It's nice having all the books available as free pdfs, but it's not so nice having to read them on a computer screen (eyestrain). That's why ebook readers will be such a boon to the Austrian readership. They use a non-lit screen (think etch-a-sketch), so it's like reading paper: no more eyestrain.
Unfortunately, the technology (E Ink) is patented and that's slowing down the competitive process, so the devices are still pretty expensive and lousy. But more and more companies are putting out devices, so in the near future there could be some decent ones for reasonable prices.
Once they get better, ebook readers will be the perfect combination for the Mises.org literature. You could download all the books you want for free, and read them on an eye-friendly display. This could be a huge new medium for spreading the Austrian literature.
Sounds good.
How much does an e-book reader cost in USD?
In general, they're between $200-400.
I know the Sony ebook readers take PDFs, Im not sure the amazon kindles do- which would make it even easier to put mises.org literature on the devices.
The new Nook from Barnes & Noble looks pretty good: $270, displays pdfs and plays mp3s. Built on the open source Android operating system (by Google).
I have the Sony eBook Reader. I have hundreds of PDFs from Mises.org spanned across a couple memory cards. It's extremely convenient to have a library in which you can take everywhere.
The PDFs aren't in the best format, though, for the reader. The text is extremely small, so you have zoom in. When you do that, the format goes out of whack.
It's still well worth it. I read in its entirety Man, Economy, and State on it, and I was able to switch over to the study guides whenever I desired.
Barnes & Noble just announced its eBook reader, the Nook, the other day. It looks like it's going to blow Sony and Amazon out of the water. If you're going to consider purchasing a reader, look into it. I'm going to ask for it for Christmas.
Hopefully the Mises Store will start selling/promoting ebook readers. It's a great way to get people to read more of the literature.
I got a Kindle DX. It is pure awesome. I can read all of these books especially if you combine the Mises literature with the Online Library of Liberty
'Men do not change, they unmask themselves' - Germaine de Stael
Laughing Man: I got a Kindle DX. It is pure awesome. I can read all of these books especially if you combine the Mises literature with the Online Library of Liberty
So the Kindle doesn't have the problems le Master mentioned regarding the Sony reader?
I'm definitely not getting Sony's, but I'm torn between the Kindle and the new Barnes & Noble reader.
Well Kindle DX is the only Kindle that can recognize PDF's. The other ones you would have to convert [ Kindle 1 and 2 ]. However with the Kindle DX you get the look exactly as they do on computer. You can zoom in on the PDF by turning it sideways. I had a Sony Reader before this Kindle and I actually returned it because of a lot of what Master was having problems with. The Sony had broken text and it had a small screen and didn't have a big library. I would recommend the Kindle DX to any member here because the whole Mises library is PDF and so is the Online Library of Liberty. So we obviously read a lot of PDF's. Oh and also I almost forgot. The Sony Reader books are more expensive then the Kindle. Kindle is $9.99 some over but they are rare works and Sony could be anywhere from 10-30 dollars. So books are much more expensive and the Sony library is smaller plus books on Kindle go straight to your Kindle so you can get them from anywhere. I think Sony Reader downloads onto your computer then you have to put it on. Plus Sony Reader has a strange pseudo itunes library but is very lackluster. Kindle DX is expensive but I think well worth it especially if you are in academia. Concerning the Barnes and Noble reader, I'm not totally sure since this is the first I have heard of it. I would just be sure to see how much their books cost and if it can read pdf's and how much harddrive it has. Kindle DX has 3 gigs which is basically a little less then half the Mises Library.
