Android ePub Reading Software Aldiko: 250,000 Downloads

@Hadrien of Feedbooks reports:

Congratulations, Team Aldiko!

Aldiko website

Previously here:

Two Vital Issues ALL Tablets Makers Are Ignoring
First Pictures Of Aldiko Running On A 10-Inch Screen!
IDPF Screws Up ePub eBook Covers For Everyone!
Barnes & Noble Nook Vs. Archos 5 Internet Tablet: Round Two
Barnes & Noble Nook Gets Trashed By Archos 5 Internet Tablet
The Coming Android Mini-Tablet Flood
Syntron Android Mini-Tablet: 3G, 8.9″ Screen
Camangi Android Mini-Tablet: ePub Built-In
Android OS Aldiko ePub Display Challenge
eBook Use On The Archos 5 Internet Tablet
eBook Notes For Monday, October 5, 2009
The eBook Cover Scandal
ALL eInk Devices: BAD For eBooks!

Get The Camangi WebStation Mini-Tablet Quick Start Guide For Free!

The Camangi WebStation is an Android-powered mini-tablet with a 7″ screen. It’s the first of the flood of mini-tablets to go on sale and anticipation for it has been high.

The Quick Start Guide just popped up on the Internet. It makes for interesting reading.

Two Vital Issues ALL Tablets Makers Are Ignoring

As I watch the flood of Android-powered mini-tablets begin, I can see that companies are making these things while ignoring two key issues that are vital to their success.

1) Weight. People need to be able to hold these things comfortably in one hand for an extended period of time for reading. The heavier a device is, the less comfortable it is. The Barnes & Noble Nook is too heavy for extended use. The more your device weighs, the less successful it will be in penetrating the eBook/digital book market.

2) Nighttime backlight mode. Everyone concentrates on how bright a screen can be to make colors pop when watching videos. But what about all those people who do nighttime reading while in bed? Aside from being able to hold a device for a long time while reading, the backlight really needs a super low-brightness mode so people don’t feel as if they’re staring into a flashlight while reading. JKK of jkkmobile prefers Aldiko over eReader for eBooks because he can dial down the backlight more on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Aldiko.

Since all of these mini-tablets will have touch screens, the issue of button placement is moot. Some might not have anything more than a button for On/Off and one for radios On/Off.

Accommodating those who read enlarges the potential market for these mini-tablets. The ones that are really reader-friendly will win.

Multi eInk eBook Device Fondle Report

Note: Crappy graphic for illustrative purposes only. Devices are not to relative sizes.

Last weekend I was frustrated in my attempt to fondle a live Barnes & Noble Nook. The only working unit was still locked away in an office and the person with the key wouldn’t arrive until 2PM that day (I was there at 10AM!).

This weekend, I went back to the same Barnes & Noble. What the hell, let’s see.

And they had two live Nooks.

After fondling the Nook, I went on to fondle three other eInk eBook devices and have drawn some conclusions some of you will find surprising.

First Pictures Of Aldiko Running On A 10-Inch Screen!

This is very exciting!

After doing the earlier post about the Notion Ink mini-tablet, I tweeted Aldiko to ask if they’d ever tried their ePub reading software on that size screen.

They hadn’t!

Notion Ink’s Killer Android OS Mini-Tablet

Slashgear gets all the great info.

Notion Ink Tegra Android smartpad uses Pixel Qi display

This is the bit that should make everyone drool first:

Perhaps most importantly for a web-browsing tablet, battery life estimates are impressive. Notion Ink reckon the smartpad will be good for up to 48hrs standby on its integrated rechargeable Li-Ion battery, 8hrs of HD video playback and 16hrs of internet surfing over WiFi. It seems it’s the eight-core Tegra T20 chipset that’s primarily responsible for such longevity, though Notion Ink can’t share any more details on that SoC itself. Meanwhile media playback isn’t sacrificed, and Notion Ink have apparently played three 1080p HD videos simultaneously with only a small loss in frames.

That is horsepower!

My current desktop PC can’t play one 1080 video — it can barely do standard YouTube most days.

IDPF Screws Up ePub eBook Covers For Everyone!

In an earlier post, Barnes & Noble Nook Vs. Archos 5 Internet Tablet: Round Two, I closed with this:

One flaw in that video: Aldiko did not create a thumbnail of the cover; it’s using a generic placeholder. I will ask about that and report back.

I doubt anyone but me would have even noticed that. But I did and it bugged me.

I had to know what was going on here.

Barnes & Noble Nook Vs. Archos 5 Internet Tablet: Round Two

For research purposes only, I, um, massaged an ePub eBook edition of a newly-released Michael Jackson biography so it could be tested on Judie Lipsett’s Nook to judge its ability to handle ePub.

This is a muthah of an ePub file: over 4MBs with lots of pictures in it.

Let that sink in a moment.

This is a book about Michael frikkin Jackson, OK?

It’s not an atlas or some niche specialty book.

It’s not a forgotten book like Jack London’s The People of the Abyss.

It’s an eBook the average reader would buy!

Can you guess what the results of this challenge were?

Barnes & Noble Nook Gets Trashed By Archos 5 Internet Tablet

Liza Daly is prominent in the eBook community as someone who knows the IDPF ePub spec inside and out.

She bought a Nook for testing purposes, afflicting it with ePub eBooks that are totally-compliant to the spec and which anyone is bound to encounter at some point.

The results were not good at all.

Android OS/Archos 5 Internet Tablet Notes For Monday November 2, 2009

Continuing my ongoing infatuation with — but not yet committed to buying — the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, from time to time I will do these posts which might not have much to do with the e-reading aspects of that device. And there might also be some Android OS-related items too.