E-Reading Tracking Not as Invasive

After some slightly scary reports that Adobe was monitoring the reading habits of those using its e-reader application, it turns out the reality is not so Big Brother after all.

A TechWorld article reported the Electronic Frontier Foundation investigated Adobe’s actions and found the application only tracked e-book titles with digital rights management (DRM). Even then, Adobe only checked the first time the e-book was opened to make sure the copy was legitimate and not pirated. For books being used under a metered pricing model, Adobe was also measuring the length of time or number of pages consumed.

Readers of Fifty Shades of Grey can rest assured Adobe wasn’t looking to see how long they lingered over the juicy bits. In response to the reports, though, Adobe did make changes in how the application reported information, switching from easily hacked plain text to an encrypted file.

However, an app that follows e-reading patterns would actually yield a lot of useful data for publishers and would probably result in better books. For instance, publishers would be able to determine how many readers finished the book, where they tended to abandon it, whether they flipped back to previous pages, or if they seemed to skim through some parts.

Textbook Guru Reviews E-Book Platforms

Jeff Cohen, CEO of CampusBook.com and author of The Textbook Guru blog, decided if he was going to review e-book platforms, he might as well actually buy an e-book and give it a spin. Then, he wrote a series of blogs about the college textbook platforms he tried, with a final post that links to each review.

Cohen went online, bought a textbook, and downloaded it, just as a student would. He also made sure to check out features from each provider in an effort to give readers a true snapshot of how well those features worked for him. He found that each platform he tried had both good and bad features, but that the entire higher education e-book industry has work to do because current models still suffer from “small-scale book-mimicry.”

Wiley to offer content on Blio

According to a recent press release, John Wiley & Sons will be the first major publisher to partner with Baker & Taylor to provide educational and consumer content for the Blio platform. Blio is an impressive e-reader software application that recently debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show. The platform retains the layout, typesetting, fonts and pagination of a book; supports video and text-to-speech functionality; and is designed to run on devices such as tablets, computers, and iPhones. The press release does not mention when the first Wiley titles will be available.

Textbook publishers partner with ScrollMotion

According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt K-12, Pearson, and Kaplan Publishing are all working with ScrollMotion to turn their textbooks and test-prep guides into applications for the iPad. The ScrollMotion reader differs from Stanza and other e-book applications because each book is a stand-alone application that uses ScrollMotion’s Iceberg reader and each book retains the pagination of the print book. The applications will enhance the reading experience by allowing students to play videos, highlight text, record lectures, take notes, search the text, and participate in interactive quizzes.

At last week’s unveiling of the iPad, details about how the device could be used for education were not provided. According to the WSJ article, people familiar with the situation say that education was one of the focal points of discussion during the iPad development. At the Apple event, Steve Jobs did confirm that publishers such as Penguin, Harper-Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book Group have signed on to provide e-books through a new Apple app called iBooks. It is not clear if textbooks will also be offered through the iBooks app.

Barnes & Noble launches free e-reader application for the Blackberry

According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble has released a free e-reader application for the Blackberry. As noted in a previous posting, earlier this month, Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise, so the new e-reader is an extension of the Fictionwise e-reader application currently available for the iPhone and other mobile devices. The article explains that the decision was initiated by consumer demand and now Blackberry users will be able to access the 60,000 plus titles available on the Fictionwise eReader store. William Lynch, President of Barnes&Noble.com explained the launch, "E-books are a nascent market. We think users will engage with this. We want to be there with the right application and content regardless of the device."