E Book -- Engadget Mobile

e-book posts

Google and Amazon debut cellphone e-books, eye strain

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Feb 6th 2009 @ 2:43PM

Sure, we pretty much figured that the V-Book (which is actually not a book at all) would be the final nail in the coffin of what was once known as "literature," but it looks like both Google and Amazon have other plans. Not only have their been rumblings of a new Kindle, but Amazon has announced that it'll soon be making the popular e-reader's some 230,000 titles available for your cellphone. The company hasn't said when the titles will be available or exactly what phones would be supported -- but we're guessing that we'll be seeing handsets with nice, big screens like the G1 and the iPhone on the list. If that weren't enough, Google's Book Search holdings -- about 1.5 million public domain works -- will soon be available for cellphone-based e-readers like Stanza. This is good news for people who need access to data on the go -- and really good news for anyone who would like to curl up next to the fire with a nice glass of wine and their Curve 8900.

[Image courtesy of Spacesick, Via Unwired View]

Knife Music e-book approved for App Store after language modification

by Darren Murph posted Jan 16th 2009 @ 12:37PM

We're not exactly sure what this says about the officially unofficial App Store policy on explicit content, but David Carnoy's Knife Music has just been approved for distribution in said marketplace after the so-called "objectionable content" was removed. Essentially, the author decided to submit a copy of the novel sans a few foul words, with him noting that it was "more important to have people check the book out -- along with the whole concept of e-books on the iPhone" -- rather than take some stance for personal liberties and whatnot. For those interested, it's ready for download as we speak at no charge, but if you're the indecent type, you'll have to manually add in those swears as you go.

E-book barred from App Store due to obscene content

by Darren Murph posted Dec 24th 2008 @ 4:13AM

Gee, willickers. More App Store madness. In case you needed even more evidence that the whole approval process in Cupertino was in complete disarray, David Carnoy's "contemporary medical thriller" has been rejected from Apple's App Store twice now. The first time it was returned to sender due to a few bugs in the coding; the second time, it was rejected due to the inclusion of "obscene content." Despite all of this, certain apps like iFart and Pull My Finger are allowed to remain, though it stands to reason that those programs are just as "obscene" as a few dirty words and sexual innuendos. Alexandru Brie, a developer and one of the first publishers of e-books to the App Store, feels that "each of Apple's reviewers can interpret the obscene, pornographic or defamatory content clause in a different way." Clearly, he's right.

Polymer Vision's Readius e-ink phone coming mid-2008 to Italy

by Joshua Topolsky posted Feb 3rd 2008 @ 8:03PM

It seemed obvious back in mid-December of last year that Polymer Vision wasn't going to nail its timetable for production versions of the 3G-equipped, e-ink wonder known as the Readius. Now word is that the company will have a commercial version of the phone / e-book reader available sometime in mid-2008 in Italy via Telecom Italia -- provided that everything goes according to its diabolical plans. If you'll recall, the device features a foldable, grayscale, 5-inch QVGA display, and boasts a slew of features, including HSDPA, a 400MHz ARM CPU, and a battery life up to "six times longer" than current mobile phones. We'll admit we're intrigued, but don't make us wait too long over here, okay?

Epson working on mobile-to-printer e-books

by Chris Ziegler posted Dec 6th 2006 @ 8:23PM

It may not have the same sort of high-tech impact as e-ink, but there's something to be said for reading stuff the old fashioned way with a nice, thick stack of paper -- and Epson would like us to use our phones to do it. The Japanese company has hooked up with Sammy NetWorks to include its muPass platform in printers and phones for managing DRMed e-book content via IrDA -- in other words, buy a book on your phone and beam it straight to your printer over an infrared connection. Epson and Sammy are thinking that the setup will be perfect for distributing periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and the like), individual articles, and out-of-print or limited audience material that can't be justified for a regular production run on the press. Integration should be a snap for phone manufacturers, since Sammy's now managed to cram the muPass system into software. War and Peace, anyone?

BookMuncher software enables speed-reading on your mobile

by Darren Murph posted Nov 4th 2006 @ 10:44AM

Having e-reader functionality on your mobile or handheld certainly isn't new, but a British company is developing software that will reportedly allow you to breeze through War and Peace at an astounding "300 words-per-minute." The company utilizes Rapid Serial Visualization Presentation (RSVP) to display text in "word by word" fashion mid-screen, which forces your brain to simply "absorb" the word rather than read and then subvocalize (that's the real time waster, folks) before moving on. The company claims that the science behind the speed-reading revolution is "word shape recognition," which differs from the relationship between letters that we're used to looking for. While there's no set release date nor price for the mobile version, a comparable PC-ready version goes for £20 ($38), and we're sure this miracle-working software will have you blasting through Engadget's front page in just a matter of milliseconds whenever it becomes available.

LG intros e-reader cellphone for the visually impaired

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 20th 2006 @ 6:14PM

LG's introduced yet another cellphone under its Cyon banner in Korea, this one boasting e-reader functionality designed for the visually impaired in addition to the standard feature set. That'll give you the not-so-special ability to play back pre-recorded e-books stored on an SD card and, more interestingly, have books and other documents read to you using the phone's text-to-speech capabilities (let's hope the voice isn't too creepy). Apart from that, the phone packs Bluetooth capability and can also act as a walkie-talkie within a 100 meter range, all in a pearly white slider package.

[Via Akihabara News]