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Submission + - iPad and iPhone: Mouse use, better speech rec, other joys apparently ahead (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: An iPad or iPhone will never be a true writer’s-device—at least when you’re working with an external monitor and keyboard—without the ability to add a mouse. But Apple has just given us hope. Mind you, there are catches. The mouse capability apparently won't be picked up by external monitors. But maybe that'll change. Also helpful if the ballyhoo is true: better speech rec.

Submission + - Book-hostile Trump wants to kill federal library agency--AGAIN (teleread.org) 4

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Donald Trump hasn’t much use for books—except a precious few such as Trump: The Art of the Deal and other ghosted masterpieces. So it’s no shocker that for the third year in a row, the Trump Administration is trying to kill the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the main source of federal funds for libraries. Time for Slashdotters of all political beliefs to speak up to The Hill!

Submission + - Australian ebookstore lets you filter out DRMed books. Hint, hint, Amazon (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: What if Amazon's search form let you skip over DRM-hobbled books--by just check-marking a box?

eBooks.com in Perth, Australia, is already blazing the way for other global ebookstores to help book-lovers look for digital wares they can own for real.

Also, the 1.2-million-title store has started a section to highlight nonDRMed ebooks.

On top of that, eBooks.com offers ePub as an option to check-mark. Enough of proprietary formats!

Powerful D.C. officials are scrutinizing tech giants from an antitrust perspective, and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is calling for breakups. So perhaps Amazon in the near future will see the wisdom of serving up content in ePub and not relying so much on lock-ins from proprietary formats and its own DRM. This would be a great proactive step in the current anti-trust environment and create much goodwill.

Far more is at stake than just the sales of Amazon's proprietary readers, which almost surely could still do fine even with this new mercy toward consumers. Market cap is some $800 billion.

Likewise to comfort shareholders worried about anti-trust, Amazon should encourage piracy-fixated publishers to use technologies such as watermarking to avoid a forced reliance on its anti-copying technology.

Submission + - New EU privacy regs could help watermarking replace DRM (teleread.org) 2

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Just about all of us hate DRM. New EU privacy regulations could help watermarking, a competing technology, by increasing consumer confidence in privacy protections for uniquely identified copies of ebooks. Contrary to popular belief, the best watermarks can be surprisingly hard to remove. Books can even contain multiple watermarking schemes, thwarting pirates hoping to remove hidden tracking. No technology is perfect, but watermarking has come a long way.

Letâ(TM)s hope that large U.S. publisherâ(TM)s will catch up with European counterparts in watermarking adoption.

Submission + - Project Gutenberg blocks German users after outrageous court ruling (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: The oldest public domain publisher in the world, Project Gutenberg, has blocked German users after an outrageous legal ruling saying this American nonprofit must obey German copyright law.

Gutenberg is fighting the latest threat to the global Internet, but meanwhile, out of prudence, it is understandably fencing out German book-lovers. This, of course, is not an acceptable permanent solution. Nor is an effort at book-by-book blocking. Imagine the technical issues for fragile, cash-strapped public domain organizations--worrying not only about updated databases covering all the world's countries, but also applying the results to distribution. TeleRead carries two views on the German case involving a Holtzbrinck subsidiary. Senior TeleRead Writer Chris Meadows is more sympathetic to the German court than I am. My pro-Gutenberg views, as TeleRead's editor-publisher-founder, are in the comments section.

Significantly, older books provide just a tiny fraction of the revenue of megaconglomerates like Holtzbrinck but are essential to students of literature and indeed to students in general. What's more, as illustrated by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in the U.S., copyright law in most countries tends to reflect the wishes and power of lobbyists more than it does the commonweal. Ideally the travails of Project Gutenberg will encourage tech companies, students, teachers, librarians and others to step up their efforts against oppressive copyright laws.

While writers and publishers deserve fair compensation, let's focus more on the needs of living creators and less on the estates of authors dead for many decades. The three authors involved in the German case are Heinrich Mann (died in 1950), Thomas Mann (1955) and Alfred Döblin (1957).

One solution in the U.S. and elsewhere for modern creators would be national library endowments. The money for a $20-billion U.S. library endowment in five years is, in fact, there. Just ten American billionaires are together worth more than half a billion. Harvard's endowment alone is a whopping $35+ billion, while all the library endowments in America total only several billion or so. A little social justice, please.

Meanwhile, it would be very fitting for Google and other deep-pocketed corporations with an interest in a global Internet and more balanced copyright to help Gutenberg finance its battle. Law schools, other academics, educators and librarians should also offer assistance.

Submission + - SPAM: Nonreader in chief Trump wants to kill library agency

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Donald Trump is famous for his contempt for the written word. He hates to read briefing papers.So, to the presumed delight of ideologues like House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump is once again trying to kill off the Institute of Museum and Library Services and some related programs.
Got to help pay for all the billions in tax cuts for multi-billionaires like the Koch brothers, right?
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Google News's new look sucks. Please let us revert! (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Do you hate Google News's news look as much as I do? As a power skimmer of headlines via my desktop, I find this dumbed-down layout to be a usability Chernobyl. Worse, Google apparently won't let us toggle back to the old layout. Designer tyranny at work!

Bring on the new layout, Google, if you insist on optimizing for mobile phones, which I can understand; but please step wasting the time of so many desktop and tablet users.

Given how many antitrust regulators would love to rein in Google, at least in the EU, it ill-behooves the company to show arrogance even on a mundane matter like Web design.

