non-DRM file (i.e., converting a non-DRM Adobe PDF into Mobipocket or eReader).

Here are some popular eBook file formats – in part 3 of the Guide to Ebooks I’ll tell you where you to buy them:

• EPUB / .epub – This is the proposed “universal” format from the IDPF that is having trouble taking hold with dedicated readers and mass-market book retailers. A few retailers ((Note: August 2009, Sony declared it will support EPUB by the end of 2009) have started offering books in secure EPUB, but it is not widespread. www.epubbooks.com is a great directory of where you can purchase or download EPUB offerings.
• Adobe EPUB – Adobe EPUB files are often synonymous with Adobe Digital Editions which is actually a software offered by Adobe that is used to read EPUB files, and these are also readable on several different ereader devices (note: Jan 2010 – there is no clear way to read Adobe EPUB files on the iPhone)
• PDF / .pdf – Adobe’s format “portable document format”, available in both secure and non-secure formats, is widely available and readable on several types of devices, but users report some problems formatting and re-sizing text as documents are created with “pages” that are pre-set and therefore more difficult to re-flow for different screen sizes.
• eReader / .pdb – Originally developed by Palm, eReader software is available for a ton of devices including the iPhone/iTouch. eReader/Fictionwise was bought by Barnes&Noble in 2009.
• Mobipocket / .prc/.mobi – another proprietary format, and is now owned by Amazon, life has become even more confusing in that Mobipocket-DRM’d files do not work with Amazon’s Kindle (*remember my note about most popular books are released with DRM). Mobipocket is available to be read on several devices.
• Microsoft Reader / .lit – Microsoft’s ebook format which is readable on several types of devices.
• Device-specific formats:
  • Kindle / .azw is based on Mobipocket technology. Since March 2009 Kindle books can also be read on the iPhone (below) and in November 2009, you can read Kindle books on your PC, too. Both options are available without having to actually buy a Kindle.
  • Sony Reader / .lrx/.lrf (BBeB Book) format works as imaginable, with Sony Readers. (see note above in EPUB re: Sony format)
• Non-Commercial Formats:
  • Text / .txt : no special formatting available, these files are plain text with line breaks. Some use CAPS or special characters (**) to help with readability.
  • Rich Text / .rtf : more formatting available than plain text.
  • HTML / .html : can be read in web-browsers, and some special formatting can be used. The concept of pages is not easily embedded or utilized with HTML ebook files.
  • Others: Windows Word Document .doc, JPG Image .jpg, Portable Network Graphics / .png, Bitmap / .bmp

How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers

Ebooks are small files since they are mostly text (for now) and therefore you can have hundreds and hundreds of books and not make a dent in your hard drive space. Most files range from 200KB to 1MB or so, which is small considering many mp3 files are from 5-10MB. I have more than 200 books that are the disk space equivalent of 12 mp3 songs (less than a single music album!)

Reading eBooks on devices falls into three main categories: computers, multifunction/Smartphones, and dedicated readers.

