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Kindle 2 Gets PDF and EPUB eBook Converter

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:20:00 +0000

While it’s not the grand opening of the Kindle app store or anything, a developer decided to write an app for Kindle 2 that converts .pdf and .epub docs to Kindle’s beloved .mobi format.

The developer, Jesse Vincent, swears he didn’t “hack” the new Kindle—rather, he wrote a “package” that happens to run on it. The thing doesn’t crack DRM files, it just converts specific unprotected files on the fly—from PDF and ePub to Mobipocket, so it feels like they are supported by the Kindle 2. (Not, alas, the first-gen Kindle.)

As Jesse says on his blog:

Savory installs a small program which runs on your Kindle and watches for new files in the ‘Documents’ directory with names ending in ‘.epub’ and ‘.pdf’. When the system notifies Savory that a document has shown up, it wakes up and runs an open-source file conversion program called Calibre. Savory also updates your Kindle2’s browser configuration file to tell it that the Kindle can now handle .pdf and .epub documents.

That said, Jesse isn’t sure what he’s doing is totally kosher:

Does Savory void my warranty?
I don’t know. If you’re not comfortable with the possibility, do not install Savory.

[Savory via O'Reilly Radar (get it?) and Make]

Gmail Gets a Built-in PDF Reader, Lets You Avoid Acrobat Reader

Adam Frucci — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:40:00 +0000

I’ve always found PDFs to be supremely annoying thanks to Acrobat Reader’s slow, crashy behaviour. Now, Gmail is allowing users to skip the Reader altogether.

Now, when you click “View” on an attached PDF, you’ll get to view it inside your browser with no mess. All the pages show up thumbnailed on the right, and you can view the current page in the main pane. It’s quick and easy, as it should be.

Unfortunately, it only works in Gmail. How about a browser plugin so we can avoid Acrobat Reader all the time? [Gmail Blog via Boy Genius]

DIY Papercraft Steve Jobs: Enact Your “One more thing…” Fantasy

Gizmodo US Edition — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:49:00 +0000

Courtesy of Joe Chiang you too can have a tiny printout-paper Steve on your desk in a matter of minutes, ready to act out this afternoon’s action— just swap out the picture of the iPhone for your fantasy iPhone 2. Check out Joe’s other creations too, from Mario to R2-D2. [Toy-a-Day via Technabob]

Adobe Digital Editions 1.0 Released; Maybe eBooks Aren’t Dead After All

Seamus Byrne — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:00:05 +0000

Adobe rolled out its Digital Editions 1.0 reading software today, and it’s now available for a free download. In beta for the past six months, the software is able to handle PDF, flash and XML files, and also supports the new IDP Open Publication Standard (OPS) used for eBooks. So that means it’s already going to work with the 150,000 eBook files that are currently rotting on shelves and hard drives the world over. It’s able to do some new tricks, too.
It lets you annotate content with bookmarks, highlight stuff, and make little text notes just like you’re scribbling on a real book. Plus, it can wrap and reflow its text to fit the screen. We downloaded it and tested it out, and it feels positively snappy, letting you zoom in and out, wrapping its text and doing everything extremely well. It also has good facilities for managing the eBooks you have in your library. Go ahead, try it. There are some free eBooks you can download from Adobe to get a feel for the software.

Publishers will like its DRM (digital rights management) on board, keeping their valuable titles from being spread all over the InterWebs without benefit of payment. Of course, someone will quickly crack that code, but until then, this looks like a suitable application for managing and reading all sorts of digital newspapers, books and magazines. If the hardware for such things ever gets off the ground, expect them to snap up the software pronto. It actually looks pretty good, a whole lot better than Acrobat or Adobe Reader. – Charlie White

Press Release [Adobe Systems]

SpaceTime Lets You Browse the Web in 3D

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:26:12 +0000

The folks at SpaceTime are trying to shake up how you browse the Web with a free app that lets you browse in 3D. The idea is pretty simple, rather than have a 2D layout of your browser with tabs all over the place, SpaceTime breaks the “pages” out like a storyboard. It’s not so practical if you’re looking at one page, but if you’re doing a search, it’ll stack your search hits in 3D (making it easier to see them all at once). It’ll do the same for your eBay searches letting you browse through photos of the stuff you wanna buy. The app is available for PCs only. – Louis Ramirez

Press Release [PDF]