1 million free eBooks

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1 million free eBooks

I am among those who think that electronic books have a great future, but it is still early. Readers are expensive (eg, the last of Sony worth $ 400) and have very specific functions, and in addition we also have the problem of the books themselves: Where to buy? There is no catalog as such, at least not in Spain.

Regarding the latter problem, the giant Google has just taken a blow on the table. Has begun offering a million free e-books, all EPUB format (an alternative to PDF, compatible with almost all readers of the market) and accessible through its search engine: Google Books.

Within a million books that you can find all kinds of titles, and of course all the categories and themes. To download the book have gotten really simple: go to the Google Book Search and, if the book you can see the option in the upper right corner.

Google Books

Obviously there are many books that are not available for download, which is a shame, because Google does not even offer the possibility of acquiring them. It is possible that seeing the effort they are putting to create a massive online library, is the next step: an electronic book store Google's hand. And if prices are affordable, safe to be successful.

Also be taken into account the ease (or difficulty) to download books directly from the reader, and that there are many models that incorporate wireless connectivity. For now it seems to be impossible, since these devices do not incorporate a web browser, although perhaps in the future or unique applications are implemented, why not, a full web browser and take advantage of wireless connectivity (which are starting to deploy 3G pretty fast).

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multimedia music software video playback technology news

multimedia music software video playback technology news

Great technology unite against Google Books

Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon plan to join the Open Book Alliance coalition, which opposes the agreement signed by Google and U.S. publishers and authors to scan books, saying it was a "threat to the competitiveness of the market."

Google Book Search, the book digitization project of Google, one of the most ambitious of the company, still in the thick of things despite the October 2008 agreement with publishers and copyright organizations U.S., after placing Google on the table the dollars needed to end the conflict.

This agreement is under review by a U.S. federal court and is also being investigated by the European Commission following a complaint from different personalities in German culture that accuse Google of violating intellectual property and "The Pirate Bay to be the cultural" .

On the other hand, the Open Content Alliance, a group claiming to seek "to build a comprehensive digital archive of books access" has been formed as an alliance against Google Book now and reportedly reinforced with mighty knights travel, but no less curious union of some of them to an organization as "open" and a laudable goal in theory.

The Google project (also on paper) is fantastic, by providing global Internet culture digitized at a distance of a single click. Free or low price you can buy or borrow digital books on the Web, some of whom are not even available in print.

It is true that a project of such magnitude entails legal implications, privacy monopolistic or relevant authorities should discuss and deal with, but it is also true that in that alliance against Books, mostly they want to slice out the project (which Google pays greater quantities by copyright) and other control prevent the course of a growing sector, especially after the advent of e-book readers like the Kindle.

We'll see how it ends the case. Meanwhile, Google is digitizing and improving the project.

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multimedia music software video playback technology news

multimedia music software video playback technology news

The world's cheapest netbook is Chinese

The company unveiled China Lanyu which describes itself as the world's cheapest netbook, and it appears with its price of $ 98.

Inside, nothing like an Atom, and little of what we're used to in Western netbooks.

Although it maintains the Wi-Fi connectivity, has a 266 MHz ARM processor, 128 MB of RAM, 7 inch screen (800 x 480 pixels) and Windows CE 5.0 operating system, plus battery of 1,800 mAh.

Nothing special, but its price is probably a good choice for browsing the Internet or check email easily.

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