• Your Computer. A simple solution since almost all ebook formats have software that is installable on Windows and Mac operating systems. While you might hate the idea of sitting at your computer for hours reading, it may work to sneak in a few pages here and there, or if you’ve got an ultraportable computer or netbook, it may even be comfortable.
• Multifunction/Smartphone: this group is perhaps the most interesting because chances are you already have one of these devices in your possession and it will take you very little to be set up to read eBooks. Blackberry, Treo, iPhone (and ipod Touch) are all examples of Smartphones. Many of the major formats listed above have ways to read content from your smartphone.
• Dedicated E-book readers: There are a lot of e-Book devices out on the marketplace now. The feature that characterizes these devices is that most of them are utilize E Ink technology, which is a non-backlit electronic display that simulates text printed on paper – here are a few of the most well-known:
  • Amazon Kindle (Kindle Wikipedia entry), now in its third generation, Kindle DX released May 2009 (larger reader has a 9.7 inch screen and adds support for PDF, and increases storage for up to 3,500 books), it is appreciated above all for the ability to buy and download books wirelessly. In October 2009, a Kindle International version was made available for use outside the U.S.A. (but with a cost for wireless access). A large selection of books is available in the Kindle format mentioned above, with support for other non-DRM/secure formats like HTML and TXT. As of March ‘09, you can buy and read Kindle-format ebooks on the iPhone/iTouch without having to purchase a Kindle (below).
  • Sony Reader (Sony Reader Wikipedia entry) – the PRS-700BC is the most recent version with a touch screen, displays Sony’s ebook format BBeB (.lrx / .lrf), secure PDF and EPUB, and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT. Sony and Google will make a half million public domain books available for the Sony Reader soon.
  • Barnes & Noble “Nook” – B&N, who bought Fictionwise/eReader in 2009, released the Nook in October 2009 for pre-order. E Ink® but also with a color touchscreen for the controls, with 2GB space and expandable for more, it supports eReader formats and EPUB. Kudos to B&N for not only supporting an existing format (Amazon, you screwed us with Mobipocket books) but for supporting EPUB, too!
  • iRex Iliad (Iliad Wikipedia entry) – secure Mobipocket and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT.
  • Bookeen Cybook – (Cybook Wikipedia entry) – secure Mobipocket and other non-secure formats like HTML and TXT.
  • eBookwise is one of the first dedicated readers I saw, though it does not use electronic ink technology and therefore has a backlit screen. It is from the company Fictionwise,  but it has its own dedicated ebook store, www.ebookwise.com. Formats include Rocket Book (.rb) files and other non-secure formats like HTML, .doc and text.
  • Foxit eSlick Reader – one of the cheaper options available using e Ink (under $300), it seems to only support PDF and TXT formats.
  • Cool-ER – a reader using e Ink made in the UK it supports JPEG, PDF, or TXT document, or any EPUB formatted eBook.
  • Skiff Reader from publishing company Hearst will launch in 2010. Its 11.5″ E Ink display will be the largest so far, and will have full touch capability. It will have its own content delivery platform which (*shudder*) makes me think they will also have their own format. No supported formats currently listed on the site (Jan 2010).
  • Plastic Logic QUE proReader will be sold through Barnes & Noble stores in mid-April 2010, and will be able to view and annotate Powerpoint, Word, Excel and PDF documents [source]. It will also have its own proprietary format QUE truVue standard (blech!).

Upcoming Ebook Readers

• Fujitsu FLEPia – the first color reader with a touch screen, and made with their proprietary “e-paper” technology, similar to eInk. Available April 2009 in Japan only. Will read XMDF and .book formats.
• Samsung Papyrus – a 5″ touchscreen to be launched this summer in Korea. No word on formats supported.
• BeBook 2 was shown at CeBIT and will be released towards the end of 2009.
• txtr reader – planned release for the 3rd quarter of 2009, will have “broad document support” – PDF, HTML, Office, ePub and more; plans to use watermarking in place of DRM
• Borders UK will release an alternative ebook reader to the Iliad “in a few weeks.” (March ’09)
• LG will be coming out with a solar-powered device, currently listed as “Solar Cell e-book.” Besides the fact that they refer to the reader as an ebook, and not an ebook reader, the focus is on the display and not formats or what it will support. (Jan ’10)

Not an ebook reader, but worth mentioning is Calibre, an electronic book organizer software that’s free to download and will even convert non-DRM files into other formats.

Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / ipod Touch

Since I read books mainly with my Apple ipod Touch, I thought I’d share some free applications available through the Apple App store that you can instantly download and use to read eBooks on your iPhone or ipod Touch. Many of these are also available for mobiles / smartphones.

Note: I am unable to verify the availability of each of these applications in every iTunes Store in every country – some may not be available. Also, check the availability of the content you’re interested in, and whether you can purchase it from your physical location, directly on the application’s website.

• eReader – released almost immediately for the iPhone, you can download books directly from your eReader.com, Fictionwise.com, and Manybooks.net bookshelves. eReader format .pdb only, or Multiformat (unencrypted) eBooks from Fictionwise, but they also give you 25MB of upload space “Personal Content” to upload eReader PDB books from other retailers/locations.
• Barnes & Noble eReader – since acquiring eReader.com and Fictionwise.com, they have come out with their own iPhone application that requires a bn.com account to use and supports eReader formats purchased on their site.
• Kindle App – works like the name says, with Kindle-format books bought on Amazon. You do not need to own a Kindle to use this application or buy books. You cannot buy books directly through the app but can use Safari on iPhone/iTouch or through a normal internet connection and then download them wirelessly through the iPhone/iTouch. Special feature to sync last-read-page across your Kindle and iPhone.
• Stanza – an alternative to eReader since they support more formats, they have an Online Catalog with books from BooksonBoard, O’Reilly, Fictionwise, All Romance, Random House and others to download secure PDB files to your iPhone or iTouch. They also read DRM-free/unprotected Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, EPUB and PalmDoc, as well as Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, HTML, and PDF. Go directly to the Stanza supported formats page.
• Bookshelf – mostly for public domain books and non-DRM versions of PalmDoc/PDB files. Requires use of their client-side software and wifi/Edge/Apple’s Bonjour (connectivity) service to transfer books.
• Wattpad – iPhone app released on March 8th, this community coined the “YouTube for eBooks” is based on sharing stories, essays and jokes that’s been in existence since 2006. “User-generated ebooks.” Content should be uploaded in Text format. [iTunes app link]
• ScrollMotion’s Iceberg Reader – books are purchased and downloaded as individual apps through the iTunes store.
• Kobo (was Shortcovers) – used to be Shortcovers, Kobo can be used on a number of devices like the Blackberry, iPhone, and your PC. You can purchase books from within the iPhone app if you create an account. Format seems to be Adobe EPUB, but unclear.
• Text on Phone – a web-based application accessible from iphone (go to www.textonphone.com with Safari) that will cache-ahead pages so there’s no delay. Mainly open-license books, but you can upload your own .rtf books using a login.
• Readdle – Actually a document and file management solution, it also has a document viewer which can be used to view Word documents, PDF and text files. Needs internet connection to load book/doc initially. [Apple web apps link]
• Reid Minion by Minion Software – not a free app (currently $2.99) allows you to read your own Google Docs and free ebooks through their book server. They support HTML, txt, rtf and whatever Google considers a “document.”

