Calvin Reid over at Publisher’s Weekly posted a follow up article this morning where he contact KNFB (developer of Blio) and asked them to explain some of the details of yesterday’s debacle. One comment made by Peter Chapman, the KNFB spokesman, caught my eye. He said that Feedbooks knew it was being included in Blio months before the launch.

I checked with Hadrien Gardeur, founder and CEO of Feedbooks. According to Hadrien, they were not asked, they were _told_ by Mike Angelo that Feedbooks would be included. When Hadrien protested, he was ignored. I like the reasons he gave for objecting, so I copied his email to the end of this post.

This is actually worse, if you ask me. It’s one thing if you forget to ask, but asking and ignoring the "no", well, in terms of business ethics I think it falls just short of piracy.

Okay, that was melodramatic, but what they did was still pretty bad. What do you think?

The email:

More precisely:

• I’ve known for a while that KNFB were using our OPDS feeds for dedicated systems designed for print-disabled people (http://www.knfbreader.com/products-kreader-mobile.php). Which I’m glad they’re doing.
• Two months ago, Mike Angelo sent me an e-mail asking if we could add Blio to our premium partners on our ecosystem page http://web.archive.org/web/20120816012316/http://www.feedbooks.com:80/help/ecosystem) because Feedbooks would be part of Blio. I replied that I wasn’t aware that Blio planned on including Feedbooks and that I was against it for several reasons (see below). He never replied.

At Feedbooks we allow reading systems to preload our catalog if it provides the following features:

1. supports EPUB (not the case with Blio, they need to do a conversion)
2. fully supports OPDS (once again, not the case with Blio, they don’t offer our full catalog, they only aggregate a few of our feeds and use our search feature)
3. enable users to add OPDS catalogs (not the case with Blio)
4. if the reading system also includes commercial content, we require that the reading system should also support payment in OPDS and ACS4 support in order to sell content

If a reading system doesn’t support all four (or the first three if it’s oriented towards free books like FBReader for example), they can still provide OPDS support and let users add manually our catalog.

I just got this tweet today. I’ve checked, and it’s correct. That option is indeed missing in the latest version of KindleGen. I don’t know that it was offered in the previous version, though.

I don’t see a reason for stashing the Epub inside the Kindle file other than because they are planning ahead for a switchover. Actually, it would be more accurate to say they are giving themselves the option of a switchover.

FYI: KindleGen is a command line tool for making Kindle ebooks. If you’re using MobiCreator or MobiGen then you will probably want to use this instead. KindleGen supports larger image sizes as well as the video and audio tags for embedded content (for ebooks like Nixonland).

The picture is from my most recent visit with Entourage.  And yes, it is the Pocket Edge.

You might recall that I found a video last week. Well, after a lot of begging, pleading, and whining, Entourage let me take some pictures. The cat was out of the bag, after all.

Due to a tight schedule I only had a few minutes with it, though.

I was right. The Pocket Edge does have a 6″ Eink screen ( Vizplex, not Pearl) and a 7″ LCD (800×480). The touchscreens, speakers, and buttons are all in the same place as on the original Edge.

The 2 major changes to the face of the device is they moved the camera (it’s over the Eink screen now), and they replaced the nubbin with an optical mouse (the little black square). The general specs are similar  (CPU, OS, apps), with a couple exceptions. The pocket Edge has a microSDHC card slot and only 1 USB host port. Also, the battery is not removable (as on the original Edge).

There are going to be 2 Pocket Edge models. One only has Wifi, and the other will be tied in to Verizon. They should be available late next month.

I didn’t catch the price, but I was told that it weighs around a pound. You know, if they sell this for $300 then it will be a serious competition to the name brand Android tablets coming this fall. Even at $400 it will still cut into the tablet  market.

BTW, I got a couple pictures that show the ports:

And here’s one last photo to show the size difference between the Pocket and original Edge.

A friend tipped me to this photo from Yahoo News this morning. Apparently a couple weeks ago the Governor of California toured the Marvell headquarters. And of course he was accompanied by the press.

One detail that no one noticed at the time was that Marvell had all of their partner’s devices on display. One of those partners is Entourage.