Laughing Man: Well Kindle DX is the only Kindle that can recognize PDF's. The other ones you would have to convert [ Kindle 1 and 2 ]. However with the Kindle DX you get the look exactly as they do on computer. You can zoom in on the PDF by turning it sideways. I had a Sony Reader before this Kindle and I actually returned it because of a lot of what Master was having problems with. The Sony had broken text and it had a small screen and didn't have a big library. I would recommend the Kindle DX to any member here because the whole Mises library is PDF and so is the Online Library of Liberty. So we obviously read a lot of PDF's. Oh and also I almost forgot. The Sony Reader books are more expensive then the Kindle. Kindle is $9.99 some over but they are rare works and Sony could be anywhere from 10-30 dollars. So books are much more expensive and the Sony library is smaller plus books on Kindle go straight to your Kindle so you can get them from anywhere. I think Sony Reader downloads onto your computer then you have to put it on. Plus Sony Reader has a strange pseudo itunes library but is very lackluster. Kindle DX is expensive but I think well worth it especially if you are in academia. Concerning the Barnes and Noble reader, I'm not totally sure since this is the first I have heard of it. I would just be sure to see how much their books cost and if it can read pdf's and how much harddrive it has. Kindle DX has 3 gigs which is basically a little less then half the Mises Library.
I thinking of getting a Kindle since my BlackBerry screen is so small and the battery gets really hot. What say you of the Kindle, hot battery or nay?
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
Daniel: I thinking of getting a Kindle since my BlackBerry screen is so small and the battery gets really hot. What say you of the Kindle, hot battery or nay?
I don't have the Kindle, but I can probably answer this for you. The batteries don't get hot. eBook readers only use battery very briefly when you press a button. That's why they last many many days. I read my Reader for ten days straight once before it dropped from being completely full.
I'm not going to promote the Sony Reader, because it probably isn't the best way to go, especially with the Kindle DX and the upcoming Nook as options. However, one really good thing about it is that Google has formatted hundreds of thousands (maybe millions now) of books specifically for it. They're available for free through the Reader software. I've downloaded many books from there that were cited in books on Mises.org.
All of the present-generation E Ink devices have crappy little screens and input methods, though (the very expensive iRex iLiad 1000S being the (sole?) exception to the rule). I'd rather wait a few years...
Paul: All of the present-generation E Ink devices have crappy little screens and input methods, though (the very expensive iRex iLiad 1000S being the (sole?) exception to the rule). I'd rather wait a few years...
Have you seen the Kindle DX? It's got huge print.
Laughing Man: Paul: All of the present-generation E Ink devices have crappy little screens and input methods, though (the very expensive iRex iLiad 1000S being the (sole?) exception to the rule). I'd rather wait a few years... Have you seen the Kindle DX? It's got huge print.
Haven't seen one, but looking at the specs, the DX has a reasonable screen, but still no pen input -- I want to be able to draw on the screen; don't particularly need a keyboard. Also, epub support, and, if it's going to have sound, Vorbis and Speex -- recording too.
Can anyone give me some adivce?
Im going to go travelling by train throughout China for 2 months in January, so Im definitely wangting a reader for Christmas.
Would i be better off getting a Kindle or a Nook?
Paul:Haven't seen one, but looking at the specs, the DX has a reasonable screen, but still no pen input -- I want to be able to draw on the screen; don't particularly need a keyboard. Also, epub support, and, if it's going to have sound, Vorbis and Speex -- recording too.
Ah so you want all the gizmos and gadgets.
Seph: Can anyone give me some adivce? Im going to go travelling by train throughout China for 2 months in January, so Im definitely wangting a reader for Christmas. Would i be better off getting a Kindle or a Nook?
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/barnes_and_noble_nook_launch_details_specs.php
The Nook can read pdf files which is a lot of what the Mises archive is, but the Nook doesn't have international capability yet.
The Kindle has international capability but doesn't read pdf files.
It will be through China and only two months plus you have to think about after you come back. I would say the Nook because it can read pdf's and you can put a lot of the books from the Mises archives onto it and that should last you two months. I wouldn't recommend the Kindle DX for extended traveling since it is bigger then the other Kindle's and probably bigger then the Nook so it will be hard to travel with. With the Nook you won't have to worry about converting files when you get back. You won't be able to get any new books while in China but unless you devour two books a day I think you will have enough reading material. You can always put the big books on their like Human Action and Man, Economy, State. or History of Economic Thought
Laughing Man:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/barnes_and_noble_nook_launch_details_specs.php The Nook can read pdf files which is a lot of what the Mises archive is, but the Nook doesn't have international capability yet. The Kindle has international capability but doesn't read pdf files. It will be through China and only two months plus you have to think about after you come back. I would say the Nook because it can read pdf's and you can put a lot of the books from the Mises archives onto it and that should last you two months. I wouldn't recommend the Kindle DX for extended traveling since it is bigger then the other Kindle's and probably bigger then the Nook so it will be hard to travel with. With the Nook you won't have to worry about converting files when you get back. You won't be able to get any new books while in China but unless you devour two books a day I think you will have enough reading material. You can always put the big books on their like Human Action and Man, Economy, State. or History of Economic Thought
The thing is though, I wont be going back as I actually live in China; so international capability is much more important for me.