Missing something? Let me know in the comments or via email!

Stay tuned for the next part in the Guide to ebooks series, Part 3: Where to Find and Buy Ebooks and Learning Resources!

Image by Leo Laporte

Part 1: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books

• What are Ebooks : Electronic Books?
• Why aren’t Ebooks more popular? Tactile Loss and the eBabel problem
• ebooks are Great! Here’s Why : Advantages of ebooks

Part 2: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications

• Ebook Formats
• How to Read an Ebook: Devices and Dedicated Ebook Readers
• Applications to Read Ebooks on the iPhone / iTouch

Part 3: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources

• Where to Find and Buy Ebooks
• Where to Find Free Ebooks
• Learning Resources

What are Ebooks : Electronic Books?

The official definition of an ebook is:

“ebook. noun a book composed in or converted to digital format for display on a computer screen or handheld device” – Merriam-Webster.com

“e-book. noun a book that is published in electronic form, for example on the Internet or on a disk, and not printed on paper” – Cambridge.org

At least two well-known spellings ebook and e-book and countless other versions (eBook, Ebook) exist but the term ebook now is often used when referring to the methodology of reading just about any mid-to-long-length electronic document that is viewable on a screen, including research papers, short stories and even magazines.

For the purposes of this guide we’re going to talk about ebooks in their pure version: the electronic equivalent of any book or novel formatted for on-screen reading.

Why aren’t ebooks more Popular? Tactile loss And the eBabel Problem

Why aren’t ebooks more popular? The arguments seem to fall into three categories:

• Tactile loss : I like the feel and smell of paper / I can’t read on a screen
• Lending loss : I want to lend my books to who I want
• Library loss : I want a library that will last forever

While the first two are considerable arguments, the tactile loss argument is probably the most obvious and passionate argument longtime readers have, but the least serious technologically. I also feel that it’s getting outweighed by the convenience factor and the fact that we are reading more and more material everyday on a screen.

We all remember the discussions when mp3s started becoming popular and people insisted “they’ll want the album notes – they’ll want the physical CD.” Then Apple came along and introduced the iTunes Store and multiple copycats followed so buying electronic music was even easier and became mass-market through support of major record labels.

The one big difference between the music and ebook markets is there is no “mp3″ of ebooks – there is no universal ebook file format, what is often referred to as the “eBabel” problem, much like the Tower of Babel. So unlike when you bought .m4p files from Apple (their proprietary format), you could also load in mp3 files from other sources and create mp3s from your own CDs. Devices just had to read .mp3 and perhaps an additional proprietary format. With ebooks we’re still playing a format-device game and there will be no way to load in electronic versions of paper books you already own.

Lending loss is a problem that I feel less as I didn’t and don’t often exchange books with friends. In fact, I often re-read books I like so I appreciate keeping them in my library. But for other people, the fact that they can’t lend paper books to other friends, re-sell or even buy used books is a disadvantage. In some cases ebooks can be authorized for more than one device, so perhaps you and your best friend can still share books, but for now ebook sellers are determined to keep you from sharing your ebooks.

We’re in an exciting and ugly time for ebooks. There are so many formats, and each one is determined to succeed. Remember the VHS and Beta fight in the 1980s? Only one survived. This time, there are more than two major players so not only must the author and publisher decide which format(s) to publish in, and they rarely choose all formats available, now you as a consumer are forced to make a decision about where to get your content and which format to buy it in.

And what if you’re wrong? You could lose your library.

