Posts Tagged ‘ePub’

Aldiko: EPUB reader for Android with Feedbooks integration

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Aldiko

What is Aldiko?

Aldiko is an ebook reading application that runs on any Android phone and which enables you to easily download and read thousands of books right on your smartphone.

We’re glad to announce that this new EPUB reading system, capable of downloading content directly from Feedbooks is now available. We’ve worked with our friends at Aldiko to make this experience as seamless as possible: it is actually based on the same Atom catalog format that we’re using for Stanza. I’m glad that we finally have a second reading system commited to implement the future OPDS standard, and Aldiko actually implements some of the recommendations that we recently submitted.

Once again, Feedbooks is the first platform available on a new reading system. We’ve been very successful with Stanza (Neelan recently announced that 8 million EPUB files have been distributed on Stanza. 75% of these files came from Feedbooks) and hope to have a similar success with any new reading system on the market. The Android platform is very attractive and with 18 new Android-based devices in 2009, it should get some significant share of the smartphone market.

Update: In-depth review at the Gadgeteer

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Posted in API, Android, ePub | 6 Comments »

Reading ePub on the XO with FBReader

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

The Age of Reason on the XO

The XO-1 from the OLPC project has a great potential as an e-book reading device: it is the first device with a dual-mode display and you can turn the screen to use it like a tablet. It can work either like a normal LCD screen, or like an epaper device that you can read in the sunlight, featuring the 1st generation of the technology that Pixel Qi is working on. Unfortunately, the “Read” activity was limited to document formats mostly (like PDF) rather than real e-book formats.

Sayamindu Dasgupta is currently working on a port of FBReader to solve this problem, with full integration into Sugar. The second test version was recently released, and now that the circle/square/cross/tick buttons are mapped to change pages and the size of the font, reading ePub files on the XO is a very nice experience overall. E-books might be the real killer app for the XO, and the XO-2 with its book-like dual display seems to be heading in that direction too.

XO-2

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Posted in XO, ePub | 3 Comments »

Improving our metadata

Monday, November 17th, 2008

One of the most important things about Feedbooks, is that we don’t store our e-books as terminal formats. Instead, we generate these formats on the fly and can easily update everything archived on the website.

Most of the time, we update our output to improve how the text in our books look, to offer more relevant recommendations or add new features. This time though, we’ve been working on our metadata in both Mobipocket and ePub. We’ve started using the dc:description and dc:rights fields to provide more information about our books (I’ve included a screenshot from Mobipocket Desktop).

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Posted in ePub, mobipocket | 1 Comment »

A million ePub files distributed

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Just a few weeks after the firmware update for the PRS-505 and the release of the iPhone 3G, we reach our first million files distributed in ePub.

The release of Stanza on the iPhone & iPod Touch really helped the format, and we can expect a wider support for this format in the future on various devices.

It’s still early days for ePub though, and there’s still room for improvements. With the launch of the Sony Reader in the UK and Waterstone’s online store, major publisher are finally distributing books in ePub. To improve both the format and the compatible reading systems, the upcoming months will be crucial.

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Posted in Site, Sony PRS-505, ePub, iPhone | 5 Comments »

Sony PRS-505 Update: ePub support

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Now that Sony and Adobe released the long awaited firmware upgrade for the PRS-505, Digital Editions (and support for ePub and reflowable PDF) can be finally experienced on a dedicated reading device.

Feedbooks added support for ePub almost a year ago now, and all PRS-505 users can now select between our ePub and PDF output.

If you’re looking for help, check both of these pages:

My full review of the new firmware is available right after the jump…
(more…)

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Posted in Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Thoughts, ePub | 10 Comments »

Feedbooks on your iPhone/iPod Touch

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

Stanza from Lexcycle is the first application to interact with the new Feedbooks API (upcoming blog posts and documentation in the next few weeks).
Official description:
“Read electronic books on your iPhone and iPod Touch! With a reading interface that is unprecedented in its clarity and ease of use, Stanza is bringing the eBook revolution to your pocket. Store and categorize hundreds of books in the organizer, choose from thousands of free books available in the Lexcycle Online Library, and transfer books you share from your computer using Stanza Desktop. Your entire summer reading, your class syllabus for the whole year, or all the reference material you will ever need: all at your fingertips. Literally.”

Demo: http://static.lexcycle.com/misc/Stanza_iPhone.mov

Help page on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/help/iphone

Update on the 07/21: More than 100,000 books distributed to the iPhone/iPod Touch already !

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Posted in API, ePub, iPhone | 4 Comments »