The Digital Reader

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Entries Tagged as 'Epub3'

Samsung Reader’s Hub 2.0 Updated to Support Epub3

January 28th, 2013 by Nate Hoffelder · ebookstore news, Epub3 → 4 Comments

safe_imageSamsung kept their thumb in one more pie this week when they released an update for the Samsung with Readers Hub 2.0.

According to the press release, Samsung’s ebookstore now features improved discovery and navigation as well as enhanced content recommendation systems. The app also gained new reading features more options so users can customize their reading experience. Highlighting and sharing are also mentioned as being new features, and that would be newsworthy of this were 2010.
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Chunghwa Telecom Launches Hami Epub3 Publisher

January 21st, 2013 by Nate Hoffelder · ebookstore news, Epub3 → No Comments

chunghwa[1]The big name ebookstores like Amazon, Apple, and B&N may be getting all the attention but that’s not the whole of the ebook market. The niche language markets are starting to be dominated by like Ookbee, and it looks like Chunghwa Telecom might be moving in the same direction.
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Helicon’s Gyan Epub3 Reading App Now Supports 3D Models

January 15th, 2013 by Nate Hoffelder · Epub3, video → 2 Comments

helicon epub3 demoRemember that semi-functional Epub3 reading app that I reviewed a month ago? According to the developers the app also supports rendering 3D objects, and they posted a demo video showing off this ability.

I thought it would be cool to share it with you today.
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IDPF to Create Epub3 Test Suite

October 2nd, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder · Epub3 → 3 Comments

Have you ever wanted to check to see if your ereader or reading app can display an Epub correctly? This is something I do every so often, but my process has always depended on whatever ebook I happen to have at the moment and so the results are usually somewhat incomplete.

Yesterday I learned that the IDPF is planning to make checking for Epub3 support a lot easier. As part of a new plan to get developers to fully support the EPub3 standard, they will release a formal test suite and make the test process less haphazard.
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IDPF Epub3 Archive Now Up to 27 Samples

May 22nd, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder · Epub3 → 2 Comments

It’s been just over 3 months since the International Digital Publishing Forum started building an archive of Epub3 and things are moving right along. The collection is still small, but as of today it includes all the major features if the new format.

You can download the Epub files and find everything from embedded audio and video to MathML and Arabic and Japanese text (demonstrates RTL and TTB font directions). There’s even a demo Epub that tests the Canvas HTML5 tag. That is a simple demo but it’s still interesting. 
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IDPF Now Looking into Lightweight DRM Options (Only They’re Not)

May 18th, 2012 by Nate Hoffelder · Booxtream, Epub3 → 4 Comments

How would you like to save yourself the effort of having to remove DRM so you can transfer the ebooks you bought to your ereader of choice? Today I heard some news that suggests this might one day happen.


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Access to Launch Epub3 Compatible Reading App

October 17th, 2011 by Nate Hoffelder · Epub3 → 2 Comments

You might recall that last week the IDPF held a meeting last week and finalized the Epub3 spec, moving us one step forward to seeing commercially available Epub3 ebooks.

When I heard the news I didn’t expect it to matter much; I thought it would be months before we saw any apps or ereaders that supported the new format. Apparently I was wrong.

Access announced on Thursday (a day after the spec was finalized) that they had a compatible reading app available for license. NetFront BookReader is boasted as being fully compliant with the new standard. It’s based on the webKit browser and supports HTML5, javascript, and complex formatting like ” logographic kanji characters incorporating furigana annotation”.


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Get your Epub3 here!

June 16th, 2011 by Nate Hoffelder · Epub3 → 9 Comments

A couple days ago I wrote a post asking for an Epub file that had content which was made to the Epub3 standard. Now, the standard hasn’t been enacted yet, so basically I was asking if anyone had made one by hand. An ebook turned up almost immediately, and I updated my old post with a link. I also made sure to pass it around on twitter.

As I watched that ebook get passed around on twitter I got the impression that i wasn’t the only one who wanted to try the new content. So here is that ebook again, just in case you didn’t see my updated post. I’m also going to go a step better with a bunch of demo videos. If the ebooks demoed in the videos are released I will of course post them.


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