Underlying all of this is the major problem of DRM – Digital Rights Management, which I’ll talk more about when examining the ebook formats available. That’s a risk everyone is taking now buying formats that are tied to specific devices, or even a particular format in general. Almost all major books are being released with some DRM attached to them. Some format providers are seeing the benefit of being separate from a device, and are offering cross-compatibility on several devices.

Ebooks are Great! Here’s Why : Advantages of ebooks

So are there any advantages to ebooks? As I mentioned in my editorial announcement about this ebook guide, I love ebooks for several reasons: mobility, saving space, convenience, saving money and time, and ease-of-use. Here’s why:

Mobility

• Carry your entire library in your pocket: With disk space quickly becoming a commodity, and the size of portable device hard drives getting bigger and bigger, it’s conceivable to think that you could have your entire library with you and have it accessible to your fingertips.
• Backup a copy of your library with an online backup service: Backing up your entire library online or locally won’t require much space and it’s something that would be impossible with a physical library, and no more worries about fire-proofing your books.

Saving Physical Space

• Your Library is as Big as your Disk Drive: As a bit of a nomad, I’ve changed house several times in my life, and each time I’ve had to give away parts or all of my library. Your library can grow as big as the disk space you have available and will be relatively small compared to walls and walls of bookshelves. And, due to disk space becoming a commodity, it’s safe to say you’ll probably never run out of space to store your library in your lifetime.

Convenience

• Keep it? Throw it Away? It’s just Bits: Ever read a book you hated so much you wouldn’t even recommend it to your worst enemy? Now, you won’t have the guilt of having to give away or throw out that paper book you couldn’t finish. Keeping an electronic book will take up so little space you’re allowed a few mistakes, and hopefully it will allow you to experiment with different types of authors and genres.
• Your Next Book is just Moments Away: Bringing hundreds of books with you wherever you are means you never have to plan ahead for that long trip or even the bus ride across town. When you’ve finished one book, quickly browse your library and start another!

Saving Time & Money

• No Shipping Costs or Wait Time: This is a much easier argument for me to prove living as an expat with book prices being astronomical in a non-English speaking country. But, remember that when you eliminate the need for shipping that book to where you physically are, there will be some cost benefits.
• Save Gas, Save Time: Also, buying electronically will inevitably save you gas by not going to a physical bookstore, and time as from selection to purchase and reading an electronic book can be done in mere minutes.

Ease-of-Use

Not all ebook software is exactly the same, but many of them have similar settings and features that are common:

• Adjust Font Size for any Eyes: Adjust the font size, type and background color of your electronic book per your preferences.
• Add Notes, Bookmarks or Highlight: Instead of earmarking pages or marking up your paper copy, electronic copies allow you to add and delete bookmarks and notes at will and as many as you see fit.
• Searchable and Linkable Text: The text is searchable and can be hyperlinked, you can jump back-and-forth between chapters or the glossary.

Stay tuned for the next part in the Guide to ebooks series, How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and Applications!

image by chrishoward.author

If you follow me on Twitter (@rosso) or read my food and travel blog, Ms. Adventures in Italy, it’s possible that you’ve heard me talk about ebooks, also spelled e-books or eBooks, which are electronic books.

I love Ebooks. Yes, really.

I’ve been reading exclusively “E” for more than three years now. Part of it has to do with being a bit of a nomad, having moved across the country and the world a few times. I realized quickly that I can’t take it all with me, and when I left California I had to give away several hundred books. I’m also a speed reader, and I read about 100 new books a year (and I re-read who knows how many of my library) so my library becomes more and more unmanageable every year.

So eBooks fit the bill for me when it comes to mobility, saving space, convenience and saving money. Yes, saving money. Especially living out of the US, English books are quite expensive, yet I can buy them online in a number of genres not available in most international bookstores, and on the day they are released. Talk about instant gratification!

Next week, March 8-14 is Read an Ebook Week and in honor of that, not only will I be reading a LOT of eBooks, I will posting several posts in the next few days that will be a Guide to Ebooks. I’ll be talking about advantages and disadvantages, formats, devices and applications to get you going on ebooks now, and I’ll update this post so it becomes a table of contents.

If you have any questions, put them in the comments, or send them to me via email and I’ll make sure to answer them in the content of the guide or in a readers’ questions post at the end of the series.

• Part 1 of A Guide to Ebooks: What are ebooks? Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Books
• Part 2 of A Guide to Ebooks: How to Read an ebook: Formats, Devices, Dedicated Readers and iPhone Applications
• Part 3 of A Guide to Ebooks: Where to Buy and Find Free Ebooks, and Learning Resources