The first picture is from Yahoo News. I want you to look at the gadgets on display. In between the Spring Design Alex and the Entourage Edge is the Pocket Edge. (Sorry about the image size.)

It’s not a good image, I know. But there’s no need to find a bigger version because I already found a video shot by Forbes. If you skip to about 41 seconds in to the video you’ll see the Governor holding the Pocket Edge.

The embedding options offered by Forbes suck, so I clipped a couple key images. You’re really better off watching the video over at Forbes.com, anyway.

If you look at the very first picture, you’ll see that the Pocket Edge has E-ink screen about the same size as the Alex. I’d say it has a 6″ E-ink screen and 7″ LCD. I have both screens on my desk right now. The proportions match what we see in the video.

Note that there is a sign in the video (at 44s) that says Verizon Pocket Edge. This confirms the Verizon leak from last month. Also, if you look carefully you can kinda see the words "Verizon" and "Pocket Edge" above and below the E-ink screen.

Looking at the video, I can see they kept the speakers in between the 2 halves as well as all the buttons. This would suggest that they also kept the Wacom touch screen, CPU, and probably most if not all of the hardware specs. I’ll go a step further and suggest they also kept the software features (which would make sense).

About 3 months ago I found the FCC paperwork for a new Wifi equipped ereader. Kobo were one of the companies listed as a potential distributor, and I can now confirm this.

When I posted before, I wasn’t able to show everything because Netronix had requested that some details be hidden. The confidentiality request has expired on some of the documents and I can now show you the Kobo Wifi.

It looks just like the original Kobo.

You might want to glance through the PDF. There are a number of rather pretty shells on display, including the Elonex that I just announced and one from Luarna, the Spanish ebookstore.

kobo Wifi (PDF)

I came across an interesting list on one of the blogs I follow. They found 10 sites that will help you create and or distribute a digital newspaper.  (It’s worth noting that I’m using a pretty broad definition of newspaper here.)

1. Issuu – One of the most popular and successful online digital magazine creators/publishers around, with a very nice user interface.
2. Yudu – Upload a document or PDF to create an online magazine that can be emailed our or embedded into a site.
3. Openzine – Very user friendly site with an abundance of templates and layouts to create a professional-looking magazine and share online.
4. NewsCred – Create a terrific looking online newspaper in 5 minutes, similar to Openzine.
5. Scribd – A very popular Web 2.0 site for creating online content and publishing.
6. Fodey – A fun site to create a newspaper and then download to print out or put on a blog or site.
7. Zinepal – A great way to bring the news to students by "clipping" online articles. This is a wonderful site for those making the move to ebook readers.
8. Paper.li – A fantastic site to turn Twitter into an online readable magazine.
9. Crayon – Create a professional-looking newspaper with this nice online creator. There are several options to choose from, so it has a bit of a higher learning curve.
10. Mygazines
    

via TechLearning

P.S. Can anyone add to the list? I’d like to see how long it can get.

The image at right is a closeup of a Sipix screen. You  should click on it and see the difference between this screen tech and E-ink. Hint: yes, that is a hexagonal grid.

Okay it’s not actually under a microscope, but I’d say it’s close enough.

One of my readers noticed my recent post about the Luarna Avant, a 6″ ereader originally made by Benq. Mario didn’t have this particular device, but at one point he did have his hands on a version that is being distributed in Russia.

He took this picture, and then he shot a few more pictures (from top to bottom: K2, Kindle DXG (Pearl screen), and PER3162).

Pocket-lint are reporting:

Qualcomm has confirmed to Pocket-lint that it will launch, in connection with a partner, a device, probably an ebook reader, that features its Mirasol colour screen technology in the first quarter of 2011. An announcement is expected at CES in Las Vegas in January.

…

The company wouldn’t tell Pocket-lint which partner would be making the announcement, but did confirm that, after months of waiting, shoppers would be able to get their hands on the revolutionary technology.

I wonder who Pocket-lint are talking to at Qualcomm? I can’t get anyone at Qualcomm to respond to my emails, much less pass along a hot tip like this.

