SVC: Amazon KINDLE news, re online ebooks: PC version out now, Mac, soon.

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/11/10/amazon-kindle-for-pc-now-delivering-books-to-your-desktop/

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - 10:59 am: Edit

Kindle info should be sent to Leanna, who is in charge of that project and the ONLY one at ADB who could use the info. Posting it on the BBS is NOT going to get the news to her.

By Gregg Knapp (Gk1) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 09:37 pm: Edit

Well I tried to email this link to Leanna but it got returned to me. I used sales@starfleet.com.
anyway if I paste the link here someone can send it to her for me.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Universities-reject-Kindle-DX-as-a-textbook-replacement/1257968058

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 09:45 pm: Edit

Greg,

If you look at the URL of this site, you will see that it is starfleetgames.com, not starfleet.com.

By Gregg Knapp (Gk1) on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 11:29 pm: Edit

thanks

By Michael Bennett (Mike) on Thursday, December 24, 2009 - 09:06 am: Edit

A short article about a hacker who has hacked the Kindle's protection system. Might be of interest.


http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8428126.stm?ad=1

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 01:18 pm: Edit

It's probably been mentioned elsewhere, but there are other eReaders in the market and most of them aren't dependent on a proprietary document format (which Kindle is). Many of them can store and display .doc, .pdf, etc. just fine. Kindle might not be the best route to consider. Plus, the technology itself might not be fully matured, but enough to get a huge sales boost this past Christmas.

(PS: I tried emailing the above to sales@starfleet.com, but my email was bounced back. Is there another address I should use to reach Leanna?)

By Russell J. Manning (Rjmanning) on Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Brodie, I believe it is @starfleetgames.com

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 02:24 pm: Edit

You're right. Thanks!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, February 21, 2010 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Leanna likes Kindle, and we will do Kindle, maybe not this week. That does not mean we won't do anything else.

Gee, I said that before. More than once.

By Mike Fannin (Daelin) on Monday, February 22, 2010 - 08:52 am: Edit

Brodie,

Just FYI, the Kindle is not dependent on a proprietary document format. The Kindle formatted documents are basically encrypted .mobi files, but that's not the only thing that it will read.

Life would probably be easier on ADB if Amazon would include epub file support for the Kindle because a single document would be sufficient to handle all major ebook readers. As it stands, they'll need a minimum of two different formats.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 10:54 am: Edit

The IPAD falls into this category, and this article reveals Apples current policy and their probable policy-to-come.

The name of the article says it all:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/04/09/apple-puts-a-flailing-disenfranchised-adobe-out-of-its-misery-a/

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 11:07 am: Edit

A Colorado public school district is buying IPADs for all of it's students ... Over 12 years of school, it turns out an IPAD is cheaper than all the schoolbooks that need to be bought each year,

one copy of an eBOOK is cheaper than however many hardback schoolbooks.

The news piece I saw ended with a comment "If you own any stock in a publishing company, especially if they print schoolbooks, Dump your stock now, while it's still worth the paper it's printed on on."

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 11:30 am: Edit

Yeah, when they announced the iPad, I said it was perfect for k-12 students.

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 12:04 pm: Edit

No flash, none of my money. Never ever had a QT app that worked.

Going to stick with Adobe, Apples are for pies.

By Terry "Full Stop" O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, April 09, 2010 - 01:53 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

"If you own any stock in a publishing company, especially if they print schoolbooks, Dump your stock now, while it's still worth the paper it's printed on on."

---

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Monday, June 21, 2010 - 11:23 am: Edit

I'm thinking this is the way to go. Even though I like PDF format better (advantages like cut+paste into SFBOL chat for rules questions, larger screen) I also understand publishers have a motivation for keeping thinks locked up hence the DRM available for e-Books seems to happy medium. I think whether folk like it or not, e-Readers are where the market is going hence might as well get on it. Also I don't think SVC is suggesting ADB will quit publishing-on-demand hence for all those that like paper it will still be available.

Many folk on here are griping about limitations of e-Book reader model X or model Y, etc but realize the technology is new and just because you don't like one particular model doesn't mean other models are better and/or a future one won't readdress this.

(FYI folk, there are lots and lots of e-readers out there, check out: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers)

I don't own a e-Reader myself but am following the technology and will drop the money one of these days; still trying to see where e-paper and multi-angle/outdoor in bright light reading goes given I don't plan to purchase these very often.

To answers SVC questions:

1: No
2: Yes
3: -
4: These products are secure enough. Nobody will EVER get around the analog hole unless it's legislated to an Orwellian point which will never happen.

Lastly, even though I agree with a previous commenter in that nothing stops publishers and distributors from altering text, let us be honest in that nothing stops them from doing that in the paper world and it's actually quite prevalent.

PS: I really like Ken's idea and I would definitely pay for a unified subscription model where as I bought more products they will be integrated into a large single document and as errata was published it would auto-update. The key though for this to work and me remain comfortable with it would be an "advanced errata" page" in the document that would tell me when it was updated (not transparent) and what the change actually was.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, September 10, 2010 - 01:40 pm: Edit

A new mini-tablet is out, the price is very low. "Archos 32" for $150 MSRP.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/archos-32-internet-tablet-now-shipping-for-150-redefining-th/

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 12:10 am: Edit

VelocityMicro has a couple of ereaders out now:

here

Priced about the same as other e readers, but I believe them to be more useful and user friendly than some of the others.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 09:43 am: Edit

Motorola is planning to release a tablet in time for Christmas sales. A Moto Rep ws doing a dog-and-pony show at a local store yesterday.

No details beyond "that they intend it to be VERY competitive."

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 10:36 am: Edit

When they come out with an e-reader that can annoint and/or edit text then I'll get one.

An editors e-reader if you will.

Maybe that's the iPad and the windows versions soon to come?

By Nick G. Blank (Nickgb) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 11:31 am: Edit

Annoint? Like with oil?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 12:27 pm: Edit

Heh, yeah, that too. Sun tan oil.

"Oh goddess of the beach. Come read with me."

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 12:34 pm: Edit

I think Loren must have meant "annotate"?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, September 17, 2010 - 03:07 pm: Edit

Yeah.