Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Bookshelf is the pro creation of Zac Bedell who developed the very first ebook reader for the iPhone. It costs $9.99 and comes with a java based shelfserver which provides a fairly easy way to load ebooks onto your iPhone. There were two things missing from the old Books.app and one was an annotation function and the other was the ability to use the volume buttons to go forward and backward in the book. I don’t see either on the list of features for the pro (pay) version. Hopefully there will be enough iPhones left tomorrow when I go that I’ll be able to try these ereaders out.
BookShelf current supports the following book formats with more on the way:

Plain Text [.txt]HTML with images [.html]FictionBook2 with images [.fb2]PalmDoc / AportisDoc [.pdb]MobiPocket (unencrypted) [.pdb, .prc, .mobi]Plucker with images [.pdb]via Bookshelf.

Apple’s AppStore is live and there are a couple of free ebook readers including Fictionwise’s eReader. According to the description, eReader allows for “direct wireless transfers of your content to the device’s internal storage for offline reading.” This says to me that you’ll be able to buy from Fictionwise directly from the iPhone just like you would be able to with the Kindle.

Is this the tipping point for eBooks? The Kindle Killer? I’m off to the Apple Store tomorrow for my 3G iPhone and Sunday I hope to write up my experience with the new iPhone Reading Apps.

Looking for a possible ebook reader? Apple unveiled its iPhone 2.0 today and it features almost DSL like download speeds (3G) and a price point of $199 for the 8 GB and $299 for the 16 GB. As I’ve mentioned before, the iPhone is my primary ebook reader. It’s something to think about.

And yes, I’ll be upgrading.

I know I promised to do a piece on the history of Net Neutrality legislation and what is the current state of the governmental proposals. I still intend to do that within the next couple of weeks. Today, though, is June 1, and next Tuesday, June 9, Steve Jobs will announce the release of the next generation iPhone at the Apple Worldwide Development Conference (WWDC).

Last year in June, the first iPhone was released to much excitement. I was an early adopter (and paid for it) but I don’t regret it. Since June, I have used my iPhone everyday, several times a day. I use it to send and receive calls, messages, and emails; to visit my favorite blogs; and, of course, to read ebooks.

The challenge with the first iPhone was that there were no authorized third party applications. In order to read ebooks, one had to jailbreak it and it wasn’t always easy. The eBook reader developed and provided for free by an awesome individual, Chris Born, was basic. It provided a method for reading the ebooks, but getting ebooks onto the iPhone required a bit of skill (basically …

In my inbox I received an email stating that Fictionwise is working on making eReader compatible with the iPhone.  Fictionwise bought eReader a few months agao.  This is excellent news for MAC users and PC users alike.  I love reading on my iPhone.

eReader is not my favorite mobile reading platform but something is better than nothing.

Apple is expected to release a firmware upgrade for phones tomorrow which will likely wipe out any hacking. As always, the upgrade is optional, so if you like your hacked phone (I do), then I would advise you to wait until the programmers break the new firmware open before upgrading.

And if you were waiting for Christmas to get your iPhone, you might want to do it now since the current firmware (1.1.1) has been opened up.

Via Engadget.

Apple came out with a firmware upgrade a few weeks ago which disabled the “freeing” of the iPhone. Upgrading is currently optional. I decided to wait until the hacking community came up with way to break into the iPhone in a way that was easy for me to understand. Late last night, that option appeared in the form of a one click iPhone hack for all new iPhones and iTouch models that use the firmware 1.1.1.

There are conflicting reports on this, but it is generally recommended that you have wi fi access to do the jailbreak/unlock which means you might go to a Panera store (one of my favorite free wi fi hot spots) or some other place around town.

Step 1: Go to a wi fi hot spot (preferably free).
Step 2: Open the Safari application on your iPhone/iTouch.
Step 3: Type in “http://jailbreakme.com”.
Step 4: Click the “Install AppSnapp” at the bottom of the screen and be amazed.

The extra neat thing about this hack is it fixes same exploit the hackers use to “break free” the iPhone from the software locks. So your phone is even …

Christmas shopping is right around the corner and I’ve noticed a number of commenters indicate that they are getting something for ebook reading for Christmas. Because of the hated Digital Rights Management and nearly 10 different software platforms for ebooks, deciding which device to buy can be more traumatizing than braving the 5 am Walmart Black Friday crowd.

I’ve rounded up a list of ebook reading devices and some pros and cons and recommendations. There are two basic options for the reader who is looking to buy an ebook device. 1) dedicated reader and 2) multi-function device.

Dedicated Reading Devices
Dedicated Reader Pros:
Most dedicated readers have a larger screen size for less money than multi function devices. For example, the eBookwise has a screen size "about the size of a paperback" and costs $109.95. The Sony Reader has a 6" inch screen and runs $300.00. A comparable screen size in a multi function device would be found in an ultra portable and those devices run from $1200-$2500.00. Larger screen sizes can be had at similar price points like the Motion Computer slate tablet PC starting at $1699, but then you start sacrificing portability. …

Commenter Anji was the first to bring this to my attention but I did see it in the inbox (thanks guys for feeding my iPhone addiction) and all over the news when I got home from my business trip yesterday. Apple will be releasing a software development kit (SDK) so that developers will find out how to write programs authorized to be used with Apple iPhone and the iTouch. As I replied in my email to one person last night, half of me was “yeah” and the other half was “ohnoes, February 2008?”

I admit to being a bit spoiled now because the hacked iPhone third party application system is a breeze. There is one installation program that is used to install all the programs. These programs can be installed via the iPhone with no connection to a computer. Plus, all the great applications are free. Almost all the developers allow you to give donations and I have given one to the awesome developer of the Books.app but what will the SDK do to those developers? I.e., once the big names start developing third party software …

Scott Adams, the creator of the venerable office cartoon, Dilbert, believes that iPhone and devices like it (which he calls the iClones) will kill the print newspaper. If you can carry the internet in your pocket, what would you want with a print newspaper even with the new soy ink that isn’t supposed to rub off on your fingers but still does?

“When you have a web browser in your pocket, a printed newspaper is redundant,” says Adams. He further goes on to say that the articles that the newspaper will deliver (online, of course) will be filtered by the citizens and voted upon creating a more democratic version of the news. Adams believes this is a good thing. I’m a wait and see kind of girl.

Via GalleyCat.