I’m not talking about users; I’m talking about the company. I was just sent a link to this post through Twitter. Lynn Viehl, author of books such as Frostfire, had uploaded some of her older works to Scribd so everyone could read it for free. Much to her surprise, Scribd then started charging people to download it. Here’s the kicker: Scribd aren’t paying her anything.

It’s been brought to my attention that Scribd.com has begun charging people to download my free e-books hosted on their site. To get around my copyright and the free distribution notice I’ve placed in each e-book, they are using an archive subscription scam to make their money (this also neatly avoids them having to pay me any royalties on the profits they make.) Evidently all the money they’ve been raking in from the Google ads they’ve posted on my e-book pages hasn’t been enough for them.

…

I find the situation particularly ironic, as anyone can bootleg my work on the internet with no problem, yet when I try to give it away for free, greedy people still try to make a buck off it. Writers just can’t win.

If you’re going to argue that it’s technically not piracy, you’re right. But it’s still a shitty thing for Scribd to do to their members.

Update: Scribd have updated the account options page to include a check box so you can opt-out of  the archive. They need to find a better solution; opt-out check boxes are sleazy.

Update: The Sony Style product page has been updated.

APPS!

Do you recall that job listing I showed you a few weeks back that specified Android experience? Sony wanted someone to work on the apps, not a Sony Reader running Android. They’re going to release Sony Reader apps for Android and iOS in November, and new PC and Mac apps in December.

New markets

They’re expanding this year into Spain, Italy, and Australia. Later expansion will include China and Japan.

Firmware

There won’t be any firmware updates for the current models, and the new models will not be getting the new DRM that B&N are using.

Now let’s talk about the hardware. All 3 ereaders have been updated. They’re all getting the new Pearl screen and a bump in Flash storage. Also, the touchscreen component has been improved, I’m told. It’s supposed to be a lot better than the current screens. All 3 models will also have 12 dictionaries (2 English, 12 translation).

First, the hints about PRS-950 that I showed you a week ago are confirmed. Sony did update the Daily Edition with the new Pearl screen and Wifi. It’s also getting a boost in Flash (4GB), and it’s keeping the dual card slots.

They’ve boosted the battery life (27 days standby). Retail hasn’t changed, unfortunately. It’s still $299.

Next we have the Sony Touch Edition. It has the same general size and shape as its predecessor, and it kept the dual card slots. It also got the new Pearl screen and a bump to 2GB Flash. It won’t be getting the Wifi.

This one’s shipping immediately. and the retail is $229.

Last, we have the new Sony Pocket. We already knew from the leaked photos a couple weeks ago that it had a touch screen. But now I can tell you that it still lacks the card slots, but it does have the new screen and 2GB Flash. And since it now has a touchscreen, it will also the note taking and highlighting abilities of the Touch Edition.

It’s shipping immediately, and the retail is $179.

Peter Kafka has the scoop over at AllThingsDigital. He’s reporting that Greg Clayman, formerly of Viacom, is going to head NewsCorp’s new tablet news unit (or whatever they end up calling it).

I’ve pretty much assumed that this would happen, and I’m pretty sure it will also fail. But I never really explained why. It comes down to competition, cost, and news coverage.

This new tablet news service (TNS) is going to have to compete with all of Newscorp’s established blogs, websites, and daily newspapers, most of which are freely available online. And a lot of them already have apps, too, which will only  make things harder for the TNS.

My guess is that the TNS will be a general news source rather than have a specialty (finance, tech, gossip, etc). Why would I pay for the TNS when I can get the same general news coverage elsewhere for free? Heck, I can even get good coverage from other parts of Newscorp for free.

Unless they’re going to lock down all of Newscorp’s blogs (including AllThingsDigital), their subscription based TNS will be competing with other divisions that are giving the content away. When you look at it that way it doesn’t make much sense, does it?

iPhoneArena got their hands on Verizon’s device schedule for the second half of 2010. Guess what was listed for November:

Sometime during the second or third week of November, Big Red is said to push the Launch button for the enTourage eDGe (a dual-screen ereader + tablet Android device), as well as an enTourage Pocket device.

