The iPad, not being a specialized device, appeals to a broader audience; but serious readers still prefer e-ink to backlight.  So that makes the mainstream direct competition the Sony Readers and the Nook.  I like Sony’s devices (I own an earlier PRS-500) and the Nook as well, but I much prefer my Kindle.  I only wish that it had open support for the EPUB format, which would open up a world of content beyond Amazon.

To me, this closed system is not only counter-intuitive, but also out of character for Amazon.  They gained market share from Apple in the MP3 market by offering DRM-free music that was not restricted to iTunes and the iPod.  Why they don’t do the same for ebooks is beyond me.

So if you have a Kindle (or are thinking of getting one), you need to know how to get EPUB formatted books onto your device.  I am not going to tell you how to hack DRM so you can steal books and share them amoungst your friends.  What I will do, however, is to give some insight on how to change the format of content you have access to in order to read it on your device.

First, you need to get a copy of Calibre.  (Incidently, Calibre is a good tool to have anyway.  It is a great program to catalog a large collection of ebooks and you can use it to transfer ebooks to your various devices and to also convert to various formats.)  The Calibre site is http://calibre-ebook.com/.

Calibre can be used to convert different formats to other formats, both in the program and via command-line.  The EPUB to MOBI conversion works very well and I have used it on EPUB books from a variety of sources.

There are many public domain books available from Google Books that can be downloaded as EPUB.  I have had mixed success converting these to MOBI for my Kindle, but I have found that as Google continues to work with their technology, the conversions have improved.

Of course, to make any use of this feature, you need a pair of red/cyan anaglyph glasses – those iconic cardboard glasses for viewing in 3D.  But the point is that it’s cool and fun – and isn’t that what reading is all about?

To view a book in 3D on Google Books, add &edge=3d to the book’s URL (Note: be sure to add this parameter before the # in the URL).  (Honestly, they had it right when they first released this feature with a link to the 3D version.  But I guess they figured anyone geeky enough to use it, was also geeky enough to figure out how to add a query string parameter to a URL.)

For those of you that are, like me, big fans of books, information, knowledge, and just plain cool stuff, one of the best things since Project Gutenberg is finally here – Google Print.

I’ve been waiting, no, salivating for the release of the Google Print beta, and it has finally come. This will likely be the world’s largest virtual library and will contain text and content that many of us have never before had access to. Google has been working with partner libraries at the University of Michigan; Stanford, Harvard and Oxford universities; plus the New York Public Library since announcing last fall that it planned to digitize the world’s libraries.

print.google.com [deprecated]

books.google.com