Submission + - Silicon Jungle book now free: WordStar, Kaypro, other oldies

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: The Silicon Jungle, a mix of microcomputer lore and how-tos from the 1980s, might be of interest to nostalgia buffs and students of the history of technology.

Published by Random House's Ballantine division in 1985, my book is now free on Project Gutenberg thanks to Distributed Proofreaders. Download links here for ePub, Kindle, HTML and other formats. Overview here.

My favorite quote in the book--fortunately treated skeptically--is from the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association: “Computer crime is not now, never has been, and never will be out of control unless security is completely ignored. And that is not going to happen." The Jungle also includes the stories of the Kaypro II and the creation of WordStar, as well as the 300-baud modem link I helped arrange between Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lank and Peter Hyams at MGM/UA during the scriptwriting of the film version of 2010.

One reason for my passion for e-book and word-processing standards is my past worship of WordStar, which I thought would go forever and forever--I learned. That said, it's a trip to read of George R. R. Martin's continuing devotion to it.

Also in the Jungle are 1980s-era reflections, in the Clarke chapter, on technology, imports and the decline of factory jobs in places like Lorain, Ohio, the steel town where I once worked as a newspaper reporter. Yes, it was an issue even back then.

Submission + - All-text bold at last on Kindles, after years of pleas (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: It took years of pleas from users, but finally Amazon is offering all-text bold on the Kindle, a godsend for many older people and others with minor or major sight challenges. Alas, the fix is missing from older Kindles. But perhaps Amazon in time can catch up. That said, Amazon continues to lag Kobo's typography. For example, only one bold font available. By contrast, Kobo lets you adjust the boldness of many fonts and even install your own. Still, the new Ember Bold font is definite progress. Details on the related update are here.

Submission + - 'I'm blind. Kindle text to speech has been a nightmare to master' (teleread.org)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: David Fauxcheaux, a blind freelance audiobook reviewer for Library Journal, tried out text to speech on the new $80 basic Kindle.

In a TeleRead post reflecting his personal opinions, not necessarily LJ's, he warns of a Catch 22 for blind people.

"Just how can we benefit from the built-in audio VoiceView tutorial and related guidance in the already-loaded users’ guide if we don’t know how to use the screen reader in the first place?" he asks. "You must drill down too far in the menus to reach text-to-speech features.

"Unfortunately," Faucheux says, "this typifies Amazon’s seeming lack of understanding and empathy in considering the needs of blind people."

He goes on in detail to suggest fixes, such as Braille manuals from a publisher specializing in them.

Meanwhile Amazon continues to fail sighted people in need of accessibility features such as an all-text boldface option.

That isn't the only harm from Amazon's pathetic range of typographical options. The problem is one reason why "difficult" literary fiction isn't doing as well on ereaders as it could.

Submission + - EFF lawsuit seeks to overturn DMCA ban on breaking DRM

Submitted by Robotech_Master
Robotech_Master writes: The EFF has just filed suit against the US government on the grounds that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provision, Section 1201, represents an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.

The suit takes aim at the practice of outlawing breaking DRM, with the Librarian of Congress permitted to make exceptions to the prohibition every three years, as well as outlawing any explanation of how to break DRM. The EFF calls this “an unconstitutional speech-licensing regime.”

This isn't the first time the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision has been called in to question. Earlier this year, Congress asked for public comments on ways to improve the anti-circumvention process.

Submission + - Harvard Bookstore launches Print + Digital bundle for Chris Anderson's new book (teleread.com)

Submitted by Peter Hudson
Peter Hudson writes: Teleread, Publishers Weekly, Digital Book World, and Publishing Perspectives are reporting that the Harvard Bookstore is launching a program in partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Shelfie where customers who purchase certain HMH books will get the ebook included free or at a substantially reduced price (Teleread reports that the majority of the bundled digital editions will be free or 99 cents). From Publishing Perspectives:

The new program is applicable only to certain New York Times bestselling titles including TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, releasing today); Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002); Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000); and How to Cook Everything The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

Submission + - Gold-plated $290 Amazon Oasis: Less screen contrast than $120 Paperwhite (teleread.com)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Amazon’s $290 Kindle Oasis has a screen contrast ratio of just 18.7 compared to 20.8 for the $200 Voyage and 20.5 for the $120 Paperwhite. That’s not rumor. The specs are from a PR firm working for Amazon.

So if you have aging eyes and need text to stand out optimally from the background, the gold-plated Oasis may not be the e-reader for you even if you can afford it.

Submission + - Will Amazon zap USB from E Ink Kindles--the way it robbed us of TTS? (teleread.com)

Submitted by David Rothman
David Rothman writes: Text to speech—wasn’t it supposed to be forever on Amazon E Ink machine starting with the Kindle 2? The Kindle DX, Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Touch kept up the tradition. From joggers to people with disabilities, TTS helped a lot of people at minimal cost. No more. TTS went AWOL in recent E Ink Kindles.

Could the same thing happen to USB? Will Amazon eventually rely entirely on wireless charging and wireless data transfer---in the interest of waterproofing E Ink Kindles? Yes, there are pros. But could the disappearance of a USB port on E Ink Kindles also make it harder to bypass Amazon's walled garden and also do customizations like font tweaks (still not easy for the typical user, given the intense control-freak tendencies that Amazon displays in some regards).

I don't see the USB on E Ink Kindles as being in immediate danger. But it's something to be on the lookout for---and not just in Amazon E Ink readers.

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