750 Free Amazon Kindle MobiPocket Books from Diesel eBooks « Amazon Kindle, Books & Amazon News Blog

750 Free Amazon Kindle MobiPocket Books from Diesel eBooks « Amazon Kindle, Books & Amazon News Blog: "750 Free Amazon Kindle MobiPocket Books from Diesel eBooks"

Just found this and didn't want to lose track of it. Hopefully this can keep me busy for a bit. ;-)

EBooks: MobiPocket is missing subscriptions and automatic download OTA

As I've stated in previous posts, MobiPocket is a great application and possibly my current favorite (but not necessarily most used of course). I was also comparing it to the Amazon Kindle because of it's Over-The-Air store on the BlackBerry. However, that experience is currently lacking some needed (IMHO) features.

1) Why can't I set it up to remember my credit card info so I don't have to go through that process when purchasing a book from my bb? That is annoying to me and cumbersome. I think there should at least be a choice.

2) It would be great if I could subscribe to magazines or newspapers, and even RSS feeds formatted for portable devices. This brings me to 3...

3) It would be nice to be able to set it to automatically download new content I either buy or that is updated via a subscription.

So, that's my wish list to make MobiPocket even better. If those things came about, I would have very little desire to buy a kindle (other than the fact that the Kindle is still a better reading device and has size and clarity over the bb).

One last thought on this, the carriers could pickup the distribution piece with their data plans. I can't ever see them doing something like this (no strong business reason), but it's an idea anyway. ;-)


Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Reading physical hardback books now sucks for me

Well, I finished "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown as an eBook, which I purchased from my phone Over-The-Air from and through MobiPocket. I finished it Tuesday night, and I believe it's possibly the quickest I finished a book. Not only because it was a great book which made it easy and fast to read, but because having the book with me at all times in my phone, not needing any external light source to view it in dark areas/rooms and because the size of the BlackBerry along with how easy it is to turn pages, etc, allowed me to more easily read in areas I would normally never have my book or opportunity.

Since finishing Angels & Demons electronically, I returned to some physical books I have that I want to read. Laying down last night to read was frustrating. Not only did I need to have a light on, but it was also uncomfortable. It is a hardback book, so that has something to do with it I'm sure, but I don't know if paperbacks will be much better.

I doubt I'll "give up" on physical books, but I suppose this is more about me saying I actually enjoyed the eBook experience from MobiPocket on my BlackBerry Curve!! And that's saying something!


Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

BlackBerry is proving a decent eBook reader using MobiPocket

I wasn't sure at first if the BB would be the right platform for trying to read eBooks, and I'm still certain that a true eBook reader like the Kindle would be better than it, but after using it for a while now and actually enjoying it, I'm ready to say it works (for me).

I also was able to find a post on how to fix the OTA (Over The Air) MobiPocket book store on my new T-Mobile Curve (I will post that at a later time because it also made the Sprint Mobile NFL app work on my T-Mobile Curve and probably other things). Since I got the store to work, and I was looking for something new to read and wanted to read Dan Brown's "Angel's & Demons" and not finding it physically in the several places I tried to but it, I decided to buy it from MobiPocket for $7.99.

So far I've been able to read it more situations than I would if it was a physical book for the simple fact that I have my bb with me at all times and never really carry physical books with me unless I know I am going to be able to read (which isn't often). I'm already a slow reader, but add in the fact that I don't often have what I'm reading with me and it can literally take me months to finish a book. So far, using the bb, I have been able to get quite a bit reading in (comparitivly). It's also great for reading at night since it has its own light source.

Finally, the other nice feature about using the bb is that one thing serves two purposes for me at the same time. You see, I like to listen to movie scores that match the mode of the book I'm reading while I read. So the bb can serve as both my media player and my book. On top of that, it has Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP), so I can use my wireless headphones which I like while laying down (nothing to get tangled when moving around). Also, the device is so light that my arms don't get tired while holding it, and I find myself not having to switch my position much, if at all.

So far I am very happy.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Continued - BlackBerry as eBook Reader

Okay, while I'm still skeptical of the format (meaning, such a small screen and not a dedicated reading device such as the Amazon Kindle), so far I am liking the idea of my BB as an eBook reader for the simple reason that I *always* have my BB on me, and therefore have found opportunities to read where I would normally not have a book with me.

