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Gemstar Ebook Crashes, Burns
Robotech_Master writes "In a lengthy announcement on its ebook catalog page, Gemstar, owner of TV Guide and the Rocket/Gemstar eBook, has announced it is going out of the ebook business. Gemstar will not be selling any new devices or ebook content after July 16th. Of particular interest to those who purchased the newer Gemstar eBook models that eliminated the ability to install free content directly on the devices: 'We will also continue to provide the newly released Personal Content feature available through the web bookstore at least through July 16, 2006.' It's too bad, really; I've heard that the Gemstar has one of the most legible displays of any of the ebook alternatives available. They could have done quite well as general-purpose reading devices, if Gemstar had not locked them directly to its own overpriced content in a stunning demonstration of self-proctology."
To me, dedicated e-book readers seem to come from the same place as those portable DVD players that cost as much as a laptop with a DVD drive.
Why buy a one-purpose piece of hardware when there are solutions that perform that purpose well, and do other useful stuff?
To compound the problem, they release the content on a closed, proprietary platform that only runs on their hardware. It's the Vectrex of our time! (Not to slag Vectrex, I loved mine).
IMO a better path would have been to build a multi-purpose handheld optimized for e-book reading- license the Palm OS so that people could do all that other stuff too, but use a big, clear screen with dedicated nav buttons so it was the best darn e-book reading Palm money can buy. Or the best darn e-book reading Linux pad, I'm not picky.
It seems the downfall of this company (and many others) is they assume they are operating in a standalone universe. With that assumption, creating a closed system of readers and content makes sense (how else could someone have possibly thought DivX was a good idea?). Out in the wilds of the real world, they're murdered by their less annoying competition.
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
What stops anybody of scanning a book in plain, good ol' ascii text and releasing it on the internet.
Nothing at all (assuming the book is out of copyright).
Actually, I've had the 1100 for a few years now, and I just use the old Rocket Librarian software to convert html and text files to its own .rb format. Works fairly well, the device has quite possibly the best indoor/outdoor lcd I've seen to date, and usually has 35 hour plus battery life. I also have a pda, and one just cannot compare the two, reading for any length of time on any current pda is a pain due to limited amount of screen real estate. The only pda with a screen large enough to be a comfortable ebook reader would have been the Newton or the Vadem Clio.
I got a sony clie PEG-T415 with a hi-res monochrome display for like $200 bucks. The display is the same size as the palm screen, but twice the resolution, and since it's monochrome it's especially crisp. Slap in a 128meg memory stick and you've got a pretty good ebook reader (I use plucker to display html). Plus I picked up a wireless keyboard (micro innovations)so I can write my own ebooks too :)
Concerning a question made above, the format specs and a Linux software both exist here.
Now I'm pretty happy with another device, i.e. the Hiebook (site; groups), that provides the same, important capability: you can upload to it any .txt/.htm content.
Not as as good a display as the rocket, though...
General-purpose PDAs (like Palm PDAs) may not have quite the resolution of the specialized readers, but single-purpose units are a bad idea when you have to carry them around (who's going to carry 50 devices around?). Even sillier is the locked format; do they really expect us to buy 12 ebook readers, and pay again to download freely-available content on it? I routinely download documents and websites, and read them at my leisure.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Now people with a library that can not completely fit on the device will lose content they paid for. And people with expensive rocket eBooks in perfect working condition will not be able to buy new content for their device because it will come with its own, incompatible DRM. Now can you see legitimate uses for Dimitry's "advanced e-book processor"?
The only good news is that this particular group of screwed customers is rich. Just maybe they can really get on the case of fair use and make their voices heard by the government.
The funny thing is that if you downloaded the OLD version of their pc software, you could "make" your own ebooks for the devices. then after making the books you used the new software to import them.
Why they removed the make feature I dont know, but I have over 1000 guttenburg textx as eb files for the rocketbooks, as well as most all of the HOWTO's for linux, and the entire manual to mysql.
It's kind of nice to carry around on one sd card over 400 books or manuals.
and yes, I have NEVER bought one ebook, nothing they sell even remotely interests me.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I did a lot of research before I bought the 1100. The thing that I like about it was that you could use the old Rocket Librarian to convert HTML and TXT files to RB files. Then use the new software to upload it to the device. I have found enough software to convert anything to HTML so hense going to RB format is a cake. I have over 1000 books in my eBook library most beign from Gutenberg. As for why you would buy a Palm or similar. The Gemstar models feel more like a real book, with buttons placed for scrolling and it keeps track of your book marks. So any way if you can find one for under $100 its well worth it.
I would add the obvious (0) cache and display any PLAIN TEXT FILE I choose. I don't want to be bothered with marking up something that's already perfectly readable but not in some fancy 1990s layout crap. I have plenty of very large text sources thank you. The only additional feature for usability might be a word-wrap toggle due to the width constraints of the small display.
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"Guideplus" isn't really a piece of software ... its a system of programming data that is carried in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of the signal on your cable lines. Most modern TVs and VCRs are now equipped with "guideplus" which allows viewers to have interactive TV guides without digital cable. It just so happens that ATI was smart enough to include guideplus capability with their TV capture card ... a good feature if you ask me. However, each manufacturer is free to implement guideplus functionality in whichever way they see fit ... if ATI's implementation sucks ass, then fine -- but don't confuse that with "guideplus" as a whole.
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