Exciting news for Sony PRS-505 Digital Book Reader owners. Sony has added support for the International Digital Publishing Forum’s ePub format as well as DRMed PDFs. This is great for 505 users for a number of reasons.

For one this opens up alot more content as DRMed PDFs are a common distribution format for many bookstores. This will also allow the eReader to play books from public libraries.

The addition of ePub is great as well. This format has been gaining alot of support from both publishers and readers of eBooks and might become the de facto format for eBooks. The PRS-505 wil be the first eBook Reader to support the format.

For those that don’t have a digital eBook Reader this is a great reason to consider the Sony eBook reader over other choices.

The firmware update can be found through Sony’s support website but as of this moment it is not there . It should be up within a day or so. edit: The firmware update is downloadable now. Click here for Sony’s press release. (Note: if you own the PRS-500 there is no update for this reader currently and SOny has said that they probably will not be releasing one unfortunately.)

While your waiting for Sony to put up the new update on their website you can go and download Adobe Digital Visions 1.5 which is needed for the DRMed PDF files.

For more info on the this story go here or here.

Tor.com a science fiction and fantasy site is giving away about twenty or so of their books for free but you have to hurry because this offer is only good till Sunday the 27th. Head over to their blog post for direct links to all the free eBooks in various formats. They also have some nice wallpapers to download as well.

Direct Download Links

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

PDF || HTML^new! || HTML zip^new! || Mobi^new!

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Farthing by Jo Walton

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedies Lackey & James Mallory

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Lord of the Isles by David Drake

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Through Wolf’s Eyes by Jane Lindskold

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Reiffen’s Choice by S.C. Butler

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Starfish by Peter Watts

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Orphans of Chaos by John Wright

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

In the Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Flash by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Soul by Tobsha Learner

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Darkness of the Light by Peter David

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa^new!

PDF || ePub

Is this the next must have electronic device or just an over-hyped, over-priced tech demo. My money is on the latter.

Readius, a new eBook Reader from Polymer Vision is set to be released sometime in the Fall. The big selling points for this eBook reader are that it has a foldable screen and has some cellphone functionality. On the product website they dub it as “the first pocket eBook reader.” After watching some videos on YouTube I am not so sure that is a good thing.

…click here to read more

For those that want to read protected Mobi Pocket eBooks on their Kindles, Igor Skochinsky has created some Python files that allow you to do just that.

This comes in very handy if you want to be able to read eBooks from your public library. See my other article on why your public library should be used for finding eBooks:

…click here to read more

That’s right. Author Charles Sheehan-Miles has generously offered up his book Republic: A Novel of America’s Future for free in digital format alongside selling it on Amazon. He mentions in his blog that the biggest problem for authors who aren’t big names is not that people download their stuff for free but that no one even knows about them. This book has gotten quite a few good reviews both on Amazon and by other authors.

…click here to read more

Remember that place you went to once or twice as a kid. Yeah that place, the one with books, the kind of books that you get to take home for free. Yup, you guessed it, the public library. An often overlooked source of free media nowadays, public libraries have quietly transformed themselves into large digital media repositories. While your local public library might have a disappointing amount of physical books for you to browse their website may very well have a huge amount on offer.

…click here to read more

Is an eBook Reader better than another device for what I want to do? This is perhaps one of the more important questions that one should ask when thinking about purchasing an eBook Reader.  Listed below in bullet format are the most important arguments for and against adding an eBook Reader to your gadget collection…

…click here to read more

On a recent search I found some good ways that are both free and require no downloading as well as one that you you must download to use. Here are some good ways of converting those pesky PDF files that many eBook Readers have problems viewing.

…click here to read more

Go to the free eBooks section to check them out.

If you have ever traveled before then you will probably agree that having a book to pass the time can really make the experience more pleasurable. Books are a great diversion that let you forget about that eight year old kid kicking the back of your airplane seat or the traffic jam you have been stuck in for three hours.

There are a few limitations however with books. …click here to read more