Now that I have lived with the iPhone for the last month and blunded through reading a few ebooks on it.  Let me just say...the iPhones screen is PERFECT for reading ebooks...not to big...not to smalll...just right.   After futsing with it, I have learned a few little tricks that make it...well...acceptable.       I  tried a few of different tactics.    First, I tried sending the text to myself in an email.   This turned out to be a bad solution since the email reader would forget the page positron each time I fetched email.     Next I attempted reading a book via the web.   I did this by uploading it to my website (something not everyone can do of course) and using a stylesheet to format it on the iPhone.  This worked reasonably well but really isn't acceptable since the text is wide open to the world and some of my books are copyrighted material.    Finally, I learned about a pretty decent solution.     Embedding the book in a Safari bookmark.   

The workflow for prepping the ebooks is pretty extensive and therefore not really suitable to someone that is not technically inclined.    Also, it only works with un-encrypted ebooks but as most of mine are just pdb's and HTML I am ok for a while.   Here is the basics.

Step One - Formatting the Book.  Since a whole book is likely too big to make a single bookmark, I have been splitting the books into one HTML file per chapter.   There is no easy way to do this.  Just copy each chapter into a separate file.   This makes for a nice little bookmark that can stored in a bookmark folder representing the whole book or just part of it.   I keep 5-6 chapters in the iPhone at a time.    I then take the files and format them for the iPhone using some basic HTML and styles.  Unfortunately, I am embedding the styles into each page so I have to touch each file.   A little search and replace slight of hand makes it pretty simple in frontpage or dreamweaver.   Here is what I am adding to the files to format to my preferences.  

This formats the page to fit the iPhones screen....

            <meta name="viewport" id="viewport" content="width=320;initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;">

Next I format the colors and fonts...

        <style type="text/css">
        <!--      
         font {     font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
                      font-style: normal;
                      font-weight:700;
                       color: #33CCFF;
        }
        body {
                     max-width: 320px;
                     font-family: Verdana, "Arial", sanserif;
                     width: auto;
                     background: #000000;
                     color: #66CCFF;
        }
        p {
                     text-indent: 2em;
         }
        -->
        </style>

Step Two - Convert the files into bookmarks.    There are two ways to do this.   The first and easiest is to use FileMark Maker on the Mac.  This little program encodes the file into a bookmark and then opens the link into Safari.      Once done, you simply click on the link and save it as a bookmark.   Remember, this link contains the WHOLE file and will be accessible from the iPhone regardless of whether you have internet access or not.      If you find that you are Mac challenged, its possible to do the same thing on the PC using URI Kitchen.    This step in the process is pretty tedious and I am hoping someone will create a way to do it in a more batch fashion but for now its only a few minutes to do 4-5 chapters so its not unbearable.

Step Three -  Sync the iPhone to your PC or Mac and your bookmarks will be copied over to Safari on the iPhone.   Each bookmark will contain readable text or any other file you decide to embed.      Clicking on the link will display it quickly in Safari with no trips to the Internet over the painfully slow edge network.

I have read a couple of books this way while it works, it's not perfect.   For example, my formatting doesn't work very well when rotated.   I read in portrait which works fine  but when rotated it's a little wonky.   Some simple tweaks to the html  above will optimize it for landscape if you prefer    The most annoying problem so far is that sometimes...I haven't figured out why, Safari will just decide to refresh the page loosing your place in the book.   Its annoying but if you split into small enough "chapters" it's not a huge problem.       The main drawback is that I am now completely locked out of encrypted eBooks.    I am so frustrated that I am really hunting for a way to crack the DRM on a one of the popular formats.   I would never steal an authors work...but this is driving me to hunt for ways to satisfy my conscience (by buying the book) then cracking it to make it available to me where I want to read it.

I am hopeful that someone will eventually come up with a better solution to this problem (Apple, open up that darn API to people like MobiPocket and eReader) so we can finally use the ultimate phone/pda as the ultimate ebook reader.     

 

I knew it was too good to last.    Nice 80 degree days deep in to July are not the norm around here.   Well, it was only  a matter of time for nature to remember how things are suppose to be work around here.   Summer's heat is finally here and it brought some nice humidity with it.    Time to lock the door, crank the AC and stay inside until the head finally goes away in in September.

When it gets like this, there is nothing better to do than read a good book.    I sat down and read the new Harry Potter book as soon as it arrived and have to say it is my favorite  of the series   It has everything you would want in a great finale.   All the loose ends got tied up, there was amazing action and the questions we have pondered for years were resolved to my  surprise and relief.   In fact its so good, I decided to take my time and read it again.

After waiting for months, it looks like Canon is FINALLY coming out with a camera to replace the 30D.   Believe it or not with my camera's I like to skip a generation since the upgrades are rarely enough to justify the cost of the new hardware.   However after shooting the Brian and Lacey's daughter with their 30D, I have been really anxious for some new hardware....my 20D feels a little old.    Luckily today, Engadget posted some leaked shots of what looks to be and upcoming 40D.   We don't have any solid specs yet but a few things are speculated to be included such as a live view LCD, Dust Cleaning and more resolution.   I am also hoping that Canon will pull out a rabbit such as a Full Frame sensor...but that's probably just wishful thinking.      Either way, its time to do a little ebay selling and creative accounting in quicken cause it looks like it's on its way.   Here is the link