While the Kindle Intl looks like it will work....the lack of .PDF support is really off putting, as the vast majpority of my time would be spent reading Mises PDFs!
Edit: Amazon just told me that Kindle isnt supported in China....I guess that means a nook for me.
Daniel:I thinking of getting a Kindle since my BlackBerry screen is so small and the battery gets really hot. What say you of the Kindle, hot battery or nay?
Hot as in tactile heat or hot as it sweet and long lasting?
No to the first and yes to the second. Just don't have the wireless connection constantly on and it lasts a good deal.
Seph: While the Kindle Intl looks like it will work....the lack of .PDF support is really off putting, as the vast majpority of my time would be spent reading Mises PDFs! Edit: Amazon just told me that Kindle isnt supported in China....I guess that means a nook for me.
Their international doesn't work in China? ooo probably because china restricts the internet. Well yea I would go Nook and a 8-10 gig flash drive for the whole library. That way you can just transfer them over one you're done reading the other books.
This thread motivated me to try out Stanza on my iPhone. It may not be E Ink, but it's much better than reading Rothard and Mises in HTML on my iPhone! Just the fact that Stanza remembers exactly which page you left off at makes all the difference.
There are other ways than the following to transfer epub files into your iPhone. But I had trouble until I tried the following way...
EVERYONE here with an iPhone should have Human Action and MES on it. Even if it's slow going, or if you don't understand all of it... just make those two treatises your long-term companions, and whenever you find yourself waiting in line or waiting for your girlfriend to finish shopping, just fire up whichever treatise you feel most like reading, and make some progress!
Very cool, Lilburne. I followed your tutorial and had the program and all four books downloaded in under five minutes.
The only step I did differently was the first. I searched Stanza in the App Store and downloaded it that way. So I didn't even have to connect my phone to the computer at all.
Le Master: Very cool, Lilburne. I followed your tutorial and had the program and all four books downloaded in under five minutes.
Great!
Le Master:The only step I did differently was the first. I searched Stanza in the App Store and downloaded it that way. So I didn't even have to connect my phone to the computer at all.
Oh, you mean the App Store on the iPhone? Ah, yes, that would be even more direct. Good idea! I'll edit my post accordingly.
For those of you looking forward to the Nook, let's hope that this doesn't get anywhere.
I've been following the development of a new eReader that will be introduced next year (January 7th at the CES in Las Vegas). The QUE eReader from Plastic Logic. The QUE will be available through Barnes and Noble, and will marketed toward business users. They haven't announced the price yet, but it will be sold as an alternative to the Nook.
Sneak Peak Demo
Media Demo
All Things D Demo
The Ludwig von Mises Institute is in a very good position for the growing e-reader market, but it's going to be hell on their servers. I hope the media section gets a facelift to fit the screens of e-readers.
I just ordered a Cybook Opus.
Hope it works out......
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
This site is worth bookmarking for all the pdfs on mises.org
http://epub2go.com/
Just give it the pdf location (online or on your harddrive) and your email address then you will get a link on your iphone email account that will download the converted epub file for stanza. Never as pretty a professional designed epub but pretty useful.
Also, any chance of getting mises.org audiobooks on http://librivox.org/ so that they can be listened to through the Audiobooks iphone app?
Although ebook reading is highly subjective, especially depending on vision ability to read small text, my two cents might be useful to someone.