I don’t have any details from Entourage yet, but I can confirm that Entourage took out a trademark for the term Pocket Edge back in May. (At least we know that  it exists.) Also, so far as I can tell it hasn’t made it through the FCC yet.

I’m working on it.

Of course, the Kindle doesn’t work well with textbooks so that’s not saying much.

I’ve spent the last couple hours with NookStudy and while it has a number of usability issues, it is still the best desktop reading app on the market. It also fills a need. It’s the first decent desktop reading app that supports Adobe DRM (I loaded ebooks bought elsewhere). Yes, I’m familiar with Adobe DE; I think it’s crap.  You should use NookStudy instead.

NookStudy is better than either the Kindle4PC or Adobe DE becuase it provides so many more annotation and search options. It also has a better looking design than the fugly one used by Adobe DE.

With NookStudy you don’t just have the basic highlights, notes, and bookmarks. Instead, you have multiple types of annotations (highlight, asterisk, question) and you can do asterisks and questions in 7 different colors. You can also attach text notes as well as search Wikipedia, Google, Dictionary.com, Wolfram Alpha, and Youtube. And I just noticed that you can attach a link to the webpage you just found through the search. Attaching the link isn’t easy, but it can be done.

Now I’m really impressed. I love that I can search Dictionary.com, Wolfram Alpha, and Youtube. I think this might be the killer feature for NookStudy (like indexed search was for the Kindle).

Some of the other neat features include having multiple ebooks open in tabs, and a second TOC for annotations. They’re rather straightforward so I won’t go into detail.

Do you know what I think? I think B&N just made themselves the leading textbook platform. Aside from the niche textbook platforms, this is the best on the market.

Augen’s The Book (a Kindle clone) very quietly appeared at Kmart this week with a retail of $89. FYI: that price is a lot cheaper than the $129 we’d seen previously. The supply seems to be rather limited, so you might want to hurry. My local store only received 2, and both went fast. Also, the product page has been removed from Kmart’s website.

I don’t have one, and I don’t know when I will be able to get one. I had contacted Augen just over a month ago, and after exchanging a few emails they promised to lend me one to review. Well, that didn’t happen. By the time I found out that they weren’t going to send me one, my local Kmart store didn’t have any left.

P.S. If you get one, I’d like to hear from you. It looks interesting, and I really wanted to see it.

Second  Update: These instructions were written back in July 2011, and they stopped being valid by the first of August 2011 (the process got a lot easier and now gives you better results). You can find the new instructions here. Trust me, you’ll want to use the new instructions.

Update: When I originally wrote this, I obviously wasn’t clear in certain details. Several of the articles written about this hack have said that I did all the work. This is not true, nor was I trying to claim credit. Credit goes to a particular SlateDroid member by the name of "meth".

A couple weeks back I said I was going to try to root my Novel. Sorry about the delay. The process wasn’t functional until Thursday night, and it wasn’t until Saturday morning that it was actually worth bothering with.

First, if you want to hack your Novel then you really should visit SlateDroid and check out the Novel forum. That’s where you can find help with troubleshooting. I’m not refusing to help; I just want to do it in a forum setting (it’s easier).

I didn’t go all the way and actually root the Novel. Instead I stopped after I installed a replacement home screen (so I could run other apps). I had trouble finding a home screen that I could download. For the most part they are only in the Marketplace and I don’t have access. Eventually I found Panda Home, and it seems to be working okay.

Installing apps on the Novel requires the use of the command line (that’s what works for me) but the process is relatively easy. You can’t use the new apps from the existing home screen, so you’ll also need to install a new home screen. I have Aldiko, Kindle, Fictionwise eReader and Kobo apps installed. I’d forgotten how much I liked Aldiko.

As you can see in the video, the page turn speed is significantly faster with Aldiko or the Kindle app. General responsiveness has also improved. I’m a lot happier with the Novel now that crappy original software has been bypassed. It turns out that it does have decent hardware specs.

P.S. Here are the instructions on how to hack your Novel. They’ve been checked by a couple people and  I feel safe about sharing them. Use at Your Own Risk.

How-to-Hack-the-Novel (instructions)

Hack the Novel (ZIP file)