One thing that actually concerns me slightly (slightly mind you) is that it seems the OTA MobiPocket eBook store doesn't appear to work on T-Mobile's Curve, which is what I'm getting shortly to replace my Sprint Curve. My best friend has the T-Mobile Curve and could not get it to work (and it's documented on MobiPocket's support forum as well as other various posts on the web that this is a problem). He also has a Sprint Curve that his work gave him, and he can get to it through that... but it was spotty for him (his Sprint Curve is going through a BES server from his employer, whereas mine goes through the Sprint BIS server... so that could account for the "spotty"-ness). I was likening the OTA MobiPocket store to the wireless service of the Amazon Kindle, and that seemed appealing to me. Now, I know it's not the same as the Kindle.. not even close really, but the idea that I could finish a book in an airport and purchase and download another right on the spot seemed cool to me. Honestly though, I can sync with my PC... and I could easily purchase a new book before I finish the current one so that wouldn't happen. So it's really no big deal.

I'd much rather have a Kindle, but in the meantime, while the price is still over $200 and I have a perfectly good BlackBerry, I may actually deal with this format for a bit. My biggest concern now is battery drain from the backlight being on for hours while I'm reading. ;-)

BlackBerry as an eBook Reader?

Okay, I read some post about using the bb as an ebook reader. The rationale used was, "you use the bb to read email, why not use it to read books?" It also cited MobiPocket Reader as the best solution, in part because they have an over the air (OTA) eBook store for the BlackBerry.

I have to say I was skeptical since the screen is so small and I wasn't sure what the experience would be like... But the thought of finding yet another use for a single device has always interested me (though I have come to realize that one thing can't be all things well... There are often sacrifices too big to succeed).

I installed MobiPocket Reader and accessed the online book store. I downloaded a sample of Dan Brown's 'Angels & Demons' since I haven't read that yet, but want to purchase it. I figured it might be a decent way for me to see if the bb is a device I could see myself using to actually read a book. I have to say the OTA bookstore and its experience is pretty good.

After reading the sample of the book, I actually found myself kind of forgetting I was using a bb to read the book. This was after much tinkering to get the right font and font size so that holding the bb at a comfortable reading arms length was similar on the eyes to reading an actual paperback. I don't believe the initial font was good enough, but I may have run full circle on the fonts. Once I had that set, other than the limited amount of text displayed on the screen causing constant page turning, it seemed very natural (I was surprised). The process of moving forward and backward in the book is easy enough. To page forward, you can use the spacebar, which is nice and easy, but you can also use the trackball to go forward and backward, also very easy. The last piece of the pie, and I need to do some more testing on this, is how well it would display images in books. Angels & Demons has a picture of the word Illuminati that is pretty key to the story for you to see... It looked great. Very sharp and readable. And the ease in which you can page forward and back made it nice to go back and reference like in a regular paper book.

MobiPocket Reader also has some other abilities I have yet to explore. One of these is the ability to create annotations, and I believe bookmarks. This could make it easy and quick to get to and from various key places.

While I'm still unsure if I'm willing to drop upwards of $10 on an eBook, it's an interesting prospect. Time will tell if I make the plunge, but with my travels and the idea of carrying less, I like the idea. I'm already considering not carrying my iPod and using my bb instead. The fact that it has a standard headphone jack and takes high-end headphones without an adapter is great. Pair that ability with being able to also read a book while listening to music, which is all I do when traveling, it sounds like a pretty slick package.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

FBReader: FBReader for Maemo (Nokia 770/N800/N810)

FBReader: FBReader for Maemo (Nokia 770/N800/N810)

Had read somewhere that this was a good electronic book reader for the N800, so I'm just capturing the link. On all these "captures" I hope to come back and give a review after trying things out. What should be nice is that I can blog right from the N800! ;-)

*******ADDITION********* (2/15/08)
Found this link which discusses at some length about tips and tricks for using an N800 as an eBook reader. Interesting tidbit in there about how to view .LIT files which I have a ton of from my PocketPC/Windows Mobile days.