All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
Books? What we need is Comes with Books
Published by Ewan Spence at 14:11 UTC, September 11th 2009
Long term readers of All About Symbian will know that I'm a sucker for eBooks on my mobile phone, and Steve was quick to point out that a number of titles had popped up as standalone eBooks in the Ovi store from OffScreen Technologies (a veritable factory of little utilities in the store) and would I like to take a look at them and see if this is the right way forward? Read on...
The honest answer is that, while this isn't my personal choice, it could be the first step, but only that. Each book that Offscreen have produced is a separate download and icon on my Nokia 5800. That makes the monetisation process the same as a regular application, which means it fits in the business model they have, and into the Ovi store mechanisms with ease. Finding a working vector into the market has always been the stumbling blocks of other eBook solutions, so I wouldn't discount this approach simply because it doesn't follow my favoured model (of a well-specced reading client on the device, with books as separate files that can be opened).
It's certainly not Mobipocket – there are no configuration options at all, you're stuck with the font size (and indeed the font) that comes with the package, and the navigation options are limited to jumping to the start of the listed chapters, or turning the pages over. I don't actually think this is a big problem when you are buying a single title with a minimal cost, because you know you are getting a limited interface, but opinions are never rational... for me, using a serif font is a no-no for my eBooks!
Of course the other question about eBooks is where to get the content. Offscreen are currently selling 'out of copyright' works such as the stories of Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austin via the Ovi Store – which is handy as they get to keep all the income and not share it with an author, agent or publisher. The real test is getting newly published material into an eBook eco-system. That's where there will be real value and adoption – witness the success of the Amazon Kindle and its spreading out to the smartphone world.
Will we ever see a digital Amazon on all platforms?
So, for now, Offscreen's books are a great diversion and proof of concept (and likely to sell in reasonable numbers) but are they the future? That's like pointing at a car-tyre and saying look, there's the future of the car. Technically you'd be right, but there's so much that needs to be added to make it something that is consumer friendly (chassis, shell, a petrol station...), but it is a good first stepping stone.
I personally think that a good reading application (such as the deprecated but still usable Mobipocket) is the way forward, because then a lot of time can be spent on the user experience and it is replicable over all the books that someone may buy.
Having a reading application also lets people roll their own ebooks, either for 'fanfic' sites or the increasing number of CC-licensed books now available. It also wouldn't be the first time I've cut and pasted a Wikipedia entry on a tourist site into an eBook format to carry with me. But allowing an open system, where user created or owned files can be played alongside purchased files (which may or may not have DRM) is exactly what the eBook market needs.
And there is precedent, because that's exactly how the music players work on smartphones. You can take your own MP3's, you can buy some, you can import and play around... Perhaps we need a Nokia 'Comes With Books' service to kick start the market? To be honest, that's far more attractive to me than music.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2009.
News Discussion
What we don't need is Nokia entering the e-book market with another poorly-implemented service.
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Originally Posted by rvirga
What we need is a Kindle app for S60, just like we have now a Kindle app for the iPhone.
What we don't need is Nokia entering the e-book market with another poorly-implemented service. |
I have tried using my ipod touch but I think the display is a little too small for me and a backlit display is not as nice as the e-ink.
Of course you can use backlit displays in the dark.
have a look at the website they are based in Holland and it took 10 days and $500AU.
http://mybebook.com/
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
I'm sure that 3 people who use Symbian in USA
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Nigel
Equip yourselves with a Nokia 5800 (for its' superb speaker output), the application LCG Jukebox (for its' multitude of parameter adjustments, including instant restart from where you last left-off listening) and a plethora of varied audio-books, I recommend biographies read by the author, or novels etc. retold in the dulcet tones of famous actors and raconteurs and the end result is enjoyment and relaxation of the first order.
Far from needing to peer at the written word, such a set-up enables you to drink in the timeless prose of famous authors whilst being simultaneously engaged in other activities... Cutting the budgies' toe-nails for example or even falling gently into a deep slumber whilst being read to by a friendly, disembodied voice... The aforementioned application has a cut-off timer, naturally.
E-Books are SO archaic by comparison! ;)
Otherwise audible books take far too long, a copy of Atlas Shrugged comes to 96 hours.
I will not spend 40 hours reading it. I did try to buy Atlas as an audible book unfortunately the only one licensed for Australia was the Spanish version. Makes perfect sense given the GINORMOUS pool of spanish speakers in AU. :) nevermind I purchased the dead tree version and am happy with it.
A note to anyone else wanting Atlas, try and find a HC if you can the text is tiny in my PB and I have to use my reading glasses if I don't want to squint.
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Originally Posted by Pieterjh
I stumbled on a freeware reader for s60 a while ago called Qreader. It very capable and configurable. Along with access to all the out of copyright books on Gutenberg.com I cannot imagine why anyone would want to fork out for these stand alone books.
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Originally Posted by Pieterjh
I stumbled on a freeware reader for s60 a while ago called Qreader. It very capable and configurable. Along with access to all the out of copyright books on Gutenberg.com I cannot imagine why anyone would want to fork out for these stand alone books.
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Although not free, Isilo makes an excellent touch screen ebook reader for S60v5 and there is a Python script that converts ereader books you have purchased to html so you can convert them to Isilo format with IsiloX.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, as the last time I tried to buy an e-book was on my Palm. Back then, the book was tied to my individual device and by my credit card number. So when I moved to a new Palm, it was too difficult to transfer my books across, so I just gave up and lost them.
Ever since then, I've only read free e-books that I could get as PDF. Which I read with the Adobe Reader 2.5 LE upgrade on my S60 phones.
Books & Movies need to follow the example of digital music downloads, and go DRM free with a defacto standard, like PDF.
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