Like many others, I waited for the Kindle DX and its pdf capability to handle Mises pdf's. Unfortunately, merely having a pdf capability is not the same as having a useful pdf capability. I would guess that a third of Mises pdfs work very well on the DX, another third work marginally acceptably, and a final third are unusable. Most of the problems relate to not being able to make the text large enough while still displaying the full width of the text. Extremely slow operation also kills some pdfs. In all cases the abysmal keyboard of the DX makes any form of navigation other than linear reading next to impossible.
I love the DX for buying and reading best seller fiction, but I no longer even try to load a pdf file onto it. It is highly likely that virtually all dedicated ereaders share the problems of the DX to one degree or another.
As far as I can tell, the only practical solution for me for pdf files is to have have a real handheld touchscreen PC running eiher XP or Windows 7, with a 7 to 10 inch screen. This allows you to run a good pdf reader program like Foxit 3 for Windows. Since this program allows color configuration changes, a beautiful yellow text on a black background configuration should solve any LCD eyestrain problems. Fortunately, such units have started to become available over the last year, with much lower prices and longer battery life. I currently have a Viliv X70, available through Dynamism (see google).
Regards, Don
Which files did you find unusable on the DX? So far I have yet to run into anything that is in tiny text or is unrecognizable.
LM,
Try The American Story by Garrett for speed problems. Try the Last Knight for excessive white space.
Note that my starting point was that variations in vision make for a high degree of subjectivity. Landscape mode often helps.
For reference, for an Amazon file, my comfortable reading font size is the second biggest available. The question is not unrecognizable text.
I shall give them a try. I guess you can say I am slightly shocked because I have about 50 pdfs on my DX from both the Mises institute and the Liberty Fund online library and so far everything has been golden. Though it is true about the keyboard, but I hardly use it. If I want a book from amazon then I just jump on the internet and have it sent through there.
I've been following the development of the Que for about a year, and while it certainly looks like the best ereader for pdf's at the moment, a company called Pixel Qi may have made epaper totally obsolete. There new reflective LCD technology looks almost exactly like epaper, is not backlit (no eyestrain), and can already do basic color and is capable of full HD video. Several companies are already developing dedicated readers with these screens, and others are incoroporating them into netbooks. The screens should be showing up in consumer products by Christmas this year(they are in mass production already), and if I had the choice between a $400 reader, and a $400 netbook with an epaper screen, I will definitely go with the netbook.
Demos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XCJdD_gR8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oawX3wenxNc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ZErQ5Kl6w
Lilburne:There are other ways than the following to transfer epub files into your iPhone. But I had trouble until I tried the following way...
With a jail broken iPhone or iPod Touch, the ways of transferring files back and forth are endless. You can use the SSH File Transfer Protocol. You can set it up to allow sharing files over the network to the ebook directory on the iPhone/iPod Touch. With a Mac or Linux machine, you can have it rsync every so often to get all of your new books.
I had to employ these methods to recover my music off an iPod Touch after my hard drive failed.
Has anyone used the nook? I would like a reader I can carry around anywhere and can easily read PDFs.
nirgrahamUK: I just ordered a Cybook Opus. Hope it works out......
I'm looking for the best reader for Mises.org PDF's.
t3hsauce: I've been following the development of the Que for about a year, and while it certainly looks like the best ereader for pdf's at the moment, a company called Pixel Qi may have made epaper totally obsolete. There new reflective LCD technology looks almost exactly like epaper, is not backlit (no eyestrain), and can already do basic color and is capable of full HD video. Several companies are already developing dedicated readers with these screens, and others are incoroporating them into netbooks. The screens should be showing up in consumer products by Christmas this year(they are in mass production already), and if I had the choice between a $400 reader, and a $400 netbook with an epaper screen, I will definitely go with the netbook. Demos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XCJdD_gR8M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oawX3wenxNc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ZErQ5Kl6w
Awesome. Combine that with Google Chrome OS and everyone will want one.
I've recently acquired some extra money and I've been wondering, for those of you with ebook readers: Do you feel that being able to carry a whole library in a single device is superior to physically owning each book individually?
To those having problems reading the Mises.org PDFs, have you tried converting them to a more friendly formatt using Calibre? http://calibre-ebook.com/